My First Blind Date

One day at work, my friend (and cubicle wall-sharer) sends me a random picture message (G-rated, guys. C'mon.) of a guy with the caption, "Do you think this guy is cute?" (or something to that effect). I had no idea why she was asking. For her? For me? For someone else? It was kind of hard to even see him in the picture, to be honest. But he had a nice smile, so that's what I told her.

She told me that she wanted to set me up on a blind date with him. I'd never been on a blind date before (as the blog title suggests), so I was only going off of what my friends and people on the TV told me about them. You can probably imagine what I thought of blind dates. But it was an adventure, and I love adventures! So, my friend set up the date.

I got to Old Chicago (at least it wasn't Arby's!) and saw the guy at the designated meeting spot - a bench outside of the restaurant. We did introductions and the awkward handshake (the first of two, sadly) and then went inside and got a table. Once we were seated, the awkwardness was over for a while. We talked about our jobs, our families, etc. (small talk) and ate. Then the bill came. I did the reach for the purse, and he offered to pick it up. Very cliche.

We exited the building, and the awkwardness came on full-blast. We walked to the parking lot and...stood there. Now, those of you who know me know that I can stand feeling awkward for about 0.2 seconds before I freak out and run away from a situation. Which is what I did. I held out my hand (awkward handshake number two!) and said, "Nice to meet you!" and walked to my car.

Later, I found out that he had spent some time planning some other activities to do for our date. So in this instance, the "Major Fail Award" goes to me. Next time, maybe he'll talk about hanging out more sooner, so the girl won't run away like a chicken with its head cut off (I've always loved that expression). He also ended up being a jerk to my friend later on, so I don't feel so bad.

The good thing that came from this date: Free food! And I learned that Old Chicago makes an amazing crispy chicken salad! Eat it!