And how do YOU like YOUR steak prepared?

This posting comes by request from a dear friend.

I, like some, was very secluded to the extremely large and growing world of dating services. We have all seen commercials for eharmony.com or chemistry.com but have you ever met a couple who succeed with such services? Just recently, I had the opportunity to participate in the The Worlds largest speed dating event.

Hosted by Purple Lab, this dating event was stumbled upon by a roommate of mine and sparked an interest with almost all of us. Mainly because of the lack of information we had on its nature; the only knowledge I had on the topic was gathered from scenes of 40 Year Old Virgin and stories told to me by a dear friend, Gomez. My curiosity led me to the water front W Hotel in Hoboken, New Jersey, an ideal place to meet your true love.

Clearly, none of us 21-22 year old college students were looking for those true loves, but then again, no one plans to meet a true love. Right? However, the snowballing curiosity finally got us all in.

Here's a quick play-by-play from my experience.

1. Minor preliminary drinking at our apartment - something to "take the edge off".
2. One mode of transportation to another until we reached our final destination...1 hour late.
3. After missing the introduction/welcome speech, we quickly found our seats. (There are no names/name tags, only numbers. I was B133. Females were F###.)
4. The room was quite large with a DJ type host stand to keep the mood set with some background music. I found and met my first date.
5. Sat down across from G133 (Patty), a 31 year old, believe it or not, hottie. I was quite surprised to see myself sitting in such a position.
6. Her drink was empty, mine was non-existent. She purchased us a round. God bless traveling business women and Johnny Walker Black. W Hotels are not cheap.
7. We chatted for three minutes after the initial commencement and then got up, and moved one seat to the right.
8. Patty turned to Chelsea, Chelsea to Katheryn, Katheryn to Sarah.... You get the idea.
9. After all 20 dates are over and your little pad is full of fun people's names/numbers, everyone spills out into the hotel lobby bar for the "follow-ups". The real ballers went to the Champaigne Room for bottle service. Damn yuppies.

Lesson Learned: There are two types of people you will encounter when speed dating. Singles eagerly looking to get laid/find love. And then there are those people's friends, brought along to make themselves feel less sorry and less awkward. I like to categorize myself as the latter.

If any of you readers get the opportunity to give this adventure a shot, I HIGHLY recommend doing so. If you can top a middle-management employee of a skyscraper window repair and cleaning company, go for it. 'Cause that was my profession.

With Love,

Abe Froman

(Yup, thats me)