Flashback: March 18, 2005

Remember how when guys say they'll call you, they usually never do? Well, after the fabulous first date the week before, the guy CALLED ME. I really couldn't believe it. And he asked me out. For March 18th. I, of course, said yes because one, it really was a fabulous first date, and two, he was pretty cute, except for the aforementioned jeans up to his armpits. But I can fix jeans.

The only problem with this date of ours was that I had to go to my cousin's wedding reception that night (happy anniversary, Cali!) I mean, I had to. I had gone to her bridal's with her, and I really like her, so I didn't want to miss it. The problem was that the wedding was in Spanish Fork, and I lived in Bluffdale, about a 40 minute drive. If I went to the wedding, said hello to the fam, and then came home, this would put our date at around 9:00. And I didn't want to miss this date. Sure, I could have said no and scheduled for the next night, but I didn't want to say no, and I knew the next night was my date's birthday, and I didn't want to be so presumptuous to assume that he would want to take me out on his birthday. So, I asked if he wanted to go to the reception with me, and then have our date. To my surprise, he said okay. This meant showing up with a boy at a family function--all my aunts and uncles would be there, including the 'rents and the sibs. But he wanted to go. I knew he must really like me.

On the way down to the reception, I tried to warn My Date about my family. Now,my family is a very loud, very fun bunch, but you would never know this unless you stuck around long enough to get past the--well, it's not weird, it's just us-- stuff. Because we are, for lack of a better word, us. Natalee knows everything about music there is to know, and she loves sharing the information. Yarley is the belching champion of the world, but knows better than to perform in public. Rory is very funny. But it's not a regular funny. If you didn't know he was being funny, you would just think he was being weird. Example: At the wedding, My Date had valiantly survived Meeting the Family (on the second date, mind you) and we were leaving when Rory tapped on My Date's window to say something. Date rolled down the window and Rory said, "The cock crows at midnight," looked furtively over his shoulder, and snuck away into the night. I, knowing my brother, laughed. My Date, not knowing my brother, thought he was a freak. It wasn't until I explained the joke (which took quite a bit of time--how do you explain "the cock crows at midnight?"), My Date smiled (or tried to) and let it pass. He must REALLY like me.

My Date and I headed to see the movie Hitch. We arrived early for our show time, so we walked around Thanksgiving Point for a while and chatted, during the course of which I finally grabbed his hand because I was tired of making my hand available for someone who so obviously wanted to hold it. We finally went into the movie theater and sat in our seats, waiting.

"So," I began, "Did you go on a mission?" Now let me explain my thinking to you. As a rule, I hardly every mentioned the mish to my dates because one, I usually didn't have to--returned missionaries in the single scene usually waste no time in exploiting the valour; two, there was a Spanish person in the theater, and My Date didn't stop to have an obnoxiously long "secret convo"; and three, if you mention the mish to a date, you can kiss other topics goodbye. But this guy was different. There were no Spanish conversations, no mention of the best two years of his life, yet there were garment lines. So I was curious.

My Date hesitated after my question, and finally said, "No, I didn't."

"Oh," I replied. Thank goodness. No stupid companion stories to suffer through. However, My Date was thinking something else.

"Do you want me to take you home?"

"Umm...no. Do you not want to see this movie? I mean, we don't have to see it if you don't want to."

"No, it's just...I can take you home if you want." Okay. I really was confused at this point. I thought things were going so well. We were holding hands, he braved the fam, but now he wanted to take me home. I couldn't figure out what went wrong. Finally, it dawned on me--I don't know why or how I figured it out. Looking back, the only explanation I can think of is that well--Heavenly Father liked us together. So He helped clarify--and it was crystal clear.

"I don't care, you know," I said after an awkward silence. "About the mission thing, I mean. I know lots of good guys that didn't go on missions, my dad one of them. And my bishop. And every bishop I've ever had. I don't care."

He looked surprised. "You don't?"

"No. I just asked because you hadn't mentioned it, and most guys mention it by now. All I need to know is that you go to church, right?"

"Yeah"

"And you can go to the temple, right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Good enough for me." And to prove my point, I put my head on his shoulder. He put his arm across my shoulder. We sat that way through the rest of the movie. I realized that night that it wasn't just that he really liked me, but I really liked him, too. He asked me out for the next night--for his birthday.

I didn't find out until later that My Date had run into the "I-Will-Only-Date-Returned-Missionaries" so many times that he had promised himself that he would only go out with ten more girls, and then he was done with dating--with the church. I was girl number 10.