One minute late

This report covers a first date with the subject referred to here as E., held on Thursday, September 17, at 7:00 pm, at a country bar in Chandler. The date ran 165 minutes. The cost was $46.57, paid in full by me.

It is the fifth subject on file. B.’s account closed on September 3, C.’s on September 6 and D.’s on September 9, and I closed all 3. This one opened on September 15, with a message she sent me on a social media app. C.’s and D.’s were both opened by a message I sent. After hers, I proposed the date and chose the venue.

Summary of charges

• Duration: 165 minutes
• Travel, mine: 30 minutes, round trip
• Travel, E.’s: 20 minutes, round trip
• Questions asked by me: 12
• Questions asked by E.: 10
• Phone checks by E.: 0
• Phone checks by me: 0
• Out-of-pocket costs: $46.57. My drink, fish and chips, and the tip.
• Amount contributed by E.: $1.00, estimated. Her drink, bought before I arrived.
• Amount requested of E.: $0.00
• Follow-up: yes at filing

Cost per hour in person: $16.93. This arc: $46.57 across 1 date. All subjects: $3,045.84 across 2,805 minutes in person.

Minute 0: arrival

I arrived 1 minute late. She was already seated at the bar.

This file has entered my arrival time before. On April 25 it read: I arrived early. I arrive early. On July 22 I arrived early again and called it the standing pattern. On July 31 I arrived 15 minutes early and she arrived 15 minutes late. On September 17 the standing pattern came through the front door 1 minute after the hour and found the other party had been there long enough to order.

We recognized each other as I walked in. We waved. I walked over, and she got up from the bar and hugged me.

Her drink was already on the bar, and it was non-alcoholic, and she had bought it herself before I got there. I ordered mine. B. was also at the bar before I reached it, on September 3, and that was not a date.

A review of the kitchen

I asked whether she had eaten. She had not, and said she doesn’t eat much anyway. [paraphrase] She then said the food there was not good. [paraphrase]

I ordered fish and chips, on the reasoning that it is hard to get wrong.

That is the second review of a restaurant’s food issued by the other party on this site. The first was on April 25, and that form is titled for it. This one arrived before the order, from someone who had eaten there, and I ordered against it on a theory. The fish and chips were good enough and nothing special, which on the evidence of 1 plate supports her review and my theory at the same time.

She ordered nothing to eat. For 165 minutes she refilled the non-alcoholic drink, which was soda water and something else and was free, and ate some of my chips.

Twelve and ten

She told me where she has lived: a couple of other states, and Arizona, where she is from. She told me about her children and her family, most of whom live in the area. I asked. She asked back. The conversation ran on its own for most of the evening.

Questions asked: 12 by me, 10 by her.

Fourteen encounters on this site had recorded a question count before this one. Twelve came out even. The 2 that did not were September 5, at 10 and 15, and September 8, at 6 and 0.

This is the fifteenth. It is 12 and 10. Twelve is the most questions I have recorded asking at any table here, and 22 in total is second only to September 5. The form balances the row, because the band on the question count is 50% and 10 is inside it. The count is reconstructed by topic, as every count on this site is, and I am the party who reconstructed it.

Phone checks: 0 and 0 in 165 minutes. The file now holds 10 phone checks in 2,805 minutes, and 7 of them are from September 8.

Karaoke

The evening had been expected to include dancing. It turned out to be karaoke night. We agreed that neither of us is a fan of karaoke, and stayed 165 minutes anyway.

She told me about her week. She dances several times a week. She paddle boards weekly. She goes to pool gatherings with friends. It is a more active life than mine, by her account and by mine.

My week, as this site records it, holds a ledger. Since April 20 it has logged 2,805 minutes at restaurants, bars, a mall, a concert and my own house. It does not itemize the time spent writing each of them down afterward. Neither of us disclosed a position on this date, and the nearest thing to one was that we both dislike karaoke, which the panel has no row for.

The paid column

The form reads $46.57 paid by me and $1.00 by E.

The $46.57 is a receipt. The $1.00 is mine. She bought her first drink before I arrived, I did not see the price, and her refills after that were free. I have entered $1.00 so that the column records she was in it, and the basis on the row says estimate, which prints a mark beside the figure.

It is the first figure other than $0.00 in the contributed column on this site. Four subjects came before her. Three read $0.00 there and the fourth was never recorded. The first time the column moved, I moved it, on an assumption, for reciprocity’s sake, and the panel credits the row, because the paid test asks only whether both parties were in the column at all.

The other side of the row needs the same scrutiny. Of the $46.57, the part spent on her is the tip to the bartender, as best I recall. Her share of the food was some of my chips. The remainder is a drink I ordered for myself and a plate of fish and chips I ordered for myself, against advice.

The column has no way to say that. It records who paid and how much. On every form here that included a meal, it has booked my own dinner as a cost of the evening, and I was the one eating it. The $3,045.84 this site is named for includes every one of those plates. Some part of that sunk cost is dinner I would have eaten on a Thursday regardless, entered as though somebody else had been served it.

This is the cheapest first date in the file per hour: $16.93, against $47.91 on April 20, $82.67 on September 5 and $65.92 on September 8. It is the fourth cheapest hour overall, $0.24 behind July 25.

Minute 165: the car

At the end of the evening I walked her to her car, hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. Then I walked to mine and drove home, 15 minutes.

Physical initiation: 1 and 1, being her hug when I arrived and mine, with the kiss, at the car. Across A.’s arc that column read 18 to 1, and it opened C.‘s at 1 and 0 on September 5. The other party’s side has read anything but 0 once before in the file, on June 9. This is the first time on a first date.

She texted before I got home to say she had a good time. I returned the sentiment. Then, from home, I asked whether she would like to go out again. She said yes. The second date is set for the week of September 21.

That makes this the first first date on this site to file with follow-up at yes. A.’s filed at pending on April 20 and was agreed 3 days later. C.’s and D.’s filed at none. B.’s read yes, and it was not a date.

Findings

Questions: 12 and 10. The third uneven count in 15, and the most questions I have recorded asking.

Phone checks: 0 and 0, in 165 minutes.

Travel: 30 and 20, round trip. Fifty minutes of road between us, the least on file for a date both parties drove to. My figure has been 90 minutes on 10 forms. The band on the travel row is 40%, and 20 is inside it.

Arrival: 1 minute late, mine. The first late arrival this file has entered for me.

Warnings received: 1, that the food there was not good, issued before I ordered. Heeded: 0.

Rationalizations recorded: 0.

Contributed by E.: $1.00, estimated by me. The first figure in that column on this site other than $0.00.

Requested of E.: $0.00. That column reads $0.00 for all 5 subjects, and it is still the only one on this form whose value was mine alone to set. The contributed column was not supposed to be, and on this form I set it anyway.

Proposed the date and chose the venue: both mine, after she opened the correspondence. The split needs one party in each, and it fails.

Reciprocity: 4 of 5 columns balanced, the question count, the money, the travel and the physical initiation. One of the 4 balances on a dollar I entered myself.

Costs

• Drinks and food: $46.57
• Total: $46.57

Cost per hour in person: $16.93, against $65.15 across everything this ledger has recorded, this date included.

Running position, this arc: 1 of 2 dates held, $46.57 out of pocket, 165 minutes in person, 50 minutes of road between the 2 of us, $1.00 contributed by the other party, estimated, and $0.00 requested of her.

Running position, all subjects: $3,045.84 out of pocket, 2,805 minutes in person.

Status

The follow-up field reads yes. The second date was requested by me, after I got home, and agreed by her the same night. It is set for next week.

The account is open. Recoverable: $0.00.