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Over the past two years, I’ve gone out on 18 first dates. Needless to say, I’m a little exhausted. So, if you are about to go on your first date thanks to a dating site, I thought you could benefit from my experience:
PreDate
Women: Don’t be afraid to tell a guy you don’t like a certain type of food. Why be “nice” and say you’re flexible when the sight of seafood makes you want to hurl? The guy can’t read your mind and if you don’t set at least some reasonable parameters, you are setting everyone up to fail.
Men: Don’t be afraid to ask women what they want to do, but do have a few ideas in mind. If you contact a woman with the intention of meeting her in real life, at least have two options available to her. Maybe the idea of crowds annoys her to no end, so just giving her the option of wandering around a street fair will most likely end disastrously for all of you.
Google it. Once the scene is set, I always do my research. How long will it take to get there? What’s the parking situation like? Is traffic going to piss me off? What is the restaurant/movie house/bowling alley/art museum all about? Are there any “fun runs” in the area? Of course weekday dates don’t usually need to have that question answered.
Manage your damn time. If you tell me that you want to meet at 1:00 you better damn well be there at or before the clock strike. If you are running late, you better let me know well before it’s 5 after. I used to try to be more flexible about this, but constant tardiness is a deal breaker for me now. It shows a lack of respect. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how long it will take to get from point A to point B. Google Maps can give you a pretty good estimation if you’ve never been to the destination. (Pardon the rhyme.)
Relax. Most of all, just enjoy yourself. Odds are you are never going to see this person again, sorry but it’s true, so you might as well not worry about the future and just have a good time. Put your phone away. It’s a crutch we all use to stave off bored and social anxiety. I know. I do it all the time, but not on a date.