Bloody rejection

I had my first date in about two years tonight. I wasn't shooting for anything crazy, my expectations were mostly held in check; I just wanted to go out, have a nice conversation, maybe have a good enough time with the girl to have a shot at a follow-up. I might as well have signed up to go on Elimidate; I lasted approximately 47 minutes.

Trouble started brewing at work when I was told I could not wear shorts and a pink shirt out to a date. Hey, news to me. I spent a frantic and nerve-wracking two hour lunch at the mall buying a pair of khakis and looking everywhere for a pair of decent shoes to wear with them. I ended up spending almost $100 so I opted to stick with the pink shirt.

I took the train into the city to meet this girl down by Fanueil Hall at 8 pm. I have to say I cut a striking figure in my snappy new khakis and Timberland loafers. I even tucked in my shirt for only the 17th time in my lifetime. Unfortunately, wearing shoes without socks (which I almost never do) gave me mad blisters and tore off all the skin on my left pinkie toe and heel, so I ended up limping over to the waterfront looking like Long John Silver.

I met her at the cocktail bar a quarter of and my nervousness settled down pretty quickly. Real cute/pretty girl, tall as all heck, and great hair. We had a drink and talked for about 20 minutes. Almost the first thing out of her mouth was, "wow, pink shirt, huh?" Still, it seemed like everything was going well: good convo, no awkward pauses, laughs, good times had by all. She got up to go to the restroom and this Sherlock Jr. noticed a girl following her in that had been in her profile pictures online. So her and this friend end up spending like 15 minutes squirreled away; I guess she thought things weren't going well and needed an exit strategy....

Anyway she came back and I could tell she wanted to leave so things got weird and the strange silences started cropping up and I got nervous as hell. After about another 10 minutes of half-hearted conversation she let me know she was leaving to go celebrate her friend's birthday, and that was that. Uncomfortable good-bye and all, I probably had about 30 or so minutes of face time with this girl. Walking off into the night, I honestly expected to have to give a testimonial to some cameraman following me or something. So I was pretty fucking bummed and pissed off. A whole lot of hassle and stressing and expense for what amounted to nothing more than a quick, we'll-squeeze-you-into-our-busy-schedule audition. Not to mention that my left ankle looked like Curt Schilling's in the 2004 ALCS.

I don't know; not a great confidence booster for my first time throwing myself back out there. Not sure how I feel about continuing with the match.com deal. I've emailed about 10 different girls and this was the only one I had really heard back from. We had been chatting and exchanging emails for the past three weeks so I figured I was doing OK and had a shot, but I guess she decided otherwise. I just wish I could have had a real date, instead of that waste of time. I ended up coming home and buying a bottle of champagne to celebrate the futility of my manhood.

Game ball goes to Joey Votto. If he hadn't hit those three homers today I think I would be much more depressed than I am now. Thanks for looking out for me buddy.