Last night I went to a hockey game, and while I was there I sort of went on someone else's first date. I suspect it will be their last as well. I was sitting next to a couple who were about my age, so let's say mid-30s. It's not important in general, but it is to the story -- he was white and she was black.
The first few minutes of the game they were talking about the rules of the game. She hadn't been to a game in a few years and he had never been at all. (I wonder what made them think this would be a good thing for them to do on their first date?) This got them through the first 10 minutes or so. She was actually asking me a bunch of questions and then passing along the answers to him.
About halfway through the first period he said "I was going to mention it during dinner, but I saw an interesting show on the National Geographic channel the other day. It was about how virus are created and get mutated to make us sick each year." His tale was heavy on mucous and germs. I thought to myself, "I'll bet she's glad he didn't bring that up during dinner."
From there they (logically) moved on to evolution. He strongly believes in it. She's apparently very religious and is more of a creationist. He then tried to talk her out of her strongly held beliefs, to no avail. She mentioned that she actually had to be at church at 6:30 the next morning to help with a church breakfast. He asked if she could skip it so they could go out to drinks after the game. She said no, she sticks to her commitments.
In the second period the discussion moved on to work. She hopes to stop working so late every day, but really, she's very busy and can't ever do anything during the week. Ever. He works at a small company and doesn't know who the owner is but likes that he has a coworker who brings in a griddle on Friday's and makes everyone pancakes.
Her family is up north; she was happy to grow up in the suburbs of Boston with a swimming pool and lots of friends. He was an Army brat and only talks to his mom and paternal grandmother. There are other relatives, but there's been a falling out and he doesn't talk to them much any more. He wanted to join the Army his whole life, but someone talked him out of it and he's still mad at them. He's very patriotic; she said she was too. He said that normal families don't understand that the way military families do. There's just no comparison.
Up to this point, all of the chatter is pretty basic getting-to-know-you stuff. Biographical. Awkward. I'm thinking they must have met online, because he has pictures of her. In fact, he says, he showed her pictures to his mom. His mom said she was "real pretty" and, he added happily, his mom didn't have a problem with him dating her.
She was sitting to my right and actually nudged me with her elbow. Did he really just say that?
Within a couple of minutes she started talking about being very tired and hoping the Canes would score again so that they could go ahead and leave. I actually left early and don't know how it all ended. I suspect he probably won't be seeing her again. Ever.
Oh yeah -- the Canes won, 2-0.