The worst blind date.. Ever..

While I am not officially single yet, the majority of the friends I have hung out with for the last 2 years are not married.. Despite being regaled with their tales of disastrous dates and unfulfilled longings, I'm still willing to jump right into the pool and swim in the deep end.. I just hope to avoid some of the pitfalls that my friends have experienced.. A classic example is The Blind Date from Hell.

My very good friend, let's just call her "M" was fixed up on a blind date by another one of her very good friends.. The date started well enough, he wasn't particularly thrilling to look at, sort of clean cut and cute-ish in an older guy kind of way, but she was keeping an open mind.. All experienced daters of the new millennium know that it's just good sense to stay on your home turf and keep an escape hatch handy when embarking on an evening out with someone new. Per the norm, I was on stand-by playing the role of the escape hatch and after attending a cook-out together, she brought him downtown, to our home turf.. By this time she knew this was no Love Connection, however, she was still proceeding with the date and waiting to see if at least a friendship could be created.. Until he broke just about every rule in dating and common sense.. It still boggles the mind to this day.

As we're standing around chatting, he wanders off to talk to someone he knows.. M and I took one look and realized our boy may not be as clean cut as he might appear.. The gentleman he was conversing with was immediately recognizable as a dealer of powdery substances.. We didn't know him personally (no good can ever come of putting anything other than your finger in your nose and even that has limitations) however, you can *just tell* by appearance in certain circumstances.. As if having her date talking to a dealer wasn't disconcerting enough, the bobo had the utter nerve to come back and ask if he could borrow $20.. M inquired politely as to the purpose.. He said he owed a friend some money.. At this point she called bullshit and he admitted he was going to score some coke.

An immediate staff meeting was convened in the ladies room and as the current Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Dating Community (I help set policy but I don't work for the company directly), I informed her that he had broken all rules of Dating Etiquette.. Not only did he seek to borrow money from her on a first date (tacky in the extreme), he was using it to buy drugs without first determining her position on the matter (flat out unacceptable).. This is grounds for immediate termination. No 2 weeks notice, no severance. We adjourned the meeting at which time she went over and served him with termination notice and we left the bar, with him standing there mutely wondering what he did wrong.

This is not an urban myth.. one of those "it happened to a friend of a friend" things.. I was there as an active participant in the evening and let me tell you boys and girls, it certainly colors a less than rosy picture for those of us that are preparing to enter the dating world again.
More tales of action, drama, suspense, horror and hopefully true love to follow soon..