Clark
So the day had arrived and, much to my surprise, my nerves were at ease, only to kick in later on. I’m not a drinker, so I had to find other ways to calm my nerves. I got ready and dressed up nice. My best friend walked me, and we discussed how I would introduce myself and if I should go in just after my date arrives or before. Finally, we were at Moon Bar, just a few minutes before 8pm. Right about now, I’m super nervous, and took my time saying goodbye to my friend.Nothing exciting yet, just my nerves really bugging me. I kept wondering who it would be – will it be a complete stranger, which I had hoped, or someone I may have seen or know? Much to my surprise (and where things got exciting) was when she arrived. The minute she turned around, I was like, “Oh no, you didn’t!” Yes, turns out all along my gut feeling was right – she was someone I had recently interacted with. Amusingly, we had spoken last night about a certain topic, and to meet her that night was a shocker. We both couldn’t get over it.
We quickly started chatting, I didn’t hesitate to mention I don’t drink and I’m very nervous. Soon all was well and we had a good chat, about lots of different topics. She had a lot of good stories to tell me which I was fond of and wanted to know more. I don’t think we got through our bar tab, I had two non-alcoholic drinks and she had four if I’m correct. She sounded like a really cool chick and I liked that our conversation flowed. The best part was the amaze stories she had to tell me and when she warned me about her flatties maybe dropping by for a sneak peek. And they did – I saw a bunch of people walk in and looking my way every now and then. Overall, I enjoyed the night. Good company. Chur!
Tizard
In the aftermath of a flat challenge gone wrong, I found myself locked into this blind date. My hopes weren’t high, considering my years of being a lesbian in Dunedin had taught me to fear the worst when it comes to surprise set-ups. So I downed a healthy dose of wine and set off for what I was convinced would be a date with a Jack Nicholson lookalike.Luckily for me, my date turned out to be a pretty good-looking girl after all. Bolstered by this small victory, I happily flipped through the drinks menu, only to be informed that my date didn’t believe in drinking. Horror. Not to be easily put off, I slowed down my drinking a bit and tried to go old-school and resort to sober conversation as a socialiser. However, after about an hour of her talking mostly about herself, I found myself hitting the whiskey and drys hard.
The date wasn’t that bad – she was easy to get along with and we had enough mutual friends for a good gossip. Then she dropped the bombshell that she’s not out of the closet and still doesn’t want anyone knowing that she’s of the Jodie Foster persuasion. At this point of the date, I seriously questioned whether this was a terrible joke, but after a lot of pleading for me not to out her, I realised that I was in fact on the kind of date reminiscent of high school “I’m-totally-not-into-girls-but-how-about-we-keep-doing-this-and-just-not-mention-this-to-anyone-ever” days.
Despite all this, the date was okay, the meals were pretty good and she seemed really nice and had some cool interests. After the third mention of a pretty intense crush she has on some girl, I picked up on the fact I was being nudged into the “friend zone,” which wasn’t so bad considering it seemed like she had come on the date with the hopes of meeting someone super serious. We walked some of the way home together and then parted ways, with the only action I saw being a very quick hug goodbye. Thanks Critic for setting me up with a sober girl so far in the closet she may as well be in Narnia, although I did get some decent conversation and a good meal out of it.