Unscientific Poll: What's The Deal With Guys Who Wanna Take A Picture The Exact Minute They First Meet You?

"Hi! Nice to meet you. My name is Anna. Yeah, this is a great party. Well, I'm friends with the deejay, so, yeah."

I see him reaching for something in his pocket as I'm explaining how I came to be here. Is it a harmonica? Is it a meatball sub? Is it an iPad? Nope! It's a digital camera. Alright. Why is he taking out his cam--wait, he's pointing it at us?

So, now I'm scooting to get into the frame and nervously smiling as he clicks away holding the camera in front of us at arm's length. I feel his other arm squirm around my waist pulling me close to him so we are in the shot. What the fuck just happened? Why is this guy taking a picture of us? We just met!

A million questions race through my head: Is he on a dare? Is he on a scavenger hunt and has to find a picture of a bewildered girl somewhere that's loud and dark? Does he have terrible short-term memory like the guy in Memento?

Has this ever happened to you? Guys, have you ever done this to a girl? What gives?

Unscientific Poll: What's The Deal With Guys Who Wanna Take A Picture The Exact Minute They First Meet You?

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Unscientific Poll: New Year's Resolutions, Shmitten Kitten-Style

We're not really one for new year's resolutions. For one thing, we hate rules. We feel like a juvenile delinquent for saying this, but our rule is to not follow rules, man! However, in an effort learn from our (repeated) mistakes, we thought we'd take a shot at telling you our new year's resolutions when it comes to dating. That's our first resolution. You can cross it off the list. Here's what else we vowed:

Julie G: My new year's dating resolution is to delete all the superfluous dudes out of my phone so there's less chance I'll make the same horrible mistake twice (or three times!) if I limit my ability to text those effers.

Jon K: "Hey dickhead, stop fucking up." That sounds both apt and unreasonable enough to be a solid resolution.

Bianca: My resolution is to date a dude who owns a dog. Why? Because if I'm single again at some point in the new year, I'm now down three dudes who love their cat more than they will ever love me.

Phil: I suppose my new year's resolution for dating this year is to step outside my box a little more.  I've been hanging out with the same folks in the same small city in the same bars every weekend and then complaining that I'm not meeting any new people.  I need to accept the invitations to the weird events, go to new bars, see new bands, and try new things.

My other less serious new year's resolution is to make out on my roof.  I have a really awesome roof.

Anna: My new year's resolution is to stop accepting Facebook invitations from guys I've only met once. It's starting to clutter up my already annoying FB experience. I don't wanna see pics of him chugging beers with his buds in dank rooms or mugging with drunk girls in random bars. My newsfeed looks like snapshots of parties I don't want to go with people I wouldn't want to hang out with. Blah.

Lauren G: My new year's resolution is to not let my horoscope rule my dating life and to stop canceling dates just because Mercury is in retrograde. Oh, and also to stop admitting that I read my horoscope religiously.

Lora: My new year's resolution is to stop doing The Change Up with my new dude. He doesn't know that I despise his idol, Michael Jackson, and I don't think I can keep it a secret any longer.  It's bad enough he's on the radio non-stop since his death, but if I hear him from my bf's iPod one more time I might rip my eardrums out. Sorry to all you MJ fans out there, but I need to be true to myself in 2010.

Lauren F: I think my resolution is to avoid men who text, email or Facebook me grammatically incorrect or misspelled messages, as in: "let me no wen ur in town again so we can kick it."

Baby J: My new year's--and hopefully forever resolution--is to stop going on dates with guys I know that I'm not attracted to simply for a challenge.

What's your new year's resolution? Leave 'em in the comments.

Unscientific Poll: New Year's Resolutions, Shmitten Kitten-Style

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Unscientific Poll: Guys Who Joke About Marrying Me On Our First Date Rarely Want To Marry Me By Our Third Date

This has happened to me enough where it's starting to become a "thing." The date is going great: We're enjoying our meal, el vino is flowing and we're--for lack of a better word--vibing. (I know that sounds hippy-ish, but you know what I mean.) Then, I say that one thing that blows their hair back. Maybe I'll quote something from Arrested Development. Maybe I'll make a particularly funny Jurassic Park joke. After he drops his fork on his plate and holds both of his sides in laughter, he'll say, "Just marry me, now!" Then, we'll laugh. I'll blush. We'll pick up the conversation from where we left off doing our best to be unselfconscious about what just happened. It's awesome.

But, then by our third date...nothing. Somehow between our first date and our third date, I guess I became unmarriable? Where was the guy who got such a kick out of me that he considered--even just for a second--becoming legally bound to me? Where'd he go?

Has anyone out there actually married a guy who has told them that they should get married on their first date? Or, if you hear that phrase out of a guy's mouth, should you know that you'll be doomed, like if you tattoo the name of your significant other on your body you'll break up soon? Has this happened to anyone else or am I alone in this? I don't know. I give up.

Unscientific Poll: Guys Who Joke About Marrying Me On Our First Date Rarely Want To Marry Me By Our Third Date

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Unscientific Poll: The Erase Case

There was no big fight, no big shouting match. Maybe we didn't click or we both lost interest. Who knows? It just fizzled. So, when's the best time to go ahead and delete his contact info from your phone? I can never tell!

I'm having trouble with this because I don't want to inadvertently answer incoming calls from dud dudes. I also don't want to be confronted with the fact that I've deleted a guy's number when he texts me, "Hey" and I write back, "Who is this?" It's not the biggest deal in the world, but I'm curious if there's a standard.

Consequently, I have a backlog of random numbers in my phone of people that I don't call and don't want to talk to. It's like having a closet full of sweaters that I don't want to wear. What do you guys think? Is it just me? Is your phone one big Do Not Call Registry?

Unscientific Poll: The Erase Case

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Unscientific Poll: Shoulda Woulda Coulda

Let's go down the list:

• I shoulda known it wasn't gonna work out when he returned my texts hours later, even though he's glued to his freakin iPhone.

• I shoulda known when we went out with his friends and he spent more time drinking and talking with them than with me.

• I shoulda known when he spent entire "dates" on that stupid phone, even during mini-golf! I didn't know it was possible to talk and putt at the same time!

• I definitely shoulda known when he introduced me to his grandparents as "a friend."

• And I 100% definitely shoulda known when I had dinner with his family and I ended up eating on the backyard patio--alone--since there were no seats left inside at his family's table. WTF?

Do you guys have any red flag moments you look back on and realize that you shoulda known a long time ago that this was going nowhere? Kinda like in The Wedding Singer when Julia realizes she shoulda known it wouldn't work out because Glen never gave up his window seat. Somebody make me feel better by sharing your "shoulda known" moments with the rest of us. Because I shoulda woulda coulda but didn't.

Unscientific Poll: Shoulda Woulda Coulda

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Unscientific Poll: Invite Confusion

Guys, bros, men: I have a question for you. When you invite a girl to your dj night/ show/ concert/ house party are you inviting them because you specifically want them there or because you just want as many bodies there as you can get?

Personally, I can never tell. If a guy I like invites me to hear his band play, I usually don't go because I don't want to seem like a groupie. In fact, I avoided this one guy's band for FOUR YEARS because I thought about how ridiculous I'd feel if I showed up and he had a line of girls waiting to talk to him after his "gig." What. am I gonna wait in line to talk to him like I'm in a Mr. Big song? Fuck that!

Is this flawed logic? Am I totally misreading it? Weigh in!

Unscientific Poll: Invite Confusion

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Unscientific Poll: What's Your Turn-off Trifecta?

We asked our Twitter peeps what their biggest turn-off trifecta is and we've been amused by the responses. So far, our favorites are: doesn't like onion rings, has tribal tattoos, favorite movie is "Norbit," is obsessed with mainstream sports and watching them on a 450" TV, tries to force feed me shots, talks during movies, considers shopping a hobby or pastime, hates the city, and orders mild wings. Could you imagine if this was all wrapped up in one person? We'd vote for them to leave the city.

As a Web site, our collective turn-off trifecta is:

• Wearing socks with sandals
• Using bad grammar
  
• Was in a fraternity and talks about it all the time
  

My personal turn-off trifecta is:

• Owning a snake (or has a snake tattoo.) Really, anything having to do with reptile enthusiasm is not gonna fly.
  
• Being bald. Balding is ok, but full-on Michael Stipe-ish bald isn't for me.
  
• Eats lots of mayo.
  

What's yours? Leave your turn-off trifecta in the comments section. Big ups to Courtney for coining the term.

Unscientific Poll: What's Your Turn-off Trifecta?

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