Oh, Craigslist

“Let me preface this true tale by saying that this was my first and quite definitely last “date” made through Craigslist.  Beware.

I had been browsing a number of personals sites looking for something not too serious, and I came across an ad from a man looking to “explore LA restaurants” with a woman as “just friends.”  “I don’t pay for you, we go dutch,” it said.  Anyways, I contacted this cheap-o and he actually seemed fairly nice.  Recent college graduate, had traveled abroad, had a French Yahoo address for some reason.  We arranged to meet at a Thai place a few subway stops away from my apartment.

Not only was he fifteen minutes late to dinner, which normally wouldn’t have been a big deal, but he was wearing a sweatshirt and clearly had not showered.  “Sorry, I just came from the gym,” he explained.  Oh, the gym.  After we planned this days in advance.  All right.

During the meal, conversation was painful.  I found myself asking question after question about him, finally getting down to “… so, what do your parents do?”  He seemed bored the entire time, and even had a mini-breakdown after learning the new restaurant hadn’t yet obtained their liquor license.  Finally, the “date” (can’t not use quotes here) came to an end.  We sort of awkwardly bowed goodbye to one another; I certainly didn’t want to give him so much as a handshake.  He got in his car and left, and I started to walk back to the subway.

Two minutes later, I got a text from him.  I opened it, and read, “did u want to have sex?”

…

I called him and tried to ascertain whether it was a joke.  “Let me come back and pick you up!”

“Um, no thanks.  I’m going home.”

“Listen, I can just swing around and pick you up.  We can go to my house.”

I couldn’t imagine spending four more seconds with this person, let alone a car ride of any length, let alone a perfectly good evening.

“Sorry, going home!” I said, hung up on him, and went down the escalators into no-cell zone.  When I emerged from the station twenty minutes later, I had another text on my phone—from him.

“melrose and la brea. if u want 2”

-submitted by Megan.

Craigslist has weirded me out ever since the time I went to visit my gay best friend in LA.  Craigslist comes up in conversation and he starts telling me how oddly descriptive the Men seeking Men section can be.  So me being a bit naive I tell him to show me what he is referring too. Oh my god. Just a note to those who don’t know, whatever it says in the title you will see a picture of that exact thing. And by thing I mean boners and lots of them.  I think I backpedaled into the corner of the room and rocked myself back and forth after witnessing that.