13 Years

Everyone,

Today is the day I met Juice, 13 years ago tonight. I had planned on writing a big long entry about it, but apparently I already did that. You can check it out here. You can also see a fairly flattering picture of us on our first date...although I always hated the picture because I look a little vacant in it. I glanced away right as the photographer was taking the picture, and have always been sad about my wandering mind at that point. Still, Juice looks handsome and oh so young in those big glasses and huge smile on his face. You'd think he was pleased to be out with me. I know I was overjoyed to be out with him. Although really nervous since it was my very first date. And apparently had a wandering mind. Kind of like today. I still have my corsage he gave me somewhere in a shoebox at my parents house. (Seriously, you would not believe what kind of stuff I have at my parents house still. My room still looks like my room. My brother's room, however, was taken down rapidly after his move out and is now the very cluttered office of my mom. Although I have things in there too. I think I may have too much stuff.)

Well, since I've already done the day we met post about today, I suppose I can tell you about the picture and our first date. Here, I'll even move the picture up in case you want to stare at it dreamily like I have been for the past few minutes. Ahem... moving on.

This was the first weekend in October, 1996. I know, because this was 2 weeks after I turned 16. And since I was not allowed to date until I was 16 (a great rule, one I intend to inflict on all our kids), I was looking forward to this month for awhile. I don't exactly remember when Juice asked me (my journals would know but they are buried under a heavy box and I am under strict orders to not lift anything heavier than 15 lbs) but I do know how he asked me. In Utah, the big thing is to ask people out on dates in a fun cutesy sort of way. Instead of getting a nervous phone call from a boy, you'd get cookies in your yard spelling out the question. Something similar happened to my brother. I remember finding packing peanuts in my bed (filled to overflowing) with one of them having 'yes' written on one side. I asked a boy to a school dance and this is how he thanks me! :) Still, it was a fun tradition and then you could call your girlfriends over to help find the answer. A 'no' was mostly done in person.

So, about 2 weeks before the dance, I was sitting in my dad's office, supposedly doing homework (I think I was playing solitaire on the computer) and listening to Enya. I was alone in the house. My brother was at college, my dad at work, and my mom I think had run out to the store or was on her way home from work. I heard a small knock on my front door, and looked over my shoulder to see who it was. (You could see through the open office door to the front door with big open panels on either side so you could see right out. A fact that gave Juice a lot of pause as he walked up to my doorstep, question in hand, and could see me on the computer. He said he came back 2 different times to see if I had moved and decided to chance the drop. My parents' porch has about 8 steps up to it, and he didn't think that he could make it down those steps without me noticing since the steps were pretty much in plain sight too. So he parked he car around the corner, snuck up to the house, knocked, jumped over the porch railing to the side of the house, and sprinted up the street to his car. The 16 year old in me just gets thrills every time I think about it. Wasn't he cute?!)

On my porch, was a vase of flowers and a card. I knew it was him the minute I saw the name on the outside of the card. I knew his handwriting even then. I have no idea what the card said (again, in those buried journals) but I remember being highly annoyed that I was the only one home. Where was my mother when I needed her to squeal with me at the idea of going on my very first date?! I can't remember if I called friends to tell them, but I do remember being really anxious that my mom would come home. When she came home, she went straight to the phone (still does) and I had put the flowers right next to it. She guessed what it was right away and was appropriately happy at the aspect of me going to homecoming and my first date. Dress shopping ensued and we came up with this beautiful blue number in the picture.

And now, I have spent all day on this and will have to continue it later. To be continued....

Safire

PS- All is well with the boys, moving and shaking and happy as clams. Uterus, not so happy.