nxious about making a good impression on your first date? Be sure to read this list of suggestions on the top 10 things not to take along on your first date!

10 — Your diary. Unless you want to put your date to sleep immediately or turn him off completely by your negativity and anger, it’s best not to read your diary of past relationships to your date chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Engage in discussions about the present positives in your life.

9 — Blinders. Go into things with your eyes, ears and mind wide open. Who knows what valuable things you might learn? Your life might be blessed or even spared by good listening skills and keen observation.

8 — Skeletons from your closet. There will be plenty of time to visit the more personal aspects of your life at a later point in the relationship. Bring out your skeletons on the first date, and you’re sure to send the relationship to an early grave.

7 — Your iPhone. No matter how cool and important you might think you are, nothing is more irritating to your date than having your cell phone ringing (at volumes even Abraham, Isaac and Jacob can hear) constantly during a date — nothing, that is, except for you to be talking or texting someone else during the your date. Leave your cell phone at home, or at least be courteous and turn it off.

6 — Your biological clock. While your baby-bearing years might be speeding into extinction, the tick, tick, ticking of the oversized clock in the center of the dining table might sound more like a time-bomb in the ears of your date and send him running for cover from the deafening gong resounding deep within you.

5 — Your catechism. Expect to kiss your date good-bye if you take your checklist of religious expectations and doctrinal pop quizzes with you. Approach the date with an open mind, knowing that your date is going to both be and believe differently from you to some degree. So take things slowly and cross those bridges as you come to them.

4 — A mirror. Pay attention to the person with whom you are spending time and listen to her. Don’t spend the entire evening reflecting on yourself; leave your mirror at home and focus on your date.

3 — Witness-wear. Your date knows you are a believer. No need to cover yourself in holy graffiti. Let your lifestyle and time shared with your date be a testimony of your inner faith.

2 — Your empty Fritos bags, crushed cola cans, used napkins and piles of ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise packets. That’s right — clean out your car so your date can at least have a place to sit without looking like she just came from a high school cafeteria food fight once she exits your vehicle.

1 — Spandex anything! Nobody needs to know that much about you this early in the game.