COLUMN: Bad wine, bad date

I don’t go on many dates, so I was really unsure of what to expect on this one.

I wore a casual dress, because Blaine and I had texted a bit before the date, but he never told me where we were going.

He showed up at my apartment and I was almost ready to go, but I still had shoes and a coat to put on.  We were almost out the door when I realized I had “forgotten my mittens” in my bedroom.  In actuality, and because my life is a series of embarrassing moments, I noticed I had left some condoms in my coat pocket, because a girl has to be prepared, and I knew if they accidentally fell out during the date it would not leave the greatest impression.

We finally got to Café Brulé, where Blaine immediately asked for a wine menu, despite the fact that 30 seconds earlier in the car I told him how I don’t much like wine. I’m more of a beer drinker.

We looked at the menu and since I had never been there before, I asked Blaine what was good. He asked what I liked and I told him I didn’t eat meat. He then suggested some sort of fish.

I didn’t get the fish.

We did have polite conversation, and I could tell I was talking a lot because I was nervous, but he laughed at my jokes, so I thought it was going well for the most part.

Next we ended up at Carey’s for drinks. From what I’ve heard from my friends about Blaine, he likes to order drinks for girls. So, to make him feel better, I told him to pick something out for me to drink. I didn’t quite hear what he was ordering for me, so when he asked if it was OK I just said, “We’ll see,” instead of telling him I had no idea what I was about to drink.

I took a sip, and it turned out to be a vodka cranberry. Once again, his memory must have failed him, because in the car I told him I didn’t like vodka.  It was still early though, so we weren’t bothered by others and we had some more time to sit and talk.

By this time however, I was starting to feel a bit tired and instead of talking too much, I just sat back and let him do the talking. This may have been my biggest downfall on this date. Instead of telling funny anecdotes like he had at dinner, the mood changed and I felt like he was giving me life advice I had never asked for. I think he realized I had gone from somewhat interested to not really interested at all, and asked him to take me home.

Since I was supposed to be going out for my friend’s 21st birthday later that night, I told him I was going to wait at the bar for them to get there. That’s when I looked at my phone and realized it was only 9 p.m. They weren’t going to be there until 10 p.m., and there was no way I was going to be able to keep up the charade for another hour, so I had him drop me off with my friends instead.

I have to say I appreciated that he didn’t make it awkward when I asked to be dropped off so early in the night.

Overall, I would say it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but it was still a pretty bad date.