With Valentine’s Day just around the corner I thought I’d brighten your mood, whether single or in a loving relationship, by sharing one of my worst dating stories ever. 

While working at a pub in university, I met a grad student who was just my type. He was charming and smart and after a few months of innocent flirtation, I broke my cardinal rule of never dating customers and agreed to have dinner with him. Conversation flowed easily between us, we had a lot in common and even realized we had a lot mutual friends (this was before social media when a quick Facebook search would have done this sort of work for us). After dinner we went to a bar that had a trivia night – Mr. Charming signed us up and our names suddenly appeared on the tv screen behind the bar – or at least his did, followed by ‘Darla’. 

“Um, you spelt my name wrong.” I said.
“Oh god, I’m so sorry. Is there an H in it?”
What on earth? An H? Why would Karla have an H in it?

Darla? Dharla? Then it hit me. Yep, this dude had no idea what my name was. Now, I’m sure some of you are thinking ‘Maybe he was hard of hearing and never realized the very obviously hard K sound at the beginning of your name.’ ?? Possibly true…had this happened on our first date. ‘Oh Karla, it’s an innocent mistake, this could have been a great story to tell your grandkids someday’ you say. Again, possibly true… had this been our second date. Friends, this was date NUMBER THREE. Yep, in addition to the months I had spent flirting with this bozo, I had clocked at least nine hours actually dating this guy who had no idea what my name was.

I of course, was mortified and did what any self-respecting, mature twenty-something would do – I called my roommate from the bathroom and had her call back with a fake emergency to get me out of there. 

Luckily, years later I met the amazing MM Man who has known my name from day one. Happy Valentine’s Day. xo