Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Date Lab: Blind daters go where the wild things are

Will:?When I’m in [a] fun place with a large group of friends or people I like.

Shaw:?I just love being with the people I love, with no worries to distract us. Unless we are at a sporting event, where me and my friends tend to get a bit nuts.

Your type ...

Will:?Blond hair and blue eyes ... those features stand out to me; however, I really like well-spoken and well-rounded people who can keep my attention.

Shaw:?6-foot-2 and up. Lean, muscular but not bulky. Little bit nerdy with a good job. Yankees fan (I just can’t date Red Sox fans; I’ve tried).

Interests to share ...

Will:? Travel, cooking, biking, sports, arts and concerts ... but open to new things. I’d also be intrigued by a different outlook than mine; it’s good when both sides are heard.

Shaw:?Love of sports. Passionate about any and all kinds of music. Tapas and wine, or steak and Scotch for every dinner. Optimism. Love of traveling. Appreciation of the little things and staying in some Saturday nights.

About the date ...

6:30 p.m., ZooLights event at National Zoo, Woodley Park

Shaw: I’m a very private kind of person, so [Date Lab] was completely out of my comfort zone. Once I got there on time, it was, “How the [heck] am I going to know who this person is?” So I just sat down and decided that he would find me.

Will: I thought I saw Shaw. She looks like the type of girl I’d go after, and she was walking alone and holding her phone. So I walked outside and said, “Hey, are you here with Date Lab?”

Shaw:He’s really tall and I was sitting on a bench so I was, like, looking at his belly button. Immediately I thought he was so cute. [And] he’s the kind of guy that I could actually wear heels around, which I appreciate.

Will: We started walking and talking right away, going inside the exhibits. It was very comfortable right away.

Shaw: It was definitely that nervous, not-too-deep conversation like, “Where are you from?” He’s really nice and really outgoing, [and] he’s such a gentleman. I was shocked when he kept opening doors for me. I was like, “This doesn’t happen here.”

Will: I really wanted to see the reptile house, because I was terrified of snakes when I grew up. So I told her, ... “It’s going to be a big step for me.” It was pretty cool. We came across some pretty freaky snakes.

Shaw: We had to go through it twice. We were walking by it again, and he was like, “Let’s just go in again.” I thought that was really cute, very endearing. The zoo was fun. It was freezing, though, so once we saw everything we decided to go to dinner.

8:15 p.m., Ardeo+Bardeo, Cleveland Park

Will: We dove right into the menu. I told [Shaw], “You pick out the wine,” because she said she liked wine. I’m pretty daring when it comes to food. She told me from the get-go, “Well, I can’t eat shrimp or scallops, because I’m allergic, but I’ll eat anything else.” I was like: Okay, good, she has no fear.

Shaw: At dinner, we really opened up. I had been kind of iffy before that on him; there was so much distraction at the zoo that I had no way of knowing if we had anything in common. But dinner was awesome. He’s the more animated one. He likes talking, and I like listening, so it was kind of perfect. [And] he wasn’t trying to put on a front. He was just goofy and fun and laid-back. We went through the wine kind of quickly and then we started drinking whiskey. It was my idea, actually. I just like it.


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