~ ANNE! ~

It is true: SpeedDating is officially the most ridiculous idea ever. Up until I got there I was wondering if maybe it would suddenly redeem itself, by not being as stupid as it sounds. NOPE! It was exactly as stupid as it sounds. Right from the part where you're given a SpeedDating nametag and a scorecard at the door (though I did nick two SpeedDater pens, making it all worthwhile).

So yeah, they give you a number (I was lucky number 13) and set you up around the room, and then you try to have a conversation with that person for a random number of minutes (it was NOT four minutes, as advertised. Between three and seven, more like). Then the really hyperactive and twitchy SpeedDating staff member blows her whistle and you move to the next person. It reminded me a bit of camp somehow. Possibly it was being forced to talk to people at the tweet of a whistle.

The person who was running it was really weird. For those who know Rem's erstwhile roommate, Trina - this woman was like Trina on speed. She told me, "Oh, I just seem to get on with EVERYONE!" I was thinking, lady, it's because everyone is backing away slowly.

Anyway. They also didn't have enough guys for all the girls (and this was AFTER recruiting the bar staff - but I was really nice to the bar guy when my turn came around to talk to him, and he gave me a free glass of wine, so no complaints here!) and two girls had to sit out every round. One guy described it as "having to go sit on the sub bench for a few minutes".

I don't think it was a total loss, though. Shannon was talking to some guy all night, and Ailbhe seemed to really get on with the jock* guy who made the "sub bench" comment. Not sure about Jen. As for myself, I may well take them up on their guarantee of a free SpeedDating night if you don't like anyone at yours.

*(He was a jock in both senses: he was one of those football-mad athletic people, and he was Scottish!)

Which is not to say that no one liked me. The autistic guy really loved me. Actually, he didn't really seem autistic to me (in my limited experience) - I was under the impression he had some kind of severe learning disability. He had trouble following what I was saying (though it may have been the accent) and you could definitely tell there was something. He spent a lot of time sort of staring straight through me and he stood reallyreallyreally close. Anyway, I was nice to him and asked him lots of questions, and then of course at the end when we were all standing around he kept standing so close he was pretty much on my toes, and asking questions that he couldn't understand the answers to due to the accent problem. It was slightly awkward. Didn't help that the guy next to me kept trying to sort of physically push him away, which made for an odd social situation considering I didn't really know either of them!

Also there was a very, very drunk and very, very annoying Canadian (sort of - born near Toronto). He seemed okay at first, until he got annoyed because I "didn't get his jokes" and bawled "I'm only talking to you because you have nice tits and a decent body!" I was sort of aghast. Way to make people like you! Way to convince me you're someone I EVER would see again! This did not sell me on the whole SpeedDating concept. In fact, it sort of highlights one of the major problems, which is that in four minutes, you're going to be making judgements mostly on surface, physical stuff.

I was suddenly really glad I didn't wear a low-cut top.

I did talk to a pretty nice stockbroker for a while, though. Then he lost me when he proudly declared that he's read four books in his entire life. I wasn't sure how that worked, since he has a degree, and he said, "Oh, you can get by with just skimming bits of the books. You don't have to actually read them." And that was all I needed to hear!

Yes, I am extremely picky. I have determined my market value and it is high enough that I do not want to settle for people who are proud of not reading books!

There is another Girl Council tonight at the Jolly Judge, though. We will discuss the evening, dissect everyone involved, and maybe I will decide if I will try to claim my free SpeedDating outing or just cut my losses.

In other news, it snowed! Can't believe it. I hadn't yet seen snow here that stayed on the ground. The main trouble was it was snow that was being ground into my face by a 90 mile an hour wind. Almost felt like home (except not, because apparently it's about - 40 C there at the moment! ha!)