No, I Don’t Want to Grab a Drink

Ah one of my least favorite date invitations right behind “When are we gonna hang out?” And “Let’s go (insert sporty or outdoor activity that involves me sweating) as one of our first dates!” Now this invitation may seem innocuous enough especially if you’ve been out of the dating scene for a while, but let me explain why I don’t like it:

• First of all, it’s not really asking me out. When you ask someone out and mean it you pick an activity with a specific location, a date, and a time. “Let’s grab a drink sometime/next week/soon” is missing some of those elements and it’s some kind of weird time waster move that I haven’t completely figured out the psychology behind yet. Do you just want to see if I’d go for it as a little self esteem boost for you? Are you terrified of putting yourself out there/rejection? Do you honestly think dating is a numbers game and the more dates you can fit in the sooner you can find the one so you just pick the easiest most generic thing possible?
• Secondly, it’s just never very well thought out. They always want to do it on a weeknight which is not easy for me because I work early in the morning, and they always seem to pick dinner time to do it. Here’s a scenario that has played out many times for me- guy makes plan to “grab drinks” at 730, he runs up to 2 hours late citing traffic/work/Mexican drug cartel limiting the amount of limes imported to the US (actual excuse a guy has used, but that’s a long story for another post). So now it’s 9 and we get to the restaurant and the guy is hungry. Well, I’ve had this extra 2 hours where I couldn’t do anything but sit and wait and try to not hate him before the date has even started so I’ve eaten some kind of snack by now. I order something small and eat some of it and the guy always says “you’ve barely eaten anything!” And trust me if this only happened once or twice I would not be writing a post about it.
• It’s really not any cheaper! If you’re trying to save money you are picking the wrong way to go about it because 1 drinks costs as much and often times more than an entree. There’s also still a time commitment of at least 2 hours for either date.

If you’re not sure if you want to take a girl out or not so you’re asking her on this half date do us a favor and talk to us some more and make up your mind! If you’ve recently asked me out for drinks and think this is about you it is, but it isn’t. I get asked this a few times a month and that’s not me bragging because 90% of the time it never comes to fruition! After writing this post I’m pretty sure that percentage is going to go up to 99%.

What do you think? Has “grabbing drinks” worked out for you?