The Leather Pants - Date 3

One girl's misadventures in online dating - Date 3: Dan

      Emily came over one day to set up her online dating and I'm pretty sure Dan was in my Daily Matches or we somehow stumbled upon his profile. He looked sort of different in each picture and we couldn't decide if he was cute enough to message. I guess eventually I must have messaged him and it must have gone well. We had messaged for longer than the other guys before mentioning we should meet up, then I was not that interested so I didn't make an effort, then I was too hungover the day we were supposed to meet up (after a camping trip I took with some girlfriends). So it took a while to meet up and at that point I was already bored and not wanting to. In the end, I'm glad I went out.

    On a Monday night I went to go meet Dan. I didn't wear the leather pants because I was tired and didn't feel like squeezing myself into them. I wasn't late, but he was 15 minutes early and texted when he arrived with a description of what he was wearing so that I could find him. It was really cute because when I arrived, there were literally 3 people in there and he was hard to miss. We were at a Starbucks over by the airport at 8:30 pm on a Monday. This is a bad idea because caffeine keeps me awake; I had hot chocolate instead, he had coffee and he paid :) love that. After getting our drinks I wasted no time asking questions because I could remember a few things we'd discussed in emails and one was that he could tell me how pressing vinyl works. He told me all about how they record the sound waves/vibrations, then a stylus etches the vibrations into a lacquer plate, then they electroplate it, then press it into a vinyl puck, and voilà! A record! Anyway, that's the Coles' Notes version, if you want more details you should check it out. It was super interesting and he was super passionate about it, turns out he worked for 9 years to save money to start his own business and now he has one of very few vinyl pressing places in the world, has his own recording studio, and aspirations of starting a record label. Sounds pretty awesome!

    So Starbucks closes at 9 pm on Mondays and we had only been there 30 minutes and I wasn't done finding things out yet, so I suggested we go next door for a drink, which was also closed.  He then said we could go drive somewhere for a drink or we could go see the studio (I know this was a bad idea and I could have gotten murdered, but how could I say no to a private studio tour and also seeing how the vinyl pressing worked?) clearly I said yes.

    The drive to the studio was sketchy and as I drove I convinced myself he would murder me there. It was in the industrial area near the airport and I was turned around and hopelessly lost. We parked and there was a sign on the door, so at least it seemed legit. I joked that this was definitely where he would murder me. This is a common theme of my dates, recall Anderson joking about murder. He laughed and we went inside and I was not murdered; there were other people around so it seemed less scary. He showed me the vinyl presses and the studio and then we listened to records and chatted a bit and then I went home. We did not hug goodbye. His record choices left something to be desired, he chose Arcade Fire, which is not my favorite, and then Michael Jackson. Considering I had looked at all the records sitting there, I felt a little disappointed.

    I am actually pretty stoked about this date. Maybe because my hopes had been so low to begin with, maybe because I learned so much and I love learning, maybe because he didn't bore me to death and actually asked questions, maybe all three of these things. Dan texted me the next day and asked me to lunch or dinner Saturday. We have another date Saturday for lunch and I'll let you know how it goes! My first follow-up date! This might necessitate the return of the leather pants ...

Love Sack Murda