Trying to find Romeo online: Awkward First Dates

You've traded photos, emails, and possibly phone numbers.  Now the day is here and you're wondering if the image you've built up in your head will come anywhere close to the person who is about to walk in those doors.  Are you confident or shy?  Excited or nervous?  Maybe all four emotions at once?

Like many people who look online for a partner, I've met some pretty interesting characters.  Some seem younger than expected, some are nothing like their online persona and some need to work on their social skills. 

Mr. "Stuck in Childhood"
I'm all for a bit of geek in a guy, but this young man took it to extremes.  He told me about his interest in comic books and that he sometimes collected things.  During our first date, he elaborated on his love of Power Rangers for a good 15 minutes.  He described his apartment as being a shrine to figurines and admitted that most of his time was spent watching old episodes of childhood shows.  I'm all for enjoying bits of the past.  I still have my Buffy the Vampire and Lois & Clark DVDs, but they come out maybe once a year.  I was looking for a man who would go hiking, traveling and socialize.  The one I found desperately wished to be a boy again and was more in love with his TV than anything else.

Mr. "Not the Whole Story"
I'm all for a bit of mystery, but when someone downplays a significant part of themselves, it has me doubting their honesty.  I'd spent a bit of time getting to know a young man who informed me he had cerebral palsy.  My parents raised me to be open and accepting of peoples' disabilities, so I opted to go ahead and meet the man in person.  What I expected to be a bit of fine motor skill issues and a speech impediment turned out to be quite a bit more intense.  He'd opted for sushi, which I thought was admirably gutsy, but looking back, not a great first date choice.  There's something about slurping sushi that doesn't rate high on the "sexy" scale.  We both admitted there wasn't much chemistry between us and while a second date was a possibility, the communication dropped off completely.  

Mr. "Maybe I'm being too forward?"
Though claiming to be a headhunter on his online profile, I think one date had further aspirations of becoming an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor after trying to perform a tonsillectomy in the parking lot.  Prior to our first date, he acted like the perfect gentleman.  Concluding our date, he asked if he could kiss me saying that he'd found in the past that he was sometimes too forward.  Assuming this meant a peck, I thought "why not"?  Turns out our definitions of a first date kiss greatly differed.  In addition to his bold move, he proceeded to text and email me numerous times the next day.  At one point he asked me if I was still thinking of our kiss as he apparently couldn't think of anything else.  I'll admit he scared me off and I asked to conclude communications.  He questioned whether I really meant what I was saying and kept messaging.  Creepy.

Today marks another first date.  This afternoon I'm off to have coffee and I find myself wondering if I'll be adding to the tales of "Awkward First Dates" or maybe this will be one for the slimmer volume of "Date No. 2"