Key Takeaways: This date was truly magical Vitals: Name: Kelly (round 4) Length of date: 5 hours How the date was obtained: arranging for a 4th Where: Hook and Plow restaurant Last week, Kelly and I planned to go to a restaurant near his place, but when my roommate woke up feeling achy with a sore throat, we postponed getting together and had a virtual dinner date instead. Luckily, my roommate’s COVID test came back negative and the in-person date with Kelly was back on. Yay for my roommate not having the dirty ‘Rona and yay for me because I was set for another date with Kelly. In truth, I wasn’t exactly feeling “yay” that our date was back on. In fact, I was pretty nervous which was surprising. One of my biggest take-aways from Date a Week LA has been my increased confidence about dating. I stick with this mentality: what’s the worst that could happen? I’ll meet a new person, maybe we’ll have some chemistry or maybe not. In the meantime, I’ll have expanded my comfort zone/my social network and there’s always another date on the horizon. One. Every. Week. But since meeting Kelly, my anxious dating tendencies started to reappear, and I think it’s because I see a whole lot of potential in him. It’s so exciting to feel this way because the whole goal behind Date a Week LA was to meet someone that I really care about who also cares for me. But it’s been years since my last real boyfriend, so it’s nerve-wracking to start something new. These thoughts were swirling in my head for two days before this date, so you could say that I was… well, pretty anxious. Eventually, after trying on five different outfit combinations, curling my hair, and getting a pep talk from my best friend, I left for my date. I hoped in my Honda CRV, turned on the Spotify playlist “Happy Hits” and tried my best to stay calm. When I got to Kelly’s house, he was waiting outside for me, looking really cute and smiley and my anxiety started to float away. After a quick tour of his apartment, we hopped in his car (he opened and closed my door btw – so cute) and headed for the restaurant. In the car, I saw another side of Kelly: a side that likes to jam out. He turned on his sweet tunes and talked about his love for music, he even mentioned that he plays the ukulele – classic surfer dude. Unfortunately, the jam session was cut short because we made it to Hook and Plow for dinner. Then, we both ordered the salmon salad – omg so embarrassing we are literally twins!! Jk. After we put in our order, I just felt this urge; the urge to tell him about this blog. I’m not exactly sure what came over me, but I just looked at his trusting face and felt like he should know. So, I spilled. I told him everything. I told him about the 30 dates I’ve been on, how I’ve been blogging for the past seven months about my dating life, oh and that he is mentioned in this blog. I could see his face processing all this new information. Then, he probably saw my face looking concerned after looking at his face. I call this face-ception. Anyway, Kelly could not have handled my confession any better. He thought it was a creative idea and applauded my courage for tackling this undertaking. I reassured him that I changed his name to preserve his anonymity, so he really didn’t see the harm in being written about. (I’ve also written some pretty candid complimentary things about Kelly, so nothing for him to worry about on that front.) Anyway, after I told him and saw his positive reaction, I felt like I could finally breathe. After I came clean, we enjoyed the rest of our dinner, took a drive around Manhattan beach, Kelly accidentally went down the wrong way on a one way (no humans were harmed during the date), and then we headed back to his place. When we got back to his home, I felt like I could finally start settling in with Kelly. And before you start getting stressed about me being in his apartment (dad, I am talking to you), we were honestly just talking and playing cards. Oh, and he showed me some card tricks. I wrote on my very first blog post that I was worried I would end up dating some magician, and now I couldn’t be more excited to be going on dates with this amateur illusionist. I mean, he is no David Blane, but his card tricks truly had me mystified. Lastly, I will say that the night ended with a kiss, and not just a Blarney Stone kiss (read Date #31 for reference), but a real kiss. I know this means that I am kissing and telling, but I won’t say anything else about the kiss – besides the fact that it left me with a huge smile on my face. Overall Experience: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ + ⭐️ (for the kiss) The future for us… I am very hopeful Next Week: Another date with Kelly, and this time it’s on my home turf.
- Isabel