#40 - Go on a Blind Date

Why do I find this so embarrassing?

First I was super uncomfortable anytime anyone would even suggest setting me up on a blind date.  Luckily no one who suggested it ever followed through.  (So, by the way, if you suggest setting me up on a blind date, I'll agree, but mostly it's because I know you won't.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.  But you won't.)

So then I allowed my dear, lifelong friend Amelia Gomez to convince me to join Match.com and even let her edit my profile.  Including pictures.  She even insisted that I include a bit about how I have some really great friends I have been known for 20+ years.  You know, friends like Amelia :)  I suppose she should know though since she just married her love Carlos Cortez last weekend.  And wow, are they fun to hang with.  We had so much fun we forgot to leave the apartment when I visited them in Orange County in the fall.

I've traded a few messages.  A few times a guy asked to meet me for a drink or something, and a couple times I agreed.  And then I never heard from him again.

Wait, you might say, Match.com does not count as a blind date.  Well, you know what?  Remember that blind date you promised to set me up on?  Well, you never did.  And, no, you wouldn't have.  So this is as close as I could get.  And honestly, it probably made me even more uncomfortable than a real blind date because here I am agreeing to meet someone and no one is even vouching for this person.  Who knows what I'm getting into?

So this guy and I traded a few messages about trips and camping.  (And, yes, camping is still on my list because guess what, many of you have also been like, "WHAT?  YOU've never been CAMPING?!  How is that possible!?  We are going to GO!  Like THIS summer."  But just like the blind date you were going to set me up on, we didn't.  For a thousand reasons, none of them being that I'm not willing to go.  Camping does not make me uncomfortable like dating strangers does but it's not something I'm going to go do by myself the first time.)  So he made some camping destination suggestions and mentioned going to the new Stone location at Liberty Station.  I said I hadn't been yet and he suggested we go.

So we did.  I met him at Stone.  He was super friendly and full of decent conversation.  I had a couple beers, he had a couple beers and some food, and then we played some bocce.  He won and I tried not to be angry about that.

I suppose dating doesn't have to be as scary as I assume it will be.  It still makes me outrageously uncomfortable leading up to it.

Also, Stone at Liberty Station is flippin sweet.

I also want to give a quick thank you to my buddy Grace Bagunu who offered and followed through on sending a check-up text to make sure I was okay and offering to be my emergency out.  Thinking back, even if it were miserable, I think I would have felt way better just telling the guy I was going to leave than faking an emergency text.  But I appreciated Grace's love and support anyways.  So I went to meet her and Jessica after and we had some delicious drinks and stayed out way too late for a Tuesday night.