After reading the some of the stories on your site, I simply had to share the worst date ever! Anyway this one is a bit long…but well…so was the evening. After coming out of a 3 year relationship with a man who, while being a great guy, should have stayed a friend, my confidence wasn’t at an all time high. I’m pretty feisty though, so back on the horse I go and start talking to a few guys. I have a few mediocre dates, no sparks but nothing horrid. Then comes this great guy. I’ll call him Clueless, for reasons that will soon become readily apparent.
Clueless and I meet on a dating site (which I use frequently with good and bad results – I have actually met several long time friends this way) and start talking. We hit it off amazingly. We spend hours talking on the phone, laughing and having a fabulous time. Clueless is a single father, which as a single mother is particularly attractive to me. Not only is Clueless a single father but appears particularly devoted to his children and *BONUS* isn’t looking to make more! Perfect. So…he’s funny, he’s smart, he’s a devoted father and he’s a big cuddly bear kinda guy, which is my preference. The only thing delaying actually meeting is that I am very cautious about involving the children until I’m somewhat sure things will work out. This is more for the sake of the children than anything and as he has his children most of the time it takes about a month before we actually get it together to meet.
He graciously accepts stopping by my house during a barbecue with my friends (intimidating) just for a few minutes so we can actually see each other and discuss plans for a concert he’s invited me to a few days later. Our thinking is that this will make the actual “first date” easier to handle. *WRONG* He stays not 15 or 20 minutes but almost an hour. Everyone likes him, he appears to like me and all is going very well. I follow him to his car to say goodbye and (giving him an easy out) tell him to email me his address so I can meet with him to go to the concert the following Tuesday. My thinking is this – if he’s not interested he can simply not give me the address. No, no Clueless whips out a piece of paper and a pen and excitedly writes down the address. Excellent!…well wait. Here it comes. He calls me the next day to let me know that he forgot he was meeting one of his friends and her daughter there and do I mind? Well, how can I mind when he had no problem meeting me for the first time amongst most of my friends. No problem I say. Clueless is very excited…still.
The night of the concert arrives and my landlord finally arrives to fix a plumbing problem that’s been ongoing for a week…which requires turning off the water BEFORE I can shower. I alert Clueless that depending on how long this takes I may be late. Clueless is crushed…until I say no matter if I’m too late to meet at his house I’ll meet him at the club. Clueless is once again excited. Now, you’re saying to yourself, *I* know I was…but seriously, this all sounds wonderful! Ah ha…Clueless has pulled you into his trickery as well!
The plumbing is fixed, the water is turned on, the makeup is applied, the overall look is approved of by roommate and son and off I go. I arrive at Clueless’s home and he’s still at the store (which he had said he may be). His friend, we’ll call her Oblivious is there with her daughter. I get out and greet Oblivious who looks slightly startled and not altogether sure what’s happening even while saying “Oh you must be Invisible (which would have been a very lovely warning indeed).” Clueless arrives, gives me a nominal greeting and then proceeds to spend the next 30 minutes charming Oblivious’s 12 year old daughter, who’ll we’ll call Precious. Now, Precious, despite having known Clueless her entire life has developed a major case of the shys. Perhaps it was because she could, in fact, see me. Feeling excessively awkward, I attempt to join the conversation where it seems appropriate, which is almost never because when Clueless isn’t charming Precious out of her shell, he’s reminiscing with Oblivious about people and events that I, being Invisible, have no knowledge of.
This continues all the way to the parking lot of the club. I’m feeling very very akward at this juncture and think…ah well when we go inside I can have a drink at least. Not so…apparently the plan was to arrive horrendously early so that we could then trek several blocks down the steeps hills of downtown to eat. I should mention that just that morning I had gotten a stuffy head and having had a knee surgery in the past I don’t like hills any way. But oh, I will be a trooper. Off we go, while Clueless and Precious run ahead, playing games and generally having a grand time and Oblivious is walking with me but getting any conversation is like pulling teeth and about halfway down our trek I begin falling behind because well, bad knees and very steep hills simply don’t make for a speedy descent. Oblivious at some point, realizes that I’m almost a block behind and keeps poking Clueless and pointing to me. This prompts Clueless to yell, “Come on”, and take off again with Precious. (More than once).
Needless to say I’m already feeling a bit superfluous at this point. It will get better when we get where we’re going, surely it must! (I tell myself OVER and OVER). We finally get to the place we’ve slogged almost a mile straight downhill to reach and it’s…it’s…wait for it…wait for it…a crappy dirty little teriyaki joint – not even as nice as the 5 or 6 other Teriyaki joints we’ve passed already. REALLY! (This is Downtown Seattle, you can’t spit w/o hitting a Teriyaki joint). So, I have no desire to eat between being stuffy headed, in pain, the overall lack of cleanliness and being not altogether comfortable. Ah, I think…we’ll all be able to chat now. Think again (perhaps we should have called me clueless?) Between the noise of the crappy little teriyaki joint (whose exhaust fan had to be one of the first models ever made), the noise from the street and the stuffiness in my head, I can barely make out anything being said. All I want is a hot cup of tea. TEA….BLACK TEA in a TERIYAKI JOINT!!!! WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING!!! No black tea…oolong tea only. I don’t really care for oolong but it’s hot and my head is swaddled in cotton so I get one. NO SUGAR….of any kind. No real, no brown, no “natural” no fake…nothing. Sigh…OK. So I sit there in a foggy stupor, sipping the bitterest and nastiest oolong tea I’ve ever had in a crappy little Teriyaki Joint we’ve just trekked a mile to reach, I can’t hear a damn thing that’s being said, which really is rather irrelevant as almost nothing is being aimed my way. FABULOUS!
Now…this particular part of the torture session is finally done and we get to climb back up the mile of extremely steep hill we’ve just climbed down. Anyone who has had knee surgery will tell you that the only thing worse than going down that far is going the hell back up it. And this time Clueless and Precious are well over a block ahead of me, Oblivious is over half a block ahead of me and eventually they are all crossing entire streets without me. Again we get the funny funny charade of Oblivious pointing to me and Clueless yelling “Come on”. Oh … and you thought chivalry was dead! No, my friends, it was stomped into the ground, mashed into dust and spat upon before being set on fire! (And I’m fairly sure you can guess what they used to put it out, too!)
We finally get back to the club. I’m thinking good, a seat and a drink…oh my yes, I’m going to have a drink. A double, in fact, neat. Seat…oh, well, now there’s a funny situation. Because Precious is with us, we have to sit in the “family section” which consists of an open concrete area, roughly 10 chairs and several people sitting in those chairs already. Now I will say Oblivious has a harder time than me as she has to hold Precious on her lap. Wait, did I say seat…let me correct myself, stool…which is the last thing my poor knees need. But I’m sitting and maybe now some conversation will happen. Which it does for all of 2 min until Clueless and Oblivious go from, “How did you two mee,t” to a 20 minute romp on how THEY met and how they went to blah blah’s house and then blah blah showed up and remember the look when blah blah said blah blah to blah blah. Now I’m not just saying blah blah to be rude either, that’s about all I understood once they turned away from me. Now mind you, I’m in downtown w/o my truck or I’d have been GONE. I feel like a poop going to get a drink when Precious wants a drink (not alcohol) and no way can she have anything since A) she’s not allowed in the bar and B) no drinks except water are allowed in the “family” area. Oh..clever clever planning on that! I finally get us both water.
At this point I can’t take anymore of the stuffy head or the Invisible wall which has apparently sprang up around me and I do go get a shot. $10 minimum…I don’t care open me a tab and get me some WHISKEY. Ahhh…ok better for a second. I go sit back down…blah blah …blah blah concert we went to…blah blah all with occassional odd glances from Oblivious who still seems to view me, when noticing me at all, as a slightly startling and confusing puzzle. Ok…out I go for a smoke. and another…and another. Thirty minutes later I have almost decided to blow the money and grab a cab and go get my truck and go home. No…no … my credit card is at the bar and I’ll have to walk PAST Clueless and Oblivious to get it. I try anyway…POOF I’m not invisible NOW! I get shocked and startled looks as though they truly thought I’d left. Uh huh. Thank you. So I sit back down and Clueless gets up with his camera because the band he came to see is on now. (Side note…LOVED that band so there was one redeeming thing). I try to make conversation with Oblivious…and she kinda answers a few times and etc. etc. etc. Still getting the startled puzzled look.
Finally she says to me, ” I don’t know how long you’ve been hanging out with Clueless but he always takes like 200 pictures, which is why I’m back here”. I respond, “Well, actually this is our first date”. Ahhhhh….you can see the wheels turn, and the sparks fly behind the eyes as this OH OH OH look comes into her face. Suddenly everything makes sense, no wonder I have NO clue how to interject – AWKWARD! Bonus here, Oblivious does attempt to make more conversation as she suddenly realizes that this has got to be the worst first date EVER in the history of the world. Yes, sympathy from Oblivious. Mind you the entire time the last band played Clueless came up one time, “Do you like them?”, and wandered back off to take more pics. I got some coffee, retrieved my card, smoked several more cigarettes and prayed for it all to end…NOW. Finally it does. We get in the car, Oblivious goes on and on about how her fiance doesn’t trust Clueless “still” and then about how their mutual friend got “secretly” married but don’t tell. Again, I try to add where I can but it’s really not working.
Finally, I can almost smell my truck…I miss my truck. Things are so uncomplicated in my truck. My good faithful truck, which will whisk me far far away from all this. Oblivious has to get Precious home (who by the way was IMO wonderfully behaved for a 12 year old at a rock concert). Just to say I’m not a quitter I think, OK, maybe now we’ll talk. Nope, mention of driving to Dad’s to get the van for work…and you know? I’m actually relieved to be spared having to try. I jump out of the car, say goodbye and run to my truck. Now, I never actually spoke to Clueless again, but he posted a couple of very NOT flattering pics of me amongst the many others and then promptly got engaged to the girl he had apparently been texting all night. I’m STILL baffled as to why in the heck he would invite me if he’s about to become engaged, why he didn’t back out when I gave him the opportunity, why he was so excited I made it and what on earth was I there for in the first place?????? I actually gave up dating for about a month…and then I came to my senses and had quite a great deal of fun after that. Clueless is, I imagine, every bit as clueless now and frankly, I feel rather sorry for that poor girl! May the keeper’s of Karma be watching and the blessings abound! 0604-09
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Worst. Date. Ever.
I know how annoying it is to be completely ignored by someone you’re trying to take an interest in. Just remember you’re better off without people like him in your life.
Good luck with the dating game and I hope you find happiness.
If this was your worst date ever, you’re pretty damn lucky.
This has my vote for worst date ever! Yikes! You did better than I would’ve done…..my tushy would high tailed it after the bad tea.
I think that sounds like an awful date. (Sorry you’ve had such dreadful dates too, Leila, but this one sounds anything but lucky!)
Did you tell Clueless about your knee surgery at the teriaki place? If you did he deserves extra time in etiquette hell for leaving you behind on the way back up the hill.
No black tea? My, that IS terrible.
I’m sorry for everything you had to go through, this was surely an awful date! But I loved reading your witty letter, full of sense of humour. The way you explained it, some bits had me laughing out loud! Thank you for sharing and congratulations on taking things in such good stride!
I agree with leila, it could have been worse
First of all, why would you walk that far downhill with a bummed knee? Did you expect the trek back to miraculously shorten uphill? You should have been assertive in explaining your knee to him.
Before that, have you heard of a rebound? You had just come out of a breakup, I don’t think you’re level headed enough to be internet dating so soon! Of course he sounded like a nice guy online, you were vunerable!
And if you didn’t want to spend a fortune on a cab, does seattle not have public transport? or do you not have a mobile phone to call a friend?
I’m afraid labeling the antagonists in this story doesn’t endear me to you – you sound kinda condescending, and as though you are victimising yourself.
Sorry about your bad date. Hope your knee gets better
Izzy: Have you ever tried to explain to somebody just how difficult it is to walk down a hill let alone back up it on a bummed knee? Being assertive = you looking like a twat who is making excuses. Hidden disabilities aren’t understood at all.
Invisible: I feel for you, sounds a bit like a crappy date imo! What a weird guy though, texting another girl the entire time?! :s
yes, by explaining nicely before the pain happens. You could make it into a joke, “Hey how bout we don’t walk so long, unless you’re offering to carry me?” or “Run off without me again and you’ll understand pain too real soon!” or just go into the details of what your knee has been through. I’d rather look like I’m making excuses than risk further damaging a knee that’s already had surgery, especially with each step downhill you’ll need to take a step uphill on the way back
Seattle does have public transportation. But to be honest, it’s not super efficient. Depending how far out of the city Clueless lives, it could have been impossible to make it back to her truck, especially if she wasn’t familiar with the bus routes.
I live within a 40 minute drive to downtown Seattle. To take a bus to same the place, it would take about 4 hours.
What a mess! I loved the story and the reworked names of the players – I’m just sorry you had to live it!
I find that you and I are very similar. I’d have put up with quite a bit for a first date. I don’t know that I’d have walked back up the hill tho. I don’t care if he pulls me in a wagon, they come back to pick me up or I catch a cab – I don’t do pain for anyone. 🙂 I do admire your tenacity and positivity! Good show!
Good luck to you. I hope you meet someone nice! 🙂
High-larious. I’m sorry you had to live it, but I sure did enjoy reading about it. You’re funny.
Maybe Clueless has Aspergers? Sounds like he has some of the traits.
Wow. As I read, I waited for horrendous things to happen, and I guess I can be ‘oblivious,’ too, for I didn’t get where they did. It seemed a most unpleasant experience though the storyteller’s knee problems were the worst I saw of the evening, which I hope got better soon afterward.
Yeah the guy was rather clueless, and the other girl wasn’t the friendliest person, though the storyteller wasn’t totally shut away from the group. And I’m puzzled as to why not leave after retrieving the card from the bar, instead of rejoining the others? Simply wave bye and beat a hasty retreat. Ah well, I hope everyone involved move on to happier times.
I’m so sorry you had such a terrible experience. It reminds me of my worst date.
I was 19 and the guy was 26 (should have been a tip off, huh?) We met at church through a mutual friend and we’d been flirting for a while when he asked if I’d “like to do something sometime.” I know, really specific. I suggested we go see the new Harry Potter movie. He said okay but that we had to see it at a specific theater. I told him that it would be really popular so the tickets should be purchased before-hand. He said, “That’s a good point. Why don’t you do that?” So, I bought the tickets. The night of our date rolls around and he came and picked me up and refused to come into my house to meet my mother. We rushed off to the theater (I still have no idea why it HAD to be that one) in near silence. When we got there, I picked up the tickets and he didn’t even offer to reimburse me. He then walked off to the snack counter, with me lagging behind because it was down stairs and we had to take a really steep escalator and he ran down but, I’m terrified of escalators and get REALLY dizzy so I closed my eyes and clutched to the railing. He then waited VERY impatiently for me to get to the bottom and asked, “Do you want popcorn?” Well, I hate movie theater popcorn so I said no and he shrugged and wandered off to the counter and got himself a large popcorn, soda and candy, without asking me if I wanted anything other than popcorn. We went into the movie and before it started, he told me that he’s not even sure what Harry Potter is and that he’s never read the books. I give him the gist of the story before the movie starts and tell him to ask if he’s confused about anything. He later asked me a question and I barely got two sentences out to explain what was going on and he told me to shut up! Later, I pointed out something that didn’t actually happen in the book and he asked, “Do you ever shut up?” I was flabbergasted! After the movie, we were walking out and he shoved his popcorn bag and soda cup into my hands and said, “Hold these.” and wanders into the bathroom. Well, it was almost 8 PM and I was ravenous so, I started eating some of the nasty popcorn. When he came out of the bathroom, he saw me eating and said, “Well, I guess someone wanted to eat my food after all.” I told him, no, I was just really hungry because I didn’t eat before he picked me up. As we left the theater, I asked him if he liked the movie and what he wanted to do next. He didn’t really talk much so, I commented on how good the restaurant next door smelled and how I’d always wanted to try it. He said, “Yeah, me too. I’ll have to go there sometime.” Then he drove me home and didn’t even get out of the car to walk me to my door.
I couldn’t believe how horrible he was. I told my friend about it after and she then told all the girls in our congregation about it and he never got another date. And even though he was a jerk, I felt kind of bad for him.
Wow!!! and u had the courage to stay there until the end… Bravo! I woul have left the moment they asked me to climb up with a bad knee…
I had a toast of several bad dates but I guess.. they would not still win compared to yours…. Good luck ^^
Reading that, especially the fact that it’s in Seattle I had the strangest feeling Oblivious could be someone I know, and thinking about it she really could be. If she is the same person then as much as it’s probably not a reassurance she’s like that with everyone. She either forgets that not everyone knows the same people she does, or assumes if they don’t they know someone just the same and so can relate to the stories anyway.
Unfortunately I have no explaination for Clueless, but you’re better off without him!
Awful date, but you should have gotten out of it long before the end of it.
My thoughts (whether or not you want to hear them!): never, ever let a virtual stranger of a guy you’ve met off a dating site drive you to your destination on a first date. If you have a car, use it– or have someone act as your backup to come get you.
I used to schedule someone to call my phone within an hour or so of going on the date; that way if the guy was a creeper, I could say that I had an emergency and get the heck out of there.
And I’m going to say it: SEX. Quite honestly, in my experience with the online dating, there are quite a few men (not all, but some) who use these sites hoping for a one night stand. Maybe Clueless wasn’t as clueless as he appeared; when Invisible wasn’t picking up whatever Clueless thought he was putting down, seems he kinda gave up.
If you are going to go for the internet dating, please be smart and be safe.
P.S. What’s this about doing this for the kids?? Huh?
Izzy, my daughter lived for four years in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. It was a mile from her place, straight down the hill, to Pike Place Market. A STEEP hill. Think San Fransisco steep. However (and this has to do with public transport), while most of the bus lines are fairly accessible and you can get around most of town pretty easily, in that are the bus lines don’t go up and down- they run perpendicular to the slope. So yes they have public transport but no, it wouldn’t have helped her out.
I can’t imagine walking that slope with bad knees. I don’t even like to drive it- it’s hard on my clutch!
The interaction between Clueless and Precious seemed almost creepy to me. Did I read that wrong?
SJ: I didn’t find it creepy at all, why is it that if a man plays with a child its creepy, but if a woman does its just her maternal instincts? Maybe I am reading too much into your response.
OP: I have to ask, did you even tell Clueless that you just had surgery on your knee? If not then I fail to see why this was a bad date. As for the getting engaged all sorts of things could have transpired, it is possible that they had broken up and he took her back after the date. Since you don’t know what happened and have no interest in going on another date I fail to see the relevance of him getting engaged, regardless of how soon after the date.
Max:
Speaking as someone with Asperger Syndrome, being a completely neglectful horse’s behind is NOT a trait AS.