Why Bother?

I'm forcing myself back into the dating world. It's a way to help avoid sitting around obsessing over Mr. Nice. I'm not looking for anything real, and I'm being very upfront about this with the men I'm chatting with.

Tomorrow I have my first alleged date with some guy I met on-line. We had a fun talk on the phone the other night and decided to meet up this weekend. I just got a voice mail from him. It goes like this:

We'll have to do something for free because I lost my ATM card in the machine on Friday and I have no cash.

Okay, I'm not the kind of gal who expects a guy to pay on the first date. I'm happy to go dutch in fact. But this is beyond tacky. First off, what free thing is there to do on a Sunday evening with someone you've never met before? (Besides come back to my place for sex?) Secondly, can you not just call a friend and say, "Yo, buddy. I have a first date with this hot chick Sunday evening and I lost my ATM card. Can I borrow twenty bucks?" That should be enough to cover a Pabst Blue Ribbon at some dive bar and bus fare home. (Yeah, that's right. I said home. Not back to my place for sex.)

This is the kind of thing that happened to me when I was in college. When the guys were 19 and asked to borrow seventy nine cents to buy a burrito at Taco Bell.

Seriously, sitting on my butt on the sofa and watching my butt expand is looking more and more appealing.