The Worst Date: Memories That Have Made Me

So much has happened in my life already, and a lot of those experiences have stayed with me.  They are not all monumentous, nor are they all life changing.  But every single one of them (and the countless more that are buried deep within me) have made me who I am.  

I hope others will join in with me and post their own memories on their blogs (or in the comments).  I will be posting mine every Friday, but it doesn’t matter when you write yours or if you wish to do them fortnightly or monthly – your writing should fit with your schedule.  If you do join I ask that you link to my blog with this link: http://emptythoughtsrewritten.blogspot.co.uk (until I’ve worked out how to create a button for you to display) and that you will link your POST (not just your blog link please) in the comments each week (until I’ve worked out how to make a linky thing for you to add your links to – I’m really not very tech-savvy!).

I met Rik when I was out clubbing in celebration of my 19th birthday.  He was handsome and friendly, and as I had an extra hour to wait for my taxi – my friend had got the times wrong – he waited with me (in full view of busy traffic).  We swapped numbers and it wasn't long before he invited me out for a date.

This was my first (and so far only) experience of 'real' dating (all the other times the dates have come after we were 'official').  He took me to a very fancy restaurant and paid for everything.  He was sweet and thoughtful and good-looking and had a decent job - the perfect man.  Unfortunately not only was the spark missing (or the za-za-zu in Carrie Bradshaw's words), but he was the most boring person I have ever met.

I can't tell you why I found him boring, all I can say is that I figured the best way to get through the date was to get very, very drunk.  Over the course of that night I am sure I drank over two bottles of wine, and wine is the drink my body reacts the most to, I usually get tipsy just from one glass.

After the meal we went to a bar (which is where the second bottle of wine was consumed as well as, possibly, other drinks).  It turned out that a guy who was a friend of a friend, and who I'd had a tonsil match with a few weeks earlier, was also in that bar (everyone can trust a Wetherspoon's).  I have to admit I'm a little fuzzy on the rest of the details.  I am fairly certain that at some point I told this other guy that I wished I was on a date with him instead, I am still hopeful that Rik missed this declaration but I doubt I'll ever know.

When I realised that staying on this date would be a big mistake I rang my mum to come and collect me.  I then had to deal with her yelling at me for leaving her in the cold for twenty minutes. Seeing as it takes fifteen minutes to drive from home to the pub, that's thirty five minutes I seem to have displaced, as, in my mind, I went straight to the car only stopping for a moment to throw up everywhere.  Rik, ever being the gentleman held my hair back and made sure I got to my mum okay.

This wasn't the first time I had got so blindingly drunk, but realising just how bad my binge drinking had got I stopped drinking alcohol at all for the rest of college.  Of course, this meant that when I got to Uni, I had an even lower tolerance for alcohol though I have never been so drunk as to misplace time since (which, seeing as I have been very drunk since then, proves just how drunk I must have been).

So what I learned from this is NEVER drink and date at the same time - well, don't excessively drink anyway!  Do you have an embarrassing dating or drinking story?  Share in the comments.