The Smells of Desperation

So last night I got wrangled into accompanying a friend to a dating event. Not usually my kind of thing, but seeing as how I'm single as fuck, I thought, "why the hell not?" It didn't hurt that it was at a bar, because if I'm expected to be interesting and approachable, I sure as shit need a cocktail.. or 3.

I wasn't really nervous leading up to it, I convinced myself to go under the notion that this was strictly for blog research. I mean the whole purpose of this blog is to entertain you with my dating life.. up until recently.. I've been, well.. not dating. With that said, I was starting to think of myself as a journalist, they constantly put the story first.. (I realize I'm delusional to call myself a journalist) believe it or not, this helped me get there. The thing about me is, as outgoing and loud as I am, I'm actually pretty reserved around new people and forced situations, I clam up and turn into this awkward fool who can barely form sentences, let alone witty and engaging banter, it's not cute. Usually a shot of tequila helps --which I convinced forced my friend to take with me. I was golden after that!

Let me just begin with, you know those dating mixers you see in the commercials, TV shows & movies where everyone is in their mid 20s to mid 30s, fit and attractive, ..well it's nothing like that. You can actually smell the desperation in the room. It didn't take long for me to be approached, and I don't mean that in conceited way.  I mean my friend and I were the only girls who showed up late, so we were fresh meat. We were being circled and clocked left and right. I felt like we were on a national geographic hunting show...being hunted. Anyway, so I'm approached by this very tall man who has clearly never heard of the term, 'personal space' I mean, he's all up in my bubble. He begins to hover over my shoulder and read the cocktail menu I had in my hand with this line, "I like your necklace, does it have a story, what's the story?" Strong, right off the bat. I can appreciate a different line, but I'd appreciate no line at all even more. I participate, he seems nice. We part ways after a while ...but not for good. No, he finds me like 5 times that night, getting a little too comfortable with me each time. I thought personal space was a problem.. I was wrong, he was a toucher. My back, my hip, my waist, --not ok. (If you're a guy reading this, please learn something. If we don't know you.. please for the love of god, keep your hands to yourself. Observe the 2nd grade classroom rules.) This guy then proceeds to feel free to sit and chat, which is fine. Except when you lead with this question, "Hey, are you a dirty girl?" Boom. My jaw dropped, my friend without missing a beat bursts into a fit of laughter..which couldn't be controlled. Somehow, the only way to get him to leave was to give him my phone number. Immediately regret. I have now received 5+ messages.

For fear of reeking of desperation, we sneakily leave and head to a normal bar. All the nerves and awkwardness disappears. There is something to be said about going into that pressured kind of situation. Where you are EXPECTED to interact with the sole purpose of finding someone to date. Remove that pressure at a normal bar where typically we do find people, naturally/organically and we are ourselves. Shining with wit, banter and easy conversations. There is something in that logic, some may say its my sub-conscious telling me, maybe I don't want to find anyone? I think, I'm just no good under pressure. Never have been.
So we have a good time, meet some more people, accidentally divulge too much information to a friend I ran into who was is romantically interested in me, about the last time I was at this bar, with the Dirty Musician (That story is doozy.) Well, come to find, not only does he know the Dirty Musician , they are friends. Fuck. It went downhill from there. We parted ways shortly after.

Although maybe this situation wasn't the best, I realize I need to get back out there.. I also realized I'm going to have to do it organically.. is this what dating has come to? Creepy desperate smelling men circling you like a buck on closing day of the hunting season? How you do YOU date? What works for you? Please let me know what you think!