Date Lab Will his sweet plans
win her heart? Wade Chi, 27, pharmacist Dena Trugman, 24, social media strategist
YOUR TAKE ON DRINKING ... Dena: Socially, but I’m a lightweight. Wade: I get really sick really fast if I drink, so I stick to sodas.
FITNESS REGIMEN ... Dena: Daily: swim or gym or ball depending on the season. Wade: Gym, running, biking, hiking, snowboard, wakeboard, tennis, golf.
YOUR TYPE ... Dena: Seriously funny, tall, super smart, athletic and, um … ethnically Chinese (Korean is okay, too). That’s probably racist but very true. And preferably raised Jewish. Good luck, Date Lab! Wade: Caucasian, slender/athletic build, confi dent, street smarts. My big Hollywood crushes are Evangeline Lilly, Christina Hendricks and Mary Louise Parker.
INTERVIEWS BY NINA PATEL 7:30 p.m., Georgia Brown’s, Downtown Wade: I dressed a little bit nicer at work — no one at work seemed to notice. I was 15 or 20 minutes early. I sat at the bar and read my magazine. Dena: I checked in with the host. He told me my other half was over there — which was a funny turn of phrase. I just walked over and introduced myself. I thought he was really cute. He had on a nice blue shirt and sport coat — I think he was coming from work, because he also had a work bag that was casual. I could tell he was athletic. Wade: She’s quite tall — almost as tall as I am — and she was wearing fl ats. That was the fi rst thing I noticed. She is very pretty. We went to our table,
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which was along this curved banquet. Dena: We chatted awhile before we ordered. He is very big into food and almost went to culinary school, so he knew a lot. I don’t like to cook. I like to bake. We started talking about the difference between cooks and bakers. Cooks are intuitive. Bakers like reading directions. Wade: Based on the time she spent in Israel and when she got done school, I was trying to do the math in my head. I think she’s 24 or 25. That may be a little bit young. I feel like I may be in a different place in life, but I don’t know — that could end up being a non-issue. Dena: He looked and acted a little older, but I fi gured out from when he went to school that he is not that much older. He is also interested in photography. He was really jealous, because I told him I have a larger-format camera that was my grandfather’s. He was encouraging me to shoot fi lm because I have a great manual Nikon I used in high school.
4 THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 26, 2010
INTERESTS TO SHARE ... Dena: Basketball, swimming, volunteering when I have time, thinking a lot about being Jewish and the current state of Jews in the world. Would love to meet someone who could help get me excited about learning to cook, since I’m never motivated. However, I do love food and talk about it a lot. Wade: Cooking and photography. I hope she would take an interest in at least trying to learn to do new things, and maybe I could learn some things from her, too.
Wade: We bonded a bit because of my aunt, who is a Buddhist monk. Dena does Buddhist meditation once or twice a week. I don’t have a specifi c religion that I identify with, but I fi gure there is something bigger than just us. Dena: A lot of Asian guys are Christian, and sometimes that is a bit of a diffi culty. [But] he seemed open to hearing about Judaism and my interest in multiple religions. Wade: After dinner, we went to Adour. There wasn’t any hesitation from her or me to hang out a little afterward. Dena: I heard myself fumbling when I was talking and was feeling self-
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