The Worst Date Ever: Survival Stories!

It's silly - and very, very human - to assume that every date we go on with someone is absolutely perfect. The violins are in tune, the food is wonderful, and you both have a really, really good time.

Maybe this happens in chick flicks and romance novels, but out here in the real world, some dates are all time disasters. I'm proud to share some stories from my friends and from my own personal arsenal of Worst Date stories:

Trista says, "I didn't know I was allergic to strawberries, so when I took a bite of a date's chocolate cake I wasn't thinking of any potential allergy problems. I ended up passed out on the floor, with a waiter giving me CPR. I spent the night in the ER/hospital and my date was right there next to me. We ended up dating for a year."

This is a story that Lars told about a friend of his. He swears it is true. "[My friend] did this before she got sober. She met a blind date at a bar, and was talking and drinking. She stopped, turned to one side on the barstool, threw up, turned back and kept talking. Shortly after that the man left. A short while after that she got sober."

Here's Lars' own bad date story about himself: "My date came over to my place while I was living with my family. I didn't have sex with him that night and my family stopped by to check on us. I was a bad date..."

My worst date of all time went something like this (I'm changing names and some other details to protect the innocent): I'd been involved in a variety of levels with an all-volunteer choir in a large East Coast city. I got involved with this group, in part, because I had a humongous crush on the overall leader of the organization, whom I will call Jack. I finally screwed up the guts to ask Jack out on a date. Unfortunately, due to a major communication error, I asked him out the same weekend my parents were visiting from the Midwest - and I only saw my parents once a year or so. He was also a bit closer to my parents' age than he was mine. Well, after finally asking him out, I wasn't about to reschedule, so we went ahead with the date. During dinner, it became obvious even to me that I was a lot more interested in him than was reciprocated - mainly because I was doing all the talking and couldn't find much in common to talk about! My parents were pretty gracious about me leaving for a few hours during their visit, but things got kind of strained for me after the disaster date. I didn't stay in the choir very long after that.

But I think my friend Vicki gets the prize for Worst Date Ever! Here's her story:

I was 17. I was dating an older guy...21. He had a job, a good job, q nice apartment, nice clothes and a very nice car. We had been on two double dates previous with my best friend and his brother. His brother had taken us to nice restaurants, and dinner theatre, and a movie.

So the guy calls and asks if I would like to go out to dinner, just him and me. He has found a new Mexican restaurant and would like to take me.

Well at the time, to my knowledge, there was only one Mexican restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama. It was a lovely place, well dressed staff, tables were in secluded private booths with curtains and stained glass. The wine list was excellent. They tended to look the other way if there was at least one obvious adult over 21 at the table.

Ooo nice I thought...dress up night! So I put on my best dress, high heels, make-up the whole nines.

Guess where we went.

Wait for it...

Taco Bell

Afterwards we went to his apartment. I thought, ok...maybe this could get interesting. We have the apartment to ourselves. He wants to watch TV, turns out he is a virgin. I wonder why?"

So next time you have a date that you wish had taken place on the Titanic just so you'd never have to see him or her again, remember, it could have been Taco Bell!