Sports Bar Date

I was excited last October when a friend from high school (thank you Facebook) wanted go out. He had that Saturday all planned out!

While driving to Salt Lake I daydreamed of the story I’d tell our kids and how we found each other years after high school.

We arrived in Salt Lake.

Standing in front our destination, a sports bar, I gave myself a peep talk: “Elyse, you love french fries and cheeseburgers. This will be great, download a sports app.”

Bennie “The Jet” Rodriguez, “Pistol” Pete and “Rudy” taught me about sports, along with my father and four brothers.

Apparently this place had all the NCAA football games playing. Yay.

Conversation started off great, I was holding my own and wooing him with all my sports knowledge (thank you ESPN ScoreCenter app). But after all my fries were gone, 4 diet cokes down and every sesame seed eaten, I was running out of material.

He was entrenched, hooting and hollering over games on the TVs. I was bored out of my mind.

Finally, after the games were over, the check came and I was thinking gelato at Dolcetti…

The waiter came back and discreetly asked for another credit card. My date asked to run it again, our waiter said he tried twice. My date asked to try again.

I pretended not notice by my newfound interest in the after-game interviews.

The waiter returned asking for another card. My date was embarrassed and I pulled my wallet out.

The waiter said, “$70 ma’am.” 70 bucks?! For three hours of watching college football on how many TVs? You’ve got to be kidding me! I ordered the $9.99 burger and a diet coke.

I handed him $90, leaving me with $10 for the next week’s food.

No gelato. He drove me home. Forty-five minutes of painfully long silence.

No repay follow up date. No $90 left on my doorstep.

Unfriended.

Incase you were wondering:

• Michigan 36, Purdue 14
• Oklahoma St. 59, Baylor 24
• Oregon 43, Wash. St. 28
• W. Virginia 41, Rutgers 31

Woot woot. Go team go.

By Elyse Taylor
The V Designer