31 Dates in 31 Days...

...is more of a punishment than an opportunity, if you ask me.

Right before my trip to New York, my friend Lumina suggested I go on a blind date in NYC with her friend Tamara, a recent Columbia grad and journalist/writer for the Good Morning America show on CBS. I'm always game to meet new people in new places, so I quickly agreed. Plus, I didn't have any solid plans my first night in town.

Tamara (pronounced like 'camera') recently turned 31 and came up with this over-ambitious (crazy?) idea to go on 31 dates with 31 different guys in 31 consecutive days, none of which could exceed $31. All 31 dates would be "blogged" about on her website, made especially for this project. At that point, we (the dates) would seemingly be know by our number, rather than our name, even though names are, of course, mentioned. Why someone would purposely put themselves through this is beyond me. She has ambitions of writing a book about her experiences. I was number three.

I really had nothing to loose. I knew it might be the only time I really ever see her. And, c'mon, I definitely had no plans to fall for a girl that lives four hours away.

Before I go on to tell my experience, here is her story, straight from her blog:

3 Point Shot - Chris
Saturday, January 17, 2009
17Jan2009 Posted by Tamara


My friend, Lumina, warned me about him.
"He's hot, Tam. You might end up liking him."
Check.
And checkmate.
I hustled, zig-zagging my way around Penn Station to meet Chris outside Madison Square Garden. He had travelled all the way down from his home outside of Boston and I wanted this avid sports fan to do something special in the city. So some tough detective work helped us track down a cheap pair of tickets online to the Knicks v. 76ers game.
I was on the phone with him trying to figure out where he was.
"I'm standing outside wearing a white hat," he said.
From half a block away I spotted him. His stature struck me from afar. Quickly I came up to him and he drew me into a tight embrace.
This guy knows how to play the game well.
We made our way up to the nose-bleed section and found our seats among the packed coliseum. It was a close game but neither of us was really paying attention. Instead we sat and talked about... well, everything.

He makes sacrifices for his family. He still plays baseball. And he cuts through the bull quickly.
Chris is really easy to be around.
I found myself telling him things that I haven't told some of my closest friends.
**Time Out**
Look.
I know that's not the way to play the dating game... starting out by pouring out your most embarrassing thoughts, sharing your biggest fears about marriage, and letting him see more than just "me on my best first-date behavior." I know I played all my cards too early.
But I felt like I was in a no-lose situation.
Chris lives four hours away. He knows I'm dating, well, a couple dozen other guys or so. I wasn't sure if anything would ever happen with him.
But the truth is, I'd like to see him again.
The Knicks seemed to be giving too much up too. They kept losing possession in the last quarter. Any time they'd score three points, the fans would scream.
"Threeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!"

Chris and I kept pushing further. Sharing more than we probably should have. Crossing conversational boundaries most people wouldn't. Stepping out of bounds I typically don't when first meeting.
So I'm not sure how well I did there. Did I commit a true dating game violation? Was this a technical foul?
The Knicks lost.
By ten points.
Looks like everyone wasn't on their game.

Before you go on, I must mentioned that Tamara, being the person she is, talked very highly of all her dates (so far), so don't think anything highly of me. That is , for every girl that might put me under the category of "good guy," I'm sure there are a handful that would just as likely put me under "douchebag." And I'm perfectly fine with that.

Tamara was a class act. We did, indeed, talk for hours about everything. We mostly talked about being single at our age in the Mormon community and the challenges it often presents. If you are Mormon, no explanation is necessary. If you aren't Mormon, no explanation would really help. It's just a strange sub-culture you would have to experience to really grasp. I guess being a "menace to society" wasn't as bad as I thought (sorry, another Mormon reference there!). I couldn't believe how often we saw eye to eye on, well, just about everything.

The Knicks game was fun. I was shocked to learn that you could actually get tickets for $10 to a sporting event in New York. That's unheard of in Boston, a city the doesn't compare in size to NYC. Not that I'm proud that Boston has exorbitant ticket prices, but along those lines I'm glad we don't whore them out for $10, either. Did the Knicks stink that bad? I guess so. Either way, it played to our advantage to get cheap tickets. Hell, $10 was about my limit to see the Knicks, the doormat of the NBA for the last 10 years. ! We did talk nearly the entire game. For a short while, I was pretty sure some of the surrounding people we going to say, "shut up, we're trying to watch the game." But nothing.



As mentioned previously, the Knicks game was only $20 for the pair of tickets. We still had $11 more dollars at our discretion. We agreed on hot chocolate - the Mormon coffee. The local Dunkin Donuts would do. The hot chocolate somehow turned into Diet Pepsi (my drink of choice). I don't even remember how long we were there chatting at our run-down table in the back, but I'm pretty sure that if there we no such thing as Sunday morning, we might still be chatting.

Tamara taught me a new word, "biscuit." No, not biscuit in the tradition food sense. This term is a perfect description of those young girls who are light and fluffy on the outside, but inside lack substance. They are generally the young twenty-somethings that go to local community college, or beauty school and have never really ventured out to make much of their lives. They live off daddy and expect hand-outs and refuse to take any risks in life. We all know people like this. There is nothing wrong with them, they are just annoying. Ok, maybe there is something wrong with them. I've always just used a long descriptive to try to explain these girls, but now "biscuit" will suffice. Thanks for the new word, Tamara!



I'm glad I made a new friend.

Her website is below and updated daily. I highly recommend following the madness.

http://31datesin31days.com/