LA Idiot's Blog
LA Idiot Goes Speed Dating
As you may know, last night was my first foray into speed dating. The event was held downtown LA in the Suede Lounge. I had no idea what to expect other than what I saw in the movies 40 Year Old Virgin and Hitch. What did I have to lose? I was surprised how much I ended up liking speed dating.
Suede Lounge is hip little cocktail bar in the corner of the Westin Hotel downtown. It has dim lighting and a mostly red interior. There were ten men and ten women in the age range of 24-34 who came for the event. My roommate got there around 7:30pm for the 7:45 start. To take the edge off, I ordered a Johnny Walker black on the rocks. The smooth scotch calmed me and gave me that familiar warm feeling inside. I was ready for the night.
There were 10 small cocktail tables with two chairs at each table, all lined up in a row. The women were supposed to find a seat and be stationary while the men chose a starting point. Every 7 minutes the men would rotate to a new women. Since we were free to choose our starting spots, I strategically chose the the least attractive girl. I know that sounds terrible, but I didn’t know how all this was going down so I decided that it would be best to start with someone I felt no pressure to impress, and could mess up with right off the bat. I’m still patting myself on the back. We had a nice chat that wasn’t awkward and all my speed dating jitters were gone. I was ready for the other nine women.
My next nine “dates” were actually quite enjoyable. I had great conversation with seven of the nine women. I was very relaxed. I caught myself casually leaning back in my chair on an angle, with my arm propped on the top of the chair (the chair back only came up to the middle of my back). That was a little too casual, so I had to move to the edge of my seat, forearms on my knees, leaning forward capturing the date’s every word. My conversations usually touched on occupation, original home state, and hobbies. From there you could devise unique conversation. For example, one girl and I laughed about the speed dating scene in 40 year old Virgin. It turns out that these women came from all over the greater LA area. There were girls from the Valley, OC, and places I had never heard of. Regardless of where they called home, I chose two of the ten girls to possibly date. The first was a taller, beautiful, sports fanatic of Hispanic decent. The second was a beautiful Chinese girl who is a rare female engineer (it wasn’t until afterward I found out they were friends that came together, uh oh). So, out of 10 girls, I only said yes to two, while my roommate said yes to eight (Each person has a piece of paper that they write down the name of their date and after wards circle yes or no. If there is a match of two “yeses” you’re emailed their contact info). We left wondering who liked us and if we would get matched up. Today I received my results.
According to this small sample of women…I’m freaking awesome This was what my email read:
Hi Idiot,
Thanks for coming along on Thursday night. I hope that you enjoyed the event!
Congratulations! You are among those people that have scored the highest number of ‘yes’ votes at any FastLife event; you have consequently been awarded ‘Elite’ membership status. Only people that attract a ‘yes’ vote from at least 50% of the people they meet achieve ‘Elite’ status.
Because we want all our events to be filled with great people like you, you’ll be able to attend future speed dating parties at a very special low price. You’ll also be invited to Elite Members Only events where everyone has that special something that others find attractive. On top of all that, look out for other Elite Member special offers, including free tickets to special events!
Yea buddy! Totally got matched up with the two girls I chose! Seeing how they’re friends, I’m going to choose to contact the Chinese engineer. I think we would be the most compatible and have the best shot of going on more than one date.
Speed dating wasn’t as bad as I thought. I had a great time. Will I try it again? It’s up for debate, I would probably only go to support a friend. I can’t complain though, it was an enjoyable night and I might get a date out of it. If you’re looking to mix up your dating life, I would try it out. I’ll even go to support you if you’re nervous.