So please tell me the difference

Ok, so here's a good question for you. How can you tell if you and another person are on a date or just hanging out? Truth is there is no real difference between the two types of social events, besides that whole sexual/romantic attraction thing (or lack thereof). You go out, maybe grab something to eat, watch a movie or listen to some music, and at the end of the night (or day) give each other a hug and part ways. I mean unless the night ends in a good solid kiss on the lips (or if it doesn't end at all), you don't really know what the other person thinks of the time you've just spent together.

I thought I was going out on a date tonight, but now I'm just confused. Don't get me wrong, the evening went really well. There were no awkward pauses or any of that forced banter. It was really comfortable. But, of course there's a but, now I'm wondering if it was so comfortable because it wasn't really a date. Haha, please excuse the mess that is called my reasoning. Ok, take a breath and make sure it's a cleansing one because now I'm going to take you through Erl Logic (aka not logical at all).

When you agree to spend social time with someone it's to enjoy yourself. Every one's ulterior motive is to have a good time. And, according to me, there are two major avenues to get to this so named 'good time'. There's the "friends way" and then there's the "more than friends way." For me the "friends way" is a sure fire plan, tried and true. You always, or at least I always, have a wonderful time with my friends. It doesn't matter if we're in the middle of Vegas waiting for the New Year to come around or if we in the middle of Borders combing through the 3 for 2 section. Just being with certain people makes me feel good. However, the "more than friends way" isn't so reliable. Sometimes the time you spend is uncomfortable, horrible, or, may god save you, boring! And then there's the flip side to that, where you have a splendid time and it turns into more splendid times with some splendid action.

You can tell that you are trying to have fun by the "more than friends " scheme when you actually don't have fun at all. Basically, you know for sure that something is a date when it turns out to be a bad date. You don't have a bad time with a friend, so obviously this person wasn't a friend, he or she was a potential fill in here (lover, hook up buddy, spouse, concubine, whatever). But when the date goes well it very closely resembles time spent with a good friend. You laugh, you eat, and you're all merry. But like I said before, without explicit physical expressions of romance and attraction, you can't really be sure if it's just the two of you simply hanging out as friends.

I realize that I could just be upfront and ask if all that time we just spent together was a date or not, but really that would just be too simple. And I have some truly unreasonable steps that still I need to stumble over before I reach my illogical conclusions .