Dating...oh, the joy!

December 2, 2011

So today was a really busy, funny day. I had a friend who I wanted to set up with this guy…things worked out kind of, but on the flip side I also had a date so that it would be a double date.  Around 5:45ish I realized that I better get hopping because I had curlers in my hair and spaghetti just getting done on the stove, but didn’t want it to sit for too long because then it turns all soggy etc…Well, I took the spaghetti off the stove and realized that I couldn’t find a strainer big enough for it and have burnt myself way too many times using the lid as the way to block water from coming out…so I used the only strainer I could find which was  a little larger than my fist (very effective!!) and in the process all of the spaghetti went into the strainer and straight down into the disposal…awesome I thought as I burned my hand trying to salvage some of it!!!  Just then the doorbell rang!  It was my date! I looked at the time and as I cleared out the disposal, I remembered that I had possibly told him the wrong time. We had jumped back and forth so many times between setting up the date for 6, 6:30 and 7 that I didn’t really couldn’t remember what the official time was! Turned out I told 2 people 6 and one 6:30pm.   Oops!  So there I am burnt hand, no spaghetti and curlers in my hair, make-up not yet on!!!  I run to the door hoping it was the other girl and not my date. So I go to the front door (too short to see through the peep hole) I jump up and look through the circle window. Right as I jumped up he turned around just in time to see me.  He totally laughed (nice first impression) and I opened the door a crack and said, “Hang on.  Give me five minutes.” He said, “I can come back later if you want.”  I said, “No.  It’s okay.  Just give me 5 minutes.”  I ran upstairs and started ripping out my curlers and realized that I hadn’t had the curlers in long enough which was resulting in my hair not turning out cute at all…I made a quick decision right then and there, “If this guy is going to like me, he’s going to have to like me with or without curlers and realize that life happens and there’s no spaghetti and his date did use curlers to get her hair curly and doesn’t wake up with make –up on!” And so I walked downstairs with 90% of the curlers in and by then of course the other date was there, because I had told both guys the wrong time and not the girl.  Oops!  So when I answered the door I said, “I’m sorry, but welcome to a moment in real life curlers and all! And the spaghetti all just went down the drain!” I proceeded to tell them what had happened and that I was sorry and that this is kind of the real me and how life just happens sometime (I’ll have to insert my date about the car battery that happened about 2 months ago, later...I inserted it below).  They both laughed, accepted it and after my date found out that curlers are not obsolete, we moved on with our night and had a very nice time eating spaghetti (I made some more noodles) and burnt garlic bread (gotta watch those broilers while putting on your make-up!) and playing pictionary.  I learned a few new terms that I didn’t know, like some guy who burnt Rome (I guess I didn’t learn it very well) but the other girl who is very intelligent, learned from me who Jacques Cousteau is!  It was a fulfilling night and let’s just suffice it to say that he wasn’t too scared off because he asked for a second date last week.  I figure if you’re going to date and get to know people, you might as well really get to know them.

Sometime in October...

I had a date planned for bowling on a Thursday at 7pm. I walked out to my car after work at 6.  I had left my lights on one too many times (the little beeping noise doesn't work in my car, so sometimes I don't remember to turn off my lights).  My battery was completely dead. Not just dead, but dead dead.  So I called my friend who was on her way home.  She came by, but since the battery was completely dead, it was worthless!  I told her to go home as her baby was needing to be fed and I would figure it out.  I called my date (it was now about 6:45pm, 15 min til my date was to be at my house!) who rides a motorcycle, so of course he couldn't answer the phone while riding!  I left him a message.  In the meantime a really nice guy was on his way home from work and he stopped to help out.  We got the battery out and then my date arrived on his motorcycle. We had to bring the battery to the nearest auto parts store and get it tested.  There I was on the motorcycle with the battery on my lap, holding onto it so that it wouldn't fall as we rode on redwood road.  It was pretty funny and my date was way chill.  So, I bought a new battery, we returned and installed it. By then it was like 8:30pm.  He still wanted to go bowling, but I just wanted to eat something and wash my hands!  We ended up getting Betos and ice cream, eating at home and watching Friends and then talked for like 2 hours.  It was really a great date.  He was totally chill and it was great because, sometimes (as previously mentioned) real life happens.  That is what I mentioned to him as I was riding on the back of his motorcycle saying, "Thank you for doing this."  He said it was fine.  I said that it was kind of fun to have a "real life" experience on a date, cause this is what real life is all about.  He was happy to help.   Below is the picture of the guy at the auto parts store testing my old battery.

Those kinds of real dates are fun!  It's hard to date these days...so many miscommunications, misunderstood or unknown expectations...I just try to play it safe by being real and hope it's enough...I guess some day it will stick and we'll see what happens!  Here's to dating (well, not really) and here's the link to a great talk on why we date. http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-225-4,00.html  Because there's an end reason to why we do it.

 Said President Harold B. Lee: "Pure womanhood plus priesthood means exaltation. But womanhood without priesthood, or priesthood without pure womanhood doesn't spell exaltation." 

Working on getting to that exaltation part...speaking of which, I was in doing sealing last Saturday in the Temple.  I haven't ever felt the Spirit like that while doing sealings.  It was so sweet to feel and understand more than I ever have, covenants that are made in sacred temples.  I was amazed and have looked toward marriage with a different perspective than I have before.  Amazing how words change things, hearts and feelings, yet represent something so much deeper.