This is NOT a date

So here is my question. Why are people so worried about something being called a date? I had a roommate who unless she really liked the guy she was going out with she would call it an outing. Are we afraid that if we call an outing a date that we will be actually showing that we are interested in someone???? Heaven forbid that we should actually want to show someone that we enjoy their company and want to get to know them better. Or even if we aren't interested why isn't it a date? I just don't understand...

As you can tell I have strong feelings about this. One summer I had two incidences where I wanted to pop the guy in the nose because he made sure I knew something wasn't a date. DUH!!! The first incident was mostly just a introduction to the cruel world where things appear to be dates when the person you are with snatches that dream away from you and tells you are a fool for thinking such a thing could actually happen. It's a cruel cruel world out there.

The second incident was one that has become a classic in my life to demonstrate how people can be complete idiots. A few years ago I had a crush on a guy, we'll call him Bob. Bob seemed like a really cool, good guy. Over the summer we had gotten to know each other and found ourselves seeing each other frequently and even talking on the phone occasionally. Well by September I was feeling like it was high time that Bob should ask me out. I just wanted to go out with him on a real date to see if there truly was an interest there. One day we were talking on the phone and it came up that he was going country dancing with his roommate that evening (well not "with" his roommate but with his roommate). He said they were going to try and see if they could get a few other people to go with them. I told him I would really like to join them because I really enjoy country dancing. Well the hour came in which we were supposed to leave to drive down. He showed up at my house and told me that his roommate had backed out on him and no one else was able to go, so it was just the two of us. Perfect, I thought. This was a great time to have Bob all to myself and actually get to know him. The ride down was pretty fun and we talked quite a bit. It was just casual and I was gaining more insight into him. I was actually beginning to see that maybe he wasn't the best match for me and that I shouldn't waste my time on him anymore. but we were about to spend a long evening together.

Well then we went into the dance and well let's just say that the rest of the night I was envisioning how I could trip him, kick him, and pinch him and make it all look like an accident. I ended up being his wing man. Hint: Guys..... girls don't like to be the wing men, especially when they have been crushing on you, so don't be a complete dufus and treat them like they are a girl worthy of your attention even if you aren't interested....

We danced a few songs together but most of the evening I watched as he flirted and asked other girls to dance. By then I didn't care that it wasn't me because I could see that he was a complete moron and I didn't want that anyway. Well then I had an experience in which I swear one of the 3 Nephites came to my rescue. It is a really sweet story and I'll have to write about that some other time but for now we are focusing on non-dates. Anyway as Bob the slob and I were leaving after staying there until the darn place had closed, he asked who the guy I had danced with was. Of course this was the miraculous story of the Nephite but I wasn't going to say anything about this to him so I said well I'm just glad he showed up because Bob wasn't paying any attention to me. That's when the infamous declaration came from him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, this was NOT a date", yeah, thanks Einstein. I figured that out a long time ago I thought but I really said, "Yeah, I know and if it had been one it would have been a really bad one." HA, in your face sucker! That little jibe was my virtual kick, and it felt good. He was taken aback when I said that and felt all insulted by my saying it but it felt good to get it out there. "Well" I said, "It's true, I wouldn't want to be on a date with someone who is out there hitting on other girls." I guess he took that for what it was worth and the rest of the ride home was pretty painful for both of us.

Why couldn't he just have been normal and cool about things? Whoa, whoa whoa this is NOT a date.... thank you so much for making me feel like a complete loser. I have since decided that he is gay and that he probably did want to go "with" his roommate instead of me. This has helped my self worth go up again, knowing it wasn't me it was him..... Dork!