Editor's Note: I wrote this last night after the date but then couldn't get access to the internet and ended up being too tired to edit it appropriately. Thus, it's posted this morning when I've got a (very) few hours of sleep behind me. Enjoy!
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So, here I sit in the bar in the lobby at the Sci-Fi/Anime Convention I am at this weekend, ConStellation II. Con is alternately known as GeekFest and I for one adore it. Where else do I get to wear a wig and kitty ears and people not only don't care but will randomly run up to me and give my “ears” skritchies and hug me. It's one of the most affirming situations I can find myself in mainly because it's because I'm with a bunch of people that tend to share my general viewpoints about personal space and are just as offbeat as I am. It's fabulous.
So, I'm sitting here enjoying a post date amaretto sour and BL Lime. Gotta say, this date was pretty fun. It wasn't eventful by any stretch of the imagination, but that's ok. I had a nice time.
It started, technically, on Friday when I received a text from my friend Matt informing me that he had a date for me for the following evening. To which I'm thinking, awesome!! I'd been worried that I wouldn't be able to get set up, but not so! The plan was to meet at the Con on Saturday evening and hang out and do datey stuff, whatever that is. After a bit of pestering on my part and some running around on the part of my all too willing “setter uppers” (yes, that's a technical term), things get arranged.
Fastforward to this evening. It was decreed that S and I would meet at the registration table at 8. Fine by me, that gave me all day to run around, do a bit of volunteering, work a panel, and just generally make a nuisance of myself. Yay for me! So, it's date time-ish. I wander off to primp a little bit because in the course of the generalized chaos that made up my date my wig started to get a bit off kilter and the kitty ears needed adjustment. I like to make a good impression.
I finished primping and wandered back to where my friends were hanging out. At which point my friends Stephen and Matthew promptly flank me. You have to imagine this: Both of them are in steampunk style mercenary wear which includes masks that fully obscure their faces. (Really, it'd been throwing me all day. Do you have any idea how much we rely on non-verbal facial expressions to read a person's communication? Oi!) Matt is wearing a gas mask that he's painted silver that made him look a bit like Greedo from Star Wars and Stephen's is an altered paint ball mask or something similar. Both of them are also carrying guns that they have painted and worked on for prop purposes. Add to this that both of them are taller than me, it makes for an interesting sight. Purple haired catgirl and guards. I just can't figure out if they were pretending to be body guards to protect my kittenish honor or prison guards to make sure I didn't bolt.
We walk towards the registration table and... keep on walking. We're about halfway down the hall past it when I decide something doesn't smell right and stop. I asked Matt to clarify that I was supposed to be meeting S at the registration desk which is back there. Matt stopped and even with the mask I could just see him trying to process this. A few seconds later we turned around and walked back. At this point I'm starting to feel a bit like Princess Leia being escorted to see Darth Vader.
And we arrive. Matt's friend, Rachel, who was the one who suggested S as my date for the evening meets us there and goes to get S. S comes over and walks right past into the art dealer's room. Umn... what? At that point he's gently nudged by Rachel in the correct direction, which is towards my well guarded and purple coiffed self, and he comes over and apologizes for walking right past. We make our introductions and at that point my entourage decides to leave without so much as a wave.
S and I decided that all we really wanted to do was sit and chat. So we did just that. It was nice. We sat in the lobby/courtyard of the hotel and just kind of geeked out. We talked about the weather for a while, which was kind of cool because we both have some interesting bad winter weather driving tales. After that we started discussing our particular fandoms that we enjoy and found a mutual enjoyment of Doctor Who. (I swear, Doctor Who is the Great Geek Equalizer! Who doesn't love it?) There were also a few other crossovers (childhood memories of ReBoot and Starwars), but not much because my fandom tends to be book and comic based and his was more visual media based. It was still cool though because he got to tell me about some television series that I hadn't gotten a chance to watch yet and need to put on my list of things to see.
After about an hour of chatting, we went down to a panel that he had wanted to go to about why the Oscars apparently hate the Sci-Fi genre. I was good with that. It sounded interesting and the only other thing going on was the cosplay contest. It was a nice discussion lead by two of the guest authors at the convention. It was interesting how vehemently people were defending their positions at times, and there was a lot of talk over. But still, some interesting insights into why the industry either hasn't awarded an Oscar to a Sci-Fi film or why the genre hasn't created one worthy of being an award winner.
After the panel we decided to go our separate ways. Since it's a con, there's programming pretty much 24 hours, but since neither of us seemed too willing to go off site for anything like a meal (for my part it's because of my rules to always drive separately to a place; it would have seemed silly to part ways only to meet at a restaurant for food or something) we decided to call it good. It was a good couple of hours and S is a nice guy. The gal that snags him is pretty lucky if a two hour date can be used as a good judge of character.
One of the most interesting things about this date was that it was pretty non-standard as far as doing things goes. We talked, but it wasn't over a meal as is traditionally done. And instead of a movie we went to a panel at a convention. I guess in some ways it could have been considered the geek version of the dinner/movie date, except again there was the lack of food thing. But it was nice. I wasn't sure at first because I've been socialized to think that a date means a certain order of events, usually food and some kind of entertainment. I think one of the things I need to get past is the idea that a date has to contain some kind of preset standard timeline of what 'should' happen. Just because other stuff is done doesn't mean that's not a date. It's just not stereotypical.
Which brings me to another discovery: I am such and friggin' control freak. Seriously. This whole blind dating thing is taking a lot of stuff out of my control and it's kinda bugging me. Not enough that I'm going to give up, obviously, but it's an interesting thought that letting other people plan an evening for me and not let me know the details until it's all laid out is a new experience. It's a bit like falling and not being sure if someone will really be there to catch me or something. It makes me a little neurotic and twitchy and I really need to work on just letting go. Really.
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So, that was date #2. It was fun and S is a sweetie. I wish him nothing but the best.
Special thanks go out to Matt and Rachel for setting me up and to S for letting himself be set up. Also, thanks to ConStellation II for playing host to this date.
Remember to email your blind date horror stories to theblinddateproject@yahoo.com for a chance to be featured in a future Blind Date Project Horror Story special.
And now, I'm going to sit back and finish my beer.
K
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