Astute readers will have been wondering "When will La Gringa share the details of that last speed dating adventure?" Well, we’ve been putting it off primarily because we have had Actual Paying Work To Do ™ at Big-Ass Publishing Company (albeit work of the freelance variety). It has also been rather sunshine-y and lovely outside, which means what little time La Gringa did have was spent sitting on our front stoop wearing shades, looking way cool, sipping a gigantic Dunkin’ Donuts Turbo Iced Coffee, and wading merrily through Dan Simmon’s enormous historical thriller, The Terror (a book that is simply too gigantic to be portable, by the way).
But we digress.
Now, after La Gringa’s last tragic foray into speed dating, we knew better than to go expecting anything crazyfreakywild like, oh, an actual date. But for sheer entertainment value, speed dating is pretty hard to beat.
This particular event was run by a different organization, and seemed less haphazardly slapped together. Like the previous event, the women were split up into several smaller circles and given a series of topics to discuss for one minute per person. The moderator, a psychologist, had prepared a series of mostly intriguing questions that kept the conversation lively and more or less interesting and she was good about making sure people moved into their new groups quickly.
The theme of this event was Core Values. It was speed dating for the Touchy Feely Over-Analyzed Very Very Earnest Set. (Most of whom liked to play golf, incidentally. And sail. And wear pastel polo shirts. Really, La Gringa has never seen such a large and effusive gathering of Dinah Shore Dykes all in one place in Manhattan.)
The problem with a theme like this, of course, lies in one’s definition of the words "core values". To La Gringa, God is a core value. But so is dark chocolate. The ability to laugh at one’s self is a core value. Integrity is a core value. But so is not being allergic to cats.
Overall, however, it seemed to be a good group of women who would nevertheless *never in a million bazillion years* ever have any single thing in common with one another (except for the Dinah Shore Dykes) much less be interested in dating one another. Oh, well.
The very best thing about the event, however, was this:
The moderator’s water bottle carrier, a crystal-beaded purple and blue and fuschia thing of wonder. La Gringa became ridiculously obsessed with this water bottle thingie, to the point of distraction. It was just so…Liberace! We tried and tried to snap a picture of it without Lady Moderator seeing us, but we were never devious enough. Finally, seeing La Gringa’s desperation, OkieExpat (who was also in attendance at this shindig) volunteered to go up to the moderator and use sheer chutzpah to get a photo for La Gringa. (Note: You have now seen the word "chutzpah" used twice in one week on Band Camp, surely a record for this blog.)
And the best part? Lady Moderator has THREE more of these water bottle carrier holder thing-a-ma-bobs, all in different stunning Liberace color palettes.
The verdict? Worth every penny just to see that damned water bottle thingie! (Oh, and, La gringa did get one phone number from a woman who owned her own house-cleaning business. She’d been listening to La Gringa talk about her hairball-prone cats at one point, and said "Girl, you got two cats. I KNOW you need a good cleaning lady!" Indeed.)
