Blind Date Challenge: Blaine and Emily

Hosted by: Positively 4th Street

Blaine is a 23-year-old self-described “skinny, white guy." He also calls himself a nerd because he loves Harry Potter. He graduated from JMU and spends his free time listening to music and watching sports, especially soccer and hockey. A devout Christian, Blaine says his best features are his eyes, personality and smile. He claims his only preference in a date is someone who can hold up their end of the conversation.

Emily is 20 with brown, curly hair and blue eyes. She’s a girly girl who loves dressing up, wearing heels and dancing. She’s no priss though; She’s also interested in computers, technology, outdoor activities and trying new things. Emily is also Christian and says she's most noticed for her confidence and good manners. She’s looking for a guy who has a sense of direction in his career, and someone who respects good old traditional values, like how to treat a woman.

Is this a match made in heaven or is the Matchmaker trying to pull a Hail Mary on this one?

Did you do anything out of the ordinary before the date, to plan for it?
Blaine: No, I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary— mostly just basic hygiene like showering and brushing my teeth.

Emily: I wouldn’t say I did anything out of the ordinary before the date. I just made sure my outfit was planned out and I had plenty of time to get ready and get to the restaurant in time for the date.

Were you 1st or 2nd to arrive?
Blaine: I was second.

Emily: I was super early!

Were you nervous?
Blaine: Yes, but I always get nervous for things that put me out of my comfort zone. I was afraid that I wasn’t going to be able to eat much, because when I get nervous, I lose my appetite. Thankfully, it didn’t bother me all that much, and I was able to eat most of my meal!

Emily: I wouldn’t say I was nervous, but I was anticipating the date and was very anxious to see who I was meeting!

First impression?
Blaine: I instantly knew that she grew up somewhere in the South because of her cool southern accent. One of the first questions she asked was if I had ever been on a blind date before. Neither of us had. We exchanged stories of how we ended up signing up for this, and that broke the ice. I asked her what she did in Charlottesville, and she revealed to me that she didn’t live in Charlottesville. She lives an hour away, and still has two more years of college left. In contrast, I’ve been out of college for a year now. I’m still in the process of learning how to function as an adult in Charlottesville, which I love more and more as I continue to live here. At that point I knew that this was probably going to be one-time thing, so I decided to put my all into this one date to make sure we each had a good time.

Emily: Very nice smile! He was attractive, so it immediately made me feel relaxed.

What was your date wearing?
Blaine: She was wearing a long dress that had a lot of bright, colorful stripes. She had earrings on, as well as shoes that made her just slightly taller than me.

Emily: He was wearing a light green polo shirt with a white undershirt. If I remember correctly, he only buttoned one button and left the rest unbuttoned. To match, he wore khaki shorts and tattered canvas navy blue flip-flops.

Would you say this person was your type?
Blaine: That’s a difficult question for me to answer. I don’t really know what “my type” is. Emily was pretty, and we got along fine, but I wouldn’t say that I was attracted to her.

Emily: We had a lot of differences as far as tastes. I wouldn’t say he wasn’t my type. If anything, he was a person I could get along with who had different interests. But who says that is a bad thing? Overall, I was glad I met him.

What did you order? 
Blaine: We ordered fried green tomatoes as an appetizer, and those were good. For our entrées, I ordered lobster, and she ordered scallops. The lobster was amazing! She said her scallops were really good too.

Emily: For dessert, we split a peanut butter brownie and an oatmeal shortcake. I think we both enjoyed those choices!

What did you talk about? 
Blaine: She talked about what she was studying in school, and I talked about my job, and we got to share why we were passionate about them. We shared funny stories about the different part-time jobs we’ve had throughout the years. We both like writing, so we talked about that. When the conversation shifted towards music, I told her that I also played music, so she asked if I had written any songs. I proceeded to describe the most recent song I had written…it’s about loneliness…yeah…great date conversation, right? On the positive side, she said that the way I had written some of the lyrics was really cool.
 

Emily: I didn’t know anything about him so I didn’t want to get too personal. We discussed music, roller coasters, our taste in food, family, education and our goals in life. There were some random topics here and there that we discussed. I thought the conversation went well.

Did you have a lot in common?
Blaine: We had a few things in common, but not too much. 

Emily: We had some in common but not to the point where I felt like I was talking to myself in a man’s body, haha! I like some differences, so the fact that we didn’t have too much in common didn’t really bother me.

What did you find out that was interesting about this person?
Blaine: She writes raps! Even though she claims that she can’t rap herself. More importantly though, she is fascinated by computers and what they’re capable of, and that’s why she’s studying computer science in college. I love hearing about other people’s passions, and the things that fascinate them, so I’m glad she was open about that.

Emily: He told me he likes to write because he plays the guitar. I had asked him if he had written songs to play music to and he shared with me a song he recently wrote. I really admired the fact we thought the same way when it came to expressing how we feel.

Was there anything you really disliked?
Blaine: Nope!                                   

Emily: I didn’t walk away thinking of something I disliked. Actually, I didn’t care for the ending too well

Did your date do anything that impressed you?
Blaine: Nope!

Emily: I wouldn’t say he did anything that impressed me. Maybe a rose would have made a nice impression but he was just himself, so that’s really what matters.

Was there "chemistry" between you?
Blaine: I would say no. We were able to have a good, steady conversation, but I wouldn’t say we had great chemistry.

Emily: I feel like I don’t know him that well to say there was chemistry between us. I would like to continue communicating with him though.

How did dinner end?
Blaine: From where I was sitting, I could see out the windows of the restaurant. It had been raining for a while, but after we had finished dessert, I noticed that the rain had stopped. I asked her if she had brought a raincoat, and she said no. I told her that it had been raining, but the rain had let up, and I didn’t want her to get soaked on her walk back to her car. She said she didn’t want to get soaked either, and it would be all right if we called it a night. We stayed in the restaurant a few more minutes talking, but we left soon after that.

Emily: The ending to dinner was a little bit awkward. For starters, it had been raining so he mentioned if I had an umbrella with me because I was wearing a dress. I told him I didn’t, and he made me aware that it was pouring down rain earlier. (My back was to the window so I couldn’t see outside.) The chance of it raining again pushed the conversation to end because I didn’t want to get rained on.

What was the very end like?
Blaine: As we were walking out of the restaurant, she said that it was nice meeting me. I offered to walk her to her car, but she smiled and said, “Actually, I’ll walk myself, if you don’t mind.” We had a quick hug and went our separate ways.

Emily: We start to leave and he secretly leaves the tip, which I thought was cute. As we walked outside, I mentioned it was nice to meet him. He had offered to walk me to my car but I preferred to walk myself just because I had just met him. It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested, because I was, but that was what I told myself I would do from the very beginning

A hug? A kiss?
Blaine: A hug

Emily: I think me rejecting his offer to walk me to my car made him think I didn’t like our date, so he kind of stood there looking like, “she just said no to me,” so I mentioned a hug and we hugged. If it wasn’t for me, I am sure the hug would have not happened. He didn’t ask for my contact information, which was very disappointing. I wasn’t going to ask for his because that’s the man’s job.


Would you see this person again?
Blaine: She was nice, but I don’t think I would see her again. She and I are in different phases of life at the moment, and we live about an hour apart. At the end of the day, she just wasn’t someone that I could see myself keeping in touch with.

Emily: Yes! I would say this experience was a great one!

Overall date experience?
Blaine: It was a good time! I enjoyed it. I always enjoy getting to know new people, and learning about the things that they’re passionate about, so I’m glad I got to experience that with Emily. It was a pleasant evening, and I’m glad I signed up.

Emily: Overall date experience was great. I had to drive over an hour for the date and the trip was worth it! I did feel bad about the ending though because he seemed very sincere.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the date?
Blaine: 6
Emily: 9

Flip-flops on a first date? No wonder it didn’t work out. If you're single and game for the challenge, e-mail to get Hooked up!