Welp. I guess you gotta start somewhere. I mean, don't get me wrong, I did not go into my very first match.com date, two days after signing up, thinking I was going to find true love. And, don't get me wrong, I was not mislead. Lets back up...


I hate match.com. I hate everything about window shopping for humans, and winking, and clever profile tag lines, and paying hard earned dollars to put yourself in awkward, blind date situations. Having said that, I signed up on Sunday night.


For the past six or seven months, I've been hanging out with a fella, we'll just refer to him as "He Who Shall Not Be Named." And as of 2011....New Years Eve to be exact, that is no longer the case. However, I maybe ingested too many vodka sodas on Friday night, and maybe sent a drunk text that began with "I will never admit to this later but...," and maybe ended up at his house later that night. And maybe went home Saturday thinking that can't happen anymore. Hence, the Sunday match.com registration.


So, tonight I agreed to meet one of my "connections" for a drink. He's from California, I'm from California. That's basically it. I didn't have many other reasons for going, except to make myself do it. His profile pic was one of those "weird angle-can't really tell-he could be really cute-or he could be really not cute" pictures, and the real red flag should have been that there was only one. I now realize this isMatch.com Code for "This is the best picture I've ever seen of myself so its the only one going up."


We agreed to meet at a local bar at 6:30. I walk in, a little early, there are very few people at the bar, and at the end of the bar is one dude, there by himself, watching the door. But there's no way its him. I mean, he has the same glasses and same haircut as the guy in the pic, but there's NO way thats him. He's sitting on the end, I sit close to him but with one stool in between us. He looks at me when I sit down and says hello. i say hi back. We just sit there. We both have our phones out, waiting for something to happen, but we are both just sitting there. For a good four minutes. Its a long time, go ahead, time it. I order a drink. I have now accepted that its him, but refuse to ask, cause its just awkward now. Finally he says, "are you here to meet me?" I say, "I think so." We introduce ourselves, even the bartender feels weird, and immediately gets us two drinks.


All in all, he was very nice. Conversation was fine, we chatted, we laughed, we drank. One hour later, which felt like a leap year, we called it a night. I accidentally left without giving him my phone number. He went in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek, as I had one foot in the crosswalk already, cause you just never know how long it will be if you miss the green light, before you can cross the street again.


You gotta start somewhere.


My match.com password?... 2011hatesme