How Did You Meet?

I've written the story about how we met before. He has shared part of the story as well. But I'm worried I'm forgetting the little details; I'm not sure how good at journal writing I was back then. I just blogged a lot (remember), but because my blog isn't private, I don't share everything.

You know how you watch movies and when someone passes away, they show clips of memories with that person as if they were right there. I'm not sure my memory is that great, but sometimes I try and go back and play the videos in my mind. It is always hard to see faces, but I smile at thinking about those moments. I'm scared I will lose those images. Some people might think that is silly; enjoy the present.  But I think I enjoy the present more when I think about how far I've come, we've come. Those moments seem like ages ago already.

The night of the Halloween party. "twins" was about as good as we got.

I remember seeing him at that Halloween party. I remember walking right by him trying to be noticed, but I wasn't. I remember walking out the door with my roommates and standing around the car talking about how cute that boy was who walked in when the party was over. We had just sat on the stage forever bored from the singles-ward party thinking we will never find real love. My roommate, Rachel, was bold and I remember waiting for her when she got back with his roommate's number. She said she had asked them to text her if they were interested in doing something with her roommates. I told you, bold. But of course we didn't hear from them. I slowly forgot about that cute boy, but my roommate hadn't.

We walked into the final institute of the year and sat in the back. I went to talk to Ally who was dating someone new. I walked back to the bench with my roommates and they were joking with some men across the isle. We were a little squished because people had sat on our pew. I wasn't sure who was sitting behind me, but I could tell he noticed me.

Oh the people that help you get where you need to go . . .

I was in this awful Christmas performance. It really wasn't awful, but the fact that I was part of the back up singers that had to shimmy around Elvis in a red sequins dress sounds pretty dreadful, but for whatever reason when they asked me to take part, I agreed. Devon took the video for me and we headed over to share that video with the other two dancers after institute that night.  We pulled up in the parking lot and I was like oh.my.word that's him, that's the guy who sat behind us who I thought was cute.

That was when Rachel informed me that the man at institute and the man at the Halloween party were the same AND not only that but she had been trying to set us up on a blind date! I'm not sure how I processed the irony because I definitely didn't act like I was interested that night! In fact, I remember talking to someone about a different guy. I remember sitting on the arm of the couch as she downloaded the video, watching my roommates talk to Mr Smith. And then I remember him walking over to shake my hand and ask for my name as he was leaving. And I remember thinking he went out of his way to ask my name.

Two weeks later Christmas had come and gone. We were back into the single Mormon life and I randomly tagged along on a karaoke restaurant/bar night. We walked in and once again I was shocked to see Mr Smith sitting at a table with three other women. I feel like I went straight to that table saying hello to one of them, perhaps it was him? I can't even remember if he assumed I forgot his name. My roommates and I danced some on the dance floor and I feel like he came up and tried to talk to me. But it was so loud. Everyone went to another table to order food. He came over to the table with us and sat between me and my roommate. There were a few other girls there that night I hadn't gotten to know well, but I found out some offensive news about another guy that set me back a little. But I was on some "oh no he didn't" high and just enjoying a little drama/ gossip I guess. I couldn't tell you a single thing that me and Mr Smith talked about. Eventually we decided it was too loud to hold conversations and our waitress was getting impatient when she realized we weren't ordering drinks. So I guess someone had a great idea to go to the Korean karaoke bar across town. 

There were a lot of us, so we split up into two different rooms. There were a couple of people I didn't know, I really wish we had pictures from that night. I don't remember ever seeing any. I don't remember everyone in that room. I don't remember sitting by Mr Smith, but I remember trying to catch his gaze from across the room. I know I caught it. And I definitely know someone made him get up and sing with them. For the life of me, I want that video now. I'm pretty sure I sung to Shania Twain and one other. I had a really good time. It was sometime towards the end of January. I am pretty sure I left without ever speaking to Mr Smith. But he added me on Facebook that night. I didn't like to fb chat, but I knew it was our chance.

The weekend with Abby. [Me, Devon, Abby & Rachel]

That weekend I went to Abby's cabin with my roommates and I believe that is when Mr Smith started texting me (he got my number through Facebook). I told Rachel to lay off the blind date request because I believed I'd have the chance & I didn't want him thinking I was the stalker behind the blind date, only kinda!

We met up after institute one night at my house (because he came down to VA for my institute) and we got a frozen pizza at the grocery store and came back to the house to talk? I remember him sitting close to me on the couch; and I thought it odd. I felt like conversation was easy, like he understood everything I was and wasn't saying. I don't feel like I had any expectations for us. I was a little jaded from a couple other guys and I was distracted by a couple new developments, which never happened. I felt like I went from being invisible to the spotlight in one month. But maybe that was the best way to meet Mr Smith, distracted and confident.

I remember Valentines to be a turning point. I still wasn't dating anyone exclusively, but guys know that Valentines Day is tricky when you aren't in a relationship yet. So it matters who you spend it with and what you do. I chose Mr Smith. And I guess the rest is history.

  

I'm grateful for every single person who was there along the journey. It is a crazy world where the unexpected definitely happens. And sometimes that's just perfect.