First date kiss...

In order to create blogs such as this, it is necessary to go on lots of dates. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against relationships but I also don't feel the need to assume everyone is "the one" either. Consequently I actually get quite a kick out of being set up, afterall there are really only 3 possible outcomes: 1- it actually goes well and is worth my time; 2- there are no major ups or downs to the night, he's a one-hit-wonder (maybe two) and life rolls on; or 3- he is blog worthy.

With that in mind, I was all for going out with my friend's gym friend.

He called; we talked; in a spontaneous choice we went to sushi night and the he was normal, nice and I did not spend most of the night wondering what my friend thought of me that he thought we would be a good match. He did have a few strikes- 1- he was shorter than me. I know some people think its no big deal but call me traditional or insecure but I think height matters; 2- he asked if I was a "bad girl" (let's get real, that is never a good sign); and the big one 3- he felt the need to be a player and to lie about it.

Guys complain when girls play games but girls aren't that different. If you just want to make-out, thats fine, there is a possibility that is all we want to do too. I know the great fear of boys is that we will assume we are engaged the second you say hi to us but most of us are not this intense. Boys like to make-out, so do girls, if you don't believe me, continue reading our blog and that should be reason enough to believe me. So don't feed me a bunch of lines, "I haven't done this in awhile," "I love it when blind dates work out," "this makes me nervous"... ok, you go to the gym 5 days a week at least- at 5 am; you told me all about the gym all through dinner; you are slightly older, your teenage days are behind you, you have been on hundreds of dateyou are decently cute; you dress the part= you are not in a shortage of girls, if I plan to kiss you on the first date none of your lines are necessary, I know your type. You probably know mine. Telling me you will "call me later" and "let's do this again" is not necessary, I also do not need the obligatory text a few days later asking how I'm doing or the infrequent texts telling me you are doing homework. The kissing on the first date spoke volumes, your lines to get to that point buckled with your "nice guy" texts later complicate the situations more than the initial date.

So guys, next time you have an "ok" blind date and you want to take the player approach, just assume that if we aren't trying to track you down frantically a few days later, we are ok with it and please don't confuse us by trying to check up on us, you only confuse us more.

Charlie and the Chocolate Bet

I love chocolate.  I believe it can solve most of life's problems.  I also believe in eating it on a regular basis.  Luckily for me, so do most my friends.   

One night my friend was hanging out with her boyfriend and his best friend, Charlie, who was visiting from out of state.    Charlie is from Alaska and was in town to help his brother propose.  Of course I went along, and the night started with us playing pool.  One thing you need to know about Charlie is he is very good looking and very confident, if my friend hadn't been dating her boyfriend she would be open to dating Charlie.  As the games went on my friend came up and whispered that she had noticed that I had caught Charlie's attention.  That was the start of the "game".  It was the beginning of November and we had finals coming up.  Prime chocolate time. The bet was that if I could get him to kiss me, she'd buy chocolate for the rest of the year.  (We also had a thing for kissing guys and since she couldn't kiss Charlie, that meant I needed to) If I failed, I'd be buying.  As we've already discussed on this blog, I hate to fail.  She told me the bet and my initial reaction was that she was a little crazy.  I told her I didn't think it was possible.  The pool games continued and curiosity started to get to me so I thought I would test the waters a little bit.  Up till this point I hadn't been paying particularly close attention to him so I hadn't noticed anything that would make me think the bet was an option.  It took maybe fifteen minutes for me to change my mind and take the bet.  

The time soon came for us to head out and start helping with his brother’s proposal.  We had quite the to-do list and not much time.  First we went to Kinko's to print off some pictures and to this day Kinko's still makes me laugh.  I'm sure the attendant there was not to thrilled to have us there but we were having a great time!  I was feeling more confident.  Then we went up the canyon to set the scene for his brother and of course decided to stay hidden up there and watch, we also didn't dare leave the ring unattended.   He and I were over on one part of the trail while my friend and her boyfriend were on the other side of the park watching from that side.  It was November which means it was a little chilly up there so I stayed really close to him but nothing happened.  I was running out of ideas since the canyon had seemed like and ideal location to win our little game.   His brother came and proposed which meant it was time for us to go so we went back to the car, I was feeling slightly discouraged.  We had been talking and laughing and joking around, he'd been pretty flirty during the pool games and at Kinko's, had we really been totally wrong about it all?  On the way back down to where we were parked he stopped and dropped off my friends boyfriend, he had to work early and it was getting pretty late.  My friend and I were both going to my car and the possibilities to win at this point looked slim.  Charlie had suggested he wanted to go eat but when we'd dropped off his friend we had kind of figured the night was coming to an end.  We got back to the pool hall where I was parked and my friend and I got out of the car and into mine.  The first thing she asked was if we had kissed in the canyon and I'm not sure who was more disappointed to know I had failed at the contest, her or me.  That was when her inspiration struck, we needed to track him down and all go to Denny's.  We drove off after him and he was of course all to happy to go eat.  Even though it meant she'd be buying chocolate, it was really a win-win situation for both of us.  We came up with a plan.  We ordered and my friend ate really quickly then announced she had to get up very early the next morning and really shouldn't have come and since she and I lived in different directions from the restaurant could she take my car and go straight home and could Charlie drop me off on his way to the freeway (it was on the way) of course he said yes.  We finished eating at a much more normal speed and then he took me home.  We got to my driveway and I was frantically trying to figure out how to get him to kiss me (that he had to kiss me was also part of the deal) Feeling out of ideas I finally went to get out of the car.  I'll be honest, after all the ideas we'd come up with to get this to happen, failing was really disappointing.  I opened the door and he said I owed him a hug so I leaned back into the car and let the door partially close.  It was a good thing I did, I won the bet.   We were out there for a while and by now it wasn't so much late as it was early.  This was another problem, my friend had to be at school extra early that day and I had early work,  but she had my car.  We had made plans that she would come get me and I'd take her to school and then go to work and it was almost time for her to come get me!  Charlie on the other hand wanted to go hangout somewhere and get breakfast or something.  I finally got him to leave, walked upstairs and was there for maybe 10 minutes before my car came around the corner and it was time to start the day.  Needles to say I was extremely tired that day but I got chocolate for the rest of the year and we both had the satisfaction of knowing one of us had kissed him so it was worth it!  

The Follower

As many of you know, just being nice to a boy can be very disasterous. The simple act of being kind to someone when everyone else around them is being mean can lead to a follower for life! This story comes from my friend who is a recent college graduate, I had to post it for your reading pleasure! (the names of everyone in this story have been changed of course!)





My friend Amy had a TA in one of her classes who had a difficult time with the English language. While everyone else in the class was rude about his obvious struggle, Amy was just very nice to him. She felt bad that everyone was being so stupid about his language abilities so whenever he would talk to her she would just be nice. So basically Amy was just being a good person.... she wasn't putting the vibe out to date the TA..... much to her dismay, here are a few emails that came her way after the class had finished!




Hi Amy

Tomorrow morning I go to (foreign country name here).
I will miss (city name here). (City name here) is almost my second hometown. I have lived here for 2 and half years since I came to US.


I will have good time with my family and friends.
And I will come back on Dec, 31 with refresh mind.
I hope Amy also has a nice winter break.


Amy,
I have something to tell you that I like you so much.
You are beautiful and you touched my mind last year.
I wanted to tell it when I meet you. But it's not easy to meet you.
And I don't worry about telling this by email because you are wise lady.


I have also a favor to Amy.

If you don't have boy friend, I want to hang out(Bowling, movie, dinner, etc…) with you.
Through those, we can know whether our minds match or not.
I tell it now because you will graduate the (college name here) this March.
I will send email continuously in order to get "okay" answer from Amy.


Regards,
Joe.

After a brief encounter on Valentine's Day involving the giving of flowers and candy, Amy received yet another email with Joe's confessions of his feelings:


Hi Amy!
How are you?
First of all, I believe that there is critical error in the computer program. Definitely, 2007 [insert College name here] Queen should be Amy on homecoming day. Why? I've never seen the beautiful, excellent student than Amy in [insert College Name here].
Did you remember the makeup experiment on last year?
Frankly speaking, I was exciting because of it before 1 week.
I liked you. I'm still Amy' fan.

Do you have a plan tomorrow?
I will give many candies to children in my church.
Tomorrow evening I go to church to practice choir song.

If you have free time, I want to have lunch with you at PizzaHut tomorrow. Of course, I will buy it for you.
We can meet at 1 pm in front of PizzaHut (you can see ________ hall). My cell 555-555-5555.

My schedule
8:00-10:00 : recitation class
12:00-12:50: class
and free.

Please let me know if you can meet me.(send email or call me)
You can change time, and location we meet if you want.

If you are busy, so even though we can't meet ...that's fine.
I already received unforgettable, amazing present(memory) from Amy because of your surprising visit on last February
I will keep your prayer in my mind.
Happy Halloween.
( I prepared something to eat for recitation class students)

Joe.

So thus ends the email confessions of Amy's follower, for the time being anyway.....

Black Dan

When Cole came to town to meet my friend, naturally he brought his friend. Being the start of football season and seeing as how the road trip from Vegas to Provo can take awhile, Dan* came along. The intention was for us to double all day. The two of us with Cole all day, fun and entertaining; the two of us with Cole and Dan all day. The best way to explain them is Cole is a bad-boy pretending to be good and Dan is a good-guy pretending to have a bad boy edge.

The day of adventure got off to a start with us shopping for clothes for the boy, that was when I met Dan*.  After a very anti-climatic shopping adventure the boys decided we needed to do an activity of some sort before the big game.  Having spent the last few years living in an area where ski lifts are abundant and fall weather is normal, we suggested a ride up one of the ski lifts to admire the view.  Now while we live close to the resorts, there is still a god 20 minute drive to get there and the boys were anxious to show off their car, a Hummer.  Now as most Hummers go these are no ordinary car, they are fully loaded to include DVD players and killer sound systems.  To show us the systems the boys wanted to throw in a movie, they had 2.  Dan was the most excited to show it off and puled out his favorite movie, a movie all about being a brotha' and having "soul power".  Now besides having a lame favorite movie, he didn't stop there, he had to pick out his favorite parts and replay them, over, and over, and over, and over, and...  it got really old.  Not only did he replay it a million times but he had to act it out, EVERY time.  Now picture a REALLY white guy, with no rhythm, trying to act out a little rap-secret handshake sequence with a dance.  It shouldn't take much imagination to see this.  now multiply whatever you are envisioning by 10 and you have Dan, now nicknamed, Black Dan.  (Fortunately for Dan, Cole took pity on him and turned the movie off but not before Dan had done enough to cement in his nickname!) 

We finally got to the ski resort and started the ride, being from the area, us girls were appropriately dressed in jeans, sweaters and jackets.  The boys however being from a much warmer climate were in shorts, T-shirts and flipflops.  About a quarter of way up the ski lift, they got cold, about half they way up they were freezing and complaining.  Cole, whom we liked but wanted to mess with a little still started talking to my friend about how he'd be much less cold if there was a girl sitting closer to him so us two girls (we were sitting in the middle between the boys) would huddle closer to each other which of course drove Cole crazy and we were all loving it!  Dan decided to try the same tactics, he did not get the same results.  I guess I should have been nicer but I saw no reason to string him along so rather than play the same coy game with him, us girls just huddled closer together and politely avoided touching him! 

We finally got off the ski lift and the boys wanted to take us with them to meet their friends for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, of course we went!  Between the waiting for all the guys to arrive and then waiting for our table we had about 30 minutes to kill.  Dan decided he needed a jacket.  I fully agreed since I had no intention of warming him up!  He announced he was going to walk down to the sporting good store and grab a jacket, I told him to have fun!  (why would I leave my friend?!)  this did not work.  Dan came over, grabbed me and practically drug me off to go with him.  Since we were having so much fun with Cole I decided I might as well take one for the team and participate willingly so off we went.  We got to the sporting goods store and the first thing Dan announced was I could pick out whatever jacket I wanted to for him.  (there was a comment about it being important I like it so I could steal it later since that is what girls like to do!)  Now having NO desire to steal his jacket, I could have cared less which one he picked out.  I told him to get a blue one since that was the school colors and he went and picked 2.  One was much more expensive then the other, noting that I suggested he get the cheaper one since the jacket was since he hadn't brought one with him.  My thought being that since he didn't need a jacket for anything but that day, why would he spend much money on it?  He launched off about how money was no object to him, he cold buy whatever he wanted and anything I wanted for that matter and what did I want (I didn't want him to buy me anything!)  Finally jacket in hand, we went back to the restaurant.

Fortunately my friend and I are so close we were both on the same page with what we thought of Dan and she had managed to arrange the table so I was sitting with her and Dan was on the other side.  (still not far enough away but having him sit at a different table just wasn't an option) dinner was actually very enjoyable with all the other guys there and after that the boys dropped us off so we could get ready for the game.  

Fortunately for me, unfortunately for my friend our football tickets were not with the boys. (for me, that was a bullet dodged!)  once the game was over we were sauntering out and of course the boys came and found us to offer us a ride home and then to a celebration party for our victory!  in the process of walking back to the Hummer we ran into several of their friends who all wanted a ride in the car so by the time we actually got there we had close to 9 people we were cramming in (remember it's a Hummer, we all fit!) the downside is that while we all fit it was still a close fit and Dan was all to eager to let me sit on his lap or anything else that would make me more "comfortable".  The talks about the private post game party kept going and my desire to jump out of the car and walk was growing just as much!  Now we had another girlfriend with us who we needed to drop off and the boys had so graciously offered to let us girls go "slip into something mroe comfortable" if we wanted to so they headed towards the apartment.  as soon as we pulled to a stop and the soors were open on teh car I noticed that the car headed the other way and stopped in line to turn was being driven by my former football player friend.  This was exactly the window of opportunity I needed!  I crawled over Dan, jumped out of the car, ran around and just as my friend was about to turn hopped in his car and away I went.  Saved from what I can only imagine they had planned for the evening!  This took all of a few seconds, it is still being debated if the Hummer had actually come to a full stop before I jumped out and was gone.  This also meant my friend and I didn't have a chance to communicate this, nor did she even know I had left.  Once she went to jump out she turned to Dan and asked him where I was, his response was "she... here... car... guy... gone..." Being pretty amazing, and also used to our spontaneous way of life, my friend nodded because of course that would be totally natural for me to jump out of a moving vehicle.  That was the last time I saw Black Dan but the story doesn't end there.  (it also provided HOURS of amusement for us!) 

About 7 months later it was our birthday (yes, not only are we BFF's who have had freakishly similar childhoods, we also have back-to-back birthdays)  we were turning 23 and could think of no better way to celebrate than by visiting her sister in Vegas.  We headed down and were having a great trip!  Of course Cole was all too excited to do something with us but our schedule was hectic and we were having a hard time making solid plans.  We gave Cole a few hours notice and he said he and his BFF would be ready to hang out and finally show us around their town.  We pulled up and went in and Cole was there but his BFF wasn't... yet.  About 15 minutes later in walked his friend.  Eric*.  There are few words to describe him but beautiful, hot, and gorgeous, all come to mind.  He, of course, also had an amazing car just to make it better (a Black Escalade with black tint) and not only that but he was cool!  he was much more like Cole, funny, charming, confident, interesting and suddenly our night was looking much better!  (turned out, he was a professional football player!)  we had a lot of fun hanging out and before too long it was time for us girls to take off.  as we were leaving Eric made a comment about his brother and what did we discover?!  Eric and Dan are BROTHERS!!  We laughed about this all the way back to where we were staying.   Later when talking to Cole, he told us he and Dan really aren't that good of friends but because he didn't know us that well he brought Dan because he's more mellow.  the way he put it, Dan is the friend you bring when you go to church and eric is the one you bring when you want to be comfortable and have fun!  I'm not sure what it says about me that I got along much better with the "fun" brother but had we would not known we never would have guessed that he and Dan lived on the same planet much less the same family!       

The Iranian

Having spent much of my childhood moving around we always made a point to see the vacation hot spots of the places we've lived. When I came to college in Utah I didn't have a vehicle which made it harder to see the local tourist spots. having lived here, moved away and now moved back I have somehow never made it to the Great Salt Lake (an even more surprising fact seeing as how I have an addiction to the ocean and salt water) so a few weeks ago while driving back from
a quick work trip I found myself driving along the lake and my spontaneous side took over and I decided to go check it out!

The downside to this on the spot swimming trip is that I was wearing dress clothes and dress shoes so I had to improvise a little. Now the thing you need to know is that the walk from the parking lot to the lake is not sandy like the ocean like you might think but rather salt crusted over and very painful to walk on. I kept my shoes on and walked out to the water. The other thing you need to know about the lake is that it is SO salty, the recommendation is that you wear clothes you aren't too attached to since the salt will most likely ruin them. I had on my FAVORITE pants. They are red, bright red. I rolled the legs up to my knees and decided that since there aren't too many waves and I was just planning to put my feet in that would be ok. I was surprised to find the water extremely warm. I went in a little more (don't worry, I didn't ruin my red pants) and then spent a lot longer walking around in the water. I finally realized that my "quick 5 min trip" had turned into a not-so-quick 45 min stop. time to go!

Now as I've discussed earlier I am a cell phone junkie. so this whole time I'd been on the phone. (if you are going to vacation by yourself, even a quick mini-vacation I still think you should tell someone about it) so I get out and realize that I can't put my shoes on. They were cute and black and my salt water soaked and salt/sand covered feet would not mix well. Now at teh lake there had been several groups, families, couples, a tourist groups and a few stragglers like myself who I suspect were also on little spontaneous mini-vacations like mine.

As I'm walking back (and on the phone) a guy from down at the lake stopped me and asked me to take his picture so I hang up. My walk back was a slow process since the ground hurt my bare feet really bad so the idea of stopping was appealing. I took his picture and then he started talking... and talking... and talking. (so much for my phone call) I decided to be nice and ask what brought him to the lake and he told me that he wasn't from here, he'd gone to school here and had never been to the lake so he was there to check it out. he asked me the same question and I told him I had grown up in the military and even though I went to school in the state, I'd never made it to the lake so here I was to check it out. He asked a little about my military family (where they lived, who I knew in Utah, who i lived with here, where my other family members were, etc) some of the questions seemed normal enough, some were a little odd seeming but everything got weird when his next statement was that he was here from Iran where he used to work for the government building missiles. (warning! warning!) and he'd quit cause they weren't paying him enough and then he came to teh states and after 9-11 he wasn't allowed to work in any war related fields. Then he went off again about my military family and who I'd been on the phone with earlier (weird?!) About now another guy went walking by (he had on shoes and went much faster than I did) and he stopped to talk for a few minutes which I was very relieved about but unfortunately my Iranian friend in no uncertain terms told him that I was fine and he'd be sure I got to the parking lot ok and he could go ahead and leave (talk about a let down, Bob* [besides changing his name, I couldn't pronounce his name anyway] was starting to make me uncomfortable) so Bob and I are walking back and I'm trying to leave and he starts talking about how he's going to bring his sail boat out to the lake. (if you didn't already know this; NO ONE sails on the lake, it smells, it has more salt than boats are made to be in, and no one is out there so if you had a problem, you're on your own. No Thank You!) I'm listening to this thinking he's crazy when we finally are back to the parking lot and the rinse off showers. I'm trying to leave as quickly as possible now (besides the crazy guy I'm also running late) Bob starts talking about my military family again and his friends in Iran (not really comments that belong in a sentence together) I'm just about to leave when he tells me he needs my number so we can go boating or I can get his so we can sail to the middle of the lake. I'll be honest, my first thought was I will probably be pushed out and forever live in the middle of the lake, dead and perfectly preserved in the salt water. This had gone from random to weird to actually creepy. I got his number and literally ran to my car. Needless to say, I will not be calling him!

On a side note however, I recommend going to the Great Salt Lake if you haven't been there yet! Just bring some friends!

My First Date- the precursor to disaster!

Growing up we had the rule, No dating till you're 16.  Before that point I'd always imagined that the day I'd turn 16 I'd have a list of boys waiting to take me out.  Let's get real, that doesn't actually happen.  My 16th birthday came and went with no dates.  I wasn't too upset, there wasn't really anyone I was interested in at that time so the only part that I was disappointed with was I just wanted to go on a date.  One day I get a call from a girl friend saying she was going out that night with a guy from a few towns over and he was bringing his friend and did I want to double?  DUH!  of course I did!  They came and picked me up and we headed off to the bowling alley.  Now the boys had eaten dinner before they came and being teenage boys, who knows what they ate.  I don't even remember how far into the night we had gotten when disaster struck.  Food poisoning.  So my first date was spent outside the bathroom door with my friend while he boys were inside.  Memorable.  Perhaps this was the precursor to all the future dating disaster I would face and it was just life's little joke and way of getting me used to it but the stories seem to just get even more entertaining from that point on!      

Up coming stories

In looking back over our dating adventures the list keeps growing of the stories to share so look forward to posts about these stories!

The time we went home with each others dates

The gym trainer & The cowboy

The blind date that worked and the crush that flopped

Clue

I got dumped, I didn't know were were even dating (1, 2 & 3)

First dates

Tricked into a date

Family Reunion

Handcuffs

The business trip

Wal-Mart

My 18 year old stalker

The guy we both kissed, and hated

I'm sure the list will get longer but for now, trust me these stories are worth waiting for!