Blind Date

I had my first blind date today and what’s more, it was with a woman.

Now before anyone goes getting all excited it was a blind language exchange date.

I had completely forgotten that I had signed up on a language exchange website until this lady, Isabel contacted me. For anyone who may not know what a language exchange is, it’s where 2 or more people meet and speak for half the time in one language and the other half of the time in another language (in our case, it was Spanish and English).

She’s Mexican and moved to the San Diego area 5years ago but she lives near the border where almost everyone speaks Spanish. It’s called Chula Vista (cool view) but most people call it Chula Juana (because of it’s proximity to lovely Tijuana).

We agreed to meet at a local Starbuck’s at 10:30 this morning. I got there at 10:15 to scope it out. I went in about 10:20 or so and cased the joint. At first, I saw this woman through the window that I thought could be Isabel but when I got to the door, her husband who had been waiting in line, sat down next to her.

Strike One.

Then I saw this girl near the window, who was studying but answered her phone in Spanish. She looked far too young to be the 31 years old that Isabel said she was, so I figured it wasn’t her.

Strike Two.

As the clock ticked, I would look up towards the door alternatively hoping and fearing that the woman entering would be Isabel. At one point, I even considered the idea that Isabel would turn out to be a man and maybe one of those creepy perverts you see on the Dateline NBC specials, “To Catch a Predator”.

As the minutes kept creeping by, I started to get paranoid and wondered if the girl that was studying really was Isabel and maybe took one look at me, didn’t like the cut of my jib, and was ignoring me.

Realizing this was ridiculous, I settled in to wait a few more minutes.

By 10:35 I was beginning to suspect I was stood up!

I mean, I know we’ve been having some seriously stormy weather here, but c’mon. Then maybe I thought she backed out. Then I thought, maybe she saw me through the glass window (I was wearing the bright red coat I had promised to) and got cold feet and left. I mean I know I'm not as young as I once was but I still have a lot to offer. I promise!

Again realizing this was ridiculous, I did mantras of, “You are a wonderful and intelligent person, you are ok” (all right, maybe I really just cursed her out in my head).

Just as I was about to succumb to despair, this woman walked in and in perfect English said, “Are you Kristin?”

Ok, a new panic attack as I realized her English is A LOT better than my Spanish.

Well, we stumbled thought the language exchange and an hour later, promised to keep in touch and do it again.

We’ll see if she calls…….I mean, I’m not waiting by the phone or anything :D