Twofer Tuesdee

Part Four: Just Get On With It Already
I realize I am really dragging this story out, but that’s the nature of my writing. Detailed. So get over it because I am not going to give you the Reader’s Digest version. You can buy next month’s issue of the Reader’s Digest for that.

It was Friday, July 22nd, 2005. I had met Aaron and I knew a date invitation was not far away. When it came, I was sitting in a back office room with my friends Stephanie, Stephanie, and Lisa, and I have to give Aaron props because it always takes guts for a guy to approach a girl who is with a bunch of friends.
Aaron came in the room at about 4 or 5 pm wearing one of his nice 7 Diamond shirts, which at the time, I didn’t appreciate because I had never dated anyone who dressed really well like Aaron did. Before he asked me out, he made small talk in the form of rapid-fire questions which I was not prepared for.
“Where do you go to school? What’s your major? Name your top five favorite hockey players of all time.” (Haha, anyone who knows Aaron knows that last question would NEVER come out of his mouth.)
My response to this was this: “What is this, 20 questions?” I found out that kind of offended Aaron, but he just wasn’t used to my blunt nature. Anyway, he finally asked me to do something with him the following night and told me he would call me at 10 am the next day to make arrangements.
That night I remember doing something like going to some dude’s house with my roommate and watching a winner of a movie “Taxi” (although I do love me some Jimmy Fallon). But that night it took me forever to fall asleep because I kept having fantasies of Aaron and I being together forever (a premonition? I think so!)
The next morning, I woke up a little before 10 (ah, back in the day of sleeping in…) and got nervous because Aaron was going to be calling soon! I decided I would start the day by going to the gym, so I got ready for that as I waited for Aaron to call. I waited and waited. The hour of 10 am came and went and I was getting so furious and disappointed at the same time. I was sure that he wasn’t going to call at all and just stand up our date. I was trying to figure out why the heck he would do something like that when he knew he would have to see me at work and it would be incredibly awkward.
Convinced that he was going to stand me up, I left my cell phone at home and went to the gym to use all my fury up in my workout. But it was all in vain, because once I got home, he had called literally minutes after I left for the gym and told me he would be picking me up at around 5:30. I felt a little sheepish. But I also had figured that Aaron was probably one of those people who are never very good with time. So when 5:30 rolled around and Aaron hadn’t called (he said he would call before he came) I decided to go to the mall and return something I had gotten in exchange for cash. On my way there, he called. And yes, he was quite surprised to learn that I was on my way to the mall. I guess this story just demonstrates that we introduced our unique personalities right off the bat, my independence, Aaron’s tardiness, my bluntness, Aaron’s knack for getting to know people quickly, etc.

Part V: The Date
I have a shirt that is from Aaron’s family reunion and it has the date on it, July 23rd 2005, which is incidentally, the date of our first date. He arrived around 6:30 and hugged me when he got there. He was wearing a navy blue shirt and looked just grand. I was also looking quite hot, I must say, wearing a red, white, and black shirt with black capris. He drove my favorite car, a white Mazda3, who is still with us today. The date was at Nate Hansen’s house and was a group date. The people there:
Nate and fiancé Cassidy
Ammon Condie and his wife Liz
Allan Stumpe (Stumpe) and his girlfriend Kandice (same Kandice as at work)
Abe Ford and some bimbo since he hadn’t come to his senses and picked Meg yet
And of course, me and Aaron
It was a pretty fun date. We had a backyard fire in the firepit and roasted hotdogs while Ammon and Nate quoted Harry Potter and cast spells on each other. This was right after the sixth book had come out so we were all into Harry Potter. Aaron was not yet a Harry Potter fan, but I was quickly finding common ground with his friends. After dinner, Ammon and Nate invented a game called Piggyback blindfold tag. The girls hop on their dates’ backs while their date is blindfolded and they have to use instructions to direct them away from the couple who is it. It was pretty funny and I ran Aaron into a tree. But it was a good ice breaker for us too. The date continued on for awhile, playing cards and chatting. Now would be a good time to discuss my thought process:
I have always rejected Aaron’s ‘type’-the nice guy. This was because I always thought that the nice guy was usually personality-less and boring. And sometimes they were. But most of the time I probably just didn’t give them a chance. Being the impatient girl that I was, I needed someone who impressed me right off the bat to keep my interest piqued. These usually consisted of guys who were ‘funny’ and ‘confident’=way too into themselves and didn’t treat me nicely enough. We’ll call these type of guys Funny Guy. And up until that very month, I had kept giving these type of guys more and more chances and nice guys no chances. So on this date, I had been having a pretty good time, but in the back of my mind kept thinking that this would go nowhere since Aaron was that ‘nice guy’ type. He wasn’t really making me laugh that much, although he was treating me very well.
Fortunately, I went on the date with him at the very perfect moment. I had had it with Funny Guy and been burned by them one too many times. So on the date, I thought, “Yes, Aaron is a Nice Guy, but since you have had no luck with Funny Guys, why not give Nice Guy a chance?” It was probably this moment that changed my life. The moment that I gave Nice Guy a chance.
After that moment, I turned on my charm and started flirting and whatnot and learned a few interesting things about Aaron that made me realize I had already grossly misjudged him. For one, he was very interested in school, was going to BYU and was deciding between dental and medical. (My sister later told me to encourage him to pursue dental so I could actually see me husband if we got married. Thank you for that!) I also learned that he played the guitar and a couple other things that I can’t remember right now. After the date ended, Aaron let me drive his car home, which also scored bonus points with me (favorite car, remember?) and put on music and told me to sing along because he wanted to hear me sing! As I am somewhat of a primadonna, I was happy to. But I think that I pretended to be humble and didn’t do it. I just remember thinking that even though it was already 2 am, I didn’t want the date to end and was thinking of a plan to keep him with me longer.