OKCupid Catastrophes: Allie's Worst and My Best First Date Ever

It's Wednesday so you know what that means: online dating stories! 

First off, we have Allie from Tales of a Twenty-Something Blogger to tell about her awkward Olive Garden encounter with someone she met online. She writes,

The worst date I have ever been on, hands down, goes a little something like this (names changed to protect the idiotic). Josh and I were supposed to meet at Olive Garden at 8PM (I know a lot of people go out to dinner and/or on dates at 8PM, but I tend to eat earlier than that, so I was already starving). 

And he was 15 minutes late. 

We meet there and he doesn’t open the door for me. That wasn’t a deal breaker, but it’s definitely preferred and gets a guy points. Regardless, we sit down at the table and order. I’m not a big salad eater, so I usually don’t partake in the pre-dinner Olive Garden goodness. Thus, Josh decides it would be a good idea to just forget about the salad bowls they bring us, bypass the salad spoons, and eat out of the big bowl. Of salad. In Olive Garden. Himself.

I just sat there in horror, trying my hardest to not make a surprised face and crossing my fingers that no one I knew was watching. He then proceeds to laugh at everything under the sun in the most obnoxious way. People are staring he’s so loud. I kindly smile and nod and hope they take that as an “I’m so very sorry to be ruining your meal” look. When dinner is over, I tried my hardest to leave, but Josh wanted to continue to talk and talk. He finally got the hint when the server brings us our check, then he proceeds to pull out a huge wad of cash full of 50s and 100s (If I was a gold digger this would have been perfect, but no amount of money from this guy could have made me want a second date). Not to mention it’s 2012, everyone has a bank account, why do you have hundreds of dollars in your wallet? Do you think it makes you look cool? I think it makes you look like a jerk. (Sar’s note: my brother does this. I think it’s weird, but also kind of awesome.)

So we leave, I give him the nice little side hug and quickly walk to my car and never look back. He texted upwards of 15 text messages within the next two days but I never answered them. And that’s the story of the worst date I’ve been on.

Bwaaahahaha, fantastic. To be fair, it wasn't a horrible date at all, just a blaaaah date. I'd take that over Stacy's massage oil guy or Amy's foot fetish dude any day!

But, to end today's post, I have to gush a little about the best first date ever that I went on this past weekend.

RP3 (his initials, which means his name lends perfectly to our favorite Heisman Trophy winner's nickname) and I met via OKC ('cuz we're cool like that) after I emailed him at the end of September (and he took 5 days to email me back; what the heck?!). We started chatting about favorite YouTube videos (his favorite; my favorite), his best friend who is in grad school at Baylor, pub trivia, my love for the word "penchant," and his knowledge of girly Mel Gibson movies. He came to Waco the weekend I was in Mississippi, but rescheduled for the following weekend when we'd both actually be in town.

RP3 drove up to Waco from Austin (where he's currently getting his DMA at UT) and he picked me up at my house (don't worry guys, we texted constantly for a week before we met and by this point, I was pretty positive he was safe). He mentioned he had an activity at Barnes and Noble, so we headed out to the bookstore for the surprise. 

I wasn't ready for how awesome his idea would be (males needing a date night idea, take note). RP3 brought pens and Post-Its (my favorite) and we wrote notes that we put in books as surprises for others (a la Operation Beautiful, but snarkiness was also included).

Coolest date idea ever.

Not only was it fun to leave notes for people (and to try to hide this from the B&N employees), we also got to chat about our favorite types of books and laugh at the funny things the other was writing. It was delightful.

We then went to the pub and met up with Drew and his girlfriend Paige to watch the end of the Orioles/Yankees game 5. We had a good time chatting (and Drew quizzed me on my knowledge of RP3), then we parted ways and headed to dinner. We had a fantastic time getting to know more about each other (while listening to an entertaining cover band play), then headed to Drew's place for a bonfire. Drew invited a bunch of his graduate music school friends, so we spent a little time in the back with the group and then headed to the porch swing to chat one-on-one.

At the end of the evening, RP3 drove me home and dropped me off in the front of my place, after which I immediately went inside and fist pumped in victory (okay, maybe only in my mind). And I haven't stopped thinking about him since.

We've Skyped a few times (talking to him is by far the best part of the day, especially when you live 2 hours away from each other) and we text a ton.

Is it okay to say I like him a ton after one evening? I'll keep you updated on RP3 after our second date in Austin this weekend. ;)

If you want to read more online dating disasters (or some success stories!), go here to see the full series. If you have a really good (or really bad) story about online dating, leave a comment or email me to be featured!