I'm all about honesty lately, so I'd like to share one of the most embarrassing moments of my college career. One Saturday night last semester I attended my friends' party at Campus View. After mingling a while, I noticed a cute boy and asked a friend to introduce me. He obliged, names were exchanged, and I ended up talking and dancing withthe new boy for a while. By the end of the night, I had developed a small crush on him.

Saturday night ended. Sunday came and went. Monday morning classes passed as usual.

I came home and had a little time to waste before heading to lunch. I listened to my phone voice mails. No unplayed messages. I checked my e-mail. No new mail. I looked to see who was on Instant Messenger. No one to chat with. My friends and I have this wonderful way of adding new people to our Buddy Lists. You can use someone's e-mail address and find their AOL screen name. I thought back to Saturday night. And the party. And the boy. Did he have a screen name?

I typed his name in the ND search engine and copied his email address into AOL's "Find A Buddy." A screen usually pops up asking you if you want to search for the person's screen name, and you simply click "Next." I clicked "Next."

But then another screen popped up. I hit "Next" again. And then, another screen. So I hit "Next" for a third time. "MAUREEN!!" I shrieked at the top of my lungs. "OH NO!!"

A new screen had popped up on my monitor: "Congratulations! You have just invited (My New Crush's Name) to join AOL Instant Messenger. AOL will notify you if they join the service." Apparently one time I clicked "Next" and agreed to to send my crush an invitation to join AOL instant messenger.

Suddenly I received a new e-mail, too. It was a copy of the invitation that was sent to my crush. It read: "Laura C. Rompf has invited you to join AOL Instant Messenger, a great new way to keep in touch with family and friends. It's free, it's fast, it's easy. Join today!"

Talk about traumatic! My new crush was about to receive an e-mail asking him to join this "new" service — a "new" service that everyone on campus has know about for years! I had only met him once and two days later he was about to receive this psychotic e-mail! What was a girl to do?

I could only think of one possible solution. 1-8111. "Hello, OIT."

"Um, yes, I have a problem. I need to you to delete an e-mail I just sent." I explained the whole situation to the OIT operator and begged him to delete the e-mail. He said he couldn't. He would be fired. "Fired?" I thought to myself. "Does it matter? I'm about to be embarrassed beyond belief!" But he wouldn't budge.

I hung up the phone. There was nothing I could do, the e-mail was there, just waiting to be read. I checked my e-mail later that night. No response. Days passed. Weeks passed. Nearly three months have passed. No response. I've seen the boy out a few times. I know exactly what he is thinking: "There's the psycho girl that sent me an invitation to join AOL." Six weeks after I sent the first invitation, I signed on to AOL and a screen popped up: "(My Old Crush's Name) has not joined AOL Instant Messenger yet. Would you like to send them another invitation?" Luckily, I didn't just push "Next." I learned my lesson and quickly clicked "No."

• IM Fiasco