Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The idea for this blog came while I was searching my school's Master Calendar of Events. What caught my attention was the absurdity of the affair that the University of Iowa's Office of Student Life felt students here needed.
At a school that enrolls more than 30,000 students every year, why would it be necessary for an activity like 'Speed Dating?' Isn' t it an everyday occurrence for students to meet each other on pure happenstance every day? The amount of people I run into just walking to class makes me claustrophobic. And, picture downtown on a home football game night. Lonely students should be able to get a date just by helping up the dozens of members of the opposite sex they trample as they make their way to Joe's Place. Then I thought about my own current love life. I haven't had a girlfriend in roughly two years. If there are other UI students similar to me, lacking in dates, and who might be bothered by that, then maybe the Office of Student Life is right.
So, I will be venturing out to the Iowa Memorial Union Friday night around ten, to see what kind of crowd this 'Speed Dating' activity draws. This is the second year they've had the event, and Cheree from the student life office said it had a large number of participants last year.
When I mentioned my blog idea to students in my Online Journalism class, several said I needed to immerse myself in the spectacle in order to get the best results for my stories. I had been planning on just covering the event, not taking part in it. But, maybe they're right. I could try it. It's not like I have anyone to answer to. I'm just skeptical, I wonder what types of single ladies will spend their Friday night trying their luck with speed dating. Well-polished gems don't come to mind. Instead, I'm thinking of a computer-nerd type that spent all week doing homework just to be freed up for a couple hours to go to the event this Friday, probably the only weekend night she'd been out in several months.
But, if my expectations are correct and the IMU is filled with these types, I'm hoping for a foggy night. Maybe the girls' huge glasses will be too fogged over to notice that I'm taking notes during our conversations.
I'm hoping to be able to find a couple there that have enough in common to pursue a friendship. Maybe Bradley and Tina are currently reading the same Harry Potter book, and that's enough to interest them in each other. In an ideal situation, they will let me record the progress they make in their burgeoning relationship.
If I can't find a Bradley and Tina, and worse comes to worse, I may have to shoulder the burden of propositioning a young lady to play Dungeons & Dragons, a game I imagine Tina would like, with me some night. Hopefully measures do not become this drastic, and I am not reduced to this, but I am determined to keep this blog going so I may have to sacrifice.
That said, Friday night will determine the nature of my next entry. Will I be able to take an outside perspective on this ominous assigment, or will I be sucked in by the UI's lone hot computer programmer?

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