Dallas

How could we have forgotten that it was May 10, 2003 that Rebecca and I met? I guess we were too busy to remember.

Time for a trip down memory lane straight from the archives of my journal. Do I really dare to copy straight from my journal?

“This morning started as a regular Saturday morning. Nothing exciting happened at all. I got up and went into work. Rick is still vacationing in Europe so I’m the only one that was there in my office today. I went out to use the bathroom and there was a cute girl sitting by the stained glass window reading a book. On my way back I stopped at the reference desk and talked with Marlice.

“I was feeling pretty claustrophobic in my office so I didn’t want to go back there and Marlice and I were having a good conversation, so I sat down and talked with her for a long time. The girl who was reading by the window kept looking my way and I kept an eye on her so I figured she was checking me out, so I was checking her out right back. Patrick came to relieve Marlice so I stood up to go back to my office. At the same time the girl stood up to leave. I continued to watch her because I was debating in my mind about whether I would go talk to her. As she was leaving she turned to look at the books and she looked like she was debating on whether to go to the bookshelves. I saw my opportunity to go and talk to her. I walked up to her and asked her if I could help her find a book. When I asked her this she blushed and I’m sure that I myself blushed because I lost all confidence and my tongue became tied. She asked me which books I would read and her question further sunk me into a blubbering mess. Since my mind had gone blank, all that I could think of was the LDS book section. I walked the girl to that aisle. I then thought about Michael J. Fox’s book that I enjoyed reading and I had to admit that I didn’t know where it was because I’m not really a librarian but I really wished that I was at that moment. She then asked me what I did at the library so I told her. We continued to talk and I kept on tripping over my tongue. I don’t remember a lot of what we talked about because I was very nervous for some reason. I decided that it was time to act upon my fight or flight response and take flight back to the safety and protection of my office. Before I left I asked her for her phone number and I gave her mine, then I retreated to the safe haven of my office. I had become so nervous by the whole encounter that my leg shook for a long time. I don’t know why I got so uneasy about approaching the girl because all I was doing was talking to her. Her name is Rebecca Thomas. I found her quite attractive.

“Later on in the afternoon I received a phone call from Mom. She asked me if I would like to take a date to the ballet that was happening tonight. We were originally going to go together as a family, but they decided not to go after all and they gave the tickets to me. I decided it would be the perfect chance to call the girl I had just met and to invite her to go with me. When I called and asked her she said yes. I was a bit surprised by this because I thought she would have turned me down after our unusual introduction earlier.

“At six o’clock Mom came and picked me up because I had left my car at home since I have been having troubles with one of the tires locking up. I couldn’t exactly take my date our in my car, so Mom agreed to allow me to use their minivan. I’m sure that my mom was really excited to have me out and dating, so she was more than happy to lend me her car. Unfortunately, a minivan is a really dorky vehicle to be driving on a first date. I can only imagine the thoughts going through Rebecca’s mind when I picked her up in a family van.

“I went and picked Rebecca up at her apartment and we went to the ballet up at BYU. The ballet we saw was Romeo and Juliet. I liked this ballet better than the Nutcracker. This was Rebecca’s first ballet and she says that she liked it. After the ballet we went to eat at Denny’s because nothing else was open at the time. We were at Denny’s until midnight because we were talking so much. When I dropped Rebecca off for the night I asked her out again for next weekend and she agreed. I guess I didn’t sound all that retarded this afternoon. I had a really good time this evening.”