Online Dating Stories: My Hot or Not Date in 2004 and a Yoga Crush

Dating stories don't need to be long to teach something, and these two are small but honest lessons. The first comes from 2004, when Hot or Not was the entire app: one headshot, one click, and then a date. It went badly, and it taught me to trust the feeling that tells me to drive home. The second comes from a yoga studio. It's a slower story about patience, a text out of nowhere, and a coffee date I think I nearly wrecked at the end.

What I think about first dates now is that the outcome matters less than the moment I ignored my own gut. In both stories, the first real signal was something I could see and then talked myself out of. These are storytime posts, not a formula, and neither one has a tidy ending. The 2004 date came first, and the yoga story is the recent one.

The first one, My First-Ever Online Date From Hot or Not in 2004, happened in Columbia, South Carolina, in the fall of 2004. I was a 20-year-old sophomore living in an apartment with three friends. I clicked "hot" on a girl with what looked like a pretty headshot, and we started messaging. Right before the date she put up a new picture, and I had a feeling things might not match what I'd pictured. I'd already scheduled it, so I drove twenty minutes to pick her up and take her to Ruby Tuesdays. As I pulled up, my whole mind was screaming at me to keep driving.

Dinner went downhill because I was performing instead of being present. I cracked myself up with Pulp Fiction quotes she didn't get, I was terrified my friends had grabbed a table to watch, and all I wanted was for it to be over. I drove her back to her parents' house, told her plainly I wasn't looking to see her again, and left. When I got home, my friends were bent over laughing. The lesson I took is not that online dating is doomed. It's that a vague first picture plus a date I felt bound to keep was a bad combination, and I was too stubborn to back out. The full 2004 story is below.

The second story, The Yoga Girl Date Story, is about patience, I first saw her at my old yoga studio more than a year before we went out. I was married then, so I kept my distance. We were in something like 30 to 50 classes together over six months, and I never even learned her name. She was shy and barely talked to anyone. After I separated, I started talking to her after class, got her number, and asked her out. She said her situation was complicated and she wasn't available. I gave up, switched to a new studio to meet new people, and six months went by.

Then, right after a Bumble date had gone home, I got a text from a number I didn't recognize: "Hey, I haven't seen you at the yoga studio in a while, hope you're doing well." It was her, and within a couple of messages she asked to grab coffee. I liked that she got straight to the point. We met up, ran into someone I'd dated before at the same cafe, which was awkward, and then sat and talked for an hour, held hands, and found we were genuinely compatible. We were more compatible, honestly, than the girl I'd been more interested in that same week.

Where I think I fumbled it was the ending. Walking her to her car, I told her I liked her and wanted to see her again. But I tried a bit too hard to show I was emotionally intelligent after she brought it up, and I left feeling unsure I'd shown my best self. A few hours later I texted to thank her and offer my next availability. She left a heart on the message. We'll see where it goes, and I won't pretend I know the outcome. I also won't pretend the ending went as well as the coffee did.

Both posts are below in full. For the longer arc of the second story, my yoga crush hub has the rest. For the wider question of apps, see my take on dating apps, and dating advice that doesn't survive real dates covers the myths. The short version: notice the gut feeling early, be plain about what you want, and don't mistake a good coffee for a finished story.

My First-Ever Online Date From Hot or Not in 2004

From my video published June 15, 2026.

Let me tell you the story of my first-ever online date, from Hot or Not back in 2004. You think today's apps are bad? Back then all you had was a single picture — no swiping, no photo dumps. One headshot, and you clicked "hot" or "not."

One picture, one bad surprise

I clicked "hot" on a girl with what I thought was a pretty headshot and started messaging to set up a date. This was in Columbia, South Carolina, fall 2004 — I was a 20-year-old sophomore living in an apartment with three friends. Then, right before the date, she put up a new picture, and I had a feeling things might not match what I'd pictured. But I'd already scheduled it, so off I went.

"Keep driving, keep driving"

I drove 20 minutes to pick her up and take her to Ruby Tuesdays — because that's how I rolled in 2004. As I pulled up, my whole mind was screaming "keep driving, just go home, don't do it." If I could do it over, I'd have floored it. But I'd said I'd go through with it, so I did — and honestly, the only upside is that I've got this story 22 years later.

Surviving dinner on Pulp Fiction quotes

My ego was destroyed. I was terrified my friends had grabbed a table to watch. I wasn't even present — I was performing, cracking myself up with one Pulp Fiction quote after another that she didn't get ("mmm, this is a tasty burger"). I just wanted it to be over. I took her back to her parents' house and, trying not to send mixed signals, told her plainly I wasn't looking to see her again, and drove off.

I got home and told my friends, who were bent over laughing — "you should have kept driving, man." I know, I know. Next time. The good news is I just had an online date a week ago and it went a whole lot better. If you want more stories like this, you can watch my life playlist here.

The Yoga Girl Date Story

From my video published June 15, 2026.

Here's a dating story for your entertainment — the time I finally went out with a girl I'd noticed at yoga more than a year earlier.

A year of silence

I first saw her at my old yoga studio over a year ago, and she was really attractive. I was married then, so I kept my distance — we were in something like 30 to 50 classes together over six months, and I never even learned her name. She was shy and barely talked to anyone.

Finally reaching out

After I separated last year, I started talking to her after class, eventually got her number, and asked her out. She said her situation was complicated, so she wasn't available, and I gave up — and not long after, I switched to a new yoga studio to meet new people. Six months went by.

The text out of nowhere

Then, right after a Bumble date had gone home, I got a text from a number I didn't recognize: "Hey, I haven't seen you at the yoga studio in a while, hope you're doing well." It was her — and within a couple messages she asked to grab coffee. I liked that she got straight to the point. We met up, and despite an awkward run-in with someone I'd dated before at the same cafe, we sat and talked for an hour, held hands, and found we were genuinely compatible — more, honestly, than the girl I'd been more interested in that week.

Where I fumbled it

Walking her to her car, I told her I liked her and wanted to see her again, but I think I fumbled the ending by trying a bit too hard to show I was emotionally intelligent after she brought it up. I left feeling a little down, unsure I'd shown my best self. I texted a few hours later to thank her and offer my next availability, and she left a heart on the message. We'll see where it goes. If you want more stories like this, you can find them on my life playlist here.