How We Met

I’m a little behind, but still trying to jump on the bandwagon. My sisters-in-law have posted their “how we met” stories and so I went back and read up on mine. Yes, there was a time when I was a faithful journal writer. I would write at least every Sunday… up until I got married. Rob and I were just reading through it last night and having some laughs together.

As a bit of background: Rob and I were in the same student ward on campus. He lived in the building right next to mine. Our fire escapes faced each other… Early on in the year one of my roommates had gone on a date with Rob that didn’t go too well. Consequently, our apartment thought he was a jerk. I don’t remember the details on why we thought that, but we were girls and so had made our assessments of him based on our roommate’s story. I didn’t have any interaction with him through that fall or winter.

In the spring I had just broken up with a boyfriend and some of my friends were trying to help me get out and busy. They said they would put together a group date and find my date. That guy ended up being Rob’s roommate. The date went pretty well and not long afterwards “Guy” (name changed to protect the innocent) asked me out again. We had our second date and I thought he was really nice so I was hoping to get the word to him. Here’s what I wrote about it in my journal: “I talked to Rob, Guy’s roommate, tonight… He asked me if I had fun with Guy… (and) told me about how Guy is his favorite roommate… I said ‘I can tell he’s totally cool’… Hopefully that will get him to ask me out again because I know Rob has a big mouth.” (Rob loves to read this entry and thinks it’s hilarious. Especially because as a freshman he once had a roommate move out because he thought Rob was too quiet. Poor guy can’t win!) So our first conversation was all about how great I thought his roommate was, and him encouraging me to stay interested in him. My third date with “Guy” was a group date that Rob was also on. That date went ok, but things sort of fizzled out with me and Guy.

Over the next few weeks I started running into Rob and his two best friends more often and having a great time with them. There was about one more month left in the semester and there was plenty of drama to go around. I had friends that were annoyed with me because their apartment was a hangout for Rob and his buddies and I was showing up more and more. I thought they were feeling threatened by me and kept assuring them that I was just being friendly. And honestly, I was trying not to step on anyone’s toes, but didn’t want to completely back off. We went on a couple of group dates where we did silly things like make ice cream sculptures. On one date we did a scavenger hunt and as part of it Rob bought me a plastic angel ring. I still have it unless one of my girls has found it… but the semester came to a close with one last surprise.

I had been outside talking with Rob late into the night/ morning and came into my apartment to fall into bed. But just as I walked to my room I heard another of my roommates, Anna Marie, coming home. I was surprised because she never stayed out late and so I stopped to talk to her for a minute in the hallway. As we were talking we heard our other roommate, Kelly, who was sleeping in the other room, start saying some crazy things and we laughed that she must be having a nightmare. Then she started to sound scary like she was choking. We went in the room to wake her up and discovered that she was having a seizure! She had her head stuck between the bed and the wall and so I tried to lift her up onto the bed. It was hard to do because she was really tensed up. I then ran to call 911 while Anna Marie tried to wake her up and talk to her. My sister Erica, who was also my roommate, woke up and we all waited for the ambulance. The ambulance came but only one person could ride with Kelly, so Erica went with her and, not having a car of my own, I called Rob to drive me and Anna Marie to the hospital. He did, and stayed with us for the next few hours. We all had final exams the next day, so Rob could have easily dropped us off and gone home to sleep. But he stayed with us and I saw a calmness in him that was so comforting in a time of confusion.

I had decided to stay for the summer term to take a few classes and work full time. It also helped that I knew Rob would be doing the same. Over the break in between terms, Rob and his friends went to Las Vegas. We both missed each other a lot and when he came back we spent all of our time together. This is when we really started dating. He was happy, sweet, sincere, and my best friend. Although I had tried to convince myself that marriage was not for me right then, I completely fell for him. One of the things that made me like him even more was meeting his family. They were just happy and normal and I loved seeing how he interacted with his parents (especially his Mom), siblings, and little Dylan and Ciel. By the way, it wasn’t for show. He is still great with all of them! They are probably laughing reading this, but it’s true, his family made me love him more.

TO BE CONTINUED…