Last night's event was very well-attended, and I think there were a few last-minute participants. As a result, there were not enough tables for every woman. I was the last gal to arrive so they had to bring in some kitchen chairs and an Ikea coffee table and hastily make me a station. Lucky #13! It was a bit awkward because the table was so low that the men basically had to straddle it, and I couldn't cross my legs over or under it. Then we both had to lean in close to hear each other-- although, this leaning forward might have worked to my advantage in the end, given the particular wrap dress I was wearing. ;)
Here's how it works. The women sit at numbered tables and the men rotate through. Since there was an extra guy, one of the stations for them was to wait it out at the bar and chat up the hostess. When someone arrives at your station you take a second to write their name on your checklist. You chat for a few minutes, and then when the bell rings, you decide if you want to meet them again. You check a box 'Yes' or 'No'. My strategy was to give everyone a 'Yes' unless they were a super-obvious 'No'. If at the end of the night two people had said 'Yes' to each other, they would get an email the next day with that person's contact info.
So with 13 women and 14 men, the mini-dates were kept really short -- I think they were about 7 minutes, but I couldn't tell. Also, it felt like they got shorter as the night wore on, because the hostess finally clued in to how tired everyone was getting. (I had to stifle the odd yawn around date #11). It sort of seemed like I was giving the same story to almost everyone. People seem to always ask two questions:
- What do you do?
- What do you do for fun?
Fortunately for me, what I do is difficult to explain and takes up a decent chunk of time. There was no way we were going to have any awkward silences! Also fortunate for me, I actually have a hobby. I'm a musician, so I talked about how I was in a charity rock band over the summer. Apart from a couple of exceptions, that was the material I used and repeated over and over again, with every ding of the bell.
I'm not sure I can remember everyone exactly, but here's the general roster of who I met last night:
- Ben the elementary school gym teacher. Struck me as a speed dating regular, and also a bit effeminate.
- Ross the mountain biking vegan. Enough said.
- Alan the overdressed day trader. (Not overdressed like fancy, I mean he was wearing too many layers to possibly have been comfortable in that hot little room.)
- Jerry the older guy who came off a bit creepy. He gave me 3 wishes. (An immediate 'No'.)
- Shawn the construction worker and part-time masseuse.
- Jeremy the super-shy personal bodyguard with whom I could barely sustain a conversation.
- Casey the metrosexual mumbler.
- Pablo the Mexican... something. (I could barely understand him.)
- Sahil the hand-talking brown guy who kept staring at something behind me in middle distance.
- Brad the accountant, drier than toast.
- Matt with big teeth. Not particularly memorable.
- Some ginger kid.
- Lucas? Luke? Lucky? I never really did catch his name. He used our date time to run to the washroom.
- Nikola the Serbian PhD student in computer engineering. Started out the date by asking me my sign.
Does anyone want to guess which 2 of these guys came back as mutual matches? You'd be right if you guessed #5 and #14. Probably not the two I would have expected, but there you have it. I've got their email addresses but I haven't written yet. I think I'll wait until they email me first.
Conclusion: I really loved speed dating, and although it was tiring to be smiley and charming for 3 hours, I think it was well worth the cost. (Especially since I had a coupon.) By the end of the night my smile muscles were killing me, and so were my inner thighs from keeping my knees glued together. It was a really efficient way to meet 14 interesting people though. I would definitely do it again!
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