A Grown A$$ Man! - Part 1

Well, there are many times I think to myself, I can't make this up. My latest date is another entry in that category.

I re-joined match.com in the hopes that if someone is paying for a dating site, he would have more skin in the game and I would have better quality dates. Once you read this, let me know if you think I achieved my goal!

Anyway, I matched very quickly with a guy who lives in the suburbs. We had some fun banter through texting and he asked if I would like to have a "virtual" date. I said, what do you mean by that? He said, you know, we can meet virtually on Teams. For those who don't know, Teams is like a Zoom call but mostly used for work calls because it is a Microsoft platform.

Now, we are at a place where Covid isn't as risky right now so it seemed odd to meet this way, but I went along with it. I was thinking maybe he didn't want to deal with the hassle of driving to the city. I get that. And the funny thing is, when that Sunday came along, I was so grateful that I didn't have to leave my house! LOL! A Teams call it is..

We started chatting and the conversation was flowing. Although, it did feel like work. I do these type of calls all week long, so to have to get online on a Sunday, it was like my work week started early. And, he had MY company name as his background on the call to be funny. That also contributed to the work feel.

I found out he has been divorced for 4 years, has a daughter in college and owns many houses. He has a house in the burbs, a house in Michigan and a house in Maui. He is a partner at the Accounting firm he works for and does so well, he can retire next year (he is 54 years old).

He lives in a suburb next to where I grew up so I told him I used to ride my 10-speed bicycle to the Baskin Robins in his neighborhood for a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone. He laughed and asked what high school I went to, and when I told him, we found out we went to the same high school!

So now, we start talking about all of the same people we know. Strangely, we didn't know each other in high school, but we were dropping names left and right. And, he also knew one of my great friends that I still hang out with today.

Naturally, I texted my friend while on the call to tell her who I am talking to and she said, OMG, I love him and I love everything about this. This is awesome!

As we were finishing our conversation, he asked if I would like to go to dinner. I said sure, that would be great. He asked if I had been to a restaurant called Jaleo (and, I hadn't). It is owned by a Chef named Jose Andres and my date said he wants to give money to him since he is now over in the Ukraine providing meals for the people who need it.

I thought to myself, what a thoughtful guy and a great reason to support this restaurant. I am excited for this date!

Once we finished the call, he starts sending me pictures from our yearbook. He sends his picture, my picture and a banner he has hanging in his garage related to our High School football team.

This is starting off great - what could go wrong? Stayed tuned next week for Part 2!

Lesson Learned? Maybe I stand corrected. Teams is a good way to have a first date. You don't have to leave your house and you can get enough of a vibe from a person to see if you want to meet again. It is wildly efficient with time and hassle. Imagine, if things aren't going well, you just end the call! Brilliant!