Dating Diaries Update

Meet our daters: Dana Neill | Sally Colson Cline | Michael Amesquita | Kate Searby | Max Schwartz | Lucas Wall | Jenn Heilman 

Editor’s note: In an effort to protect the privacy of our diarists’ dates, our updates are on a slight time delay.

Our daters have been über-busy and are abuzz with news—and some of it’s good.

Kate Searby pulled a dating hat trick. She had drinks with one guy who’s also from California. She went out again with the producer she met at Tryst. And she went on a second date with a lawyer who took her to dinner at CityZen. “It was a beautiful dinner, good food, conversation, and wine,” she says. “It was a good time, but I don’t think my heart is there. It’s not that you have to make a decision after a second date, but I don’t like to lead people on. He took me home and asked me out again, and I tried to gently let him know it wasn’t there. We didn’t have those things in common that I want in someone I’m going to be serious about. He doesn’t have an outdoorsy bone in his body. He doesn’t like to travel. He appreciates the finer things in life. I do too, but the other side of me is more outdoorsy. I think our priorities about those things are a little different.”

Max Schwartz was preparing a dinner party for friends, and he got a call from the girl he’d been seeing saying that she wasn’t going to come and she didn’t want them to see each other anymore. “She said that she thought we had different ideas of where we thought this was going,” he says. “There was a point early on where it seemed to me that she was interested in being more serious than I was. She had said, ‘I don’t like going online and reading about you going on dates with other people.’ I thought that meant I should invest in this. I kind of changed what I was doing. Evidently that was wrong as well because then she came back a month and a half later and said it was the other way around. The funniest part was that she called at 4:30, right as I’m starting to cook everything for dinner. I had a glass of bourbon and furiously attacked the food I was making. I was really glad I didn’t lose a finger. It hadn’t progressed to anything really serious. It still sucks, and I’m not happy about it.”

Sally Colson Cline called it quits for the second time with the person she’d been seeing, but it wasn’t a bad breakup and she’s ready to jump back into the dating scene.

Michael Amesquita has been all about Choir Girl. As a Christmas gift, he surprised her by having her piano tuned while she was away. She was thrilled. The two hung out after one of their concerts. “We were holding hands and cuddling,” he says. “I’ve seen her every day since. We haven’t talked about it, but it’s moving forward, and it’s good. We were going to go on an official date, but I got my worked schedule mixed up. She’s taking me to the airport, and we’ll figure out something out for when I’m back. I’ll be counting the days until I get back. I’m going to ask her about us. I was thinking about asking her if I could change my Facebook status and see what she thinks about that.”

When she was away over the holidays, Michael did tell her about Dating Diaries during one of their phone calls: “Our conversation slowed down, and I said, ‘You’re reading it now, aren’t you?’ She thought it was really cool that I was brave enough to do it and put it all out there. She seems okay with it.”

Dana Neil’s Florida Guy came home from vacation and brought her earrings from his trip. “It was really nice,” she says. “This isn’t the grand-romance kind of feeling, but it’s so comfortable.”

Despite the gesture, a little red flag has gone up for Dana: “I think he could have a temper. We’ve been having a good time and haven’t come to the point where we’ve been mad at each other, but I’ve seen a glimmer of it.” It hasn’t been aimed at her, but after seeing his reaction to mistakes waiters have made when they’ve been out to dinner makes her wonder: “It’s just something I see and I’m looking at. I’m taking it day by day and not forecasting out. I saw one issue, and I just want to see how it plays out with me.”

After three weeks apart, Lucas Wall is getting ready to see Justin. “I had that exuberance of starting a new relationship, and then we didn’t see each other for a while,” says Lucas. “We talked on the phone a few times and swapped a few e-mails and text messages, but I’m anxious to see him. I’m definitely eager to pick things back up.”

A date canceled on Jenn Heilman for some last-minute family things. The two rescheduled, but she’s hoping it doesn’t fizzle out. “Sometimes I think things lose momentum if there’s too much time in between dates in the beginning,” she says.

Kelly DiNardo