The Matchmaker

Tonight, I had my first date since I started the blog. Don't worry; it wasn't with a matchmaker. It was set up by a matchmaker. This is not a matchmaker in the shadchan sense but someone more modern than that. I decided it would be a good alternative to JDate, which is not to say that I haven't had some good luck with JDate (The Ex, for example).

It turns out it wasn't such a good alternative, though, since on JDate I would have had to make an effort to find someone I had less in common with than this guy. He was a perfectly nice guy, but did she pick his name out of a hat? He is Israeli, around my age, lived in Europe for a few years, and is now getting his M.B.A. at one of the foremost schools of hotel management in the U.S. He is one of the only Israelis I have ever met with an accent I have trouble understanding (I think that his time in Europe may have changed his accent). On the phone I can barely understand him, and even sitting across from him in a restaurant I didn't catch everything. But maybe that's okay, because (and this is the key part of why the date didn't work) we had VERY LITTLE to say to each other. We (mostly I) were able to keep the conversation going for two hours because we had never met and could exchange information about our families, jobs, etc., but already towards the end we were running out of things to talk about. Not promising.

OK, perhaps I am being too hard on the matchmaker. This guy and I actually have three things in common: 1) he's somewhat observant; 2) he loves to read; 3) he likes travel to Europe. I think that the matchmaker, whose practice is largely regular American Conservative, thinks that any two people who are more observant than that will have lots in common. Or maybe I'm being too cynical. The point is that there was no click, which was disappointing. I almost never have luck with dating Israelis. I think there's a big cultural difference in many cases.

My parents asked me if I will go out to him again. I told him that whenever I am completely non-interested in a guy, he calls. I guess my dad is right that non-interest is a turn-on. If only I could fake it for guys I DO like.