Chris

it was a refreshing change when chris contacted me on POF (normally i'm the one who has to initiate contact). we started chatting while i was in florida visiting my parents a few weeks ago. after a few messages back and forth, chris gave me his phone number and suggested we text each other. generally, i try to avoid texting until after i've met the person, but i thought why not. chris texted me a lot, which kind of freaked me out a bit... but then again, i would probably complain if he didn't text me (never happy!). what i thought was weird was that he would text me EVERY morning for like a week at 6:30am wishing me a good morning. he had no idea what my work hours are, so for all he knew, i could have been asleep! i finally sent one back asking if this was a wakeup call. he said he thought it would be a nice way for me to wake up. THEN he texted me at 8:30am today on date day (a Saturday!). anyone who knows me knows that i'm a morning person (so yes, i was already awake), but still!

we were initially supposed to meet up on wed night and go skating on the canal, but i was feeling sick and he ended up having to work late. so we moved the date to 1:00pm this afternoon. well, at around 12:20pm i get a text from him saying "running behind schedule". ummmm ok... i asked him when he thought he would be ready. he said 2pm. a whole hour late! well good thing i hadn't left yet for the canal. he didn't apologize for it either which i thought was strange/rude (and never did explain it in person).

when we did finally meet up, i immediately noticed that he looked a lot different from his photos. less attractive, bald spot, bad teeth and definitely shorter than the 6'1" he advertised on his profile. in all honesty, i was bummed. we put on our skates and then he whipped out the ugliest, most embarrassing winter hat (complete with two braids on either side). UGH! after a few minutes of chatting, i detected an accent....as in an i'm-from-a-small-town-in-northern-ontario-aka-hicksville kind of accent. he would finish several sentences with "...and shit". oh yeah, lots of swearing which was also a turnoff. and for someone who plays and talks about hockey a lot, he didn't seem to be the best skater. chris has lived in ottawa for a little over a year now, so we talked a lot about different events going on in town. at one point, he told me he wanted to sit down on a bench (i thought to fix his skate or something), so we sat and chatted for a while. again, i was shocked at how little he asked about me. all he seemed to talk about was work (he has 2 jobs). at one point i was laughing (at him, not with him), but i'm sure he thought he was being really funny. in my head: are we really talking about this on a first date?! he told me about random things...everything from attending a garlic festival in almonte to sexapalooza at lansdowne park (and buying a massage mitt and receiving man-hose as a parting gift). it was all a little too much for me. we definitely didn't hit off... i felt like we barely had anything in common. chris would often say "oh, i completely agree with you" and i was left wondering what i had said that he would have agreed with me.

i would have liked to have skated longer (read: less bench sitting), but chris wanted to head back since he had dinner plans. pfew! i was fully prepared to make something up so that i didn't have to continue the date post-skating. so all in all, my date was 1.5 hrs on a saturday afternoon and i managed to get some exercise and fresh air. could have been worse. i walked chris to his bus stop and thanked him for the skate. i just got a text message from him thanking me for the nice time...it's difficult to reply when you know that you aren't interested and wouldn't dream of a second date.