Monday, October 19, 2009

Hey, here's a suggestion for you...

I sent my feedback to the Dinnerworks people. Here is their response:

"I have a suggestion for you, if you are interested, I do a personal consultation for $150 which allows me to get to know you. I then have a better idea of what it is that you are looking for and then I can do one of two things, I can direct you to the right dinner or get a gentleman to attend a dinner that you are attending that might be suitable, the other thing I can do is see if there is a match for you with someone I am currently working with.

I forgot to mention that I do personal matchmaking, and I have a lot of men clients that don't attend dinners but might be suitable for you,.

The charge is for my time."

Really? You forgot to mention that you offer that service? Go figure! That makes everything so much better for me now. Sure, I'll send you another $150 on top of the $140 I've already paid to attend one of your dinners (where I still have to pay for my meal). What the heck was that fee for if not for some kind of assurance that the event would be suitable to me?

Whatever.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Group Dating

You know how on The Bachelor/Bachelorette they go on these "group dates"? Well, I always thought that was a little weird; I mean, five girls/guys all vying for the attention of one guy/girl... seems odd, creepy, frustrating, and contrived to me.

Well, that's a bit how last night's dinner felt: weird.

My understanding of how the evening would go would be that we'd meet in the bar of the restaurant, have a drink, then be seated at our table when everyone had arrived. I was late getting there (traffic coming from downtown). I hate being late. I don't like other people who are late and I am rarely late myself. I get stressed when I am late. So, I guess it's my own darned fault then that everyone was already seated at the table when I arrived.

At first it looked like the table was full and that there wasn't even a seat for me (my stomach sank just a bit there), but then the "hostess" got up and gave me her seat (she leaves when dinner starts). I'd also been told that this would be a dinner for eight (four men, four women). Well, there were actually 10 people at dinner (including me), five men/women, but we were seated at a table that would have even been a stretch for eight, let alone 10. I was seated at the end of the table (way to stand out in the crowd - being late and being seated at the head of the table) as there were four people on each side and one on each end of the table.

Now, I'm no math whiz, but with an even number of men and women you'd think they'd figure out to arrange the seating as boy/girl around the table. No, there were two cases of men sitting next to men and women sitting next to women. But being that there were 10 people at the table, the conversation sort of developed into five against five, with my "five" consisting of three women and two men. There was no way to have a conversation with anyone at the other end of the table.

Not that I really wanted to. Upon arriving, a quick scan of my dining companions had me realize that there wasn't anyone who even remotely interested me. Conversations were fine, but the woman on the right of me tended to dominate my fivesome (almost "perform" - she was a wannabe actress with a larger-than-her-own-life personality). The guy on my left was pretty quiet, though personable (though he could have at least made a bit more of an effort than wearing jeans and a plaid shirt). There was one other woman and another man within conversational distance from me, and they were both pleasant.

So, would I do it again? Well, I kind of have to since I've paid for one more of these dinners. But I will contact the organizers beforehand to give them my feedback on how last night went to make sure that I get placed in a more suitable group next time.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Took the Plunge!

I signed up for Dinnerworks. Holy carp, it's not cheap! I bought a two-dinner package for $139 (plus GST) and that doesn't include the dinner! I think I get one free drink with that.

Anyway, I think I might be attending my first event next Tuesday the 13th. I just have to hear back from them. There are a fair number of events coming up, so if not this one, then another one. The key for me is the age range - I don't always have a lot in common with people my own age: no kids, more physically active than most, etc.

But, I'm just trying to "do a different thing" in the hopes of achieving a different outcome.

Stay tuned...

Friday, October 02, 2009

Blocked!

I sent a note to a guy on PoF. Nothing weird, just saying Hi. I'm pretty sure I saw it in my outbox after I sent it, but then when I went back it was gone. Weird.

So, I re-sent the message (with a p.s. joking that I wasn't a stalker for sending the same message more than once) and got the following message:

YOU HAVE BEEN BLOCKED BY THIS USER

Um, oh, OK. Am I that offensive that I need to be blocked??

The ironic thing is that in his profile he wrote:

"I was born and raised in a small town - [city], NB - and was taught that smiling and saying "Hello!" to people was the right thing to do. [...] I still like being gregarious, but it seems people have lost that loving feeling in the Big Smoke. No?"

I'll say!