Couples sit at tables for two at Tiki Bob's
Cantina. I'm sitting at one table. My friend's perched at
another. We chat and laugh, smile and flirt with the men sitting
across from us. This could be any night. This could be normal. But
it's not.
A bell rings.
"Okay!" the girl with the
microphone says. "Next date! Next table!"
We're eight-minute
dating. That means we paid $29 to stick a name tag on our shirts and
sit down with eight different guys for eight minutes each. We have a
scorecard where we keep track of our dates. There's a space for our
date's name and a space for "reminders." I scribble down, "Shawn.
Nervous eye roller" or "Lou. Cute, good breath."
And then
I'm off, circling Tiki Bob's bar like a "pin-the-tail on the donkey"
contestant, searching for Table #7, where I'll meet my next date.
8minuteDating, the
assembly-line-style dating service that's been the toast of the town
in cities such as Boston and Atlanta, is making its Richmond debut
at Tiki Bob's Cantina. Twenty-six "young professionals" from 25 to
35 years old showed up, despite a downpour of rain, to see if they
could meet Mr. or Ms. Right.
When my friend and I walked in
the door, we were handed a scorecard that tells us where to sit and
when. The bell rings every eight minutes and we circulate like we're
playing a strange, grown-up version of musical chairs.
"Hi.
My name's Bob. I used to be in the Navy. Now I work for Capitol
One."
Ding.
"Hey there. I'm Phil. I was in the
Marines. These days, I do computer technology for Dominion Power."
Ding.
After the third bell, all my dates start to
sound like this: "Blah, blah, blah. Jabber, yabber, blah."
And how come they've all been in the military? Must be
something to do with rules and regulations, I figure. Sargeants
telling them where to sit, when to stand. It's sort of like
8minuteDating.
Ding. "Next table! Next date!"
"I've
never done anything like this before, ever," says Jessica, a cute
twenty-something girl sporting a trendy jean jacket. "My friend
roped me into this. And I figured, well, why not?" she says, smiling
shyly and ordering a Corona.
We're on an eight-minute-date
intermission. Everybody's bellying up to the bar, breathlessly
ordering drinks and sucking on cigarettes. Some daters are flirting,
others are dishing on their dates.
"It's going okay. Not too
bad. Everybody's really nice," Jessica's friend says. "I put a
personal on Match.com [the online dating service] and met a
freak. Wouldn't stop emailing me for six months!"
The
eight-minute dates are pretty confidential. You use only your first
name. At the start of the meet-and-greet marathon, the girl with the
microphone sternly intoned:
"No business cards, no phone
numbers, no emails. If you'd like to see your date again, log onto
the 8minuteDating website tomorrow and enter your date's name and
number. If they said they'd like to meet you again, congratulations,
you made a match."
"I guess I'm getting lucky," a toothy,
well-built guy says. "All the women I've sat down with are really
nice."
Personally, I'm just not feeling "the love," so to
speak. All the guys are nice, conservatively dressed in khakis or
black jeans and t-shirts. Everybody is really, really polite. And
really, really boring.
Boil anybody down to eight minutes
and see how exciting he is. I find myself repeating the same, tired
lines to every guy I meet. "Hi, I'm Colleen. Blabber, yabber, blah."
Honestly, if I met myself at 8minuteDating, I wouldn't date me. No
way.
"I don't think I met anybody I made a match with," a
pretty, blond woman says. "But I wasn't really expecting anything.
Everybody was really nice and polite. And the minutes went by like
that," she says, snapping her fingers.
Ding.
The
final bell rings and 8minuteDating is over. My friend continues to
chat up a tall drink of water, final bell or not.
I sit down
at the bar by myself and breathe a long, lovely eight-minute sigh of
relief.
Related Info
Interested in
8minuteDating? Check out upcoming 8minuteDating and
speed dating events to hit Richmond: Virginia Speed
Dating: Ages 21-35 Sunday, September 8 Siné Irish Pub
& Restaurant $35 8minuteDating: Meet
Age 25-35 African American Singles Wednesday, September 18
After Six at 7:08 p.m. $28.88 (804) 780-2344 Virginia Speed
Dating: Ages 30-50 Sunday, September 22 Siné Irish Pub
& Restaurant $35 8minuteDating: Meet
Age 25-35 Single Professionals Wednesday, September 25 The
Tobacco Company Restaurant at 7:08 p.m. $28.88 (804) 780-2344
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