My Favorite Gross Boy

It's been almost ten years since our first date. I can't really believe it. Yet on the other hand, it seems like we've always been together. It's really funny to think that just a few short months before we started dating, I was trying to convince a friend that she should date him. I'm sure glad she didn't! Today, since the older two are at my parents house and the littlest is sleeping, I thought I'd take a second and stroll down memory lane and relive our first date. It was the beginning of a very good thing after all.

First a little background information for those who don't know. Pete and I met in college. He is a year younger than me, so although we were friends and hung out, neither of us really thought of each other "like that." That all changed after Christmas break of my senior year. He called to let my roommate know that she had left a potholder in his apartment during a get together before break. She wasn't in, so we started chatting about our Christmases and next thing you know two hours had passed. That was the beginning. I remember thinking, "huh, I don't think I've ever talked to Pete for that long before." The next day, his truck got plowed in in the parking lot and he needed a ride to Wal-Mart to get some salt and a shovel. I gave him a ride and we laughed all through Wal-Mart and actually got back without purchasing any of the items either of us needed. That led to the return trip the following night, again filled with laughter. One or the other of us came up with a reason to do something together or at least talk on the phone every night for the following 4 weeks or so before we finally went on our first date.

During one of the aforementioned phone calls, this dinner theater that was in Ft. Wayne was mentioned and we talked about how it sounded fun. This was to be our first date...or not. You see we didn't have GPS back in the day, so although we thought we knew where we were going, we were wrong. By the time we finally found the place, it was sold out for the night, leaving two hungry people in Fort Wayne. On our drive up, I had discovered that Pete had never eaten at Chick-fil-A, which shocked me. So we decided that we would go to the Fort Wayne mall and eat Chick-fil-A and then see a movie. After introducing him to the fabulous chicken, we drove to the local theaters to find that there was basically a bunch of garbage showing--well, with the exception of Castaway, which we had both seen already. Finally, we settled on a chick flick which has become our favorite that we love to hate--Head Over Heals, with Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Monica Potter. Terribly cheesy movie, but our first date movie, so... So highlights from the night for me were singing along to songs on the radio with Pete in his old truck and realizing that although it was our first date, we had a comfort level that most don't have for months or even years, because we'd been friends for so long. Laughing together at the same extremely cheesy parts of Head Over Heals that were supposed to be romantic. And sitting in a food court of the mall eating Chick-fil-A and laughing about getting lost.

It's kind of amazing to look back now and realize the journey that began there and has led us to so many different experiences and places. I'm so thankful that Jaimie left that potholder in his apartment and even more thankful that God brought us together. I can't imagine this journey any other way.