What's that picture on your phone?!

I had gone on a couple dates with this adventurous guy and we seemed to hit it off quickly! In retrospect, we were probably moving a little too fast, but we ended up spending every free minute together. It was a lot of fun...even though I wasn't completely sure I was 100% emotionally invested.

In just two or three weeks, we had probably been on at least ten dates--everything from rock climbing, to dinners out, to movie nights. And, around that 2-3 week mark, I glanced at his phone that was lying on the coffee table.

Now, I'm not nosy by any means! I'll never snoop through a guy's old text messages, calls or emails. I'm very trusting, and choose men who are honest (as far as I know). But, the phone background caught my eye and I decided to take a closer look.

It was a picture--one that was very familiar actually. Then I realized it was a picture of me! It was rather artistic: black and white, doing a yoga pose on a sand dune in Peru. But, still, we had only been casually dating for a couple weeks! I can't say that I've ever put a picture of a guy as the background of my phone, even when I've been in an exclusive relationship them for over a year.

I asked him about it. He shrugged his shoulders and nonchalantly said, "I saw it on facebook and liked the picture." But, it still felt strange to me! When is this ok?!

Splash…ploop…oOooOooo

I hadn’t been to an aquarium in years. When he mentioned that he was interested in going, I was thrilled! And so, we set a date.

After the initial introduction and a quick bite to eat, we headed into the looming building. The first room was the one I remembered from childhood—the petting tank!

Me: “Have you ever pet anemone?”
Him: “Uhhh….no.”
Me: “Oh it was so cool to do when I was SCUBA diving in Africa…they’re so soft ….you have to do it! You just go like this…”

And so, I reached into the tank to pet my long-lost marine friends. Immediately after bending over the 3 foot wall, I heard a splash. When I looked down, I saw my cell phone gracefully tumbling down to the bottom of the tank, resembling an awkward, new species of fish.

As the bubbles floated to the surface, I began frantically asking my date to reach in (he was over 6 feet tall, after all). After some hesitation, he rolled up his shirt sleeves and retrieved the rare "fish" which didn’t belong in this habitat. Alas, it was too late. Despite some attempts at drying the phone out, it was done for.

My date was forlorn! He apologized every couple minutes despite my reassurances that it was not a big deal and that I needed a new phone anyway. And really, this was true. Additionally, I couldn't stop laughing about it...I knew it'd make a funny date story! He didn't find it quite as amusing!

We left the aquarium after doing a quick sweep through—but it wasn’t as exciting as it probably could have been, had the phone incident not occurred. The mood had changed drastically.

After the date, I contacted him to thank him and to let him know that the phone issue had been resolved. But, like the phone, that was the end.