Three Ways to Turn a Bad Night Around
1. Change the Game Plan
If you had a plan for the evening and everything is just tanking, don’t stick around for the bad conclusion. Change things. Something spontaneous and surprising will shock your date out of her bad mood and will turn the date from forgettable bad to memorably unique. You have better odds if you’re doing something that she’ll remember over an ordinary but good date anyway.
If you had plans to see a political drama to impress her, change your mind at the last second and go for that horror flick that looks shocking. Or skip the movie altogether and take her straight to the club for some dancing instead. Drive to the next city for the world’s best hotdog, or go to see a daring art exhibit. Change the plan as much as you can, and enjoy the seat-of-your-pants spontaneity that you’re dying for.
2. Get the Blood Flowing
You know it’s a bad date when you’re counting on an endorphin rush to get you back on track. Still, these feel good chemicals are easy to trigger by a brisk walk. If you’re having a hard time, taking a parking spot farther away from where you’re going, or ask her out for a stroll in the moonlight before you go on to dinner. As little as twenty minutes of blood flow will have her in a much better mood. Not to mention that increased blood flow overall will make her extra sensitive to your presence. She might not even mind a little more exercise when the two of you get home.
3. Play into It
When all else fails, admit that it’s a bad date. Laugh at yourself. Women always say that they want a guy with a great sense of humor. See if that’s really true when you admit that your brilliant idea isn’t really playing off. This is the same idea as turning into the skid. Tell her that the date’s terrible, and then see how many bad date clichés you can pack into the evening. Make a game of it. At this point, you really have nothing left to lose. If you’ve picked a woman with the slightest shred of humor, she’ll join in. You’ll swap bad date stories that you’ve had with other people, and the whole event will get a lot more pleasant. This plan works best as a last resort, and especially if the things that have gone wrong haven’t been your fault. A flat tire on the highway, slow service at the restaurant, flat beer at the bar. Write these off as the makings of a great story and she’ll join you.
These damage control tips could be the difference between going home alone and going home with her, so keep them in mind the next time you’re trapped on the date from hell.