Mr. Awkward # 33

Some activities are just more fun when you are with people you enjoy being around. Or if you are by yourself. Friday night was one of those moments where the activities themselves weren’t wholly unenjoyable or bad, they were just made that way by the present company. So, I met this guy online a few weeks ago. He is divorced and recently moved back to Utah from another state. At first he seemed nice. Last week he gave me his number but it was kind of weird because he said he doesn’t give it out often and he specified when he would be around so I could text him. I took my time. Once I got around to it however, he became Mr. Clingy real fast. He texted often and it was kind of annoying. I don’t know how to describe it exactly, it was just slightly overbearing. Also, he started to seem a little ghetto to me. I don’t know how else to say that. His English was poor which is a real turn off for me. He told me that all through school he was picked on but now he lifts weights so he can fight back. He mentioned this on the date too….but by then I could see why he was picked on. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though.

So, he continued to text over the next couple of days and set up a date for Thursday night when he would have some time off work. He lives kind of far away but offered to come in to the city. He is actually from the part of town that I am from. At the same time, while he grew up here and graduated from high school here, he couldn’t seem to figure out just where in town I was. He refused to meet me in the middle and I refused to let him come pick me up. He finally settled on a night of fun at….wait for it….Boondocks!! Don’t get me wrong, the activities there can be fun, but it took me right back to teenage dating and actually my first date which was at a similar establishment I believe. He has apparently been out of the dating loop awhile anyway so that was fine. It ended up being a bit of a drive for both of us but we set up a time to meet and waited for its arrival.

When I arrived and saw him, he was not what I expected. For some reason I was picturing some white guy tryin to be gangsta and all hard core. Turns out, he was just a nerd! Shallow of me I know, but I could just tell he was a little on the awkward side. At the same time, he seemed to embrace his awkward so good for him. This is where the daily beatings throughout his school days comes in. Speaking of awkward though, when he bought our tickets, he went right for the “unlimited fun” passes. Yikes, they were $25 a piece which meant he spent a total of $55 after tax. That’s kind of a lot of money!! I felt very pressured to have fun and make sure he was having fun. He had driven a long way and then paid a lot of money. Right away though, I could tell I just did not want to be there. 

Since we had unlimited passes, it seemed like we should try just about everything. So, we started off with a favorite activity of mine, the Go Karts! I was excited cause it was something I could kind of do on my own. I know, horrible of me. But I knew I wouldn’t have to talk to him. He ended up going out quite a bit ahead of me so I just stayed back at a nice pace, far away from him. I enjoyed my slowish ride. I didn’t want him to catch up to me so I tried to pace it just right and I guess I did. When it was over I said, “you were just too fast for me!” Hahaha. He said he almost caught up to me. Whew! Next we played mini golf. I kicked his trash but I think he thought he was winning the whole time. He was pretty surprised at the end and refused to tell me his score, only that I had won. Yeah, I got a hole in one and several in two. It wasn’t that great of a course but the playing of it was okay. Nothing too horrible that I remember. Next we headed inside and played laser tag. This was obviously his element. He couldn’t wait to shoot guns! I had brought my purse in with me though and he kept commenting on how I should have left it in the car. I didn’t want to though. There was some girl stuff I needed and other things, ya know what I mean? Wow, his nosiness about it was getting a little annoying when we went into the laser tag room and he said that afterward we were going out to my car to put my purse in there. Umm no. I refused. He said he’d stop bugging me about it. Thank goodness!

While we waited in line for laser tag we were forced to talk some more. He asked me how I liked the online dating site where we met. I was pretty positive about it because I have had some good experiences. He asked how often I date and I told him 3 or 4 times a week. I didn't want to lie! He told me that I was the first person he met off of there. Yikes! More pressure! Anyway, laser tag. I just did my best to stay away from him honestly. Ugh! I let him go do his thing. He obviously likes shooting people which is fine. I usually like the activity but he was like a kid at Christmas! It was no surprise that when we went to use our 20 tokens in the arcade afterward he was excited about the shooting games. They do nothing for me but I did a couple to make him happy. He is kind of competitive but in an annoying way. We played this basketball thing and I made him get his own little booth cause I didn’t want him near me. He made fun of me afterward because I only made two shots. Lame! I had fun trying and I wasn’t worried about that but I thought it was kind of rude of him!

Once the tokens were finally used up he asked if I wanted to do anything again. I chose the Go Karts. On the way out he was giving me a hard time about not wanting to do the water ride thing. I think he was trying to be flirty but it was really obnoxious. I told him he could do it and I would watch. He didn’t. On the Go Karts he wouldn’t let me stay away this time. He went super slow so that I would catch up. When I passed him he ran me into the side. Ugh! I was definitely not in the mood. Then he wondered why I stayed WAY back. I told him I didn’t want him to run me off the track. Afterward I told him I was tired and that I should probably go. He walked me to my car, gave me an awkward hug and told me he had fun. Later that night he texted and said that he had fun and hoped to do it again. I did not respond. I haven’t heard from him since. Whew! Let’s hope it stays that way.