Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Memory Monday: My First Date with Dave

I decided to finally write down one of the posts that has been formulating for a while- since last October, to be precise. I actually wrote this post yesterday (hence the "Memory Monday" title), but didn't finish it yesterday (that seems to be the story of my life right now...).

Back on October 15th of last year I was going to write a blog post commemorating the 10th anniversary of mine and Dave's first date. I remember that the date was because October 15th because it was also the application deadline for a research grant for which I was applying. That morning I emerged from my basement practice room in the fine arts building (for a change) and was about to head across campus to make copies of my application and turn it in when Dave "happened" to run into me. (I learned after the fact that this "chance meeting" was quite deliberate and premeditated.)

Dave and I had been friends during our freshman year, but we never dated. My apartment would hang out with his apartment a lot, but while I was interested in Dave, I never thought he was interested in me. It didn't help that I was kinda-sorta-not-really dating one of his roommates. He spent my sophomore and junior years in Siberia serving a mission for our church. My senior year he was back from his mission and ran into my roommate Brenda (who had also been my roommate during our freshman year). They arranged to get our old group together to go "tunnel singing"-- one of the many hanging-out activities we had shared as freshman. (I think "tunnel singing" is a BYU-ism. It's exactly like it sounds: you sing in a tunnel. There are nice acoustics. And it's a chance to flirt.). So we had hung out once or twice since he had gotten back but that was it.

After running into me, Dave made some small talk, including asking if I had any big plans for the weekend. "Nope. Not really." I told him, "My roommate Becki and I are planning on trying to finagle our way into the Utah Symphony for free at the fine arts center tonight. You could come if you want." I was still operating under the assumption that a) Dave wasn't interested in me and b) "hanging out" with Dave meant him and two of his roommates and about 10 other girls. But Dave was great fun, so in the course of the conversation I said, "Oh and you totally have to go disco skating with us. It is so much fun. My brother and I got some awesome outfits at the thrift store. Except we'll have to go next Saturday because tomorrow a bunch of us are going to the opera. You could come to that too, if you're into that kind of thing." Which I didn't think he was. But he surprised me and said "Yes, why not?" to all three. So basically Dave came to try to work up the courage to ask me out and I gave him 3 dates with me without even asking. I really am low-maintenance, don't you think? But back to my story.

So Dave said he would come to the symphony with Becki and I. I was glad he was coming and fully expected him to show up with his friend Chris and at least 5 other girls. So I was a little bit puzzled when Becki and I met up with Dave at the fine arts center and it was just him. We were able to finagle free tickets (Becki knew one of the ushers and someone had turned theirs in) so had a nice "date" with the three of us. After it was over we headed over to the Wilkinson Center to see if the A Cappella Jam was still going. It was just at intermission so they made us buy tickets. I was shocked again when Dave offered to buy the tickets. We saw the second half of the show and then went to check out a Latin Dance, also in the Wilk. We were too cheap to pay to get in, so we went up on the balcony and danced instead (we had run into one of Becki's friends by this point so we made a foursome). Finally we went back to my apartment and hung out some more. Dave played Becki's guitar for us, including his 'famous' original song "Blue Cheese" ("... it comes from blue cows..."). Then he handed me the guitar and asked me to play for him. Guitar is not one of my many musical talents, so I asked for a topic and proceeded to make up a two-note accompaniment to my poetic improvised text about going to Wal-Mart to shop for a wireless notebook.

And so it began....

3 comments:

Lara Neves said...

The funniest thing about that story is that I'm pretty sure that when you said "wireless notebook" ten years ago you meant something entirely different than what I immediately think of today. (At least I think you did...unless you were way ahead of your time!) I found that amusing.

Fun story!

NackosAmon said...

Oh the memories! I had completely forgotten about that night. I am glad things worked out!! :-)

Jared and Allyson said...

It's funny to think that all of that romancing was happening over ten years ago. I have so many fond memories of watching you two together while Jared & I were going through the same thing. How time flies! We are LUCKY girls (and they are lucky guys, right?)!