Blind Date: Madison, Thomas and questionably safe science projects, plus an order of edible brains

The Blind Date series is proudly presented by Ruth’s Chris Steak House, the official sponsors of date night. 

In celebration of their 53rd anniversary, Ruth’s Chris is offering an $83 gift card for just $53. Major date night win.

How does it work? Charlotteans fill out this 37-question Agenda Blind Date Survey about their make-or-breaks, their ideal types and their ideal dates. Then the Agenda plays matchmaker by sending couples out on blind dates. Below are the results.

Welcome to Blind Date, the Agenda’s blind date series.

This is the latest in a multi-part series in which I match single Charlotteans of all ages.

Applicants sent me a few details on things like their views on politics, religion and marriage and trusted me to send them on a true blind date.

Those selected don’t know anything about their date except the essentials – name, age and one thing that I thought would make them a good match. They don’t even get to see a picture.

After sifting through over 1,100 applicants, I set aside several pairs and, based on their survey answers, set up a date I thought they’d enjoy.

Next up: Madison, a 25-year-old advertising strategist living in Sedgefield, and Thomas, a 26-year-old mortgage banker living in Wilmore.

Madison is a Charlotte native who doubles as an aspiring comedian and has been dubbed the “funniest white girl in Charlotte” by her best friend while Thomas, who describes himself as “kind of tall, not so dark and somewhat handsome,” has been here a few years.

Their obvious, seemingly similar senses of humor and the fact that they both enjoy the same kinds of activities were enough to send them on a date to this month’s Science on the Rocks. The theme was Don’t Try This at Home, which meant they’d be getting to know each other while they did things like lighting their hands on fire, touching jellyfish, licking batteries and combining soda and pop rocks.

Here’s how it all went.

How do you feel about the dating scene in Charlotte? And if you’re in it, how are you meeting people?

Madison: So I’ve been here my whole life except for college, obviously, so that definitely puts, well, not a strain on things, but it definitely makes things kind of weird sometimes. You get on Bumble and you see every single person you know and you’re like, ‘Okay, that’s someone I went to middle school with, that’s great.’ I’d like to go out with more people I don’t know and meet new people.

I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad dating scene. I feel like dating in Charlotte kind of gets a bad rap, but people probably just aren’t trying hard enough. I feel like people are just kind of lazy, I guess. You have to go out and meet people, and I think all these people are just waiting around for dates to come to them, but that’s not really how life works.

I am on Bumble, but I only get on it as a joke most of the time. Sometimes I’ll be like, ‘Okay, I’m bored, I’ll get on there, see if there’s anyone new or cool,’ but it’s always the same people. Then I’m like, ‘Oh, do they think that about me?’ If I’m meeting people, it’s normally when I’m out with friends or out at breweries and things like that. I like to meet people in person more, I’d say, just because there’s no, ‘Oh, is this a catfish? Who am I gonna meet? Is he gonna be a huge weirdo?’

It’s my personality, though. I’m very outgoing and will talk to anyone, so I think I’m probably different from a lot of people in Charlotte in that regard. I feel like most people, like I said before, are just wanting most people to come to them and think, ‘Oh, every guy should initiate the first date,’ but if I see someone cute and I’m interested, I’m probably going to go talk to them.

There’s one go-to line that my friends and I used to always use at Connolly’s. We’d go up to someone and just like, say a random name, and be like, ‘Oh, David? Is that you?’ And they’ll be like, ‘No,’ and you’re like, ‘Oh, you look just like this guy I know, David.’ But we’ve done that a few times – and by ‘we’ I mean me, mainly – and just kind of laugh. Some guys will go along with it and start a conversation, but others will be like, ‘No, that’s not me.’ That’s when it’s like, well, you’re probably not cool anyway, bye.

I’m giving away all my secrets! I can’t use this at Connolly’s anymore.

Thomas: It’s good because there are a lot of people, but the hard thing, I personally feel like, is that it’s just a matter of expectations. I don’t think a lot of people communicate enough when it comes down to it, and I think that’s something that, you know, everybody can probably do a little bit better. You know, where you are in life, what you kind of want.

I found [Chem 101] in the first place because I was bored at work and was looking up… how do I want to put it? The dating scene in Charlotte, and there’s kind of this argument between the hookup culture and then I found a rebuttal argument about how the hookup culture is only driven because everybody wants to get married in the south, and, you know, it’s always one extreme or the other. I feel like a lot of people don’t want to have that conversation about how they feel or where they are. I find it really interesting because, after going on a fair number of dates, you kind of experience, you know, people kind of talk about, but it’s kind of shallow. You don’t really feel like you understand what somebody – know where everybody is, and what they really want. I feel like everybody’s expecting the extremes.

When someone asks, ‘Oh, what are you looking for?’ I always say, ‘Well, let’s get to know each other. Let’s see if we like each other.’ Does that make sense? And then I have the hard conversations about getting married, how many kids they want, things like that, but first of all, establish if I’m wasting my time trying to date this person if it’s somebody that I’m not even going to like in the first place. On paper, they can look amazing, but then you meet them, and it’s not there.

I used to [date] more. Now, it’s just something where I’ve kind of slowed down a bit. I used to do all the dating apps, but now I just kind of feel like I’m at a point where I want to get to know the person and see if I like them first before I ask them out on a date.

The hard thing is the social scene in Charlotte, knowing where to meet the type of person you want to date. You don’t want to meet them at a bar at 2 o’clock in the morning, and you don’t want to meet them at work for obvious reasons.

How did you feel leading up to the date? Were you ever nervous or hesitant, or was there ever a moment you had second thoughts about letting a total stranger send you on a date with another total stranger?

Madison: Not really. I mean, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, just a little bit, because it’s a blind date. Who wouldn’t be nervous, you know? But it was more that I was nervous about the article after rather than the date itself.

So, obviously, my friends I tried to stalk this guy and figure out who he was before and we actually found someone else who we thought it was. We were convinced. We were convinced it was someone else, but it wasn’t him. But this TJ was equally as cute, so it was fine. I still haven’t found him, but I haven’t tried. I probably should.

Thomas: I wouldn’t say I wanted to back out, but for a moment I got nervous. Then I realized, you know, it’s just a date. I’ve been on tons of these. Nothing’s going to be different. If anything, I was kind of excited, because I’ve never been on a true blind, blind date where you hardly know anything about the person.

So, nervous wouldn’t be the right word, because I knew I was going to have a good time no matter what. Worst case scenario, you know Axios Charlotte gets to pay for some drinks and some food and it’s a good time, but if it’s not there, it’s not there. But it’s not like you wasted a whole bunch of time.

What was your first impression?

Madison: I was a couple of minutes late, obviously, because I didn’t want to be there first, but also my Uber got stuck in traffic. He was just waiting there, and he was wearing exactly what he said he’d be wearing, and he was really cute. My first impression was that it wasn’t the guy we thought it was, but I was thinking, ‘At least he’s still cute.’ And he’s tall. It was nice.

It was slow to start, but I think that’s because it was just so new to both of us. I’d also been there before and he hadn’t, so he didn’t know what to expect, whereas I knew exactly what to expect from Science on the Rocks, but it picked up really quickly. It just took a few seconds to get used to each other, you know?

Thomas: To be honest with you, she came up to you and I was kind of surprised [laughs]. I just wasn’t expecting her to walk up. I was on the phone, which I probably shouldn’t have been, but she was nice. Really quickly, we realized we knew a lot of common people, so that was kind of nice. It was kind of like one of those things that was a little bit reassuring, the fact that, you know, we had probably a half-dozen friends in common and it was kind of like, in my mind, if we know a lot of the same people, we probably have similar senses of humor and use similar judgment when it comes to who we put ourselves around.

The funny thing is that we both ran into a bunch of other people that we knew. Every 15 minutes, we’d run into someone that we knew, so I guess that made things a little bit easier, the fact that there were a bunch of people doing the same thing there.

With so much to do at Science on the Rocks, how did you choose? Which activities did you end up doing?

Madison: We kind of did everything. There was just so much, and it was all really cool stuff. There was so much to do, so we just kind of did it as we saw it. We started by going in and playing with this slime stuff that was really cool, then went and actually both ate pig brains, which was really disgusting. The consistency was like the slime we were touching, so it was nasty.

Yeah, we ate pig brains. It was crazy. They kind of smelled good when they were cooking, but I think it was because they were fried. When we ate them it was just, like, so nasty.

Then we went downstairs, where we touched jellyfish, which was really cool, and then went to the photo booth, where we took our picture. It’s really cute, isn’t it? It was fun.

We actually went to the photo booth twice. The first time we went in, we were serious. There was an older couple that was running it and when we got out, they were like, ‘You know, you’re the first couple that’s come through here and done something serious. All these other couples are like, drunk and wasted, coming in and doing funny pictures.’ When we got the picture, my face was really shiny, so we had to take another one, and took a funny one.

We stayed the whole time, until it closed down. We were probably there a few hours, maybe 2, 2 1/2.

Thomas: She was really interested in checking out the jellyfish exhibit, so we did that. They were doing a special on fire, so we got to do that. They added methane to bubbles and would light it on fire in your hand. They had the photo booth that was there – there were just a whole lot of little exhibits to do.

Did you guys get along? What’d you like about each other, and what was the vibe? Was there chemistry?

Madison: We decided to go and get dinner after, so we went to Yamazaru over by Sycamore. We got some sushi rolls and appetizers and drinks, and it was pretty good. We shared a bunch of food, and it was stuff I liked, which is surprising because I’m pretty picky. But it went well, I had a lot of fun.

Honestly, I would say [the chemistry is] probably more as friends, but if I hung out with him more, I think I’d get to know him more. I just don’t think that, because there was a lot going on and we were doing a bunch of stuff instead of talking, it’s kind of hard to get to know someone when you’re eating pig brains. But, overall, it was fun. If I got to know him more, I’d probably be more interested, but after Friday, it was probably just as friends.

Thomas: Yeah! I had a good time. We grabbed sushi at Yamazaru afterward, and that was nice. We had a couple of sushi rolls, did a little people watching. She made me eat sautéed cow brains. It was fun. We had a good time.

She’s actually pretty funny, so when she says she’s the funniest white girl in Charlotte, you know, I could sit there and say that’s not an untrue statement.

It was all pretty smooth. There was a little bit of chemistry, but I think it takes a little while to actually get to know if I really like somebody, but I wouldn’t say that it was a friendzone-type of situation. If it leads there, it leads there.

How did you leave it?

Madison: After dinner, he took me home and we were just sitting in the parking lot talking and I was like, ‘Well, let’s exchange numbers.’ So we exchanged numbers, and then I left, and he texted me later that night. It was YouTube video about something at Science on the Rocks that I didn’t understand – it was a reference from Monty Python or one of those movies, and it was about witches.

We did keep chatting, and were like, ‘Well, what are we gonna tell her?’ and were going to make up an elaborate story, but we never did. We haven’t talked since that night. I haven’t heard from him, and I haven’t reached back out, because I’ve had a lot going on, but I haven’t heard from him since. I’d probably hang out with him again as friends and see what happens, but probably wouldn’t consider it a date.

Thomas: We swapped numbers and texted a little more that night, but I just haven’t had the chance to reach back out because life happens. I haven’t reached back out, but the only reason why is because I had my water heater go out and I’ve been dealing with that the last couple of days, trying to get water back into my house. Once things free up a little bit, I’ll probably reach back out. I’d probably go on a second date.

What rating would you give the date? Let’s do it on a one to five scale.

Madison: Overall, I’d give it a 4, just because Science on the Rocks was so much fun and he was a cool guy, so I had fun. I wouldn’t have done it differently. Maybe if he’d believed more in the conspiracy theories were talking about at dinner it’d be a 5 [laughs].

The one I was most interested in was the Denver airport. It’s not really a conspiracy theory, but it’s pretty interesting stuff. It’s fascinating. And he just wasn’t buying into it. It was really disappointing, and that probably impacts the overall score, too, because there’s some crazy stuff happening at the Denver airport. We talked about that, and super outlandish ones that no one believes, and we were on the same page with that, but the Denver airport one… I don’t think he was buying into it. I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m like, but why? There’s so much – there’s so much evidence!

Thomas: Science on the Rocks itself was probably, you know, 3 1/2 or 4 because drinks are kind of expensive, not going to lie, and I feel like once you kind of go through the exhibits, it’s kind of like, ‘Okay, what’s next?’ There aren’t really any good places to just kind of sit and talk or do anything. I think sushi made up for it, because we got a chance to sit down and get to know each other. But I really had a good time with her. All in all, I’d probably give it a 5.

Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

Single and want to participate in Chem 101? Here’s the Agenda Chem 101 dating survey. Fill it out for a chance to be selected.