ten years...part two

Today marks another This Day in Bastow History: ten years since our first date.  Since that very first meeting, I would cross paths with Landon fairly often (...some of them planned I admit...).  We didn't have any academic classes together - maybe one religion class at the institute - so the most likely places to say hi were at the institute building, in the cafeteria at the Activity Center, and to and from our nearby on campus apartments, and at our weekly Family Home Evening group.

Despite all the confidence I had acquired since moving there and starting school, I still never thought Landon would ever actually ask me on a date.  He seemed just too awesome, too good-looking, too everything. 

Wait - rewind a few weeks. Not long after starting school, I began working at a pizza place. I had never worked in food service before (just worked at doctor's offices) and it was the only job I could find in that little town at that time. I had been there a little less than two weeks when the boss had to "let me go".  To this day, I'm still not sure why because I thought I was really picking up the groove of it all and working hard - but I do know now that some divine intervention was at work.  I was scheduled to work Mondays and had missed our last few Family Home Evenings.

The evening of Monday, October 9th, with no job to go to, I was free to go to FHE.  I was dressed rather casually - green scrub pants and an ASU sweatshirt - the scrub pants because I had ripped some jeans playing flag football just before FHE.  Afterwards on the walk back, I and my roommate got into a discussion of favorite music with another guy at FHE - Rick Standage and his girlfriend, Amber.  The discussion between the four of us resulted in going back to his apartment where I was happy to learn who had just become Rick's new roommate....yep, Landon.  Sure enough, Landon returned to his room, and while us girls chatted, Rick was planning to attend a nearby movie that night with Amber.   He invited Landon, who then invited my roommate Chelsea and I.

Whether she actually had lots of homework or just knew that I really liked Landon, she politely declined and suggested I still go. :) Not thinking this was really a "date", I told Landon I needed to run upstairs to get my purse.  He said not to worry about it - his treat.  Well, then I needed to change. Nope, he said I looked just fine (scrub pants and sweatshirt?) and even though I would not have chosen this outfit for my one, and presumably only, date with Landon, we were on our way. 

At the theater we saw the Ben Stiller movie "Meet the Parents."  It was a good first date movie - funny, not too hard to follow, and allowed us opportunity to chat a bit and playfully throw popcorn at one other.  Don't know who started that, but I remember feeling so at ease around him.  I had a great time.  

Thank heaven for Rick and Amber and my roommate Chelsea.  There were instrumental in making that first date happen.  Oh, and that manager at the pizza place who let me go the week before, thus freeing me up for this Monday date.  I really should have sent that lady a thank you note.

Instead of detailing each of our next dates over the following few weeks, suffice it to say that after that first week, I felt I could die happy.  The guy I thought would never ask me on a date, asked me out again twice that same week.  We got together for game night at the Activity Center, ice cream runs, the institute dance, and that's where it all began.