Usually, when a date goes badly with a woman, it's less entertaining because women are rarely persistent. At least not after just one date.
The one that stands out to me isn't all that great a story. And if I've told it here before it probably isn't any better this time, so feel free to skip to the end. It's a long story, and doesn't have a payoff. It's my only real "wtf" date, because I'm fairly boring about vetting potential dates through days of email.
I was contacted on PoF by a woman in my area who seemed reasonably attractive, and had a PhD in her field. I'm a bit of an education snob myself, so the PhD is like catnip. The messages were a bit odd, though, so after a few days I was ready to let it go. I wrote my "thanks, and good luck" message. She responded with an apology, and said she doesn't like emailing because she has Dyslexia.
I figured she must be very intelligent to get through that much school while dealing with Dyslexia, and I appreciated what I perceived as a lack of ego in telling me that while getting the "good luck" note. So I decided the lack of any sort of connection in email could be justified and maybe it was better to meet. I'd hate to miss out on someone incredible.
I drove to her town, about 40 minutes away, and she was only about 15 minutes late to the restaurant. But she was better looking than in her pictures, so I was happy to see her.
It turns out that this woman, who has a PhD in chemistry and is enormously successful in her field if what she told me is true, is heavily into astrology. And, by heavily into astrology, I mean Nancy Reagan would be envious.
She only asked me a handful of questions the entire evening. Which wouldn't have been too terrible if they all weren't somehow related to the horoscopes she kept checking. During this date, she had her phone on the table, and kept looking up horoscopes. Mine, hers, ours, her son's, various combinations, various specialized horoscopes for singles, I don't know, maybe even pets. I tried to get in a few phrases edgewise that might indicate that I don't believe in astrology, but she was tuned out. Although we were together about three hours in all, I doubt she found out even what I do for a living.
But... she was absolutely delighted that I was a Gemini. I think that's why she contacted me in the first place. During this reading (and I hesitate to call it a date because it was more her reading horoscopes than anything else), she repeatedly said how wonderful a day it was for us. At one point, with a wink, after she read one of my daily horoscopes, she said it would be a good idea if we made sure we had good breath because it was such a good day for a date (this wasn't a hint about my breath - we weren't sitting close enough and I would have clued in fairly quickly if I were offending her).
Shamelessly, I'm thinking this might be headed toward an ONS, and since it had been a while for me and she was quite attractive, I would have been on board.
We leave the restaurant and walk toward her car. On the way, we're stopped by a homeless person. She quite happily engages him in conversation, can't remember the details. But it ends up with her promising to return with some money as she didn't have much cash with her.
We get into her car and she goes to the ATM and withdraws some money for the homeless person. It turns out he didn't stay where he was, so we spent the next 20 minutes driving around looking for him. Not successfully.
While I knew from about 20 minutes into this date that there was no hope of a relationship, it wasn't horrible. She was a genuinely nice person. She was very upbeat and under the right circumstances, her knowledge of astrology would have been entertaining. Yes, it was boring after an hour of astrology, but that could have been nerves.
The problem was that she never stopped talking. I was clearly just an object to her. She drove me to my car, and I'm thinking "what the heck" based on her repeated hints throughout the evening. I lean in for the kiss, and she gives me the cheek, saying she never kisses on the first date. That's OK, too, but a bit weird considering all the rather overt signals.
I drove home. A half-hour after I returned, she called me. I listened to her recap of another series of horoscopes she had read in the meantime, all, again, quite rosy for us in the Gemini camp. I could not get her to listen long enough to get off the phone. Finally, I said I'd call her back and we'd do this again. I didn't. She didn't, either. And the promising marriage of Aquarius and Gemini remains unfulfilled.
