It’s June. And that means it’s Anniversary Month – for lots of couples across the world I’m sure – but I’m specifically referring to my most favorite wedding of all time… Ours! This time of year always brings a lot of reflecting on our life and marriage and the path God has brought us on to where we are. This morning I spent some time looking back at our wedding scrapbook and came across a page highlighting the “while we were dating” period of our relationship. How fun it was reminiscing about a time before I ever imagined Kelly was the man I would spend the rest of my life with.
Written about 10 years ago with a “his&hers point of view”, here is the story of our first date! …
…She said
I was talking to Kelly on MSN (Messenger), and I mentioned that we should get a bunch of people to come hang out in Lincoln.
He said…
Melonie said she wanted me to come to Lincoln.
I had nothing going on and my roommate was going to be out of town. I figured that if my friends didn’t have anything going on, they could come to my apartment.
I knew I had to work that night, but I told her that I had the night off. I promised to invite everyone, but I saw to it that they would be unavailable.
Kelly informed me that everyone had other plans, but he was still going to come see me. I wanted to get the apartment ready for company and as soon as I got home from school, I started to clean. I was expecting him to arrive around 7:00pm.
I couldn’t wait to get to Lincoln, so I left right after school… that was about 3:00.
When Kelly called at 5:00 and told me he was in town, I started to panic. I hadn’t even vacuumed yet! I knew I had about 15 minutes, so I was in a rush to get everything done.
When I got to the apartment, another tenant let me in the building. I thought I was pretty smooth! I was just going to knock on her door and she would be so surprised. But I couldn’t remember which number she was in.
Kelly called to see which apartment I was in, and said that he was in the hallway. I looked for him, but he was no where to be found.
I was in the wrong building.
It didn’t take long to figure out what Kelly had done.
Once inside her apartment, we sat and talked for quite a while. When it was time for dinner, Melonie suggested McDonalds.
Kelly didn’t want to get fast food. We looked in the phone book to find a restaurant. It took forever because he could not make up his mind on where he wanted to eat.
I wanted to take her somewhere perfect. When she said that she had never been to Olive Garden, I knew that was where we were going to go.
I had heard that it was an excellent place to eat, and had been wanting to try it out. While waiting for our table we got to hold a little box that lit up and vibrated when we could be seated. I wanted to hold it because I thought that was pretty cool.
I made the mistake of letting Melonie hold it. She practically threw it across the room when it went off. I was quick to let her know that “next time” I was going to hold it.
Dinner went pretty well. The food was great, and Kelly was such a gentleman! He even paid for me.
I was so nervous! She was beautiful! I wanted to impress her, so I figured I had better be on my best behavior!
After we left, we decided to get a movie. We walked around the store a few times before deciding on “Hollow Man”. Neither one of us had seen it yet.
I had already seen the movie, and I knew there were a few parts that would probably make her jump … closer to my side of the couch. When we started the movie, I was sure to sit on the couch, hoping she would take the seat next to me.
When I saw he was on the couch, I realized that it would look kind of strange if I sat next to him when there was an empty chair. I didn’t know what to do… so I took the chair.
I was so bummed when she didn’t sit next to me!
During the movie, another friend called so I told him to come on over.
So much for being alone! I had originally planned on asking Melonie for another date, but having a third person there kind of ruined my plans. Once the movie was over, I decided it was time to head back to Columbus.
I felt bad that Kelly had to drive so far that late at night. So I offered him a can of Coke to keep him awake. He wasn’t thirsty though, so I told him to call me if he started to get too tired.
I didn’t want to be a nuisance, so I declined the soda. I gave Melonie a hug, and then gave the other guy a hug so it wouldn’t look too obvious. I stopped at a gas station to get a soda on my way out of town to keep me awake.
Soon after Kelly left, I asked my friend to leave so that I could get to sleep. I was just crawling into bed when my phone rang. It was Kelly.
I was really glad Melonie told me to call if I was getting tired. I knew I would have been ok driving, but it was a good excuse to talk to her for another hour.
So I talked to Kelly until he made it home.
Back in Columbus, I met my friends at Village Inn. I told them about the wonderful night I had with Melonie and how I couldn’t wait to talk to her again.
Little did I know, we had just had our first date and we would spend almost every night for the next year and a half talking on the phone for hours at a time.
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