It happens to even the savviest of online daters: we find ourselves on an awkward date with an awkward person, making awkward conversation. The Philadelphia roll you ordered seems to have the prep time of a well-done steak, and it feels like the patrons of the surrounding tables

are watching in bemusement as you look everywhere but at the unfortunate-looking man or woman who looked so cute in their profile picture. Whatever the uncomfortable situation you find yourself in, here are a few key tips for making it out alive:

Make the Date a “quick date”- Plan to meet at a coffee shop, a bookstore, or a frozen yogurt place. These locations allow you to control how long the date will last and keep your hands busy,plus there are no long, awkward stretches of time where you wait for your food to arrive.

Do Your Research- Right before leaving for your date, check out his/her profile one last time and remind yourself why you messaged this person in the first place. Make a mental note of all the things you have in common, so that when it seems as if you’ve run out of things to talk about you’ll have backup reinforcements.

Don’t Panic- So it turns out those cute bangs were hiding a uni-brow, or he was alone in all of his pictures to hide the fact that he’s 5’2 when his profile say 6 foot. It happens to all of us! The key is to not let that moment of thinking “what did I get myself into?” appear on your face. Trust me ,the date will be significantly less uncomfortable if you simply don’t acknowledge the elephant in the room. Put on your most convincing smile and whatever you do, don’t look at that suspicious-looking blister on their lip!

 Even If you follow these rulse to a T, some dates are so bad they’ll have you deleting your profile before you even pay the bill. It’s best to avoid these terrible first encounters all together , and this is easily done if you go back to the old-fashion days of actually calling the person you’re interested in. OR even better, video chat !  If converation can flow easily over the phone or through Skype, the first date should be a piece of cake! But if you find that youand your potential suitor are having trouble finding common ground, at least you’ll have the change to realize this before sitting in traffic on the 101, all so you can meet hotchik99 at some over-priced restaurant you found on Yelp! .