Talk Nerdy to Me: Adventures in Speed Dating
Speed Dating. To me, these words together sounds like something you might do at the roller rink. However, I suppose there’s a first time for everything in a young adult’s life, and it was an event sponsored by my temple, so I decided to give speed dating a try.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of speed dating, I give you an excerpt from Wikipedia:
Men and women are rotated to meet each other over a series of short “dates”, usually lasting from 3 to 8 minutes depending on the organization running the event. At the end of each interval, the organizer rings a bell or clinks a glass to signal the participants to move on to the next date. At the end of the event participants submit to the organizers a list of who they would like to provide their contact information to. If there is a match, contact information is forwarded to both parties. Contact information cannot be traded during the initial meeting, in order to reduce pressure to accept or reject a suitor to his or her face.
Sounds pretty simple, right? The speed dating event I went to was very small. It’s hard to meet other Jewish singles in a town like Las Vegas, so it was a great idea in concept. I have a feeling, however, that the execution wasn’t everything that it could be. The turnout was pretty small, and some of the guys who signed up didn’t actually show up.
I was matched up for six “dates” that lasted eight minutes each, although one of the tables I was assigned was with a no-show, so I actually went on five dates in total. The men sat down at their designated tables, and as the coordinators rang the bell, the women moved from table to table to meet their “dates.”
It was an interesting concept, and I met some pretty interesting people. My first date was a self-employed real estate agent that seemed like a nice guy. He said he wanted to take me swing dancing because of my 1950s pinup hairstyle.
Date number 2 was definitely a flop. The guy was a 22-year-old college student that was only there because his sister talked him into it. He barely seemed interested in talking at all and was too busy updating his status on Facebook to be bothered with much else.
What would have been the third 8-minute date was at the table with one of the no-show guys, so I took the time to read a news article on Google News. Fun times.
Date 4 was a lively and interesting person. He was an air traffic controller for the airport, and was very enthusiastic about everything that we discussed. He was a very nice guy and it was pretty easy talking to him.
Date numero 5 was sort of iffy. He was much older than the age category I was looking for, toward his late 40s I think, and it seemed like he was more there to make friends than to find someone whom he could potentially start a relationship with. That’s perfectly fine, but he just seemed a little too nonchalant about the whole thing. He wasn’t as bad as the 22-year-old, but he did give off the vibe that maybe the group of women that were there weren’t women he was interested in, so he couldn’t be bothered.
My last date was also a nice guy, a special education teacher at an elementary school. He said he was taking classes to learn Spanish and learn how to play the guitar. He said he’d learned to play some Beatles songs and, of course, I was very excited about that. We talked about the Beatles and Paul McCartney for a bit, then ended our date talking about Disneyland. He was a little surprised that I liked to go to Disneyland but don’t have any kids. I guess it’s hard for some people to understand how much of a kid at heart I am, aside from my geeky nature.
Overall, I had a pretty good time. A handful of my friends were also there for the event, so I got to catch up with some people I haven’t seen in a while. Hopefully I’ll get a few dates that last longer than 8 minutes out of this experience! Like I said, I think it would have been better if there were more people involved, but it wasn’t bad at all for a small event.
How do you find a speed dating event to attend? If you’re part of a certain community, perhaps a church or a synagogue, that’s a good place to start. Sometimes you can even be a part of arranging such an event. If you live in the US or Canada, there’s a site called 8 Minute Dating that has information on speed dating events all over North America. For my readers in Oz, I suggest Speed Dating Australia, which seems to have a lot of events in all of the major cities. Smart Dating UK has a lot of events for British singles. Of course, if you’re looking for something more specific to your tastes, it seems that comic book and anime conventions are starting to pick up on speed dating as well. You never know where you might find the geek of your dreams!
Have you been speed dating before? What was your experience like?
Talk Nerdy To Me is a biweekly column that offers advice about geek romance. Have a question or need advice? Is there a topic you’d like to hear discussed? E-mail editor@geek-life.com with your questions!
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