I had gone out on a blind date with a man, and the date went without incident. A few days later, he called me and left a message on my work phone and sent me an e-mail as well. He was very interested in setting up a second date. I called him back, and we arranged to meet that weekend. I was looking forward to it, since my workweek had been pretty taxing.

He took his car into the city, and we went across town for dinner. I live in a major, enormous, HUGE city. It was a weekend. Needless to say, curbside parking was nonexistent. However, he adamantly insisted that he would NOT use a parking garage. Thus, the first 30-45 minutes of our date consisted of driving up and down block after block looking for a parking space. Finally, feeling tired and hungry, I suggested that we go back to where we’d started and grab dinner there. We went back, found a parking space (on the curb, of course), and went to a diner.

A few days later, he sent an e-mail message to me AT WORK, telling me where, in his opinion, the date had gone wrong. First of all, he claimed that he had set up a second date to see if there was any chemistry between us. Then, he went on to complain that he had received a "negative" vibe throughout the whole date. Jeanne, I will admit that I was rather tired, since I'd had a long day at work, but I certainly wasn’t cranky--not even after driving all over town looking for a parking spot because he was too cheap to use a parking garage! He also complained that all I wanted to do was talk, and that he was looking for a more spontaneous partner. Finally, he gave helpful suggestions on how I could be more attractive to men: "grow your hair longer to add body, lose about 15 pounds, and don't be so resistant to a man's advances." Oh, and he insisted that he still wanted to be friends with me. Right. Of course, I never went out on another date with him again. Some people just have no class.     Dating0528-01

I was dating this military pilot trainee (a.k.a. Jerkface), and on a lark, my roommate & I go on a double date with him and his friend (whom I will call Moron).

My roommate e-mails the friend to tell him what a great time she had, but gets no reply. Nor do I hear from Jerkface. Not a call, not a two-line e-mail, not even a thirty second message on my answering machine.

But...the next weekend my roommate receives an instant message from this woman (a.k.a. Psycho-chick). Psycho-chick asserts that her DAUGHTER has been dating Moron and wants to know what my roommate's connection to Moron is. My roommate has no idea how this woman got her account name, save through Moron, but anyway...

I call Jerkface, and all he can say to my inquiries about this woman is: "That's crazy. That's really crazy."   Needless to say, he never calls me again. Nor does his friend.   Fortunately, we haven't heard from psycho-chick either.     dating0314-02

I was recently asked on a "date" by a fellow member of my Church. We spoke at length before going out about how neither of us were looking for anything serious, and persons of the opposite sex can in fact be friends; so we agreed to have dinner together to discuss our common interests (both actors who work out regularly, he also claimed to be a stuntman - lie!). I made sure the understanding was that this was not to be a romantic evening and clarified this several times during our initial conversation.

He drives, I don't. I got into his car fully expecting to pay for my own share of the dinner and not expecting to be obligated to more than a couple hours of small talk with this man, mostly about the connections he claimed to have in the entertainment industry in this area, since I'm a newcomer here. I was a bit leery when he pulled into the driveway and I noticed a bunch of flowers sitting on the passenger side seat. The man marinated in cheap cologne and his car reeked. He gave me a sloppy kiss on the cheek when I got into his car that left the lingering miasma of his funky breath on my face, repulsive! He also leaned in to get a whiff of my hair, and commented on good I smelled while casually dropping his had onto my thigh (I moved it quickly). Hideously inappropriate behavior from an acquaintance.

In spite of our conversations to the contrary, this jackass was most definitely on a date. He proceeded to tell me all about his romantic failures and wanted to discuss little else besides his sex life, or present lack there of. I should have jumped out and hailed a cab, but wound up at the restaurant with this sociopath mostly because I was really floored by the situation. He ordered grilled chicken that wasn't deboned and proceeded to pick it up and eat it with his hands in spite of the fact he had a knife and fork. The chicken left gristly bits all over his grease smeared face and he napkin remained untouched throughout the meal.

He picked broccoli up with his hands from a platter meant to be shared and bit the flowers off, depositing the stems onto our mutual plate. He spoke with his mouth open, chewed with his mouth full, sprayed food bits all over the table, and made a general mess. When we were through, he asked me if I was impressed by his healthy eating habits. He informed me that we'd be going to a movie after dinner and I informed him about my sudden and splitting migraine. He insisted on driving me home, told me he thinks his mother would like me (47 and lives w/her), and asked me to attend a fundraiser with him the following weekend. I didn't know how crazy he might be and didn't want to take any chances, so I said okay and called to cancel the following day.    Dating1007-02

Kudos for recognizing the red flags!

Background: My sister's first baby died a few days after birth due to a heart condition.

Now, it is a few years later and she has just given birth to a son. The whole family on both sides has been in the waiting room since the onset of labor pains due to the complications of the first pregnancy. About 15 minutes after the baby was born, my BIL's best friend and his girlfriend walk in. My BIL had already informed me of the atrocities this girl had committed and he had tried to persuade his friend to get rid of her. The nurse finally comes into the room just after their arrival and announces that we can now go to my sister's room and see the baby. Before she was finished speaking, the girlfriend had pushed past the nurse in the doorway and was headed down the hall. To our astonishment, as the rest of us made it to the room, we found her holding the baby and talking up a storm with my sister so that we could neither speak to the new mother or see the baby. I think I drew blood from the force of chomping down on my tongue. WHAT NERVE!!! She held the baby for no less than ten minutes until my sister's MIL forced him from her arms.

Thankfully she went the way of all bad people. My BIL's friend gave her the boot and she moved on to make someone else miserable.      Dating0912-02

Five days before my birthday, my boyfriend's ex-girlfriend called me on the phone to inform me that my boyfriend was still having sex with her...and she was so sorry, because he'd been lying to both of us about it. She said if she'd known, she would not have kept seeing him, because she really didn't want a relationship with him. Of course, I broke up with my boyfriend after that! But, that didn't stop him from trying to deliver a birthday gift to me.

I'm a singer and he had bought me a 200-dollar microphone. He called me in the middle of the night saying he wanted to give me this gift. I told him "I already got my gift from you last weekend" and hung up on him. He kept calling back, I kept hanging up. In the morning, the microphone was on my doorstep. I brought it back to the music store and had them credit his account, since I didn't have the receipt. I didn't want anything from him. His ex-girlfriend calls me again, saying "Rick really wants to work things out with you. You really should accept that gift. He sold one of his guitars to buy it for you"...I was like "Wait a minute...did he sell that brand new Fender!? I BOUGHT THAT FOR HIM!" Yes, he had sold my birthday gift to him, a brand new guitar, in order to buy that microphone for me, after cheating on me! So, I went back to the store and got that microphone back, SINCE I WAS THE ONE WHO HAD PAID FOR IT!

Dating0903-02