Bad dates and great stories from My Blind Date Went Blind!

A surprising number of true life love stories seem to start with blind dates. Whether it’s a fix up by a friend or a first meeting from the online dating world, blind dates give you a fresh start with someone totally new, which can be a recipe for romance.

Of course, it can also be a recipe for disaster, and the most horrible date stories are usually the most hilarious. The strange-but-true stories My Blind Date Went Blind have the same addictive quality of those “trauma-rama” embarrassing moments in teen magazines, but with even crazier adult scenarios (and far fewer mentions of feminine care products). Plus there are even happy endings, despite calamity, to give blind daters hope for the future.

Here’s one of my favorite stories from the book:

“The Glass-by-Glass Menagerie”
Harvey P., 44

I’m cruising Match.com one night and find this woman who looks great: forty, divorced, no kids, good job, pretty smile. I write to her, we flirt on e-mail, and we set up a date in a bar.

After she finished her first drink, she says, “I have a confession.” I have a good guess what it is–she looks older than forty. But she surprises me. “I actually do have a child. A son.” Okay, weird lie, but whatever. I don’t mind kids.

After the second drink, she’s smiling a little bigger and waving her hands around more. “Alright, Harvey,” she says, “I can’t lie to you anymore. I actually have two kids, a boy and a girl.”

During her third drink, she starts initiating body contact, laying her hand on my arm to make a point, brushing against my leg when she gets up to g to the bathroom. As she drains her glass, she says, “You know what, Harvey, I like you. So full disclosure this time. Harvey, I got three kids. My little girl Roseannae just turned five.”

I did not stick around for drink number four.

For more hilarious and harrowing tales from the dating world, read My Blind Date Went Blind! And Other True Stories of Dates Gone Wrong.