[FIPS WAS THERE…] Singles Mixer at Brooklyn Game Lab

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I’m here to tell you: I am not great at the online dating thing.

Reason #1: I'm picky. If someone’s not smiling in his pictures, uses “LOL” or “haha” in his profile or message, or lives outside of the city, I will not write back.

Reason #2: Basically I just don’t write back.

Despite my online failures, I am perfectly willing (well, mostly) to put myself in situations that involve meeting new people while doing something fun. That’s why I grabbed a friend and headed to Brooklyn Game Lab in Park Slope last Thursday to check out their new weekly Singles Mixer.

I heard about it here on FIPS, of course, and saw that for the month of February, most adult events at the Game Lab, including the singles mixer, are free. Playing board games with friends is always a good time, and playing board games with potentially interesting single guys seemed like a nice bonus.

And it was! While people came and went over the course of the evening, there were about twelve of us at any given time. It was pretty evenly split between men and women, most of whom I'd guess were in their mid twenties to late thirties. Those of us who’d signed up online had indicated whether we were looking for men or women or either to date, which didn't come up over gaming, but my gut feeling is that the crowd was mostly straight.

The owner, Bob, ran the event and was very welcoming and inclusive. Refreshments were provided, including some wine and beer, but the focus was definitely on the games. There were a ton of games on hand, which was both exciting and daunting for a casual gamer like me, but we always went over the game rules before starting. I played Carcassonne, Werewolf (also known as Mafia), Jenga, and Apples to Apples. I lost at Carcassonne, was outed as a werewolf, managed not to topple the Jenga tower, and came in dead last at Apples to Apples.

Clearly I need to go back and hone my skills. 

I’ve walked out of other singles’ events feeling like I didn’t meet anyone worth the time I spent there. Not so this one! My friend had been a little nervous that it’d have a traditional “geeky” tone, but as she said, the “people who attended were by no means your stereotypical living-in-a-basement crowd, just cool single adults who wanted to share an interest.” Most of the guys we met were interesting, fun to play games with, and even pretty cute. 

No numbers or email addresses were exchanged at the end of the night, as far as I could tell. It would have been a little awkward, in such a small group. It might be helpful to have some kind of mechanism for future mixers where you can check off via email the people you’d be interested in hearing from and get notified if there’s a match. We could also just suck it up and face our fear of rejection -- that'd work, too.

All in all, though, if you like board games and you want to meet some new people who happen to be single, Brooklyn Game Lab’s single mixer is a decent place to do it. And if you like board games and want to meet people, single or not, there are a whole bunch of other nights of gaming to check out. Win-win.

Now, please advise me on where else a mid-twenties FIPSter should be looking for love -- or share your dating successes or failures so we can either live vicariously or enjoy some nice Valentine's Schadenfreude.