#17: Why I don't prefer blind dates....

  Ok, so once upon a time a couple years ago, a relative of mine wanted to set me up on a blind date with a young man from her ward. She was very excited, and I figured, "What the heck." She gave him my number, and later that week he gave me a call. Unfortunately, I cannot remember his name, so we shall call him Harry. Harry sounds like a good story name. Anyway, so Harry called me and we got to know each other just a tad via cellular phone and he seemed like a decent guy.
   D-day (Date Day) came around, and I'm sure I was nervous. I was ALWAYS nervous before dates, and this was a guy I'd never even met, which was kinda scary. (Boys were scary in those days.) But anyway, he knocks on the door and we are on our way.
  We drive to campus, and he says that we are going to show. I was immediately excited. I love shows, whether they be symphonies, plays, ballets, tap dances...I'm all over that kind of stuff. But then he asked me, "Do you know where the Eyring Building is?" For those of you unfamiliar with the BYU campus, the "Eyring Building" would be the Eyring Science Center (ESC). Not exactly a place conducive for shows. In fact, almost all shows were in the HFAC (Harris Fine Arts Center). So I was rather curious as to what kind of show we would be seeing.
   We made our way to Eyring Science Center, making "I-feel-awkward-and-don't-know-what-to-say-so-let's-mutually-interview-each-other" questions. The more we talked, the clearer it was that we were not exactly compatible. He was some kind of computer major, which I have no problem with, don't get me wrong, but it was clear he did not exactly have any kind of appreciation at all for the arts.
      ....I am an art major.
   Nonetheless, I try to enjoy my dates whatever the circumstances. We went inside the ESC, and made our way to the top of the building where the "show" was. I asked him how he knew about these tickets, as I hadn't seen anything even advertising any kind of show here on campus, and he lived all the way in Salt Lake. He pointed in pride, "See the name of the room? That's my grandpa--it's named after him." Ah. How random.
    When we got there, we had missed the first "showing," but there would be another one in a half hour that we could go to. I began to wonder what kind of show was only a half hour long. So, for the next half hour, we awkwardly wandered the halls of the ESC, analyzing the strange featured science experiments that mysteriously inhabited the yellow-tinted halls.
   Most thankfully, the half hour eventually ticked by, and we entered the planetarium along with some other people. We were each handed a small pair of yellow binoculars and our seats in the rather comfortable reclining chairs. The lights darkened. A man in charge instructed us to lean our seat back so we were lying down. We gazed up at the dark artificial sky gleaming with carefully placed gleaming stars. A man began to speak.
    As the man spoke, and pointed out various constellations with his spiffy little red laser pen, it did not take us long to figure out that this was not a show at all. It was a lecture on star formations.
   After about fifteen minutes, I looked over at my date, who appeared to be fast asleep. Awesome. My date had fallen asleep during our date. But he couldn't have been sleeping too deeply, because about five minutes later I felt a touch on my shoulder. Harry leaned over and said, "I am SO sorry--I thought this was going to be something else!" I told him not to worry about it, that I liked stuff like this (I actually did...) and that it was really no problem. Nonetheless, our already awkward date had just been made about fifty times more uncomfortable, besides the fact that we were lying next to each other in a dark room, and little yellow binoculars are not exactly the coolest fashion craze.
   The lecture finally ended, and Harry walked me home. We continued more uncomfortable conversation along the way, and after an eternity, we finally reached my door. We hugged good night, and Harry disappeared.

  ....I never have heard from him since.

  ....and I am okay with that.