I was sitting in my room the other night trying to decide whether I am more in love with my down comforter or my electric blanket, when I got a text message. The text was from a name I didn’t recognize immediately and I read it with some slight confusion.

The text said, “Hey Miss Creightonium was going thru my phone and realized I have ur number from like a year ago. U work for the NY times or something now or still in Omaha?”

After struggling to read all of the painful abbreviations, I was hit with a flash of memories. I met this individual at the Old Market Tavern last year. He’d been in town playing Creighton in some sort of club sport and we talked about how I was a journalism major and wrote for the school paper, which he kept pronouncing as “The Creightonium.”

I have this conversation with a lot of people I meet. Mainly because one of the go-to questions when meeting another college student is to ask what their major is. Then it turns out that when you’re a journalism major and you tell people that,

their next question is always if you write for the school paper.

It wasn’t a particularly exciting conversation and I distinctly remember keeping my eyes locked on my friends the entire time, hoping that they would understand my telepathic messages pleading them to come break up my conversation.

I made a poor choice that night by giving this fellow my phone number. You’ve all seen the Mad TV “Can I Have Your Number” skit (If you haven’t you should probably go watch it right now). The guy I was talking to was only slightly less persistent than Darrell.

Sadly, though, this kind of thing happens to me a lot. I’ll give out my number and then it comes back to haunt me months later. Because stuff like this happens to me so frequently, I usually try to use different strategies to cut down on this nonsense.

If you’re likely never to see someone again, and you don’t want him or her adding you on Facebook, always give a fake name. This is a great thing to keep in mind with spring break rapidly approaching. Maybe it’s just me, but I love making up names for myself. I even do it when it’s even really unnecessary, like when a restaurant asks for a name for my order. But I find it entertaining to make up names, and stories and see just how well I can spin a yarn. If I’m talking to a guy I’ve never seen before and probably will never see again, and I can’t make him ask if I’m serious at least once during our conversation, I’m not telling good enough stories.

You don’t have to be so extreme, though. Even just using a  different name and answering all of his other questions honestly could be good enough to make sure that you’ll never hear from him again.

Also, have some kind of number memorized that you can recite at the drop of a hat. This does not include your best friend’s phone number, or else some rando is going to end up texting her. Memorize a phone number where nobody on the other end will have to deal with your castoff.

For whatever reason, my father had me memorize my hometown’s movie theater’s phone number when I was fairly young. I had that number committed to memory long before I owned a cell phone, so rattling it off without a second thought is no problem for me. I figure it’s almost a win-win because if they ever actually tried calling the number, they’d at least get to learn what three movies are playing in Beatrice, Neb. and their show times.

But what if you’re on the other side of this, and meet someone you’re actually interested in and want to get their number? This is simple too. I mean, I can’t tell you how to go about getting the courage to ask for a person’s phone number, but I can tell you how to make sure you get it for real. When you ask for someone’s number and they agree to give it to you, tell them to call you off of their phone. By doing this, not only are you making sure that you have their real number, but you are also exchanging numbers at the same time. This prevents texts down the road that say things like “ummm who is this?” If someone refuses to do this, chances are they don’t really want to give you their digits anyway. This is when you should probably walk away from the conversation.

Also keep in mind that just because someone did this doesn’t mean that they actually want you to text them. And just because someone asked for your number doesn’t necessarily mean that they will contact you for sure.

I’ll leave it up to your close friends to tell you when you shouldn’t be handing out your phone number, but do remember to think long and hard about if you are making the right choice before you give someone the secret code that if entered telephonically will pass them through to you.