Good Idea? Bad Idea? New Game Plan

So CBD hasn't been working out for me. It's not that the dates are bad--there aren't any at all. So instead of tying up my free nights and having to explain to friends that I "may or may not be going on a date," I'll let it end.

Instead, I'm trying something new. A coworker said that if I don't meet any girls before Oct. 1, then she's going to have me make a match.com profile (and she'll help out, for what that's worth). I used to be adamantly opposed to taking dating sites seriously, but lately I've had a slight change of heart. I'd thought that there are some super important anti-nervous traits that I needed to get by meeting girls in person like a Josh Hartnett movie. Or that it's way too geeky. But a few things have come up that are making me rethink this:

-I haven't met girls in forever. All the ones I've met lately seemed to have boyfriends.
-I met a girl through a friend who talked about being on eHarmony. She was really good looking, but both not interested in me and didn't seem too bright.
-Maybe running with statistics isn't so bad.

I'm still pretty skeptical about it, but we'll see what happens. Or I grow a pair in the next 5 weeks.


Have you ever done online dating? Ever thought about? What was your experience?

Not Yet

It's been a while before I've posted because I wanted to be able to talk about this Crazy Blind Date idea. Well so far it hasn't happened. In my head, I thought that there were hundreds of single, nervous/bored Chicagoans who would be up for a date. Apparently not as many as I had thought. I'm not ready to give up yet, but the computer at CBD keeps setting me up with some Brittney girl. I've confirmed trying to set up a date each time (now 3 or 4 times total), but she never agrees. Hopefully the computer will catch on and allow me to not waste a night.

Besides that, I had a pretty fun weekend. For $15 I saw Tapes 'n Tapes and Art Brut in one night. Following that, we partied our heads off for our friend's birthday.

I'm keeping this post short in hopes that I soon will be able to write about an actual Crazy Blind Date.

Desperate Times...

I wouldn't exactly say that these times are "desperate," but I feel like I should take some more action in my dating life (or lackthereof). A quick summary:

-Haven't been on a date since March
-Haven't asked anyone out since...yeah March
-Don't think bars are ideal for me to meet girls
-Still don't try in any other location
-Constantly see attractive girls on my train commute, but say nothing
-Have gotten better at keyboard (yay!)

So I assume you get the point by now. Logically, one would think that I'd suggest that I go out and meet a girl and ask her out. Well I'm still too afraid of rejection for that. Instead, I think I may try Crazy Blind Date. I saw this site a few months back, but I guess I wasn't feeling spontaneous. Basically, this website just sets you up on a date with a random person, and neither of you know anything. I have no idea what to expect except that I probably shouldn't get my hopes up that Natalie Portman or D are looking to change things up.

By doing this, hopefully I'll get some of the shyness/awkwardness out, but at least it'll be better blog fodder than my usual "what I did this weekend" (hint: probably got drunk and glanced at girls until I rode my bike home).

So I'm filling out this stuff right now. Basically, you pick your ideal time frame and neighborhood areas (at least 3). Next, you have to add some sort of tag line. So basically, this site says "Be Funny! Now!" in one sentence. I say "We'll do the opposite of bore eachother to death," but I'm typing with my fingers crossed.

Next, the site prefaces that the whole CBD theme is really low pressure, but still allows you to make height/ethnicity/body type/education restrictions, which is nice of them. In the spirit of the experiment. I'm leaving them all blank.

So now there's this type of sign-up that they make you do (makes sense. wouldn't want to lose track of the stalkers). You have to upload a photo that apparently is pixelated before your date and becomes visible thereafter. Also, there are some more "get to know you" questions asked.

And that's it for registration. it seems as though they want me to continue going on random dates, but we'll first have to be matched with the initial one. Now hopefully this won't end up with a flake-out like most of my others.

Critical Mass & More

Do you like riding your bike? Do you like meeting people? Then you should see if Critical Mass occurs in your town. This past Friday was my first. More or less, on the last Friday of each month somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 bicyclers (as well as some people who longboard/rollerblade) meet up to ride together in the street. Supposedly, July and August call on the most people, and this one was fun. You get to talk about bikes (or whatever) with friendly people and take a little tour around Chicago. I even met a girl there, but I was too afraid to ask for her number. Maybe she'll show up next time.

The rest of the weekend has been uneventful. I saw the White Sox kill the Yankees, to my disappointment, but their stadium looks awesome.

I'm not sure if it's because I've been watching a lot of relationship-y type shows lately (HIMYM and Skins), but I still keep getting that anxious feeling when I see girls who I would want to try meeting. I wonder if it ever goes away. I feel like in one way or another I've asked some guy friends to help me out at bars, but they don't seem to want to. For instance, I think Rob (with his girlfriend of like 3 years) would rather just hang out with his friends and not be bothered with any of that. Perfectly acceptable. So that puts me still fighting for myself, but really not taking any action.

Back to the topic of TV shows--Do you think that the writing in a lot of these romantic sitcoms is realistic of dating life for the majority of America? Do many girls find Ted Mosby's corny jokes funny? Or find him attractive? Granted, I love the show, but sometimes I wonder if it's setting up a false reality where my own life doesn't stack up or if it's supposed to give me some hope that you can be really average looking and tell stupid jokes but still appear attractive. Which do you think it is?