The Sound of Silence (Immediately Preceding the Sound of Bitch-Slap)

SHE SAYS: "Hey, what's the plan for today?"
HE SAYS.... absolutely nothing.

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, I met a guy. We'll call him Alex, because... well, because that's his name. He stopped me as I was about to leave a bar, told me I was beautiful and asked for my number. Gentlemen, take note: as my compatriots have said before, you will never go wrong with telling a girl she is beautiful. Unless she just said something like "why don't you ever wash your fucking socks?" or "I'm pregnant", in which case you need to scrape the bottom of the conversational barrel for something a little more relevant.

After about a week of texting back and forth, we went on a date, which was lovely. It ended with a number of affirmations from both parties that we should do it again sometime; unfortunately things were put on hold by my five-day camping stint in Tasmania. (Hate it when that happens.) Upon my return, we confirmed the day of our next date and continued to text sporadically until the day before. Being perhaps a bit of a planner by nature-- anybody who mentions my book of grad schools is gonna get shanked-- I realized, on the morning of, that I wasn't sure when he was coming over. Above is my text to him, and his [lack of] response. He never contacted me again.

Gentlemen, never do this. Never, ever, ever. Be polite, abrupt, or even downright rude, but respect our emotional, overthinking brains enough to communicate. Sure, maybe it's easier to just ignore the issue (especially if it's not someone you know that well, as in this case), but do it anyway. Talk. Explain. Think of it as a way to accumulate good karma, or to reduce the number of girls who want your head on a platter because you made their friend sad.

Bottom line: ignoring people is just rude. And not in a neat ska way, either.