I went on my first date with a second guy from the on-line dating website this afternoon. We met at Harry’s Bar over on Fillmore Street. He was there exactly on time and sent a message to check on me. I walked from my apartment, so showed up a few minutes after our meeting time. As I walked into the bar/restaurant, I’d walked right past him. He was standing outside & sent me another message letting me know where he was, just as I was getting ready to sit down at the bar. Based on that, he did NOT quite look like the photo he’d posted. Although he’d listed his height as 6’1″, he didn’t seem quite that tall. Also, he was clean shaven in his photo, but was sporting a little facial hair today. Once he sent me the message, I went outside, got him, we went inside and sat in a booth. J. offered the menu to me first. I ordered my standard – a turkey burger with blue cheese and French fries. He ordered fish tacos and some chicken strips. When I asked if he was intending to drink, he mentioned that they had a Bellini special. We ended up going through three carafes of Bellinis! J. is in his late 40’s, probably a couple of years older than T. from the other night. He looks slightly younger than his age. I would say he was average-looking – not the kind of guy I would see and say to myself “Damn! I gotta’ get with that!” As with T., he seemed to be a nice guy who’s worked for the government, in Immigration, for a number of years. He grew up in NoCal, but also lived briefly in Washington, D.C. and Virginia, if I recall correctly. As with the other night, the conversation flowed easily. I queried him about why the airport security at Minneapolis-St. Paul confiscated my blue delft pot pipe (brand new, no residue & no drugs on me) & silk scarves from Paris on my re-entry into the U.S. from Amsterdam years ago, although they first confiscated, then returned my rolling papers! (Let’s get one thing straight first. I don’t smoke pot or even cigarettes. The pipe and rolling papers were gifts for an ex-boyfriend.) Then I asked him why, when my paintings from Bali were NOT in the luggage carousel at SFO, all 3 airlines (China Airlines, Japan Airlines and Delta Airlines) blamed each other,. He said that it was really the responsibility of the last airline, Delta Airlines, and that I should have taken them to court. It’s too late now, but… Otherwise, J. was interesting enough. He’d once spent a period in Antibes learning French and loves French food. We drank and conversed for a good two and a half hours, though we both needed to go home and start our laundry! Once again, my consensus is that he’s a nice man and average looking (in my opinion), but I felt no sparks or major attraction. I couldn’t really gauge his reaction/attraction to me.
Now to cancel tomorrow’s date because there’s no way I’m going to get everything done for my trip if I spend another afternoon drinking!