"I like you more than 50% of the time..."

This post is about to have a lot of ranting and raving. The quote will come in later.

This past weekend, my collegiate social circle held it's annual spring semiformal. It's just like any sort of date function where each person takes a date, color coordinates dresses and ties, and may or may not end up flat on the floor or face down in the toilet by 10pm. Usually, I love these kinds of things. But this year, I became annoyed as the night went on, and I quickly watched all of my girlfriends end up alone for the evening.

Now yes, I do believe that Disney has programmed all of our lost souls into thinking there could potentially be a prince charming out there for the Cinderella in all of us. And sadly life isn't like that. But, there's no reason that a boy can't be a gentleman when he's someone's date.

But for those of us who wander around aimlessly for hours wondering where our dates are, I stand on my soap box:

It's not hard to be a good date. All you have to do is just be on time, be polite and don't lay your lips on another girl. And maybe go a little out of your way to tell your date she looks nice or offer to get her a drink.; maybe even offer up your jacket if she's cold on the walk home. IT'S NOT HARD. I know that there are guys out there that would do these things without question, they just aren't around me.

So to give you a glimpse of what happened that night:

- One friend of mine had to meet her date at the actual semiformal to find out that he'd been there for about 30 minutes and she had no idea. They saw eachother once or twice the entire night before he went to makeout with another girl. He was completely sober. He texted her at the end of the night to say he was leaving.

- One friend of mine brought a guy she likes a lot, and he's been stringing her along for quite sometime. He was fairly decent acting all night long, but at some point they got to talking about this on and off weird relationship they have. His winning one-liner was "I like you more than 50% of the time. I'm working on trying to like you all of the time."

- One guy told his date 20 minutes before they were supposed to go to dinner that he was two hours out of town. When he got there, he probably spoke a total of 8 words to her all night, and that was at the pregame. At the actual event, she saw him maybe three times total, even though she searched around for him for a good while. They went back to a house with a group of friends and instead of hanging out and getting their total number of words past 8, he stayed on the front porch and smoked a cigarette.

I stood with three of my friends at the top of a staircase waiting for the bathroom, and as we started to talk, we all realized that we walked through the door with our color coordinated male counterparts, but at that moment, were standing there, the four of us, dateless.

Now guys, I'm not saying that you have to be at our side all night long. That would be annoying. But just because you weren't raised south of the Mason-Dixon line doesn't mean that you can go off making out with other people. It would be nice to know that we're being looked out for, we won't be left in the dust, and that maybe you're glad you accompanied us in something more than just an awkward group picture.

I'm not saying that I don't like all of these guys that are my friends, but I'd almost rather you just not ask me or say no if I'm going to be left hanging like that. The past two years of college, I took one of my best friends to my sorority semiformal. And even though the first time he got me kicked out and the second time he stole a truck load of food from the hotel kitchen, I still had an unbelievably good time.

Concessions

Tonight I went to see Remember Me with some friends. Side note: the movie is awkward practically the entire time, but R.Patt and the end make it worth the $9.50.

Anyway, we buy our tickets and head to the concessions. My two friends take a longer than normal time to decide what they want, making the awkward 20-something that's running the register feel even more uncomfortable than he already was.

I knew I wanted my cinema staple of Sour Patch Kids, so I asked for a bag. He took this as an invitation to tell me his entire daily schedule. He had been working since 3pm and was closing at 1am. As I'm trying to act like I'm listening while grabbing my candy and putting my change away, my stupid response is "1am? Who sees a movie at 1am?" Instead of laughing, he continues to tell me how that was nothing. He has to be there until the last person leaves and then he has to wake up at 8am. Why? To go to a rock concert. His friend gets not just 10 free tickets, but 10 backstage passes to some supposed music festivals every month. And they're driving to one tomorrow....somewhere that involves getting up at 8am.  He then proceeded to list every band that he would be seeing (and I guess meeting) this year.

I just want some candy. That's all. I was just trying to hurry along my friends who couldn't decide what they wanted. Instead, I get an earful from a guy who clearly hasn't seen a dentist since 2001, and could check the "A Little Extra for You to Hold On to" body type box on eHarmony.com. I would bet 100% that he was a local to Harrisonburg, Virginia. And that is saying something.

Why is this the type of man that I attract? Hm?

I was so thrilled to see that when the movie was over, he was still behind the register. His last words to us for the evening? "It's midnight...one hour before I get off work..."

"Is that a new shirt? It makes you look better..."

My friends and I have lately been discussing the fact that we all repeatedly "date down". All of my friends are without a doubt at least 9/10's, if not perfect catches: gorgeous, talented, intelligent, charming, etc. I don't know if it's the pool of men we're constantly surrounded with, or if it's the fact that we've been stuck at a school where the female to male ratio is 70/30 for so long that we've all grown permanent beer goggles. We constantly finding ourselves shlepping around with 5's, 6's and the occasional 4 or 7. It's truly because in the collegiate bubble in which we are currently trapped, there aren't 10's on every street corner. And some of us get tired of hunting.

Anyway, I recently heard this scenario between my good friend and her boyfriend. Now don't get me wrong, he's a great guy and we all love him, but at first sight, you'd never match up the two. My friend was wearing a shirt she hadn't in a long time. Her boyfriend asks "Is that a new shirt?" and she replies "No...I just haven't worn it because it's got short sleeves, and it's cold outside". His response? "Oh...well, it makes you look better."

Excuse me? Better than what? Better than your other girlfriend? Better than you? Because that's not hard. I hope what he meant was 'better' as in an 11 out of 10, instead of a 10 out of 10.

What's wrong with just saying, "you look nice" or "I like that shirt"? Come on, guys. You have to think these things through. If you're gonna say 'better', it better be before something like 'than Megan Fox'.