I have never had a bad first date. I know how ridiculously unlikely that sounds, but it's true.

I have a foolproof strategy that I applied for years to great success. The one time I varied from that strategy I had an absolutely horrible first date.

My strategy was very simple and born out of experience.

Step one: Meet men in real life.

I prefer this because I get to see the man with my own eyes. What he looks, like how he dresses, and how he carries himself. I can assess his grooming and to a degree level of income. I get to decide immediately if I'm physically attracted to him or not before even engaging. This saves me a lot of time! There is no consideration of even going further if I'm not attracted to him. I'm talking about meeting men in social situations and at activities like going out dancing or to listen to live music. I'm not talking about weirdos that approach you at the grocery store or men who harass you in the gym

Step two: The Approach.

This step weeds out most men since most of them are too weak to approach. Saves you lots of time! If he does approach, you can assess how he does it. Is his approach smooth or bumpy and awkward? Is he natural and confident? Is he using pickup lines or making sexual innuendo? This also tells you whether he's interested in you or not, at least sexually. This is important to know what the outset. I don't want to wonder if a guy's actually attracted to me which is why I want to see him approach me. (It's probably also why I have a crazy level of confidence in my attractiveness where men are concerned.)

Step three: Converse.

This way I can see if he can carry a normal conversation. The key word here is normal. I am absolutely assessing for normalcy. I want to see how he speaks, his level of education, his level of sophistication, how he treats me and others around us. Do we laugh together? Do we have things in common? Does the conversation flow? Do I like his smile? And very importantly, do I get a good vibe overall from him? It's very easy to weed out the low brows and porn addicts that make inappropriate sexual comments in this stage. If a man says something inappropriate to me I just stare them down for a little longer than is comfortable and then I'll turn and walk away. If you just simply aren't feeling it, tell him it was nice meeting him and excuse yourself to the restroom and don't come back. The most important part of this step is that you should talk to this person for at least one full hour, as long as he's meeting your requirements. I have yet to meet a guy who wasn't normal who could keep up a conversation for one to two hours.

Step four: The date proposal.

Wait and see if he asks you out (on a real date of course). I would talk, laugh, smile and wait. If he doesn't ask you out he's either not interested or he's just too weak. Either way, bullet dodged.

Now for the story of the one time I did not talk to the man for an hour before agreeing to a date.

He invited me out for a slice of pizza, which I would never agree to now. He spent our entire meal getting up and running over to other people that he knew to chat with them instead of focusing on me and our date. Turned out he was also highly racist, sexist and classist, and openly so! It left me stunned at his audacity. After we finished eating he tried to get me to pay for my $4.99 slice of pizza with side salad! I flat out refused. I was going to be damned if I paid after spending an hour listening to his disgusting thoughts. The only time in my life I've ever done that, but I had gotten all dressed up and come out to meet him (ridiculous) only for him to show me one of the ugliest personalities I have ever witnessed.

The coup de gras that really rounded out this magical evening was when he suggested continuing the date by getting a drink. When I told him I absolutely could not, he lunged at me with his fist up like he was going to hit me. Then when I didn't flinch and just stared him down, he pulled out the crocodile tears and started whining about "poor me". CRAZY... At that point I gave him an affronted glare, turned, and walked away. Of course I ran like hell back to my car as soon as he was out of sight. I didn't want to display any weakness to that crazy man.

I never varied from my method again.

Edit: this is a meta post, no I am not dating during covid.