Comically bad date :/
Mapo tofu
Met this girl online, texted for a few days and asked her out. Planned 5 days in advance to go to the park then grab sushi & dessert close by in a popular area of town
Day of - it's beautiful out, finally feels like summer, maybe a little too hot, and all of a sudden a huge thunderstorm rolls in right when we're supposed to meet. I didn't check my weather app that morning and it wasn't on the forecast 5 days before so I had no clue.
I got to the park early and was waiting on the bench for her when the storm rolled in. I text her to suggest we pivot to going straight to the sushi restaurant in that popular area of town and I'll meet her there at 6. Great! As I'm walking over, it starts pouring, so I decide to run to my car and drive over instead. The rain causes INSANE traffic where I'm heading. I somehow go from being early to being late
No rain when I get to the restaurant at 615, she's inside and I try to introduce myself and, right at that moment, the server comes over to inform us we have to leave at 640 due to a private event. Date asks what we should do, I say let's go to the other sushi place around the corner (2min walk- decent spot, 7/10), I don't want us to feel rushed to eat. It wasn't raining out when I arrived so I hope it finally stopped. As we walk over to the other spot, starts pouring. I didn't bring an umbrella, shit I don't think I even own one.
Get to the restaurant, I think we're both a bit frazzled, she goes to the bathroom to dry off a bit. She comes back, I try to finally get into some convo but the server comes over asking what we want. I haven't had a second to look over the menu- I say we need a min and we finally get to talking. Conversation was great, lots in common, lots of laughing and eye contact. We eat, we talk, we start wrapping up around 745. She starts to check the clock and says it's getting a bit late.
She ends up declining to get ice cream after because it was getting a bit late, she has a med school exam coming up, and needed to be up at 5 the next morning. Completely understandable! We left and walked together a bit since we parked close to each other, just chatting some more. Got to our cars and she kinda just gave a quick goodbye and hopped in her car. Texted her saying something like..I had a great time and would love to see her again soon and hope she got home safe and that she gets some good sleep. She responded saying sorry for leaving so quick and that she had a great time and appreciates the effort but feels like she can't balance starting something new with school and everything else she has going on. She mentioned during our convo that she worries that she will have to sacrifice other parts of her life due to her choice of profession.
Feeling pretty bummed about this one. Can't help but feel like I totally mishandled the situation with the rain & restaurants, and that everything was working against me to make it hard to make it an enjoyable time. I feel like I wasn't my best self and was a bit awkward with everything. I can't help but feel like she just didn't really enjoy the time and I made her uncomfortable and made her want to leave early. Or maybe she just felt like she couldn't focus because of school and really feels like she can't prioritize dating...
Maybe it was a sign that I shouldn't date right now - I also have a lot of work to do on myself. She seemed like a really wonderful person and I was excited. Didn't expect to fumble so hard. So it goes.
Some lessons learned:
- check the weather
- own an umbrella
- plan better dates
- be respectful of people's time
- make an effort to make a warm intro despite everything else going on
- relax