I cannot believe that I am posting this picture of me as a senior. Yes, I had a mole right smack in the middle of my nose, a gap between my front teeth, permed hair, droopy eyelids and unkept eyebrows. No wonder why I never dated in high school.

My parents met on a blind date through mutual friends. And almost 40 years later, they are still together.

I went on a blind date once.

For my senior prom.

I wouldn’t recommend.

I had a date lined up with this really cute college boy from my Bible study and about one week before THE BIGGEST EVENT of my high school life; he bails on me, with tickets and dress already in hand.

My new youth pastor came to the rescue by setting me up with a “really NICE” boy from his former youth group. Emphasis on “REALLY NICE.”

And he was really, really nice.

And not ANYWHERE close to my type. In fact, probably 180 million degrees from my type.

But he really was very nice.

He drove 2 hours to pick me up, handed me a lovely long stemmed rose and escorted me to my prom. It was awkward and uncomfortable. It didn’t help that about a week before the prom, I had my wisdom teeth pulled out. So here I was on a blind date with a little red clutch full of pain pills and a syringe to irrigate the crater where my teeth used to be. (I’m sure I wasn’t the only one with pills and a syringe in their purse, but that’s beside the point). Also, my dress hung on me because I had lost five pounds from not being able to eat.

We had a nice dinner at a teppan restaurant in Palm Springs, had a nice time at the dance and nice pictures to show for it. All in all, everything was, you guessed it…nice.

My best friend (who came with me–also on a blind-ish date –I had set her up with a friend of mine) and I sat in my room after coming home early and cried — four years of expectation built up into the ultimate letdown. Looking back, it does make a good story, and I AM totally thankful for that guy who went out of his way to make my prom night as special as he could even in a seriously awkward situation.

That was my first and last blind date. EVER.