Geek Speed Dating In Freehold Nj
“So, what do you like to do for fun?,' my date asks and I immediately panic. I showed up here with big expectations, curious about what speed dating is really like and hopeful I might at least meet someone intriguing. Now it's 10 seconds into Date One and I fear this was a terrible mistake. Five minutes per person can’t be that hard, right? He looks at me expectantly as I clutch my $5 house white wine and take a sip.
SPEEDdating on Mar 9, 2006 in Freehold, NJ at Postal code 07728, US. SPEEDdating event lasts for around 3 hours, including the breaks, depending on the. Geek Speed Dating. Geek Speed Dating is a service that organizes events in which participants go through rounds of dating during a session in hopes of meeting that special someone.
“I really love to... eat? Oh, and running. I enjoy that, too, sometimes.”
I came here tonight with the hopes of meeting my next boyfriend. Or, well, that’s what I was supposed to expect. In truth, I came here hoping for a funny story, something I could joke about with my friends as I recalled the things I do to try to salvage my struggling love life. I’ve developed a habit of reporting on dating culture — the good, the bad, and the ugly of trying to navigate love in your 20s. You’d think I’d have it figured out by now, but the truth is that I have a horrible track record in practice. Apps are exhausting, life is hectic, and I can never seem to attract the type of men I want to meet.
The natural solution to this? Attend a speed dating event. In theory, it’s an ideal format for busy people: seven dates, five minutes each, two hours of my night, max. As it turns out, speed dating is a bit like the old-school version of dating apps. It gives you the benefit of meeting several people in a short amount of time, which ups the odds that you’ll find someone you click with.
Michelle McSweeney, linguist and expert on digital relationships, says that speed dating can work well simply because of numbers: “It’s the Tinder idea. Get your face in front of as many other faces as possible,' she tells Elite Daily. Apparently it’s also important to make yourself stand out from the crowd. “The quality of relationship-defining memories predicts relationship satisfaction, so really good, emotionally intense and meaningful early memories can fuel a lifetime of love,” McSweeney says. “So if you do go speed dating, make sure it's memorable!” Challenge accepted.
I find NY Minute Dating online and sign up for an event called “Single Professionals, 20s and 30s,” which sounds more promising than others on the list like “Halloween Singles Party” or “Cougars and Cubs.” It’s $35 per event, which feels steep, but I take the plunge. I am a sophisticated Single Professional, and I intend to get my money’s worth.
I show up to the Muses 35 karaoke bar in Midtown Manhattan on a Friday night, dressed in a gray sweater tucked into a dark skirt with riding boots. It’s the same thing I wore to work, which feels very Single Professional and therefore makes me proud. The Girl in Charge greets me with a name tag and a slip of paper to write down everyone’s names. Apparently the way this works is that at the end of the night, we can each go online and submit the names of people we want to see again. Then we’ll find out in a few days whether we have any “matches.” This feels unnervingly like a real-world dating app where you’re sorting through men sitting there in the flesh, trying their hardest to make you swipe right on them.
The first people I meet are two women who showed up together. They’re adorable and good-natured about the whole thing, which makes me feel better immediately. One of them tells me she attended one of these events a year ago and met a guy she dated for a while. Having zero expectations is key, she says. You just have to have fun.
A few minutes after 7 p.m., Girl in Charge rings a bell, signaling the first date to begin. Date One is in a blue-and-white checked button-down and works in transportation. He looks like he’s probably in hisearly 30s, and he’s definitely nice enough, but I'm not super into him right off the bat. What really throws me is that initial question about my hobbies and my surprisingly pathetic response.
Wait, what do I actually like to do for fun? Am I THAT boring?
We chat for a few minutes about how he’s lived in the city for over a decade, so he knows it pretty well. I tell him I’m still new here, I’m from the South, I’m a writer, everything I can think of that would make me seem Interesting and Witty.
Next bell rings. Date Two wears glasses and works in I.T. He’s been to several speed dating events before. He gives me advice on the process, telling me it won’t do me any good to overthink it, the best thing to do is just let the conversation flow. This is also the point I remember this is a karaoke bar, as a girl 20 feet away starts screeching “I Will Always Love You” at a fever pitch so loud I can’t hear Date Two tell me about his hobbies. We pause for a moment and look at each other as we let the song play out. Great song, I comment, he agrees. The bell rings and I’m grateful.
Date Three is from Ukraine, but he’s lived in the States since he was 4 years old. I decide this is the perfect opportunity to tell him about my recent trip to Budapest, which I know isn’t really all that close to Ukraine, but of course, I’d love to visit Ukraine one day if I ever have the chance because it seems like a beautiful country and of course, I loved every moment of my time in Eastern Europe this summer.
He nods in silence. This is the moment I realize I’m going to be talking to myself for the entirety of the next five minutes. The music is only getting louder, so I’m leaning in until I’m about two inches from his ear and screaming about how much I love to write and can he tell I’m from the South because usually people can’t detect my accent. I think he tells me what he does for a living, but I can’t quite make it out, and the one piece of information I manage to gather is that he goes to a lot of concerts and is losing hearing in his left ear as a result. Thankfully I’m leaning into his right.
To my immense relief, Date Four wants to talk at me while I listen intently. He’s a native New Yorker, believe it or not, and his suit jacket tells me he probably works in finance (this assumption proves to be correct). The music seems to have calmed down a bit, which I later discover is because Girl in Charge asked the venue owners to please lower the volume because there is a serious event happening. My date decides to take full advantage of our brief five-minute window together:
“So, Sarah, why are you single?”
Well, then. Let’s just cut to the chase. I tell him I haven’t met anyone I really jive with, and his natural follow-up question is, “Well, what are you looking for?”
Geek Speed Dating In Freehold Nj New Jersey
“Umm, I don’t know. Someone to hang out with?”
Jesus. I’m horrible at this. The biggest epiphany I’m having is that I’m incredibly bad at marketing myself in this setting. Put me in a job interview and I’ll dazzle you with the hard skills on my resume, but ask me about my hobbies and the best thing I can squeak out is, “I really love to eat!”
How very Single Professional of me.
Date Five wears a puffer vest and loves that I’m a writer. He’d be a writer full-time if he could, he says, but he’s really let his creative side go lately. He works with the homeless and he’s a DJ on the side, but if he had the time he’d write a whole book about dreams. The group behind us has moved on to belting out 'I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan, a classic, and I comment that it’s an excellent karaoke song choice. He asks me what my favorite Disney movie is, and the best thing I can think of is 101 Dalmatians. “Well, that’s a first,” he responds (for the record, I stand by this choice — it’s a quality film about familial loyalty and I refused to be convinced otherwise).
By Date Six, I’m most of the way through my house wine and have almost no voice left. At this point I’ve really embraced the “I love to eat” persona, and Date Six and I are thrilled to discover that we both enjoy Puerto Rican food. He says he can hear my Southern accent, which I find terribly offensive, but he assures me that he doesn’t think it’s a bad thing.
The final date of the night works in HR. He’s somewhat of a regular at singles events, and he’s apparently quite comfortable in this setting. He asks me if I’m into comedy, at which point we both quote John Mulaney’s famous sketch about getting lost in New York: “It’s a grid system, motherf*cker, where you at?” I proceed to tell him that he simply must go to more comedy shows and there are so many in the city and really it’s quite cheap if you know where to look. I’m talking a lot, but truthfully I’m quite ready to be done with this and retreat back to my phone screen, where I can swipe away in silence without having to invent lame hobbies for myself.
The moment the event is over, I make my exit. Exhausted, I start venting to my roommate the moment I walk through the door. When I tell her about the “I love to eat” debacle, she can’t stop laughing. What Dates One through Seven didn’t know about me — what I never bothered to tell them — is that I have a veritable army of food allergies, meaning I don’t exactly qualify as a typical foodie. As I tell her about it, I start to realize how ridiculous I must have sounded the entire evening.
“Seriously, I wouldn’t even date me, I had nothing interesting to say!” I bemoan.
“So what you really learned is that you’re boring as hell,” Hannah responds. Thank god for honest friends.
The lesson I learned here wasn’t what I expected. I confess that I showed up thinking my dates would be the story, but the real narrative was my realization of how exceptionally uninteresting I must have sounded to these guys. Selling yourself as a potential partner is a lot different than selling yourself as an employee, and I’ve approached my dating life like a job interview when it has to be a lot more organic than that. For some reason — be it the manufactured setting or my own insecurities — I both oversold and undersold my interests in a way that made me seem totally unlike myself.
Maybe the moment I stop forcing it will be the moment things fall together. Until then, I’m giving speed dating and apps a break so I can get back to what I really love… food.
Your Dating Guide To The Most Effective Events and Meeting Places for New Jersey Singles Looking To Avoid The Bar Scene
Discover the variety of dating services and events for New Jersey singles;
They include on-line match-up services, singles events, singles parties, speed dating events, and venues geared to singles meeting other singles without the frustration, pressure, and intimidation.
Many of these services and events provide clever ice breakers to ease you into conversations with other singles.
Geek Speed Dating In Freehold Nj Menu
New Jersey Singles
Website
(888) 417-0020
New Jersey Singles has developed their expertise through learning from distressed singles every day about the troubles with both Internet dating and meeting individuals by themselves.
The process includes an extensive interview; pouring over the data; evaluating possible matches based on what you've requested; and given personal attention to all of your requirements. Now it's time to meet. Whether it is over coffee, a mid-day walk in the park, or merely lunch or dinner, you determine the very best way to make the most out of your date.
Lock and Key Singles Dating Events
Website (Northern NJ)
Website (Southern NJ)
They attract between 100 and 200 single professionals, aged 27-53, At different venues in Northern Central and Southern NJ. Check their website for scheduled NJ events. Lock and Key Events are a unique ice breaker approach to meeting singles. It's a fun and interactive dating event for singles. They turn a regular happy hour into a a fun icebreaker. Men get keys, women get locks. As soon as you check in and get your first lock or key, set off to try and find its match. Every key matches at least 2-3 locks, so depending on how outgoing you are, you could find your first match within minutes! Just approach a member of the opposite sex and ask if you can see if your hardware is a match.
New Jersey Professional Singles
Website
Geared to matching successful and educated New Jersey singles. All potential members are screened by their dating partners to ensure everyone is real and committed to making dating fun and easy for busy professional singles. They work with local dating partners that are experts in helping successful New Jersey singles. They will guide you along the way and introduce you to those desirable, commitment-minded singles that are so hard to find on your own. Initial contact is made through their website.
NJ First Dates
Website
A speed dating event service for young educated professionals aged 21 through 38. The events are offered at venues in several different NJ counties. No membership fee. You pay for the event your are registered to attend. At each event, singles will go on 15 dates; each lasting 5 minutes respectively. There will be a brief 8-minute break between every 4 dates in order for you to reflect a bit on who sparked your interest, time to do some mingling, or simply grab a drink. There will be drink specials available and participants are always welcome to stay after the event to chat a bit more.
Pre-Dating Speed Dating
Website
Pre-Dating is a national service with many New Jersey events for singles to meet and get to know each other. It's a fun, safe and efficient way for busy single professionals to meet in person. You'll meet other people in your age and interest group through a series of face-to-face six minute 'pre-dates' in a private area at a local upscale restaurant/bar. Here you can meet many potential face-to-face 'dates' in just 1 night.
Contact is made on their website where you can find where the NJ events are being held. You can also get on their e-mail list and get notified of the events that are taking place in your area.
Right Choice Dating
Website
A dating service for singles from 30's through 60's. Owner Sandy Silberstein offers an old fashioned approach to singles match making. She conducts personal interviews, screening, and introductions. There are no commissions involved, so you are apt to have your matches made made by someone who cares. Right Choice dating also arranges special singles events and dinner cruises.
Single and Over 50
Website
Professional Matchmakers work with you to determine the exact type of man or woman that would be best for you, and then do their best to find that person and introduce you two. Their goal is to enrich your life with: Connection Companionship Fulfillment. Older singles are their priority with a focus on the needs of singles in their fifties and sixties and beyond. They understand that on-line dating can intimidating and attempt to hold your hand every step of the way.
Steppin' Out Singles
Website
They offer singles dances in NJ at different venues in a classy atmosphere with great music. It's an enjoyable way to get out on the weekend and mingle with other singles. The venues vary from week to week. View their website for the schedule of upcoming events and venues.
Free On-Line New Jersey Dating Sites
Dating NJ - - Free New Jersey On-line Dating Site
Website
It is completely free to join Dating NJ. You can add your photo and create your own personal profile page. You can search by location to find other singles in your area. As a member you can also use more advanced search options to find other singles by interest, age, zip code, or whether they have children or smoke. Every time you log in, you can see if people have been looking at your profile and access your own Dating NJ inbox, which contains all your sent and received winks and personal messages. There are additional features for full members which allow you to reveal more of your personality, including your dating diary. These features encourage greater contact from other members as they get to know more about you. As a full member you also have the ability to message any other singles you find attractive.
Love Awake - Free New Jersey On-line Dating Site
Website
Membership is free of charge. Just add your profile, browse other personals of people seeking like you for online dating, love and romance. They provide you with the tools necessary for members to find quality date matches. They typically have 3000-4000 New Jersey members with Men members usually at twice the rate of Women members.
Mingle 2 - Free New Jersey On-line Dating Site
Website
Their free personal ads are full of single women and men in New Jersey looking for serious relationships, a little online flirtation, or new friends to go out with.
Sign up and become a member to browse the personal ads of available New Jersey singles