Real World, Nic Style

For all of you who have ever seen an episode of the "Real World" on MTV, you know how ridiculous it is.  They say, "7 strangers picked to live in a house and see what happens when life starts being real" or some crap like that.  I will admit, I have seen an episode or two when boredom hits an absolute high and I can't think of anything productive to do, but what it boils down to is people, for the most part, love hearing about other people's lives.  A blog should work the same way, and the one part about my life I hate talking about is dating, seeing as how I am 29 and the pressure already exists at a high enough rate.  But really, who cares?  My dating life sucks some times, is good at other times, but it is always interesting.  Since this is a public blog, I have to keep details about names and places out, unless it starts getting good feedback and people want more.  Then I will make the blog private and all those unruly fans who like to hear about my dating life can subscribe to unusual doses of me!

As easy as it would be to go back and start reliving some of the past (the 3-breakup experience, the blind date from hell setup by a coworker, the manly softball player and so many more) I think the best thing to do is to begin with the here and now, talk about what happened recently. Although it was another blind date, it was probably top 10 in the last few years.

I get setup by a friend of mine who tells me about this tall, good-looking girl in his ward that will somehow be perfect for me. What's great about blind dates is I have never heard anyone tell me their friend, sibling, cousin or whomever, would be terrible for me or is nasty looking, but 90 percent of them are one or both.  In fact, I have left some blind dates wondering if my looks and personality are slowly fading together because the dates keep getting worse.  

The other major question I had was why my single friend wanted to set me up with a good looking girl when he could've easily asked her out himself.  His response, "She is not in my league."  Fair enough. I accept.

I make a phone call to this girl a little over a week ago to get an idea of who she is.  (For the sake of this, we will call her Sally).  Sally tells me she is a teacher, loves sports, her family, working out; all very positive things for me.  She seems very down to earth, and we talk for almost an hour that first time.  We subsequently speak for a couple hours before I finally take her out earlier this week.

Since past experiences in blind-dating (and really dating in general) have been terrible, I decide to start working outside of the box. The girl seems cool enough and one I will most likely be interested in, so I buy her a flower.  

Note: I haven't purchased a flower for a girl in nearly 10 years because very few girls appreciate them and I have had nothing but bad experiences with those girls I bought them for.  I also decide to only do things on the date that will illicit conversation, or complete awkward silence.  At least it would give me an opportunity to see if I had enough in common with her to continue to have any interest.

So I pick her up around 7:30, give her the flower (which she seems to genuinely appreciate), then we head off to dinner.  Dinner goes surprisingly well.  For some reason, I was a little nervous before the date, but as we started talking, I calmed down.  We talked for two hours about everything, and it seemed to go pretty smooth. In my head I kept saying, "I am digging this one."  But I couldn't figure out why.  She was definitely different than most girls I date (not in looks, but more her type of personality).  I guess you could say I was intrigued.  So I invited her to plan B.

Girls, here's a note for you:  Every guy has a Plan A, B and C for every date.  You pass the first test, Plan A, you make it to Plan B and so forth.  

So Sally makes it to Plan B, which was a milkshake. (By the way, I hardly go to Plan B's unless I like them, or feel completely forced; which happened recently with the "Molly." We'll leave it at that). We shared one and talked for another hour and continued to talk about everything from family values to pet peeves to embarrassing moments and a ton more.  After that hour I decide to forgo a Plan C because it was getting late. I didn't want to be the never-ending blind date she began to resent and I wanted to take her out again.

So I drive home feeling pretty good about the night.  I was interested, she seemed fairly interested (who talks for three hours with someone without interest?) and I was looking forward to seeing her again.  What's next in the story? The obvious in the dating like of Mr. Nic. 

I call family for advice, I think about the repercussions of every possible decision, which I realize is exactly what a girl would do (sorry ladies) but I liked her and didn't want to be stupid. I decide to call her the next day and get an idea for her desire to go out with me again. Probably too quick, but the reality is, girls are fairly easy to read the day after.  They let their intentions known in both verbal and nonverbal ways. Most wait on the verbal cues tending to try and stay away from making things awkward or hurting someone's feelings, expect for temple girl (there are nicknames for all the girls I take out thanks to my parents, and temple girl really should've been labeled, too high of expectations girl, but that story is for another day).  

So, I call Sally the next day and we talk for a few minutes.  I say talk, but it was the most awkward 10 minutes of my life.  She is either the easiest girl to read, giving me the obvious shrug off, or she is terrible at showing a guy she likes him.  Either way, the phone call was terrible.  That leads us to today.  What happens today? No clue, but I can tell you the expectations have sufficiently diminished thanks to the follow-up phone call.  Freak!

To be continued...