And your time starts...now

Time Out
Originally uploaded by seanhfoto.

Two of my new friends here in Chicago convinced me to go speed dating last night. Admittedly I didn't take much convincing, but I was still having second thoughts late yesterday. These doubts were only magnified when the organisers rang me in the afternoon to tell me there were way too many men registered and could I perhaps bring some female friends with me?

But Kerry and Kaz and I were brave enough to turn up anyway and all three of us were dressed to impress. We needn't have bothered really. Before the speed dating officially got underway, we had a drink at the bar and met a girl who had just moved to Chicago and had turned up alone so we adopted her and had some good laughs early.

I reported to the organisers first, so I was given poll position, "Speed Dater #1". As it turned out, this was not the best position to be in. Each girl took her place, and the guy sat opposite her. After five minutes of 'dating', a whistle blew and the boy had to stand up and move along to the next girl. But because I was in poll position, the excess of men registered meant that small clusters of guys were waiting to talk to me and were watching me while I tried to have my "dates" with each guy. I was conscious of them staring and it made me rather uncomfortable.

I only 'clicked' with one guy the whole night, and even then I'm not sure whether that was just because I didn't want to write all the guys off and walk away with nothing. I got the real impression that the guys who had registered did so because they have NO experience talking to women. Honestly, these guys had very few conversational skills. They certainly didn't know how to sell themselves in 5 minutes. It was really hard work.

About ninety seconds into my first 'date', the guy told me all about his mother issues and how he'd been cheated on by his last (and only?) girlfriend. Then there was the guy that told me he loved my accent, but couldn't understand a word I was saying and so I had to repeat myself every time. Then there was the guy waiting at the bar and staring at me (naturally) that cut in and volunteered to buy me a Sprite - recognising that we weren't getting a drinks break after all. I quickly and graciously accepted his offer. Two dates later, still no Sprite. I was wondering whether I'd hallucinated it all. But then the Sprite guy rocked up to date me, with the glass of Sprite in hand. Better late than never? Nah.

Stop the Press: Just found out that I had six guys wish to match up with me, including the guy that I picked. Now the question remains, do I contact him after all? I never read the rule book that well...