Friday, May 22, 2009

A Smooth (But Short) First Date

Last Friday, I met up with 45-year-old Jdate.com member and radiologist Jacques at Accademia di Vino on NYC’s Upper East Side.

Accademia di Vino: One of the best wine bars and restaurants on the UES

Knowing from experience that older men tend to take dating more seriously, I opted to kick it up a notch wardrobe-wise and wear a dark blue Ann Taylor Loft sundress with a white Gap cardigan.

Jacques didn’t disappoint. Nixing the all too common first date attire of jeans and an untucked shirt, he showed up in a beige sports jacket and matching slacks with a striped collared shirt. Nice.

In keeping with his attire, Jacques' knowledge of local theater and literature was pretty sophisticated too. He mentioned recently rereading the French classic Madame Bovary, which led to a brief debate about the merits of fiction versus non-fiction. True to his y chromosome DNA, he admitted a preference for the latter.

Jacques expressed his appreciation that I emailed my phone number as soon as he contacted me on JDate. I told him I like to move things along, a preference he demonstrated in an unexpected way -- by bringing the evening to an end a little more than an hour after we’d sat down.

Just before parting company, Jacques said we should get together again sometime. I resisted the urge to laugh. If our first date wasn’t compelling enough to last more than 60 minutes, odds are there won’t be a second.

Still, our brief encounter was a much-needed reminder of how much fun it is to have a grown up date with grown up conversation. Even when you’re in your mid-thirties, that’s hard to come by.

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