Written by Janet Wang
In the days before my blind date, I felt my anxiety kicking in. My only knowledge of blind dates had come from various bloggers depicting their horrible experiences of having a date with awful manners or one that ended up ditching and running away. I frantically texted friends who knew my date’s identity, but in the end, I decided to go into the date with no expectations.
After some last-minute planning on the day of, I was set to meet my date at 7:30 p.m. for dinner on University Avenue. is plan, however, quickly changed as I was noticed that I had to pick my date up. My date was senior Toko Dougherty—an acquaintance who I knew through mutual friends and from having math together the previous year. I heard that Toko was a sweet and outgoing guy, so I was optimistic about our date. When Toko got into the car, he was polite and courteous. The car ride wasn’t awkward, and I was thankful that conversation owed easily right o the bat.
When we reached downtown Palo Alto, Toko and I decided to eat at Crepevine. Since the restaurant requires customers to order first, I was ready to pay for myself until Toko generously ordered—a gesture that I found quite chivalrous. We had some nice conversation throughout dinner and I felt pretty at ease. Things were all fine and dandy until the end of dinner, when we had to wait for a photographer to come capture the moment. While we were talking, Toko informed me that his friend, Jeff, was on his way so they could hang out afterwards. When Je arrived, so did some other people that I didn’t recognize. I noticed that they were darting out from behind the window to watch us. I wasn’t uncomfortable but instead thought, Uhh, what’s going on?! Since his friends were right outside the restaurant, we said bye at the table. I left Crepevine turning the other direction to avoid an awkward encounter with his friends.
Overall, I would say that my blind date was far from disastrous.
