As we get older and more experienced our radar for bullshit gets stronger. At least, that’s what we hope anyway. My problem is that just when I think I’m getting better at picking up on signs something happens to throw a spanner in the works. To be honest, even after all these years, I still think I don’t have a bloody clue.
There was a guy I dated last year whose ‘full of bullshit’ signs I stupidly chose to ignore because he seemed sweet. More fool me. Then, there’s Mr PAYG, one of this years dating disasters whose bullshit I documented in detail here and here. When I look back on it, I knew the signs weren’t that great after the first date but yet I still went on the second one. Once again, more fool me.
Is it that my bullshit radar is waaaaay off? Or is it that I chose to ignore the full of bullshit signs in the hope that actually “he might not be that bad” or “there might be a good explanation for that behaviour” or the most likely “I might miss out on a good thing if I don’t give this guy a chance”?
Bullshit Signs?
Last Saturday I had plans to go on a date with a guy I’m going to call ‘Fit Irish Guy’. Fit, because he’s a PE teacher and because in all of the messages I’ve received from him on DatingDirect.com he talks about having played some type of sport that day – football, basketball, running etc. Basically, he sounds like the type of guy that would make me feel like a right lazy bastard.
Is he really that interested? Fit Irish Guy and I had been exchanging messages for about a week before he suggested meeting up. I’d spotted his profile and took the first step of sending him a message. He replied and the message exchanging began. However, he never seemed overly enthusiastic, maybe one message a day. There was never ongoing back and forth conversation, even if we were online at the same time. With this in mind, I was genuinely surprised when he suggested meeting up.
Does he really want to meet up? Firstly he suggests meeting on the one date I’d already said I couldn’t do (weird). Then when suggesting another date option, he also asks “Do you have any single friends that you want to bring for my friend?” (weirder). I laughed out loud at that one! He wants to make our first meeting into a double date? What, is he too scared to meet me alone? My first thought was “no, my friends would barf at the idea of a blind date”, secondly I’m thinking “dude, I know nothing about your friend”. To me a double date/first date sounds awkward. Also, what if his friend is hotter than he is? He obviously didn’t think that one through. To top it off, a minute after texting me to tell me his friend is “Italian, 5′ 8″, got a maths degree and is a good social talker for occasions like this”, he then followed it up with another text saying “Probably best to leave it to us two, my mate isn’t feeling well. I’m looking forward to meeting”. Huh?! Now he’s just confusing annoying me.
The ‘last minute drop-out’ move. I should also mention that he went quiet when I asked where and when we should meet. So much so that I had to follow up with another text on date day asking “what are the plans for later?” With the above points in mind, I was not one bit surprised when I received a text message from him saying “Can we leave it 2nite please, I feel like shit and can’t face coming into central London.” I wasn’t surprised at all. In fact, I was kind of expecting it. I’d already picked up on the bullshit signs.
After I received his text, I replied pretty much straight away saying “No worries, lets leave it then” and not having received a “let’s re-arrange for another time”, or “sorry to let you down at the last minute” message from him, I assumed that was that. The End.
But oh no, that would be too easy right? Fit Irish Guy then decides to throw a spanner in my bullshit radar signals by sending me a text message saying “Really sorry about not meeting tonight, I hate letting people down but its been a long week and it all caught up with me. Hope you’re having a nice evening. I would like to to meet up at some point if you want to try again!”.
If I give it another go and give him a chance will I just be letting myself in for another shower of bullshit? Do I ignore the previous signs? Should I ignore the lack of enthusiasm, the weird double date/first date scenario, the letting me down at the last minute – all just in case there is a chance he turns out to be okay?
Tags: General Dating, Online Dating
So get this… I haven’t been on a date in over five months and my dating life sucks balls (mind you, even when I was actively dating… my dating life still sucked balls) but for some reason, people actually want to speak to me about DATING and even consider me to be some sort of authority on the subject. Crazy huh?
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