he failed BIG bricks. so much so that the red lights were flashing hard and fast and the sirens were shrieking at the top of their lungs, if they had lungs.

i like to use the "friends test" to see how well a date gets along with my buddies. so, i invited mr. blondie, (who i've been dating for the past month and a half) to join my friends and i at killer shrimp for dinner and then an evening out on the town. he accepted.

i get to his place and we head on over to killer shrimp, which is like 5 minutes from his pad. we are the first to arrive and decide to wait about 10 minutes before going ahead to get our own table since the place does not cater to large parties. we were expecting about 20 folks. no one arrives for at least another half hour so we go ahead and order our food at a table for two. i asked if he'd like to split a dish with me, afraid he wouldn't be able to afford the cost. he agrees. we both order a bottle of beer. he a bud. me a corona. we decide to get the dish with bread. he changes his mind later and want pasta, to my dismay. so, we have pasta and bread is still served, yet there was not much broth to dip my bread. my friends start to stroll in little by little and soon we were scattered throughout the tiny restaurant. as i'm leaning over chatting to another friend, not realizing the waitress had came to ask if we were done with our food, mr. blondie tells her yes, we are done. i turn around and the food was gone and i think, "wait a sec, i am not through eating!" inside i am starting to get a bit peed off at mr. blondie, who i thought was rude for not even asking me if i were done with my meal! how rude! he sits there like he's bored out of his mind and leans back on his chair, sorta sliding off his chair like a little kid. he makes dorky little noises like characters on warner bros. it's a pet peeve i cannot stand. so, i sense he does not want to hang out and wait for everyone to finish. we decide we'd go hang out at his place while my friends finish eating since some of them had not arrived, yet.

before i go on, let me say that i am not one who enjoys sensing that a date does not want to hang out with my friends. i sense this in mr. blondie and i tell him twice that if he does not want to hang out with my friends, he doesn't have to, but i myself would like to. he says he would. now, i'm thinking, ok, that's cool....but he better not embarress me further by looking as if he's bored.

later, my friends decide to go to giant, this techno dance club in hollywood right by the arena. me and mr. blondie head on over there to meet them. i drove, although i was thinking maybe we should have taken two cars. we wait in line for about half an hour to an hour. while in line, mr. blondie chats now and then with my friends. they talk about music and djs. ok, i think he's getting alone fine with them. cool.

we get inside and since mr. blondie keeps on walking down the hallway, not even waiting for me and my friends. i think, "this is so rude of him!" it was like he was on something and in his own little world. i tell him to hold up and wait for my stream of friends to get in so we wouldn't lose each other in the massive place. he waits a bit but before long he starts to take off again and i follow since i am his date and his ride. i soon find out my friends are not behind us and i start to get worried that it'd just be me and him. for a short while, it was just him and me. we stand around and walk around. i want to dance i'm screaming inside. he just stands around like he's mesmerized with the scenary. i start to get really annoyed and tell him i want to find my friends and hang out with them. he says, ok.

we find my friends and he does not even dance much....rather he tries and since he is 6-foot 3 and lanky, he looks silly dancing. that and the fact that he's a BAD dancer. i am embarressed at the way he is behaving. he's got this spacey look on his face. a couple of minutes later, he tells me something but i don't hear exactly what he says. he disappears for the longest time. it must have been more than an hour. everyone's asking me where he went. i say, i don't know. in the meantime, a nice fellow comes up to me and asks me what my name was. we start dancing and talking at the same time, getting to know one another. i'll call him mr. sd since he lives in san diego. he's cool and he wants to dance with me! my friend leans over and says to me, "he's cute." i say, "oh, you think?" only because i didn't think he was that cute. he's ok. he buys me a bottle of water and we go outside to chat. my friends had been watching over us girls in the group like hounds, making sure no weirdos try to pull anything on us. later on, after a long time, i see mr. blondie for a split second standing near mr. sd and i. he disappears and i turn around and there he is behind us. i call out to mr. blondie and ask him where he's been all this time. he tells us he was upstairs in the lounge area napping because he was tired. i'm thinking, "oh my god, what a dork! why did you even come in the first place? worst of all, you paid $20 to get in to nap?!" so, i introduce the two men and they shake hands. we go back inside to dance with my friends. now, earlier, i had already introduced mr. sd to my friends and he seems eager to meet them. a good sign.

so, we're all dancing and i'm thinking, "oh my god, i've got a date with me and now there's another guy hitting on me, ready to get my number. right before mr. blondie had shown up earlier, mr. sd was about to get my number. we were interrupted by mr. blondie to my dismay. so, back inside, my big friend, bigbadjon who had been keeping watch on me pulled me aside and told me i better get mr. sd's number before he disappears. i'm shocked to hear my friend say this. i guess he approved of mr. sd. he already didn't like mr. blondie. so bigbadjon asks if i have one of my business cards to give to him. i pick one out and had it to bigbadjon so he could hand it to mr. sd since mr. blondie was around. sneaky, eh? well, what can i say? mr. blondie failed the friends test. i must now dump him and it's gonna be hard because he's a nice guy, but without certain manners that matter.

my friends want to go out to eat at a denny's or something and i sense mr. blondie was not up for it. i have to tell my friends i had to take mr. blondie home. they are upset, especially since bigbadjon had invited mr. sd to come eat with us and now i can't even go with them cuz i had mr. blondie in my hands. crap.

as we're walking away, i hear mr. sd running behind me and calling me name. i stop and he catches up, gives me a hug good-bye and says, "Can I call you tonight?" i freeze in my tracks cuz he said it loud and clear for mr. blondie to hear. i firmly say, "no." then, he say, "alright, but i'll call you." mr. blondie says nothing and i say nothing. i wonder what mr. blondie is thinking knowing mr. sd got my number. i think mr. sd did it on purpose kinda like saying, "ha, mr. blondie, i got your girl's number, how do you like that?" so, i'm feeling a bit guilty about it, but come'on! mr. blondie left me alone!

so, i take blondie home and he says, "there's a spot right there." i say, "oh, can't stay, it's late and i'm going out to ikea with my sister in the morning." (my god, he thinks i'm going to spend the night after tonight?) he hesitates and says, "oh, ok." sorta confused. he leans over and turns my head toward his to give me a kiss goodnight. i feel even guiltier knowing that i was gonna dump him soon. but how?

now, i understand just maybe where mr. cutie, my ex lover and neighbor could have been coming from when he decided not to see me anymore. maybe he was going through what i was going through......thinking i was a nice person who he had been going too far with for too long and feeling guilty about it, not knowing how to break it up. maybe i had some annoying habits like mr. blondie has. maybe mr. cutie just knew that he and i could well....never be serious because i had certain characteristics he did not like just as mr. blondie had numerous ones i cannot stand. yet, mr. blondie is good-looking and nice to me. that is what is making it hard for me to find a way to end mr. blondie and my relationship.

what shall i do? shall i just start to decline his invties to hang out, making excuses or shall i just straight out tell him i don't think we should continue the sort of relationship we were having, but that i'd like to still be friends? now, another dilema.....mr. sd is gonna be calling and i'm not sure i like him enough, yet. i guess we can start out as friends....i hope that's ok with him since he seems more than interested in just a friendship. i already know mr. blondie is one i cannot seriously have a relationship with. there's a couple of reasons.....he's 3 years younger than i, still in college with another year and a half to go, he's in the miliatary and i'm not too sure about guys in the miliatary...they kinda scare me for some reason....he lives too far away despite the fact that he comes up to la to visit his family on the weekends, and it sounds like he lives in a sack with a 3 bedroom apartment costing only $700, which he shares with two roomates. not that i'm looking for someone with lotsa money, but i don't want to be dating someone who makes less than i do. he did, pass some important tests...the friends test, the immense interest in me, and from our conversation, we seems to have quite a few common habits....such as hygeine and cleanliness, which are very important to me.

so, if anyone can relate to this dilema, please write me and tell me what you would do if you were in this situation. any suggestions would be of great service! of course, i'm not really expecting anyone to reply to this. only wishful thinking.