Mixer Moment

I have been completely forthcoming about the fact that I signed up for an online dating site. Well, this dating site sponsors offline events in which a bunch of singles go to bars, cooking classes, etc...with other similar age/nearby singles.

I attended one of these events on Thursday night. It was a "pizza making" class.

For anyone who is from Connecticut (or even beyond really), New Haven pizza is infamous for their thin crust magnificence. There are two well known establishments- Pepe's and Sally's. You can even add Modern into the mix. Either way- people are generally in one camp or the other. People can get a little crazy and I liken it to the Philly Cheesesteak wars. You get emphatic Sally's fans and you get emphatic Pepe's fans. I am not quite emphatic about both, but damn does Pepe's make good pizza.

The event was held at Pepe's On The Spot, and it was about 20-25 people. It was my first time attending, what essentially was a singles mixer.

Upon entering the place, it felt awkwardly like a middle school dance. Not quite seperated by gender, but almost. People kind of picked their little groups of people to get to know. Most people had come alone, I dragged my friend along for the ride. There was mostly women and they were more of the 35+ crowd. (At 28, I was one of the youngest ones there, if not the youngest)

On a side note, this is the text my friend set me before the event. I laughed out loud.

Pepe's provided us with dinner and unlimited beer/wine/soda. Definitely best to feed us first because A) it gave us the opportunity to chat with the people around us and B) my friend and I would've probably gnawed our own arms off because we were pretty hungry (not to mention the delicious smells that waffed through the place)

Following food, we mingled and chatted with everyone. Lots of "How old are you?" "What do you do for a living?" "Where are you from?" and conversation branching off from there. There were a few MDs, an engineer, a few teachers, a counselor, and many others.

I should mention that while I was not interested in any of the guys at the event, it was a good chance to practice my conversation skills without the pretense of any expectations or attraction. It was a good experience in pushing myself out of my comfort zone and my friend agreed with this notion.

When it came time to make our own pizzas, we were ushered in pairs to play with the dough as instructed by the staff of the restaurant, pick our toppings, and then they actually allowed me to put the pizza in their VERY OLD brick oven. You shimmy the uncooked pizza, then you sort of pull the pizza paddle out as you angle it up. There is definitely technique there that I DID NOT master but also didn't mess up too badly.

Here is what the pizza looked like (I forgot to take a picture of it while still in the box):

In the end, my friend and I ended up staying for 2 1/2 hours (which is about 2 hours longer than I thought I might last). We didn't make any love connections, but we were social and chatty and not necessarily because I was drinking a little alcohol.

We decided to participate in a second event in February at a local bar for a sponsored Happy Hour. We figure that the first one wasn't so bad and we might get lucky with a bigger "pool" of guys to chose from.

(I know that this is all sorts going against the "it happens when you stop looking" but in the same breath, I find it very hard to meet single guys)

Has anyone else ever had any experience with online dating? Any dating tips in general because I have no clue what I am doing and at 28 I am not getting any younger haha...