Whether you are about to meet your new online friend for a casual acquaintance, friendship, love, romance, long term relationship, fling or for pure sex, there needs to be an element of safety awareness on your part, whatever the case may be. There is a very slim chance that this meeting could escalate into a dangerous scenario but you always want to be careful just in case. There are a few wackos in this world. Make sure and follow these steps when meeting someone for the first time.
1) Arrange your first meeting in a public place. Never ever arrange to meet someone new in an isolated environment. If this man was the dangerous type, he would have reservations about meeting up where lots of people could see you together. If you follow directions given to you and end up driving down dark and unlit desolate streets and are made to turn down a dark alleyway, tell the guy you got lost. Or, if you are driving down a bumpy road through the woods to some shack, please heed my words and turn around. Always make sure you know how to get home from where you are and to make you feel even more comfortable, try suggesting a first meeting point somewhere that you know and feel okay with.
2) Get all information that you can about this guy and give it to your best friend. Give her his name, phone number, address, where you are meeting, etc. Any information you can get at all. Next, let him know that you have given all of this information to your girlfriend as a safety measure. You just want to let him know this so he would think twice about doing anything stupid. Don’t worry about appearing like a worry wart to him. It is better to be safe than sorry. Tell your friend when you will be home and let her know that you will call her around that time. If you do not call her she should try calling you. If she does not hear from you by the next morning, something could be very wrong (or very good, depending on what happened).
3) Carry the necessary protection in your purse. All women should carry pepper spray in their purse and even better on their key chain, a rape whistle and a charged cell phone. You will probably never have to use these items, save the phone, and if someone did try and harm you the best thing you can do is run as fast as you can. Still, it never hurts to have these items nearby.
4) Watch your drink. Do not leave your drink unattended even for one second. Date rape drugs are extremely common and all too easy to administer. Also, do not take any fun “pills” he may offer you. You hardly know him enough to trust him with drugs….not that you should be doing that anyways.
5) Use protection. If this is a “strictly sex” encounter or it ends up escalating to that point, you need to protect yourself from STD’s. Condoms will protect against the majority of diseases but not all. For example, genital herpes is extremely contagious and can be spread even with the use of a condom. Be smart about sex and protect yourself.
Safety awareness is an issue that I want all women to be concerned with and take very seriously, but it does not have to detract from your evening. I would say that 99.99% of the time there will be absolutely nothing to worry about so feel free to relax and have a great time! Just keep your eyes open, always be aware of your surroundings and be smart!
For questions and comments contact The Advice Diva at: 57 Reservoir St, #1, Cambridge, MA 02138 , thediva@advicediva.com
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