Provo dating scene.

Yesterday I had the grand opportunity of witnessing one of the most awkward first dates. Now I will never claim to be the premier dating aficionado, not having a particularly rich history in that area, but here are a few observations I was able to glean from that experience. Number 1: I hate the ever-so-broad "So what are your hobbies?" question. I'm not saying it's not important to know the girl's interests, but there's got to be a different approach. The direct "What do you like to do for fun?" path shows me that you have the conversational adeptness of a 13-year old pubescent boy. You might as well follow it up with some comments on the weather. Or maybe some trivia on golf. Number 2: You're LDS, I'm LDS, we like to pray, but please don't say a prayer over the food out loud in the middle of a restaurant on our first date. Or any date for that matter. Finally, number 3: Don't judge me based on my pioneer heritage, please. First of all, who actually cares about that anymore in assessing the qualifications of a future spouse? We're not the Malfoy family; we don't need to be in search of purebloods. And OK, maybe the pioneer stock is important. But is a first date really the appropriate locale for asking if the girl's grandparents have been members their whole lives?

Which reminds me of a funny story from my freshman year here at the BYU. I was visiting a friend's grandma who lived just up the street from us in DT, when the grandma asked me where I was from. Upon hearing I was from Indiana she replied, "Oh, so you're a convert?"

Anyway, ignore the digression. Actually you can probably ignore all my advice on dating. I really don't have enough ethos to fully substantiate my position. These are just a few thoughts from my past Saturday night life.