I had a date couple of weeks ago. The date went ok. I neither blew myself out nor won her over. She did bring up that she had dated an Italian MD/PhD before, but that's not such a bad thing, because she was basically trying to impress me.
Here's the key moment of the date:
As we were getting ready to leave, I said I'd like to see her again, and that it takes time to get to know a person, not just one date. She was like ok, but I'm going to be feeling out other people too.
For some reason I was in a mopey mood that night, not feeling confident, and it pissed me off and I just left without giving her a hug, even though she got up from the table and we stood across from each other by the table. I was thinking that I would diss her and never talk to her again. Then on the bus I sent her a really lame drunk text, saying that she was really sexy.
Basically, the first 90 mins of the date went fine, but the last 2 minutes was the deciding factor. All I had to do was say, "that's fine, I don't care. After all I'm seeing other people too (or some variation)," given her a hug, and that's it.
I still see her posting on craigslist every week. She's new in town and acting desperate. I could have had her if I played it cool and did those two things differently. But I ruined my chances because I acted like a total idiot. lol