M.I.A.

Have you seen this man? He's missing in action. I saw him last Saturday night. He was tumbling through a crowd chasing a certain girl. He was supposed to play hockey with me on Sunday, but he never appeared. What has she done with him?

If something dire has transpired, well I'm holding Donna and Laura accountable. They were after all the architects of his demise. It was those two who made the introductions between him and this certain girl. To be precise, it was those two who set him up on a blind date. Now, I've never been on a blind date and in fact, although I know they happen, I can't say that I've ever known someone to have been on a blind date. I've always liked the idea.

I guess I attach a more Hollywood romanticism to it than a TV 'reality'. (If TV reality makes any sense.) Why I think of Hollywood and not TV is a mystery to me, because TV is my only real experience with blind dates. By that I mean, during one of our pub crawls - the bicycle crawl for those who are keeping track - we stumbled across a taping of a blind date.

We were absolutely polluted by this point and stumbling is the most accurate description of our motor skills. When we poured into approximately our 14th bar, I noticed a big camera and searing bright lights shining on a couple. The lights and camera kept everyone at bay. Everyone except two of my very drunk friends, who boldly walked up and started chatting. I think they were trying to pick up, but to be honest I had trouble concentrating.

So when Donna and Laura started talking about setting our friend up on a blind date, I had nothing valuable to add. I also had very little in the way of expectations. I suppose that's not really true. I expected that they would meet and date a couple of times at most - maybe out of boredom or out of obligation - but that would be it. A couple of times, max.

What I didn't expect was that he would go M.I.A. The big man has been giddy like a school girl ever since and I for one must admit I like it. So here's to Blind Dates. And if you see my friend wandering aimlessly, with a giant grin, let him know we have a game next Sunday.