He likes “independent girls,” he told me, and “intellectual girls” and women who like the Man Repeller site – which apparently means women with strong opinions and offbeat tastes.
Before the date, he was a little nervous “about the almost public nature” of it. Her friends told her that Date Lab was a big deal. These same friends, once they heard that his date would be at Succotash, an upscale restaurant in the south of the Penn Quarter, “also forced me to be more dressed than I would normally show up,” said said Jack. (He wore pants with a pattern and a white button-down shirt.)
He then left to meet Annika Bergstrom, a 27-year-old medical student who is moving towards a specialization in infectious diseases and who, besides traveling, did not have much free time. Annika had “met a friend of a friend who had done Date Lab,” she said, and it seemed “something fun.” And a way to get me there. “She added,” In the past, I was just trying to get to know people, have fun and go out together. I would say now that I’m looking for a relationship. “
Annika spent the afternoon before the date multitasking as only a medical student can: prepare for a test, visit the dentist, and try on outfits with friends. She went to the restaurant with jeans, a black and white polka dot top and a jacket.
Jack was late due to delays in Metro. When she arrived, Annika had already ordered a glass of Pinot Noir. Jack ordered an Old-Fashioned.
“He looked really nice. I thought he was attractive and well dressed, ”said Annika. “I turned to his glasses” because they “made him polite and intelligent but a bit offbeat.” They hugged each other hello.
The doctor and the data scientist. The association seemed ripe for a Netflix series on science and love. Except, in this case, for the romantic part.
The two quickly saw a big difference in the way they approach life. Jack is all about hobbies. He bakes (every week a sourdough from scratch – we did tests on his counter the same evening), DJs, gardens and likes live music (Big Thief is his favorite band). Annika mainly studies. When she has downtime, she goes to shows at places like the Kennedy Center. Jack loves Club 9:30, Songbyrd and Black Cat. Their only overlap was liberal politics. For Annika, it is a family tradition; for Jack it’s a departure.
Initially, they also had different reactions to their age, which Jack found “a little discordant”. He said, “I don’t have a lot of experience with women much older than me.” Annika was not really bothered by this.
The couple ordered cornbread with honey, then steaks, and plunged into a discussion about their work and school. “It was really easy to talk to him,” said Annika, who said she was an extrovert. His impression was that he was really smart. “He made a really cool way of explaining” his work, she said. “He is investigating the type of mechanical failures [Navy ships] might have, and it has done a lot of coding and data in the past. It’s not something I know, but it looked pretty cool. “
Jack noted, “Not many of my friends are in medical school and I have studied math. … I really wanted to know about it and see what his hobbies were – but I guess with medical school, you don’t have that much. “
“The medical school consumes so much,” Annika told me. For example, she sang in choirs but recently took a break. She also volunteers to reduce the harms associated with opioids. She wondered if Jack was disappointed not to have other hobbies.
Before I knew it, three hours had passed. “She was so nice to talk to him that she didn’t feel like it was lying around,” said Jack. But neither had felt a romantic spark, and after sharing a hummingbird cake, it was time to leave. Annika took a test in the morning. The two were tired. They were a little over budget and Jack understood the difference.
In the end, he said, “we weren’t a big game, not because of our age but who we are as individuals.”
They walked together to the metro. As the trains arrived, they exchanged numbers. Then they hopped on trains going, as in life, in opposite directions.
Note the date
Jack:3 [out of 5]. I had never had a blind date before. It was fun.
Update
They exchanged a series of texts but nothing more.
Sarah Wildman is a writer in Washington.