RPC SPEED DATING: Maria’s take

February 8, 2010 by Maria Roncal 

Experienced dater says you won’t find true love, but you’ll find out more about yourself in the process

Going undercover as a single lady was cool until I ended up dating one of my boyfriend’s fraternity brothers.

And the dates from that point on got even weirder.

Before I go on about going through a revolving door of awkward moments, I should say that I assumed the role of a single woman merely to learn more about the speed dating process and not to find a replacement for my better half.

Should single women find themselves feeling particularly outgoing, (or desperate, whichever comes first) I wanted to learn first-hand if speed dating was worth the time.

And let me tell you ladies, single or taken, speed dating is a must-try. If not for the shot-in-the-dark chance of finding true love, then for the sake of flirting shamelessly, the opportunity to hone your mingling skills and the great conversation-starting topic you’ll laugh about with your girlfriends later.

After being in a relationship or being single for a while, I think all women and men wonder if they still have “it.” That alluring charm that reels love interests in.

Speed dating is a bit of a litmus test for that.

But speed dating is also a process that is unique to the dating world, and working under a time limit does take practice.

I think my straight male and gay female counterparts took some time to figure it out.

Being the more experienced dater, I hoped my young padawans would follow my lead through their crash course in dating.

See their stories to find out how it went.

We began by signing waivers assuring the Rebel Pride Council that we wouldn’t sue them if instead of a date we got a stalker. If that didn’t get you in the mood to meet a bunch of strangers, then the complimentary mocktails and finger foods sure did.

A personal mood-killer for me was the fear that someone I knew, or worse, that knew my boyfriend, would blow my cover.

And as it turned out, I’m pretty sure the universe was trying to mess with me.

One of dates was with a guy named L.A., which I found ill-fitting because he was from Chicago. I knew from the shirt he was wearing that he was my boyfriend’s fraternity brother.

Before I could improvise a response in case he swore to tattle on me to the other participants and shame me as a two-timing liar, he asked me what I was looking to gain from speed dating.

Hoping it wasn’t a trick question, I breathed a sigh of relief and said I’m a “whatever happens, happens” kinda girl. He said he felt the same and we carried on in casual conversation.

Phew.

With my fear conquered, I proceeded to date the rest of the straight guys in the room. There was a good turnout, but neither I nor, I suspect, the other ladies were swooning over who turned up.

Whether the men were our types or not, we had to date them. But the great part about speed dating is that if a date goes badly, it’s over before you need to call your girlfriend to bail you out. There’s no awkward hug or handshake at the end and even if you run out of things to say, you could pull an icebreaker out of a bowl to spice up the small talk.

Some guys really had no conversation skills and relied on the bowl of questions as if it were a race to go through all the questions in three minutes, which made it difficult to let my dazzling personality shine through all those generic questions. I tried, but I doubt my answers cast a love spell on any of them.

Yes, I’m a cat person. No, I’m not a neat freak. I enjoy dancing, writing and playing a balancing game with trash when the trashcan is full but no one wants to take it out. Making me laugh and surprising me with romantic gestures are the way to my heart. If I could kiss anyone in the world right now it would be my boyfriend, er, I mean… Jacob from Twilight.

But there were a couple memorable, zany conversations I had with the guys who didn’t take themselves or speed dating too seriously.

I was intrigued by a guy who introduced himself as Dracula and another named Tim, who told me that he usually dresses in all black, goth clothes but didn’t think it’d make a good first impression.

All night I tried to exude a really cool and glamorous appearance, but Dracula and Tim tapped into my inner nerd.

I told Dracula that I was a big fan of vampires — True Blood’s, not Twilight’s — and he told me that he was more of a zombie guy. The rest of our date was a debate on the most zombie-proof buildings in Vegas. I said FDH, he said Red Rock Station.

I looked to the question bowl and asked Tim what his last dream was about. He mentioned something involving DDR and I started talking about how, before I got too busy to play, I was this close to playing on heavy mode.

Dracula and gothic Tim were probably the two most interesting guys I met out of the 10 I dated.

What that says about my taste in men I’m not really sure, but they made speed dating worthwhile and reminded me that (maybe) I still have it.