Matchmaker

I always appreciate anyone who can make a good clock reference. Very rarely can you just say "hot guy, 9:00" and not look over to see that person with their eyes to the ceiling, visualizing the big hand and the small hand in their head, nor just outright rubber-necking to see who you were talking about. The subtlety of The Clock is completely lost on some folks.

Saturday night kicked off what was the first of five parties for my friend AG before she gets married in July.

Wedding Season is not a 100-yard dash- it's a marathon.

I picked up my ladies KR and MK and we headed southwest of Dallas to the city of Ft. Worth. AG's fiance is from Ft. Worth, he is the first of the three brothers in his family to get married, and no fewer than eight families were hosting the party- held in a private room of Joe T. Garcia's, a Mexican food restaurant which is an institution in the city.

AG and WS, her fiance, are one of the few blind date success stories I have ever known. As a result of a successful match, and using her party schedule as ammunition, AG is now working her magic and trying to set up some of the single ladies in her wedding... myself, MK and KR. I got a breezy email from her last week, mentioning "a guy" she had in mind for me. Oy. She winced before showing me who he was, saying: "he's blond and kind of nerdy." I was affronted, because A.) I LIKE nerdy- I think it's endearing, but B.) I guess because I have dark hair and eyes, I'm usually attracted to similar looking guys? Probably true.

So while at her party, sipping on strong- nay lethal- margaritas, AG came over to point out the single guys in the group who were hanging out near the bar. We had all seen them and decided that AG's 17-year-old brother was better-looking than the lot of the Ft. Worth guys. True story.

We proceeded to sit and have dinner, and while AG was mingling from table to table, she came to us and said "okay they're all asking about you guys and wanted to know who is single." The funny thing was that none of them had approached us all night. MK, who met literally everyone there and spent some quality time at the great aunts and grandmas table, had met all of them briefly but had to initiate the introduction. Let me also clarify that these guys aren't fresh out of college- they're all pushing if not already 30. 30! I am no stranger to shyness but seriously- there were not that many of us and we are far from unapproachable. Many of them had mothers in attendance, and I'm not sure if that hindered the situation.


We were sitting at a table after dinner and some of them got to up say their good-byes and leave. A few brave souls stopped by our table to say that they were going out to some nondescript bar in Ft. Worth (a city that took the capabilities of three women, my car and my iPhone's navigational systems), if we wanted to come. Oh really? You don't say a word all night and then mention going to a bar when you've got one foot out the door?

I don't really understand it- we ended up going out in Ft. Worth afterwards and some of the guys who had mentioned the idea weren't even the ones who came along. The way men and women communicate with each other, or fail to do so, never ceases to amaze me.

It's funny because I don't go into those situations expecting to meet guys- I don't like the idea of being on the prowl in general, much less at a party where marriage is already the primary topic of conversation. Add that to the fact that I enjoy catching up on life and whatnot with my busy friends, on a rare occasion when we are all in the same place at the same time, and I would probably prefer hanging out with them 99 times out of 100.

Is it a wonder I don't date more?

“No one will ever win the battle of the sexes; there's too much fraternizing with the enemy.”
-Henry Kissinger