Date 1

I'm back on the dating scene. I'm on several online dating sites. What have I got to lose, you know?

Steve (name changed to protect the innocent) is two years younger than me, which is really not what I'm looking for. Wasn't even going to go out with him, except we had a really interesting text message rally during the last Obama/McCain debate. I could tell he isn't as smart as I would like, but I don't know if that really matters. "Smart as I would like" is veering off toward genius IQ and I've gotta be reasonable. Plus, he has a job - that's more than I can say for the last guy in whom I was really interested.

So we talk about where to meet, and he clearly hasn't given it any thought, which is lame. I mean, show some initiative! We end up meeting in Aventura, which is a serious drive for me coming from Dadeland/Kendall, but he's in South-Central Broward and the options between us are limited, to put it kindly.

The pizza place is nice enough. He seems like a cute guy, but not really a conversationalist (and thus not my cup of tea). We talk about American history, which he is really into, and it's fun. Then the conversation gets stale. I'm okay with lulls, really. They are normal. But you gotta do better than, "So tell me what you do in your free time," especially when we've already discussed that, you know?

Snore.

He also reveals that, as I suspected, his main activities are drinking ... and drinking. "I really like happy hour," he says. Seriously? He says he likes to go to happy hour on Friday night, then "party," then "recover" on Saturday morning, then go to a bar and meet his friends "to watch football and drink beers."

Sigh.

Then it was almost nine and I thought it would be better to end it than stay out really late or whatever. He was disappointed, but of course did not offer a cogent idea on where to go. AND he went in for a kiss. I got out of it the first time, but he tried again and I just let him plant one on me. Luckily it was only slightly more than a peck. I mean, I'd have needed to drink a lot more than one beer to make out with this guy after that date. Sheesh.