“People go to casinos for the same reason they go on blind dates - hoping to hit the jackpot. But mostly, you just wind up broke or alone in a bar.”

Hello my little readers! Well it is a Friday night and you of course know what I'm doing...I've had my sushi and my wine. I've watched a truly disturbing true movie about a young Australian woman who kills her teen neighbor, so now that I'm adequately depressed I thought it was time to blog and update you all! I left you with the prospect of my blind date coming up. This is my first true blind date in 10 years. Shall we have a little flash back...yes lets. My first blind date was when I was 22, it was not long after 9/11 and it was after my first true heartbreak. I had recently broken up with the man I thought I was going to marry, well he broke up with me, and I had a coworker who had a young man she wanted to set me up with. What is so funny is I still remember exactly what I was wearing. We met at one of the local breweries and I wore a long denim skirt (which I still own I might add, but probably haven't worn since that date) and a maroon long sleeve shirt I got at GAP and brown sandals that I bought shopping with stupid ex-boyfriend. Wow my memory is super awesome. We had a couple drinks and I remember thinking he was kind of cute, but we pretty much clashed on everything we talked about. I didn't really see any sort of dating future with him, but I gave him my card anyway (I had cards - one of my perks as a probation officer). He did end up calling me, but we never went out again. I told him I was really busy. Okay slightly bitchy I agree. So now you are updated on my one other blind date experience...

Last Friday night was my second true blind date. I of course had nothing to wear! We were to meet at one of our local breweries for an early drink. I knew that I would wear denim capris, but I really needed a new cute date shirt. As you remember my last date I was unable to find something so I decided to go shopping again...I found nothing! What is with the new styles?? Why is nothing appealing to me? So of course I find nothing, well I can't say nothing, I did buy three new pairs of shoes. BUT I needed them! I bought a pair of new tennis shoes, a pair of shoes to go with my super cute yellow dress I would be wearing the next night to my friend's engagement party and a pair of wedges that were 30% off. So as a last resort I just decided to wear the same shirt I wore on my date with LDP. I realize this may not have been a smart choice since I never went out with LDP again, but I really had no other choice. So I had on that cute white tank with the embroidery, my denim capris and my super awesome new wedges that probably made me 5'10." I can wear these shoes because all I really know about Blind Date is that he is 6'3" and bald. I should be able to spot him in a crowd. So I get ready and I am super nervous. I have no idea what to expect. This could be the man of my dreams. I say a whole lot of SCW to myself and hop in the car. I look cute. I got my hair done the day before and I am much more blond. Blonds have more fun, right? We'll see.

I pull into the parking lot, maybe a few minutes late. I will never ever be on time. Geez. I see him sitting in front of the brewery reading a News and Review. I'm instantly more nervous. I park and give myself a once over in the rear view movie, nothing in my teeth, no mascara smeared under my eyes, one more SCW and get out of the car. I approach and he is standing at that point. He is looking at me, like maybe this is her...so I smile and say hi. He introduces himself and we shake hands. He is tall and bald. My shoes are awesome. He has on jeans and a very nice blue striped button down shirt. We enter the restaurant and because the bar is pretty full we end up getting a table. We sit down and order drinks...me - wine, him - stout. He has very straight white teeth. I'm tempted to ask how he does it, but I refrain. So we do the typical get to know you questions. He writes computer codes of some sort and I asked how long he has been doing that. He says since 1988. I about choke on my tasty glass of wine. I was 9 in 1988. How old is this man? I'm thinking he must be 45 if he has been working since 1988, he doesn't look 45, but then again men age so much better than us women (we're screwed). He says he is 42, which okay that is about my cut off - 10 years older than me. I want a man to be closer to my age than my parents and my parents are 52. We finish our first drink. We are having some laughs, but its becoming kind of evident to me that we are two very different people. We decide to go ahead and order some food, it is dinner time, so we agree on a pizza to split. It was a veggie pizza with garlic and onions haha. No first date kiss for us. Wow when was my last first date kiss...oh God my life is sad. Anyway we order another round of drinks with our pizza. We chat some more and he is very evidently nice and super duper smart. He is thinking of getting his Ph.D and has taken a couple of classes for it. I feel slightly inadequate with my two bachelor degrees. I pretty much turn off my smartness when I'm not at work. We get our pizza and drinks and continue conversation, we have some silent moments, and I am kind of wondering how much we have in common. I feel friendly vibes toward him. Butterflies - zero :( We end the date after about 2.5 hours. He said he would love to do it again and gave me a hug. Yeah I've heard that before! So we'll see is what I'm thinking. I didn't feel a spark with him, but he was very nice and I am tempted to give it another shot because you never know, right? I wasn't excited when I left the date and that disappoints me. I want to be excited about someone. Looking back I know that I have been excited about people...LDP to be the most recent (asshole). I did get a text from Blind Date guy today asking if I wanted to meet for lunch since he was out running errands. I was at a friends' pool so it wasn't really possible and I texted him back, but got no response. Plus is it really a date if it is just a spur of the moment thing? That seems more like something you would do if you were steadily dating someone. Oh well. I'll keep you posted if there is a second date.

In other dating news...I have not heard from Book!!! I am just surprised by this. I don't even know what to think. He is the one that pursued me in wanting a date! Obviously I am a bad date even with people who know me. This does not do good things for my self esteem. I want to say something to him, but I don't know what. It has been two weeks. He said he was ready for a relationship. Obviously not with me. Jerk.

I talked with a friend today, someone who I actually dated nine years ago. Wow that seems like forever. We have remained good friends and he asked if I was settled down yet. I said no and his response was "WTF is going on." Why is it my friends see how fabulous I am, but the men I go on dates with don't? Clearly I need to work on this. I will continue to work on showing my fabulousness off to strangers.

Keep thinking happy dating thoughts. Until next time...