Bad Start

What's your worst date ever? I remember having this setup date almost four years ago. After being convinced by my friend Riina to actually go out with me, this "friend of a friend" girl SMS'ed me on night askeding to meet up with her to hangout on a saturday morning in Megamall. Since I was not really doing anything at that time other than whoring up Ragnarok Online, I agreed.

The date time was around the opening time of Megamall. I know, I know it sounds stupid to date so early . I'll clear that up later. Anyway, 4am that same day, I was still playing Ragnarok Online - at least until I heard the first trip of the LRT outside my window. I decided to take a short nappie before readying up for the date - not that I had a choice,if I didn't I would have fallen asleep on my date.

I woke up later that day with a dozen missed calls and four SMS messages on my phone. By later, I mean three something in the afternoon. Considering that as a first date, I'd say it's a really bad start.

I apologized and setup another date two weeks later. She was civil enough to agree. At least until the day itself when she was the one this time who stood me up because she had a "really important thing going on" . She told me that the standup was completely coincidental but later on admitted that it was partly for getting back at me.

Too bad for her I was really planning to make it up for her by treating her to a really fancy resto that I knew was her favorite (I coerced Riina in telling me) - with reservations. Well not really formal reservations, just advanced notice to the seating manager.

You can tell at this point there was no real progress regarding things. So finally, I thought, what the hell, the girl who set us up must have had high hopes for this thing and it'd be a waste to disappoint her. So I called up the elusive date and said "Bad start huh? Why dont we try this again. Tomorrow morning, Megamall."

She again said "okay" but I wasn't expecting much from it.

Venue? Skating rink. Perfect, I thought. I could go teach her how to ice skate and it'll probably keep us occupied.

Well that plan failed too.

She was already inside when I met her. Well at least we finally met up, with only the safety fence between us. I got in, hopped into a pair of tight-as-hell skates that are duller than flatirons and went (translation: wobbled like a lame duck) to where she was.

Good grief. She was the best skater I've seen in my life. I haven't had a plan more thrashed out than the teach-her-how-to-skate plan up to now. I somehow made it up by feigning it was me who didn't know anything about ice skating (and if I really did know something, it was far less than her mastery). Turn's out she teaches almost as good as she makes comments of how much of a lame duck I look like when skating.

The date turned out to be fun for both of us though and that day was followed by a lot more sessions and cancelled sessions ( I swear, if we had something trully in common, it'd be standing up dates) And though things didn't work out for both of us, I still consider her as a very close friend (I wont go into details) and she knows damn well that our first days out were really exceptionally crappy.

Moral lesson? If you have a plan, stick to the plan. If the plan doesnt work out, have a backup available. If you cant satisfy both at the same time, don't even bother planning.

Also, fuck, don't wear really really small ice skates, specially if you have size 11 feet.