My three day delay in recapping my date with Mr. Engergetic wasn’t due to us falling madly in love and eloping in Vegas. I think I just need some extra time before reliving the boredom of it all.

I’ll start with the pre-show activities. I’m the rare woman who’s always either on time or early because I’ve planned out everything in advance. But this time, I couldn’t seem to get the enthusiasm going for this date and got ready in about 10 minutes. I think my hair was still wet when I left. I don’t know for sure because I never bothered to even check it in the mirror. So as far as my presentation, I certainly wasn’t looking my best but I still closely resembled the photos he’d seen.

Right before I left, I figured I should take another look at his Match page so I wouldn’t ask him something stupid that he’d already mentioned. I immediately wondered why I agreed to meet him in the first place. I think it was all because he had a huge smile. And I probably gave him the name Mr. Energetic because he used a bunch of emoticons, which reminds me of high school cheerleaders. As for content, it was several paragraphs of nothing- just a bunch of chatter that sounds like every other profile on Match. Three days later and the only details I can remember from it are that he’s divorced and plays soccer. So I knew I was in for some work as far as discovering common interests. But I’m good at keeping a conversation flowing so I wasn’t too concerned.

On the drive over, I heard a commercial for eHarmony on the radio. That seemed like a bad sign to me. I arrived about five or 10 minutes late, which is really right on time. I found a parking space right out front. Well, it wasn’t exactly in front. It turns out the restaurant is in an alley. I thought that was kind of funny since an alley is the last place where I should be meeting a stranger but it’s a heavily populated area so I wasn’t concerned. It just now occurred to me that he should have mentioned it was off the main street as I got kind of lucky finding the place. It would have been very easy to miss either driving or walking.

As I neared the front, I saw a guy standing outside alone and I thought it was him. He looked at me from a distance and I sort of smiled. I almost said “hi” as I approached when he looked away, so I figured that wasn’t him. Thinking back, I probably would have been better off having a drink with that guy.

Mr. Energetic was standing just inside the doorway and recognized me instantly. The bar of the quaint restaurant was full so we took a table. I barely had my ass in the seat when he handed me the wine menu. I hadn’t even had time to verify I was with the right guy and now had to stick my nose in a menu. I assumed he’d be paying so as a courtesy, I ordered one of the more reasonably priced glasses of wine at $9.

Then the waitress asked if we would be having dinner. Without hesitation, he told her, “no.” I couldn’t believe he didn’t even ask me if I wanted something! If we’d been married for 50 years and we’d just had a full meal he should still check with me first. People’s lack of consideration for others is probably my biggest frustration and that right there pretty much did Mr. E in. I know I can be picky about little things but consulting with someone else before answering for them should be an automatic behavior and the fact that it wasn’t for him is a small indicator of a big character flaw. We’re now all of five minutes into the date.

After our wine was delivered, I took a sip and it was absolutely awful. The waitress came by and asked how it was and I had to tell her that it was really tangy. Believe me, I worked enough years in bar jobs that I handled it very politely. I hate those snobs who send back perfectly good wine, so that wasn’t my intention. I just mentioned it hoping maybe someone else would give a second opinion on whether or not it was old. It seriously was the worst glass of wine I’d ever had. She said that she saw the bartender open the bottle and maybe it just needed to breathe. All the while, I’m sitting there wondering what Mr. E is thinking. It was the classic bad blind date scenario no matter how well I handled it. As it turned out, the wine did improve. It was very bizarre that the flavor could change so drastically in such a short amount of time.

At this point, we’re 10 minutes into the date and it occurred to me that the street meters in that area might have to be plugged pretty late. Mr. E wasn’t sure nor was the hostess. I’m a meter maid magnet so I explained to him that I should go out and check. He probably thought I was ditching him and I have to admit, it would make such a great story that I was tempted to do it. How classic would that be? Date goes out to pay the meter and never comes back!!

With that, I’m going to knock off for today even though the retelling of the second half of the date should be much shorter since I slept through most of it. I’ll get the rest up tomorrow along with word of something promising…