Friends don't do blind dates with friends....

One of my best friends is slowly starting to think about totally maybe starting to date again. 
I love her like a sister, and so I am supportive.   She and I have been thick as thieves since John and I got married.  An old high school friend of Johns, we see each other more frequently than most any other friend I have and have promised each other to NEVER allow "old lady haircuts" to reside on either of our heads, as well as a number of other aging things we don't need to go into within this blog.

Being supportive, in my case, can't mean setting her up with a friend-of-a-friend OR being with her on her first date. Years ago my husband and I established these rules after one of the longest evenings of our lives, and the rules remains non negotiable.  Period.

It all began as an innocent connection between two friends-of-friends.  Knowing both of them from a distance, I got the eye-brow raise from my husband, but I was CONFIDENT that chemistry would prevail and love would bloom!  In fact the two connected by phone instantly and spent hours each night talking about their likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams - all that jazz.

When they finally decided to meet, I was the first sap that they contacted for help in facilitating.  Being the good dooby that I am, I coordinated the entire thing AT OUR HOME including munchie food, drinks, etc. with the understanding that they would meet on neutral ground, there would be love at first sight, and my husband and I would be dismissed as they took their romance to dinner.

What could possibly go wrong?  Famous last words.  In fact, by the end of the evening I was asking, "What could possibly go right?" 

From the minute the laid eyes on each other the chemistry evaporated like ice on a grill.  He was balding.  She was skinny with a nose like a beak.  Strike 1 - no physical chemistry.  My husband looked at me from across the room and rolled his eyes.

Strike 2 followed shortly thereafter.  She didn't drink, which caused him to drink like a fish.  "My God!," I thought to myself, "we're going to have to drive him home at this rate!"

I don't recall exactly when strike 3 mercifully came, but I do recall looking over at my husband on the couch, his head laying dead aross the back pillows, staring at the ceiling.  He was silently screaming, "KILL ME NOW!" 

Shortly thereafter they both left and went their seperate ways.  I never spoke of the evening again with either of them and have only kind-of kept touch with one since.

We made a promise as a couple to NEVER bring blind dates into our home, our precious and few date nights, or anywhere near us moving forward - and we never have!

But - she is my BEST friend, and I DO love her like a sister...so maybe just this one time...