Bark bark bark

You know that expression about a dog's bark being much worse than his bite? That would be a very good way of describing my date on Saturday. Travel Guy was much more alpha male via e-mail than he was in person. Not that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, if you look back on the people I've dated in the past I don't generally like manly men; they remind me too much of those assholes that use to make fun of me for having crazy hair and wearing combat boots in high school. They remind me of Slater fucking Bayliss. ICK.

But I digress. So, I was more than a little nervous on Saturday. Like really nervous. I'm not sure I like the whole element of surprise that comes with this on-line dating thing.

I took my sweet time getting there, too. I hate being early and waiting for someone I don't know. I had to do this with PhD guy everytime we got together and I hated it. I don't know why. I feel too eager or something if I'm there first.

When I walked into our designated meeting point (it was a chain restaurant), I wasn't sure what to do so I stood in the entrance for a second. I had seen a picture of him via his website (which details his extensive travel), but still wasn't sure I'd know him immedately or anything. I was kind of relying on him to recognize me since I have the same picture I have posted on my Blogger profile posted on my Match profile, and, well, said picture looks like me.

I stood there for a second and noticed this cute guy waving at me. Unfortunately, this doesn't ever happen randomly in restaurants, so I figured this guy was Travel Guy. I went over, sat down next to him and we immedately started chatting as we waited for our table.

The first thing I noticed was how nervous he was, which immedately put me at ease. I remember reading once that when someone is attracted to you or there's chemistry between you and another person you have a tendancy of dropping stuff or becoming really inarticulate all of a sudden. Travel Guy dropped stuff throughout the night, which I thought was really endearing. For some reason, his unease made me relax a lot.

Once we were seated we had a really nice conversation. We talked about Russia, traveling, Peace Corps, etc. He asked a lot of really good questions and there wasn't really any uncomfortable pauses. The one thing that was a little off putting though was the waitress shamelessly flirting with him. I've had this happen once before. In fact, years ago I was with Jason at another chain restaurant in IC and a waitress hit on him in front of me so many times throughout the hour and a half we were there I almost said something to her. She did not get a tip; she did, however, get a really nasty look from me.

At the end of dinner we got up to leave, and then once we were outside he shook my hand and thanked me for a nice time. I told him I had a great time and it was nice meeting him, etc. No plans were made to get together again. I wasn't disappointed as much as I was confused. A hand shake is not a good time, but had he tried anything else I ....don't know what I would've done.

A hand shake though?

Anyway, so that was Saturday. Since then I've e-mailed him and there's been maybe a hint of another date, but I'm not sure (he told me I had a great smile, he had a good time and then made some suggestive comment about a back rub, but no offer for another date). I'd go out with him again. He's an interesting person, and, at the very least, we'd have a great conversation. And then I'd have another male friend (big sigh). I'm going to end up with my own army of male friends, as Brian, JP, Dan, Greg, Noel, and PhD guy can all tell you. Maybe Ellen was right about this one.