Early last week, a friend of mine e-mailed me to see if I wanted to go to a speed dating event with her. I hemmed and hawed and then decided to talk it over with Stewie, the voice of reason. Stew: "What else are you going to be doing?" Me: "Nothing, really." Stew: "So go. What's the worst that could happen?" (That's her favorite question, actually. Sometimes it's not even rhetorical.)

So, I went, if only for the $2 domestics (except for Yuengling, which, when did PA secede?), $3 imports, and $3 well drinks. I ended up having a good time. Most of the guys were nice guys, but not people I'd date. One of them replied to everything I said with, "Right on. Right on." He also answered my question of, "Did you grow up around here?" (Sidenote: Most of the people around here did not in fact grow up around here.) with, "What do you mean by around here?" Um...

Then there was the guy who told me he played football in college. I asked him what position, and he said, "Cornerback." He then challenged me about what a cornerback is, and was impressed when I knew. (What? Girls can understand football?) I asked him if his favorite NFL team was the Falcons, and he said, "How'd you guess?" "You told me you were from Atlanta. It was a reasonable starting point."

The last guy I "dated" was drunk enough to be slurring his words. He started out by telling me that the last people he met through speed dating were liars. Then, as an added bonus he told me how he didn't like my friend (the one that I came with). He did know we were friends. It turned out that he is a recruiter, so he spent the next 3 minutes incredulous that I am a PE. "That's one of the hardest tests to pass! Do you know how hard it is to find a PE?" He repeated the last question several times, until I told him that I worked with several and that many of my friends are also PEs, so no, I don't know how hard it is to find one.

I talked to one of the guys that I had circled "yes" to afterward, and he started telling me a story about how his friend's girlfriend had moved to Chicago. They ended up breaking up, and then he proceeded to tell me all about the crush he had on her, even though he didn't know it. He said, "But I'm over it now." Me: "Are ya sure?" Him: "Why did I talk about that?"

It turns out that only one of the guys that I checked yes to also checked yes for me, which is fine. The ones I did pick wasn't because I was really interested in a relationship (because, hello, 5 minutes?)with them, but I thought I might enjoy seeing again.

It was an interesting experience, but I'm not convinced I do it again. I can meet strange freaky guys and guys who aren't interested in me for free on any given day.