Girls Night Out!

Since the Hudson Terrace party things have been good.  I've spoken on the phone with the guy from the Hudson Terrace party who I exchanged numbers with and we are going to try to go out soon. I still haven’t heard back from the speed dating company, but I am having a great time with my wing women.    In fact, Saturday we decided to have a girls night out.  We once again met at L’s since she has the most central location.  Tonight’s girls night has an extra partner in crime, CM.  CM is amazing and beautiful.  She is the most outgoing woman.  She met her ex on the subway one day.  She just started talking to him.  That’s the kind of girl she is and tonight it turns out is no exception.  When she got to L’s apartment she told us about the 3 guys that she met on the street who were really cute.  She got one of their numbers and told them that we would text them where we were going that night and that we would meet them.  We started out at Club Iguana which has hip hop downstairs and salsa upstairs.  The guys that she met did end up meeting us there and they definitely were cute.  But there were three of them and 5 of us.  After a couple of hours of dancing we parted ways and decided to go back to L’s apartment.  On the way though, CM started talking to some other guys and they invited us to the party that they were heading to.  I don’t know why but we decided to go…and essentially we ended up crashing some guy's birthday party.  It was a fun party but it was totally weird not knowing anyone.  That night, I had also been texting back and forth with C, the guy from Hudson Terrace and he texted me that he was going to be out in the same area.  So I ended up leaving my friends and the party of the guy I didn’t know to meet him for a drink.  However, when I got to the bar, he was with a friend of his.  The friend was a really nice guy, but it was a really awkward situation.  Clearly, C and I wanted to hang out, but his friend put a damper on the whole thing.  Although it wasn't intentional, he ended up clearly being the third wheel.  It would have been ok if there had been more friends there, or if he had told me he had a friend I would have brought one or more of my wing women.  After about an hour of talking, I decided to head home.  Alas, I have not heard from him since that night.

Hudson Terrace Event

My wing women and I had such a great time at the Slate event that when I saw that the same company was doing a singles party at Hudson Terrace it didn’t take much convincing for them to come with me.  We decided to do some pre-gaming at L’s apartment since she lives in Hell’s Kitchen.  Those Skinny Girl Margarita’s are deadly!  Despite the pre-gaming and a hysterical cab ride to Hudson Terrace with a very chatting driver, we were among the first people to arrive at Hudson Terrace.  The first person I saw in the bar was a cruise friend, SM.  SM is a guy who is very sweet, but a little bit geeky.  Ok, he's a lot geeky.  But he is very sincere.   I actually taught him how to do a jello shot on the cruise since he'd never done one before and told him that the skill of using his tongue to get the jello out of the little cup was great practice for using his tongue for other things that he had also never done before that would make him very popular with the ladies.  So all four of us go over to talk to SM and out of the corner of my eye I see three really good looking guys staring at us all with their mouths hanging open.  I could completely read the look on their faces.  How is this totally nerdy guy talking with 4 good looking women?!?  Once the party started to fill up, once again my wing women and I divided to conquer.  We did create a signal to use if we needed help at any point.  The signal was to run your index finger across your eyebrow.  If you saw that, you must immediately come to the aid of your wing woman and extricate her from the man she was with.  I'm sure this signal will come in handy in the future.  I had a really great time talking to all the guys there.  There was one gentleman who told me I was the most stylish woman in the room.  Well since I was working for LOFT at the time, I would hope so!  Can we say 50% discount!  After about an hour I saw those three guys who had been watching us talking to SA and I decided to talk to them.  I walked right up to them and said “I saw how you were looking at how my friends and I were talking to that guy”  I then proceeded to tell them that if they wanted to be successful at the event they needed to split up.  It was too intimidating for a woman to approach three good looking guys.  To that, one of them said:  “but you did.”  And I replied, “but I’m not your average woman, in fact, I think I should work for this company.   I think they do great events.”  At which point one of the guys said “Well, I own it and we are looking for speed dating hosts.”  I think my face probably looked like theirs did earlier in the night when I was talking to SA.  So the owner of the company introduced me to his partner and co-owner.   I took her card and vowed that I would contact them.  The rest of the night was fantastic.  I met a guy who I exchanged numbers, and some saliva, with and eventually made my way home. 

I have emailed the co-owner of the speed dating company twice and I hope I hear back from her.

Groupon Event

About a week after I got back from Club Getaway I saw a Groupon deal for the world’s largest speed dating event and singles party at a great bar with pool tables and ping pong called Slate.  I convinced my girlfriends L, M and N (who I will going forward call my wing women) to buy the Groupon as well and go with me to the event.   The event was a huge party with multiple speed dating events that you could choose from that you had to sign up for in advance.  You could pick one of the speed dating sessions and the rest of the night you could mix and mingle.  They had a bunch of themes which seemed like a lot of fun.  The event was 4 hours long and there were about 4 speed dating sessions each hour.  I chose to attend the Tall Men speed dating which was scheduled for about halfway through the event.  This event was amazing!  I had so much fun.  I was the first of my friends to arrive.  I was worried about being alone but it was unnecessary.  They had ice breaker questionnaires that you could use to approach people and when you filled the whole thing out you won a prize.  Say no more, if there is a prize for anything, I'm IN!  Also they had pool tables and ping pong so you could play by yourself or with your friends and it wouldn’t take long for someone to approach you to join in.  I also approached another woman who was there by herself and asked if she wanted to join my group of wing women.  She was really cool and we exchanged emails at the end of the night.  The icebreaker was really helpful and I really wanted to win the prize but eventually I found that I didn’t need it.  It was really fun just talking to people.  Once my friends arrived we actually found that we kind of split up and would occasionally find each other if we needed an escape from someone or just a break from the get to know you chit chat.  I also found it fun to introduce my friends to guys that I met who weren’t quite for me but were really nice and cute.  My friends told me I was great at it and should work for the company that was running the event.  Eventually it was time for my speed dating session.  It turns out that they were running really behind schedule because of the volume of people there, so I decided to skip the speed dating…afterall, I could visually pick out the tall guys who I would probably end up going on speed dates with.  At the bar I met a really nice guy, S, who got me a glass of water when he ordered his drink so I wouldn’t have to wait.  He offered to buy me a drink, but it was nearing the end of the night and I was done drinking.  We decided to go downstairs and play pool and ran into his friend, K, who happened to be talking to one of my friends and we all played together.   I made out with S some and we exchanged numbers and emails.  I also left the party with emails and/or numbers from about 8 other guys.  All of my wing women also had numbers and emails.  It was going to be great fun seeing what happened from there.

Following the Slate event, I emailed back and forth with a bunch of the guys…some of whom never asked me out.  S was going on a vacation right after the event and although he emailed me when he returned we never ended up getting together.  I did go out on dates with 2 of the guys, and maybe it was the excitement of the event or the shorter interactions there, but I found that while they were cute, I didn’t have much in common with them.

I was so happy that my wing women went to this event with me.  It was perfect practice for talking with strangers and I had a fantastic time.

Club Getaway

I’ve been doing internet dating on and off for years, with some success, but I wouldn’t say it’s been the best way for me to meet people.   What the cruise helped me learn is that my personality is a big part of what people find attractive about me.  And this is something that you don’t get to discover while reading through profiles and clicking on pictures.  In fact, one of my cruise buddies told me during a discussion of what type of girls he likes that I’m definitely not his “type” but he finds me attractive because of my personality.  So I decided to use this knowledge on my next adventure…Club Getaway’s 20s/30s young professionals weekend.  Club Getaway is basically like summer camp for adults (with alcohol).  During the day you play volley ball, swing from the trapeze, and water ski and at night you dance and drink the night away.  All while sleeping in air conditioned cabins with private bathrooms.  I went with some people who I met on the cruise.  They were people who I enjoyed on the cruise but didn’t spend a lot of time with.  I looked forward to getting to know them better, but didn’t feel obligated to spend all of my time with them…which was perfect. 

Club Getaway gives you a schedule of activities for each day and I spent a ton of time figuring out which ones I wanted to choose.  Archery for sure, Zumba, Bungee Trampoline, A Scavenger Hunt and Poker.  And they had pole dancing which was a lot of fun…I think I will definitely try this back in NYC.  I went to most of the activities by myself but met tons of people who have a lot in common with me and it was a great opportunity to practice talking with strangers.  My cruise friends spent most of the time lounging by the lake but I met them for meals.  The first night there was a dance where I had a great time burning up the floor.  I met these 3 guys who, while a little geeky, were really nice and fun to dance with.  The funniest thing that happened was while I was dancing with my 3 guys and my cruise girlfriends.  I really needed to go to the bathroom so I told one of the girls where I was going and she said “don’t leave…because when you leave, they all leave.”  Meaning the guys I assumed.  They did all leave the dance floor, but came back when I returned.  Saturday night there was a campfire and one of my guys gave me his smore and my cruise girlfriend was just astounded by this.  She wondered why the guys she was interested in didn’t behave that way.  When she pointed them out I noticed that the guys she liked were basically overgrown frat boys.  Yes, they were probably the best looking guys there…but they knew it and they were in a group.  My three guys were dorky and not as attractive for sure, but they were so kind and nice and attentive and generous.  I mean, a guy who gives up his smore?!?  That’s rare!  At the end of the weekend I did exchange numbers with one of the guys but he lives on Long Island so we never saw each other again.  But I will definitely go back to Club Getaway.