Tinder Virgin, until today...... backlog

So I was in a career for almost 15 years that exhausted me emotionally, so I felt like I didn't have any emotion or energy to put into meeting new people or making connections.  I felt so drained, all I wanted to do was come home and turn my brain off and not make any effort to do anything else.  Now I am doing a job that is so boring, I'm afraid I will forget how to use my brain, so time to put myself out there, and to top it off, I am tired of doing things alone that would be more fun with a companion!

I guess I will start out talking about my first Tinder "drink" with someone.  First of all I shy away from meeting new people by myself, because I don't enjoy small talk and it just seems to get awkward if I am the one asking all the questions, which I tend to do.
This was back in October and I decided to agree to meet this dude for a drink on a sunday afternoon. His pictures looked like he was a decent looking guy, I can't remember if we were texting or just chatting on Tinder, after a couple hours of persuading, I decided to go.
We met at a bar near my friends house, so I had her check on me in an hour to see if it was going ok and if I needed an out.
I arrived early and ordered myself a shot to loosen up, that is my typical tendency.  He was on time and looked older than his pictures had portrayed. We chatted and he seemed ok, he tells me he lives with his Uncle (this guy is like 40), who needs medical attention because he is obese and has type 2 diabetes.  I was doing my best not to judge at this point. This guy is the head landscaper for a college in the area and had previously worked at a golf course, so we conversed about that.  Then something switched for me, when he started talking about marijuana.  For some reason it just turns me off, people act so stupid when they smoke and he knew I was in law enforcement and wanted to have some kind of debate about it, like a 20 something wanting it legalized.
Needless to say, I was done and went across the street to the movies, alone.  That was the first time I had ever gone to a movie alone and I enjoyed it much more than the Tinder drink.

More to come, I have come out of my shell a bit and continue to go on meeting people from these sites, not too discouraged yet....