Yahoo #1

So, today was my first date with an online match. Florence (names have been changed to protect, well, me) and I have messaged each other a few times and spoken on the phone I think twice. That sounds about right.

My state of being may not have been the best for a first date... I've had an, um, exciting week--two live concerts, two evenings with less than 4 hours of sleep, and an incredibly boring day at work (stimulating it was not). Florence and I spoke on Sunday and decided that we should meet Friday (today--or, technically, yesterday), but I actually didn't hear from him all week.

Today at 5:30, Florence calls me, and we decide to meet up at a restaurant in the suburbs. We agree on 8:00, which will give me time to go home and change, which I do. Of course, I think I need to leave at 7:30, and at 7:30 when I'm putting on my shoes, I realize there's no way in hell I can get to Ballston from my current locale in 30 minutes. So, I call him to tell him I'll be late.

When I get to the metro (our determined meeting place), I see him for the first time. Perhaps I should have reviewed his profile before meeting him--he was a bit shorter than I expected. Not short--my height--but for some reason I thought he broke 6'. He doesn't.

He was a little, um, younger-looking than I expected. His photo is a very flattering one--clearly him, but very flattering, and he looks rather sculpted in his picture. In person, he looks about 16. And there was something about him that reminded me of Jason, a bagger at the grocery store I worked at in college. There was something watery about his eyes--not conjunctivitis, just something watery and soft. His skin was really soft, too--it was a little disconcerting.

We went to a Lebanese restaurant in Ballston and had a really hard time ordering--we kept chatting instead of concentrating on our menus. He's a very avid listener as well as talker, and it took a really long time for us to decide what to order. The waitress kept coming and asking, apparently having never learned the trick of waiting until your diners have put down the menu. We both got meat plates--he got lamb. His lamb looked incredible and I suffered a bit of food envy as he ate it. We also got the baba ghanoush, which was excellent. They were pretty stingy with the bread, though, and we had far too much baba.

After dinner, we went to Dr Dremo's. The last time I went to Dremo's was 2002 with my boyz. My, how things have changed! But not at Dremo's. It's still dirty and cool and has lots of microbrews that I don't drink. It was fun, although I probably should not mention on a first date how many proposals I get in Africa.

Overall, it was a good date, neither incredibly good nor incredibly bad. A strict 5. Florence was a little timid for my taste--he clearly wanted to pay for my dinner (I should have let him); he wanted to in some way physically mark the end of our date (I didn't let him), and he just seemed very timid. A stronger personality for the international tease, please!