Blind Date Blowouts - 
  What Do You Do When Your                 Blind Date's A Bust?

Blind dates are just so easy. No twisting around in Yoga classes in the search
for someone flexible. No boring your way through museums in the hunt
intellectual talent. No hanging out in bars with a look, a line, and a load of
courage. For a blind date, all you need is a friend with a friend. And the
readiness to be left alone for two hours with what could be the most
unappealing person on the planet. 

But what do you say when the woman with the movie-star looks has a face like
Jabba the Hutt? Where do you run when the body of an athlete actually means
the size of a Sumo wrestler? How do you say goodbye when neither of you
have said a word since soup? 

What do you do when your blind date's a blowout? 

"Always have an escape route planned beforehand," recommends Sue, an
attractive blond from Boca Raton. At 33, Sue has been on more blind dates than
she can remember. "Probably around thirty," she estimates. "Certainly less
than fifty." 

Sue's favorite line of escape is to make a bee-line for the bathroom and quietly
ask the waiter for the check. "All of a sudden the check arrives on the table and
it's time to leave," she said. "It's the kind of hint he can't miss." 

But Sue has girlfriends who have used other, more subtle methods. "I knew one
girl who saw the guy coming, didn't like what she saw, and claimed to be her
own friend," she recalled. "She told him that she was very sorry but that she
herself was sick and couldn't make it. He didn't know what my friend actually
looked like so she was able to get away with it." 

Another girlfriend threw subtlety to the wind and told the guy two minutes into the
date to stop the car and let her out. "She'd suggested they go for a meal and
he said he'd already eaten, wasn't thirsty and was quite satisfied. What was the
date?" 

An early dump may sound harsh, but often on a blind date, if it doesn't happen
on first sight, it won't happen at all. 

"A blind date is based on a lot of visual," says Sue. "You can never tell just
from the voice." 

Richard 28, would agree. He set up a blind date after chatting with a woman who
had called him by mistake. "She'd dialed a wrong number and we just kind of
dragged out the conversation," he explained. "She had a great voice, but it's
like chatting with someone on the Internet - you can't see what they look like, so
you imagine you're talking to Cameron Diaz." 

"We spoke a couple more times and agreed to meet." 

"As soon as I saw her, I thought 'What am I doing here?'" recalled Richard. "She
had the kind of face you pass in the street without turning around. She was
plain. And she was fat. When she'd told me she was full-bodied, I'd been
thinking Pamela Anderson. But she was so fat we had to sit on the beach
because I couldn't find a chair big enough for her ass!" 

Richard looked for an excuse to call it a night. "I told her I had to be up early the
next morning and offered to drive her home," he said. "But when we got to her
place she still hadn't got the hint and asked me in to fix her TV." 

Flimsy excuses are always the easiest escape routes from bad blind dates.
Rachel*, 28, breathes new life into her evening by feigning sudden illness. "I
usually say I've got a really bad headache," she said. "Otherwise it's just such
a waste of time!" 

Excuses like this not only put a painful evening out of your misery, they also
make clear that this date's D.O.A. After all, you can bet that if Rachel's date had
been with Ricky Martin it would have taken more than a migraine for her to call it
a night! 

Blind dates may be easy, and they may be risky but they can also be exciting
and a lot of fun. As Richard said of his blind date, "It was a real adrenaline rush,
because I had no idea what I was going to get." And then he added, "But the
more you expect the lower you fall." 

* Name and identifying details have been changed.