what the eff did i get myself into

The countdown to Adventures In Speed Dating has now reached the single-digit-hours level. We are closing in. And I am starting to get just a teensy bit nervous.

I recognize that the entire point of speed dating is that there is zero reason to be nervous. There is absolutely no pressure. The whole scenario was designed to remove it, and to make things so black and white that nerves should not even be in the picture.

But I'm still a little bit nervous.

Let's talk about Nervousness No. 1. The age range for tonight's event is women ages 21 to 35 and men ages 23 to 38. Both of those are pretty wide, and there is no way to guarantee what age range the men who attend tonight's particular event will actually fall into. Thus, I have this vision of sitting through five-minute date after five-minute date with 35-year-old guy after 35-year-old guy. Now don't get me wrong, I definitely go for older guys. But I think at this point in the game my cut-off is 30. I would prefer that there was never a time in either of our lives when one of us could have feasibly baby-sat the other, if that's not too much to ask.

Nervousness No. 2 is that I will be the one and only person in the history of speed dating to wake up tomorrow morning to an e-mail in my inbox saying, "We're sorry. You have not matched up with anyone!" It would be all too reminiscent of the time that I took the personality evaluation on E-harmony and was told that I was part of the three percent of the population that could not be matched. Ex-squeeze me?

Nervousness No. 3 is that the very fact that I have Nervousness No. 2 is a sure indicator that I am taking this all way too seriously. I keep reminding myself that this night is going to be entertaining, no matter what happens -- if I meet someone I like, great, but if not, surely I will meet enough weirdos to blog for weeks.

I'll be getting in the shower soon to begin the rituals of lady-hood necessary to prepare myself for the evening. Please feel free to comment with any last-minute words of wisdom, and don't forget to leave suggestions for the one question I should ask every guy I meet. I'll be live-Twittering in just a matter of hours, so hold on to your pants!

cheers,
elizabeth