Text Messaging Is Not Your Friend

As y'all know (yes I say "y'all"...I live in Texas) I recently hung up my guyiatus (guy-hiatus) status in and replaced it with a guyiet (guy-diet). Here is a little progress report.

The guyiet status is going quite well. I am not taking it to seriously, but i am allowing myself to meet and get to know guys without getting distracted or derailed by them. But just because I have a sense of stability in that dating realm doesn't mean that I am suave by any stretch of the imagination. What I am about to tell you is simply embarrassing proof of this...

So for several weeks I have been emailing light banter back and forth with one of the guyiet guys. I see this guy, we will call him "Sanjaya," on a regular basis and we have good dialogue. I will admit that at first being new to the guyiet realm, I didn't even realize that these emails were anything more than friendly follow up. But then the emails turned into text messages along with outside validation, and I realized that there might be more to it.

I can't say that I know Sanjaya well, but what I do know of him has been impressive thus far. Well Sanjaya's texts had somewhat of a recurring theme, "we should hang out...often, soon, again, etc." I guess I was feeling bold because that is all that can really explain my next move. And I have to take a step back because 'move' sounds like a game and that wasn't my intention. But I was growing a little impatient (which my mom has always told me I have a problem with) with the constant "we should hang out" and the nonexistent, "hey do you want to go out on X date, at Y time to Z? So when I received the text, "Maybe we should hang out soon!," I took it upon myself to respond with a, "It depends...are you ever going to actually ask me out? :-)" I will admit that when I hit send, I felt empowered. I felt like I was standing up for womankind everywhere and making a statement...If you want to go out with me, then ask.

My empowerment felt real but was short-lived. As I was sitting down for dinner the same night I sent my text for all womankind, I looked at my phone and realized that the text hadn't even sent. It said "failed." Zoinks! Even though I try not to believe in signs, I wondered if this wasn't a sign, a second chance, a note to Roxanne not to send this message! But defiant as I was, I resent the text. My Red Aids Awareness Razr tried as hard as it might, but then said again, "text failed...check the number...and try again." Rats! I am a persistent young lady, so my persistence prompted round three...again failed. Round four? text failed.

I switched to my Treo and gave up on texting my the Red Razr. I sent the text once and it failed and then sent it a second time. Sucess! Whoo hoo. If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it does it make a sound? Likewise, if you send a poignant text and it just sits in your outbox, is it really poignant?

All of a sudden, Sanjaya replies to my Red Razr, "you have sent me abt 12 duplicate messages." Doi! And then my Treo lights up: "you sent me a dozen on from this phone too." NOOOOOOOOO!!! The wind just whirled out of my sails. No longer was my message a classic statement for the ages or a witty response prompting awareness. My message had become Chinese water torture. Ahhh...
I did what I could, I laughed at myself and the situation and simply wrote. "ha ha...I am mortified...all I can say is opps (sic)." Opps??? How about "oops" Roxanne. Even my response to the embarrassing moment was equally embarrassing.

When I called and told my friend Meghan, she verified that she too has received a slew of duplicate text messages from me. I don't know if it was a virus or my phone company choosing to have a little fun, but what I do know is that of all of my text over the last year, this was the one I least hoped would be polluting his inbox. Oh well. Bottom line: Text Messaging Is Not Your Friend--you don't know if they were actually sold, sent, who received them, how many times they receive it, and the list goes on and on.

My solution? You roll with the punches. I am not afraid to embarrass myself...maybe it is part of my charm. Yeah, that is it. ;-)

Have you done anything ridiculously embarrassing?

-RXW

What Rox: Life is too short not to laugh...lighten up.