Saturday, July 24, 2010

Lost all comunication skills

So last Wednesday I went on a date with another person I met recently on Plentyoffish.com. She had contacted me out of the blue, simply stating that I seemed like a funny person. After a bunch of back and forth e-mails, I got her phone number and arranged a date.

We met up close to where I live and I brought her to a little hipster type cafe with really good vegetarian food (and I'm not even a vegetarian).

She was cute and seemed nice but I totally blew it. Why, you might ask? because I've officially forgotten how to communicate with women (or maybe people in general).

We're talking and I discovered she was Moroccan. That's fine, except for reasons I don't even know, I proceed to ask her questions about her culture. See, my ex sister-in-law (Ira's ex wife) was Moroccan. So, I was curious if this girl followed the same customs my brother's ex's family did. But it ended coming out like this:

Elwood: So when Passover is finished and you're allowed to eat bread again, does your family do that thing where they only eat sweets?

The Moroccan: Yes we do.

Elwood: My brother's Ex used to host that at their place when they were married.
The Moroccan: Oh that's nice :)
Elwood: Yeah! I always hated that! We'd always go over and eat pancakes when all I ever wanted was something with more substance. One year I left early to go eat at Wendy's.
The Moroccan: Oh... I kind of like my traditions...

See what I mean?

She didnt' seem too insulted and I tried to save my ass by apologizing, saying I was just rambling about old memories ad how I had a long day at work. She said she also had a long day at work and expects to say equally awkward things.

We went to eat and hung out for an hour but here's where I had my second strike (in my mind). We ended up talking about work and I feel like I spoke a bit too much about my work. On the bright side, she seemed to agree with my views 100% and gave me advice and a website to check out for new jobs. So that was cool. However, I don't feel like I really got to learn much about her because i babbled so much about my job.

At the end of our date, she pulled what I've done in the past. Her bus came so she ran for it, so we departed in an awkward manner.

I gave it a couple of days and decided last minute to invite her to an event last night but I didn't know if she works on Fridays or what so instead of calling her during the day, I texted her. It's possible she never got it or chose to ignore it but I never heard back.

My attitude now is to just go on dates and have fun with absolutely 0% expectation (as oppose to Elwood of the past) but now I'm realizing I should still put a bit of an effort to come off as a cool guy who actually cares to listen to you.

Well practice makes perfect I guess.

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