never again...

So, here's one of my many lessons learned in the first year of my undergraduate education...

Don't ever speed-date. It's a bad idea.
Too many free cookies, Laffy-Taffy's (even though they had yellow and banana IS my favorite EVER, too much of a good thing is not a good thing anymore!), too many GIRLS, and far too much of the essence of desperation and inevitable rejection. Yikes!
No one that goes to a speed-dating gathering is worthy of dating, ok? You're going to sit across from the creepy guy that wears a greasy ponytail and oversized black hoodie with some screamo band label on it, and that awkward two minutes of "dating" will consist of him telling you how much he hates the beautiful Southern private Christian school you're both attending.
And then, if you happen to meet an okay kind of guy... one that's halfway attractive and might possibly seem mature enough to at least carry on a conversation... if you mark his identification number, you're going to be facing one of two unfortunate possibilities. 1) He's either marked the identification numbers for EVERY GIRL IN THE PLACE, just to see who might be interested in him, or 2) You set yourself up for disappointment and rejection and hit yourself in the face for having written down his number when really you didn't but halfway consider him anyways! And then the entire group that's coordinating this event is going to be informed of your rejection, and it makes for a really awkward situation. And even if you do have a "match", if you see the person again, you will avoid each other like the plague afterwards, because really.. who goes speed-dating? I mean, seriously?

What a bad idea.
I'm glad I did it just to do it, though.
An interesting way to spend a Wednesday-before-Valentine's-Day.
A good story to tell, perhaps.

At least my real Valentine was much preferable to anyone I could've met speed-dating. I got to go out on a father-daughter date, and it was just splendid. We heard the Presidential chef Roland Meisner speak and give us a first-class dessert after dinner at Romano's, which is quite possibly my favorite restaurant. It was just perfect.