I went on the first date that I've been on in about a year on July 13th. We decided to go to the mall for dinner and a movie. Like many first dates, it was incredibly awkward. I am in no way blaming my date seeing as I am awkward about 90% of the time, but I don't even blame myself all that much. It seems to be an undeniable truth in this world that first dates are just plain awkward. Part of the awkwardness came from the massive height difference between the two of us. I am a literal giant at 6'4" whereas my date was at the other end of the height spectrum at 5'2". Because of this height difference, I could only imagine how much awkwardness passers-by could feel seeing the two of us walking around the mall together.
Another thing that added to the discomfort was the fact that we both were super nervous about the whole thing. I know that, for myself at least, when I'm nervous it tends to make me far more awkward than I usually am. I'll start overthinking everything that I'm saying and, because of all of that, I end up as a giant ball of good ol', you guessed it, awkward. Because this date was the first one that I've been on in a year, my natural social ineptness was front and center much more than what I wanted it to be.
We decided to go and get dinner at this little '50s style diner in the mall that we went to. It was a bit strange that the diner was actually in the mall, but hey, we went with it. The place was pretty nice; it felt somewhat modernized, but oh well, choosing the restuaraunt wasn't odd. The uncomfortable part came when we got down to the conversation bit and didn't really know what to talk about. It quickly devolved into just making jokes about how it seemed that our waitress was coming to our table at the moments when we were the most awkward which, in turn, made it that much more awkward.
After a while at the restaurant, we decided to leave and walk around the mall for a bit before our movie started at 7. These two hours were the most awkward two hours of our entire date. They were so mind-blowingly uncomfortable because we kept having these weird little pregnant pauses. It probably didn't help seeing the massive height differences in the mirrors all around the mall. We eventually decided to go into Books-a-Million to just look at the books and other items that were there and make fun at our own awkward expense, which was enjoyable for the both of us.
Eventually, the evening creeped slowly towards seven and it was time to go to the movie theater to go see the "Big Friendly Giant." When we got there we went the wrong direction to get to our exact theater but we recovered and made it to the correct theater after laughing at our own clusy expense. We were lucky that there was enough room in the back of the theater that we were able to cuddle and watch the movie. The movie was very good and lighthearted and filled with a good bit of humor for the both of us to enjoy. After the movie ended around 9 we ended up hanging out for a little bit until 10:30 when the both of us had to go back home. Because of us deciding to spend a little more time together and generally being more confortable with each other the discomfort that we had experienced prior to the movie had all but evaporated. The date was many things silly, weird, awkward, and rather enjoyable. I would definitely recommend this as a first date seeing as it is a more relaxed atmosphere.
