So, you have seven strangers sitting silently in a room. Who will be the first one to crack and pull out their cellphone? 5 out of 7 did. I was not one of them. The other one who didn't immediately won some points. And so my most recent encounter of speed dating began.
That is right, there were 7 people. 3 girls and 4 guys - ooooo I like my odds! They had 9 girls and 8 guys registered, people just decided not to show. Never fear, they do this once a month so I think I will have many a fun chance. Enough suspense, let's meet the bachelors. We were encouraged to put a note beside each person's name so when they matched us we would have a reminder, so I will identify each bachelor by his "note"
Bachelor #1 - Guy with the logo shirt
Bachelor #2 - guy with the plaid shirt
Bachelor #3 - guy in the brown hoody (also had buggy eyes - but I did not put that down)
Bachelor #4 - Guy with the hat.
Out of the four guys, bachelor 1 did not play with his cell phone during the awkward moments of silence while we waited for the late comers to show up. He also didn't engage in the chit chat. Bachelor 2 and 3 almost came to blows when we started hockey talking - well okay it was not that dramatic, but you could tell #2 was getting irritated quickly. It also made #3 appear a bit aggressive and slightly annoying. Mostly the other two girls and I chatted. We all joked about dildos (we were in a sex toy shop). Talked about who had done this before etc. No one specifically talked to each other, just general chit chat. And 5 people checking their phones and texting. 20 minutes later (!) they finally decide to start. Side note - the facilitator was a little cutie, and he felt so bad that not everyone came. It was like he took it personally, it was cute. Anyway, let the fun begin.
#1 and I had been awkwardly sitting at the same table for pretty much the last 15 minutes, never saying a word to each other. Had I been able to see into the future, I would have used those extra minutes. He had done speed dating before but I was a little nervous, so we got off to a slow start. We talked briefly about work but quickly progressed into interests and such. I told him my hobby made me sound like an old lady - he guessed knitting. I learned a few quick facts about him, but nothing too deep. The conversation flowed nicely and the five minutes flew by. Needless to say, he got a check mark. Sad to say, it all went down hill from there.
#2 looked very nervous. He never made eye contact, but I can accept that as it is a bit of a challenging situation. He had also been at one of these events previously. He liked to talk, about nothing, but at least he talked. I don't know how much he learned about me, but I learned a few things about him. And he talked, and talked and talked. Again, the time flew by. He wasn't an instant YES, but he did get a check mark because I felt that five minutes was not really enough to get a solid feel.
#3 had no issue making eye contact. Very intense eye contact. Surprise surprise, he had ALSO been to one of these before. Again, first thing we talk about is "what do you do", we talked about work. He was familiar with my line of work so we talked a little about that. And then I don't remember what we talked about, it wasn't that awesome I am gathering as I can't remember any of it. What I do remember is that is seemed like a nice chit chat and it earned him a check mark.
And so I moved on to #4. And life likes to humour me sometimes, so I got to save the best for last. #4 sits down. "So" says I, "What do you do?" - silence. Silence. Silence. It felt like forever, but it was probably only a few seconds. Then finally, "I don't really do much". Excellent. Let's try again, "What do you do for fun?" Silence. "I kind of like stuff". Fabulous. Mercifully we got on to the topic of video games and spent the last 3 and a half minutes talking about games (Halo, Fable, minecraft and some other game I have never heard of). Thankfully Mr Facilitator came in and told us time was up (YAY!) but since all the "dates" were done we could continue to chat with our existing partners (Ah nuts!). So the video game talk continued for awhile. Poor #4 did not get a check mark. It was not overly comfortable, conversation was hard and I was also pretty sure that he kept looking at my boobs.
Since there were so few of us, Mr Facilitator decided we could just have an open chat. Sadly, #1 had been the odd man out in the last round, so he had left. I would have like to talked to him more. During this time something else happened, #3 would not stop talking. It was know-it-all annoying talk. And he started to come across as a bit of a d-bag. Combined with his first impressions (beaking at #2 and being the first to pull out his cell phone), it was enough that I decided I did not actually want to see him again, so I took his check mark away (Harsh!). After about 10 more minutes of general talk I decided I was going to head out. Apparently I was the life of the party because everyone decided that they were done too.
All in all, an interesting evening. I would certainly do it again (and likely will). It will likely get awkward as every guy there had been to at least one session before. But, I ended up with two yeses and (given the people there) I am feeling confident that I will get at least one match. Won't my ego be bruised if it doesn't. So hopefully I find out soon and I can have another experience or two to post about.
