Playing with fire

Remember when Samantha hooks up with that really hot New York fireman on “Sex in the City”?

I went out with one Saturday night.

Ok, so the firefighter gig is only a volunteer thing, but it definitely got my engines revving. He’s actually NYPD fulltime.

The “Officer” took me to Dave & Buster’s. It had to be the best first date I’ve ever been on – let me explain the genius of going to an arcade for an initial encounter.

Instead of forcing conversation while the two of you stare across the table at dinner with nothing to distract yourselves but stuffing your faces (attractive), you have games.

Loads of them.

You can play air hockey, shoot aliens, race cars, play pool. And you can drink while doing all of this, except the place isn’t as loud as a regular bar, and there are fewer hot girls around to steal his attention.

Another plus: you can make wagers.

For example, “If I kick your ass on this round, we have to do this again.”

One word of caution, however – whatever he picks for his side of the bet will probably be dirty. Make sure you like the guy before suggesting a wager.

D&B isn’t the cheapest of dates, but it’s worth every penny if the guy’s any fun at all. It’s easier to split than a dinner bill – if he ponies up the cash for the games, you can offer to buy drinks.

I leave you with one final thought: there’s nothing sexier than watching a really hot policeman shoot things on a screen.

Sure, your character died during the first two minutes of play, but now you can watch him play. And that's even better than winning.

Athens = Dates-R-Us

Athens is a college town.

You may not appreciate that fact until it’s too late, but let me tell you how fortunate you are to be spending four years (at minimum) of your life in such a place.

Dating will never again be this easy.

I am currently living in a suburb of New York City, where housing is pricey, along with everything else. That means the people who live here and pay those prices are old, married people and their kids.

There is a village up the street from me, not even 5 minutes away, that is very similar to downtown Athens – bars, restaurants, boutiques. It’s very cute, and thriving, except for one thing. The people who frequent it are those very same old, married people and their kids.
It is overrun by the old and the young, but no one in between.

When you go out on a Thursday night in Athens, you can feel confident that the majority of the people you run into at the bars are others students, likely in their early twenties or maybe shy a few years.

That’s what makes a college town so special.

Out here in the “real world,” you’ve got to weed the potentially 20-sometings out of a sea of 30-somethings, their 17-year-old kids and 59-year-old pervs. And no one says you’re going to find what you’re looking for at the end of the night.

I’ve had the hardest time meeting people here, whereas every girl knows how easy it is to go out in Athens and talk to many people and likely have a cute guy buying your drinks by the end of the night. College guys’ desire for hookups – even if you have no intention of relinquishing that privilege – makes it easy to feel confident and spend a night out free of charge.

If you go out alone here, regardless of how hot you are, you may very well stay solo throughout the night. These guys have moved past that crucial hook-up mentality, or so it seems.
To compound the problem, drinks are expensive. Beer is rarely less than $5, and a long island iced tea goes for $10 or more. The guys aren’t exactly reaching for their wallets on the hope you might be worth it.

This is the reason I just can’t take Sex and the City seriously any more – how could they have so many dates??

So enjoy it while it lasts, ladies! Take advantage of penny beer nights, scope the masses of young, available and willing young men at your finger tips in this lovely town de college.

It’ll be over before you know it, and soon you’ll be sitting at a bar, alone, trying to avoid that 59-year-old….