2 for 1

So I'm behind in life in general. Behind in school work, behind in catching up with friends, and in turn, behind on these blog posts.

I have 2 dates to blog about, but the first was so short, it's hardly worth even writing about.


Sunday, June 24th

I had a few brief exchanges and one phone call with this guy prior to the Sunday brunch date. He was Jewish and from Argentina, and on paper - really appealing. He's lived in America for 13 years, so I didn't really have to worry about another situation like the Israeli (which is another story all together!), and I was looking forward to meeting him.

We decided to meet up Sunday morning for a brunch/wine date. This worked well for me since we were meeting on the Upper West Side, and I had to be at my friend's picnic in Central Park at 2, so there was an out for me if I needed it after 2 hours.

We met up at 12:30 instead of noon because he had texted me asking if I could meet up with him later, which was fine for me, because as usual, I was running late. The subway ride up to the date was by far the best part of the date to mention. There was a crazy guy in the car going up and down the car, preaching about God and saying that he was a true Jew (note: he was black, I've known black jews before, but I don't think he was like them...) and everyone else is going to hell - basically. There was a Hasidic jew in the car as well, who of course, couldn't keep his mouth shut, and had to argue back with the crazy guy. I know very well that the best tactic with crazy people on the subway is to ignore them, regardless if you agree or disagree with them. You'll never be able to reason sensibly with them, so no point in getting worked up. Apparently, the Hasidic jew does not believe this either (and maybe making him equally as crazy) and they were fighting, back and forth about who was a real jew. Awesome. The best part was the cute guy sitting across from me, that I got to smile and roll my eyes at due to the situation at hand.

Back to the date - I leave the subway, and walk over to the wine bar. It was a beautiful day, and it was a nice place to sit and have a glass of wine. I got a glass of rosé wine, which I thought was a nice summer brunch option, and my date immediately criticizes my choice in wine. "I don't like rosés," he says. As if I would care. "That's a shame," I replied, "they are a good alternative to a heavy red when the weather is so warm. And they're not as light as a white." Hmm.. that got him. The conversation from there got worse. I can't remember what we talked about, only that I was bored. After only an hour of sitting there, drinking my "less than acceptable" choice of wine, I was ready to go. I pulled the picnic excuse out earlier than I had planned at 1:30, and we parted ways.

He sent me an email - 2 days later - saying how I was intelligent and a great conversationalist, but he didn't feel any real connection. Really? I can't imagine why not.

Thursday, June 28th

Summer started officially for me June 27th around 4 when I left my school (in hell) for the very last time! School's out, and of course, what a better way to start off my summer than with a date?? This guy had contacted me through Jdate, and had been persistently trying to get me to go out with him for a few weeks. Because of my busy schedule, I had been postponing it as long as possible... that, and I didn't really think it would be that great of a date.

After spending a glorious day with one of my friends - at the beach, getting pedicures, and having a great dinner - I finally agreed to meet up with Mr. Persistent later on in the evening. It's summer, and I had nothing to do the next day.

We met up at a local bar near my apartment (the one I went to with my trainer the week before) for a quick drink (or so I thought...). At first impression, I thought I had been transported back to late nineties grunge from high school. He was wearing a plaid shirt unbuttoned over a white t-shirt, and khaki baggy pants, his hair was long and parted in the middle. Seriously, I didn't think people still dressed themselves this way. To make matters worse the bar was playing ONLY alternative rock from the nineties. It was some XM radio station, that he knew, and was telling me all about. I felt like I had been transported back to high school, 1996-style.

Drinks were fine, I had a wonderful summer wheat beer, and he had dinner and a drink. He talked a lot about technology, and computers, which I don't really need to talk about outside of doing work for my tech class. I tend to look around when I talk to people, especially if I'm bored, and if the person I'm talking to has a slight (and by slight, I mean really obvious) tic which is distracting when I'm trying to talk.... Mr. Persistent didn't like that, and kept asking me if he was that boring that I had to keep looking at other things. I wanted to say, yes!

Things got interesting when somehow the topic of high school came up. Turns out, Mr. Persistent went to Midwood HS. I do some quick math and figure out that he indeed would have graduated the same time as my ex from last year. So I casually ask him if he knows my ex - to which he replies - "hmm, skinny red headed kid?" Yup. That's him. The conversation proceeds about the ex and how I know him (interesting conversation), which leads to me telling Mr. Persistent about my ex's comedy routine and how I know for a fact that it's all a lie. See, my ex's premise for his comedy routine is that he's a 28 y/o virgin (appealing, no?), which I know, for a fact, is completely false. It may have been true up until he was 26 (as far as I know), but apparently he can't come up with any new material. So he's keeping up the front that he's a virgin, even though he's not. This probably was not a conversation that my date wanted to be having with me, but I did not care at that point. I had very little to say to him in the first place, I would take any common ground I could find.

Around midnight, the bar was closing, and we were suddenly the last people other than the people who worked there in the bar. I was hoping for a quick goodbye outside the bar, and a quick walk home, getting to bed not long after midnight. My date, being persistent, tells me that he'll walk me to my apartment. I don't want this guy to see where I live, so I tell him I'm actually going to my car to move it for alternate side parking. Undeterred, he tells me that he'll walk me to my car. So he does. We linger outside my car for a while, a lot longer than I would have liked. And I can't remember for the life of me what we actually talked about for that time. But I do know that by the time he left, I moved my car, and got back into my apartment it was nearing 2 am. I knew I'd hear from him, sooner rather than later, but he was going away for the weekend, I thought that would buy me some time. Wrong, as usual, he texts me the very next day as he's driving upstate and is stuck in traffic. His text message was strange, and it was something like, Driving upstate - stuck in traffic, so I'll talk to you later. I didn't respond because the text didn't warrant a response. That and I didn't want to encourage him anymore than spending 4 hours with him the night before already had. He's still been contacting me, a week later, and I've been responding with minimal communication, and I'm always quick to end the conversation. I have a limited time left in the city and it is not to be wasted on repeat bad dates.