Flashback Friday - Our first date

The next few Flashback Friday installments will be about Steve and I meeting, dating, etc. And, for extra fun(at least this week), it will be told by both of us.

Charlene: Steve and I met over the internet. Not on any dating site, just by Yahoo! messenger. Steve decided one night, while he was working, on Valentine's Day, to look up profiles. He sent me an offline message, I happened to be out with a boyfriend for Valentine's Day.

Steve: Actually, I had seen her profile about a dozen or so times, I was just ticked off because my log time girlfriend and I had broken up.... about 6 months ago. So, there I was on 'single-awareness day' having to work. I was bitter. Very bitter. (big shock, right?) I was the supervisor out that night and I didn't want to work, so I assigned all the patrol work to the patrolman and I sat in the DI parking lot (4700s 4000w) and cruised the internet in my car. I think the message I sent her went somthing like "Hey, I'm Steve. Saw your profile and decided that since I'm such a freakin loser who is working on Valentines Day I would send ya a message. Hope to hear from you soon." Smooth arent I?

Charlene: I wish he was kidding. For some reason, I used to get quite a few offline message from guys commenting on my profile picture. I would respond to each of them and only about 1/4 of them would ever respond back. Steve was one of them. Now, let me remind you, I had a "boyfriend" at the time. I should not have been with this guy(anyone will tell you) and I knew it. We knew we weren't going to get married so we agreed we could date other people. So I did. Steve and I wrote on Yahoo! Messenger for several weeks before he asked me out to lunch. I didn't really want to go. See, Steve is several years younger than me, along with a few other things I didn't really want to deal with. The first time he asked me out I actually couldn't go. He wanted to go to lunch and I had to stay at work. The second time he asked me out I had a date scheduled for that evening, I looked cute and I was in a good mood. I figured why not. It will at least get him off my back.

Steve: If you know anything about me, you know that I'm determined to get my way and stubborn as a mule. My rule was 'if at first you don't succeed, carpet bomb em till they submit!' The second time I asked her to lunch, it was spontaneous. I am NOT a spontaneous person. To my utter surprize- she agreed. She gave me the address to her office and I headed off that way. I was excited. I had just left the gym and had my entire paycheck in my pocket because I didn't REALLY believe in bank accounts back then.

Now, mind you, I made my living responding to house and business alarms. I am pretty good at finding places. Yeah, couldn't find her office. Could not for the life of me find that place. I think I called her 3 or 4 times asking 'Ok, now where is it again?' I felt like a dope.

Well, I finally find it and I park. Then it hits me. Dude, you JUST left the gym.... after a 40 minute cardio, and hour on the weights and 15 minutes of more cardio. I'm sweaty, stinky, wearing blue Nike warm up pants, Basketball shorts, a grey tank top, and a ball cap. Oh crap!

So, I did what any sane, rational, and fashion oriented person would do. I popped the trunk PRAYING that there was somthing there I could wear. As a testimant of my luck, all that was there was one of my old waist long western jackets. This one was green on top, black on bottom and had a southwestern pattern trim where the colors meet. 'Screw it! I'm here.' So, I popped that jacket on, zipped it up half way, pushed the sleeves up, twisted my ballcap around backwards and in I went. Bravely going where no man (or anyone else should) has gone..I marched on in to the office!

Charlene: Oh boy, what a first impression he made! By the time he actually made to the office I was already not impressed. The office building is located directly on 4500 South. How can you miss it? When he walked in he looked like the biggest dork. I gave a glance to my co-worker and told her I would be back. I couldn't believe I was actually going to go to lunch with him. Lucky for me, I didn't actually notice he had been sweating. The jacket did the trick. Of course, I was probably too distracted by the backwards baseball cap.

Steve: Now, I decided we would go to the American Grill at the Cottonwood Mall. Mostly because it was close and I was cheap. It just so happens that I used to work there and my dad was the mall Operations Manager.

So, we get on the road and we're making small talk and my phone rings. It's my dad. See, he's a diabetic and forgot to pack a lunch. His bloodsugar was getting low and he needed to eat. He asked me if I was in the area and if he could borrow a few bucks for a lunch. I figured 'well this date is shot to hell anyway' "Tell ya what, I'm on my way to American Grill. Why don't ya just join us?"

"Hey, my dad works at the mall and forgot his lunch. He'll be joining us."

Charlene: What?! How bad can this date get? Now I'm going to lunch with his dad too? What I didn't know at the time, is Steve's dad is the man of a thousand jokes. The same 2, 500 times. And if he doesn't know a joke for a situation, he will make one up. The other thing I didn't know, don't laugh, it encourages him. So as we are sitting at lunch I've got Steve's dad telling jokes non-stop and Steve trying to learn something about me. Needless to say it didn't go so well.

Steve: Didn't go well? Well.. there's the UNDERSTATMENT of the year! On top of everything else that went wrong, they sat us right next to the grill. So, it's about 9000 degrees and I've got a COAT ON! I was sweating like a pig at a bacon farm! My dad, whom I love dearly, is telling the most awful jokes, I'm dying of heat and my brain is not functioning. (obviously. If it was, I wouldn't have asked her out after the gym!) Finally, I lose my appetite. I simply cannot eat. All I can do is drink copious ammounts of water and pray she finishes her meal soon or I am just gonna upchuck right there on the table.

Well, Charlene finishes and I tell my dad we need to go. Guy had us married off right then and there. No joke. We get back in the car and Charlene asks me the oddest thing I think I have ever been asked on a date.

Charlene: By this time, I was pretty sure I was never going to see him again. We were driving by the bank, so I asked him if he would stop so I could cash my paycheck, which I had received just before leaving for lunch. I know,bad move. But that was my plan. I didn't want him to call me back...ever! He took me back to the office, I said thank you, and I nearly ran back into the building. Man was I glad I had another date with someone else that night to make up for this one!

Steve: 'Well THAT sucked!' I drove back home to North Ogden kicking myself the entire way. '..what kind of idiot goes to a date dressed...UGH!' I was glad when that day was over. It was one of my rare days off and I was happy to be in bed during the night rather than working.

When I woke up, somthing odd happened. I opened my eyes and the spirit in the room was almost the strongest I have ever felt it. It also happened to be one of the few times that he whispered to me and I listened. I sat straight up and said audibly "Ok. I'm going to marry her."