Date #13, #14, and #15 - The Final Fumbles: My Year-End Dates of 2021

October 8th, 2021

Date #13 took place at Langano Ethiopian Restaurant in Silver Spring, MD. My second time having Ethiopian food but my first time out with an Ethiopian. Although I prefer trying new cultural foods with someone from that culture (for them to explain how to eat, what it is I’m eating, etc.), I was a bit…nervous, for the lack of a better word because I know with Ethiopian food you eat with your hands and I also didn’t want to offend him if I didn’t like the food. These fears quickly dissipated because the food was delicious!

We’re jumping the gun here a bit though. I would like to mention, I was turned off before this man even came to pick me up. I wish I could recall some of the comments he said, but I do remember he gave me an off vibe even before meeting up. It started when I told him how to get to my dorms from the front of the campus and he told me he wasn’t doing all that and for me to walk to him. Anyone who knows Gallaudet’s campus knows it’s a good 10 minute walk from the dorms to the front of campus and it would’ve been faster for him to drive. And then on our way to the restaurant he was forcing me to play music even though I kept declining, because he said he really wanted to see my music taste. That’s fine and everything, but if I’m not feeling something don’t keep trynna get me to do it anyway.

Luckily, at the restaurant he calmed down with the weird comments. Like I said the food was good, then we walked around Downtown Silver Spring. The conversation was fine but I was ready for the date to be over before it even started. 

When we got back to the car, he asked if I wanted to drive “East or West”. I asked what this meant, he said “East is towards my house, West is towards your school”. 

“Oh, West forsure!” I said without even giving it a second thought.

No surprise, we did not talk after this date. But months later, I received a ‘like’ from him on Hinge that said:

“Found my worse date ever lol let’s go on another one”. 

Being that we met on the app, for him to even send the ‘like’ means he would’ve had to unmatch the two of us because I personally don’t unmatch with anyone myself. So he purposely unmatched, then almost a year later came across my profile again and went out of his way to say this weird comment? No further words from me on this one.

October 21st, 2021

Date #14 was one of those guys that was so fine in his pictures but in person… not saying he was no longer fine but in person I wouldn’t describe him that way. He was moreso adorable maybe? Or just regularly cute. We went to Throw Social in NE DC to play football bowling, an activity I never even heard of prior. Love bowling, not a fan of football, so I was excited to see how this was going to go. 

I loved the vibe of the place, very colorful and lit up, it gave very much of a beach feel. Along with the football bowling they have shuffleboard, corn hole, board games, live music, and cabanas you can reserve for parties. There weren't a lot of people there so we were able to play shortly after we arrived.

After completely sucking, as I do with most sports, we said we’d wash our hands before eating. After washing my hands I came out and waited for him as well so we could walk back to pick a table (it was self-seating). I was waiting…and waiting…and waiting. I can’t tell y'all how long I was waiting for him to get out of that bathroom but I do know it was so long that I just knew I got stood up (is it called ‘stood up’ if it happened in the middle of the date?).

Anywho, I  kind of accepted this so I walked towards the entrance and as I turned the corner I saw him just sitting at a random table, not even on his phone or anything just sitting there enjoying the vibe I guess. He spotted me and waved me over. I told him I thought he stood me up and he said he was starting to think the same. The conversation left much to be desired as he was very quiet, didn’t talk about himself, and the only questions he asked me were the same questions I had asked previously.

Either the next or a few days later he messaged me on the app saying “you didn’t like me very much did you?” and I felt bad because he really was sweet. I explained this to him, and also stated that he was just too quiet for me. He said he was a shy person and I’m not sure where the rest of that conversation went but that was pretty much it between us. It sucks because he was a cutie, but I need the energy to be there just as much as the looks are.

November 28th, 2021

Date #16 was one of the few I had not met from Hinge. I think by this time he was probably the second guy I met organically? We worked at the same company but different departments so we saw each other around often but not regularly (also because I only worked part time). I’m not going to lie to yall… he was not cute in the slightest, but his personality was there. He would constantly ask me back at his place and I kept declining because I was not romantically interested in him in the least bit.

I was at work, he was off, but he asked me to The Dew Drop Inn, some hole in the wall bar in NE DC near our job. I told him I had to eat dinner after work and he said he’d bring me some pasta he made and we could go to the bar. I said you know what, what the hell. After work he picked me up and I ate the tupperware of pasta he brought that was pretty decent. He picked me up in the company car (no, he did not have his own) even though one of the tires was flat. We had to drive like 10 mph and I was lucky it was late so there wasn’t much traffic we were holding up.

The bar itself was pretty chill, not very crowded (it was a Sunday). His company was actually very chill, and the conversation was entertaining. He gave me all the tea to each of the clients we worked with.

After a few rounds of drinks he drove me to campus, on his flat tire… and when we arrived to campus the only available entrance was blocked off by police. It was late and I still had a paper to write so of course I’m sitting there thinking how am I supposed to get back into campus? We drove around searching for more entrances but naturally, they were all closed. He said I could go to his place to write my paper… of course. I’m like no we’re staying here until they open up the entrance, which luckily wasn’t much longer.

December 14th, 2021

I really did not plan to go out with this man again, but he invited me to the strip club and said they had good food. Now how can I turn down good food? And I’ve only ever been to a strip club once in my life so I did want to go again. We get there and apparently you had to get tickets? So we left and went to this other bar… I don’t even remember the name but we got there like 30 minutes before it was closing. Yall already know I was hungry by this time because we were supposed to have eaten at the strip club but this kitchen of course was closed. The bar had some live music performances but we caught the tail end of it. We only had time to enjoy one drink and honestly by this time I was kind of over the night. Places were closing (it was a Tuesday after all) and our options were becoming limited. He said let’s just go to America’s Best Wings (a fast food chain in the DMV). I grabbed a pizza and we just sat in the company car again until he, without fail, tried to invite me over again, implying I could spend the night if I wanted. Reader, I most certainly did not want to. He took me back to campus and that was the only two times we hung out. We did still see each other at work and acted the same towards each other in passing, nothing awkward or bad vibes. People say don’t date your co-workers and although I wouldn't say we dated, I say it’s fine as long as you're not serious about your job and don't plan on staying very long!