Last Friday

Don't you hate those times when you're really sleepy and someone asks you do to something, and you agree even though normally you'd run screaming in the other direction? Well sometime last week, or the week before, which goes to show you how out of it I really was, D asked me if I would like to go to a dance with her. I hate dances with a firey burning passion, I'd rather spend a month in Iraq or Afghanistan. I said yes. It was a church dance, so I already knew what type of music and such would be there, so to avoid any fast dancing movements on my part I asked if we could make it at least a semi formal occasion. Thankfully D agreed, and I picked up the dress she wanted to wear from her parents and brought it up to her prior to the dance. Now in all fairness D knows I hate dancing and she was hesitant to ask me (notice that didn't stop her from asking me when I was in a poor state of mind) and the only reason she asked me to go was for her roommate's sake. Apparently several of them wanted to go to this dance, and had their hearts set on it. One of her roommates was even in charge of planning it, but they all wouldn't go if I didn't go, and D's roommate Emily's boyfriend was coming up from Provo. So after much groaning and mumbling once I realized what I had agreed to do, and I realized that because of the roommates I had to actually go through with it.

The Monday before the dreaded event one of the roommates got into a sledding accident and tore her face up, so she was out, and another's fiance was going out of town, so she wasn't going. So all the people who were wanting to go and whose fault it was that I was going, had bailed on me. It was myself, D, her roommate Emily and Emily's boyfriend. I have to admit, I was rather looking forward to seeing D in her dress, and I was going to wear my suit and a shirt that turned out to be the same color of her dress.

I went up to Idaho the night before to hang out with my other family, the Wilsons, and took D to her snowboarding class Friday afternoon. It was so nice to get up there and just try to relax before the cursed event. Since D was in her class that left me to roam the mountain myself, and they had just got a few inches of snow so everything was nice and soft. I decided to work on my jumps, but on one of the ramps I went off, I slipped and landed on the ramp itself and dinged my leg. First thought that went through my mind was "Wow that really hurt... I bet if I did it again I wouldn't have to dance tonight!!!" But then I remembered that I had to play Army on Saturday and I was going to have to run, so I decided against it. Not to mention D would've been disappointed.

We finished up on the mountain, and headed home. Seriously, it took her 2 hours to get ready, shower, dress, hair, makeup and everything. I went downstairs and tried to take a nap on her couch. When the big moment came for her to walk downstairs all her roommates came into the living room and made me watch her come down the stairs. Let me tell you, it was so worth it. I knew I had a stunning girlfriend before, but right then, I had a moment. One of those times when you re-realize something and the image is burned into your memory forever. I could have sat on her couch and watched her walked down those stairs for the rest of the night. There was just something magical about it. For that, two hours was a rush job, but I don't think she could have looked more perfect. I made sure I was standing at the bottom of the stairs whenever she went up them so I could be there to watch as she came back down. And she was very accommodating and gracious with me taking pictures. Sadly, only one of the dozen I took actually turned out decently, and you don't get the full effect of her in her dress. For a moment, I was starting to think that maybe this whole dance thing wouldn't be so bad. Emily made us dinner, which turned out to be very good, though for getting that dressed up I was hoping to be able to go out somewhere. Who wouldn't want to show off this beautiful girl who wants to be with me? What's up now world?!!!

We ended up playing games for an hour or so while we waited for another couple who decided to join us to get ready, and then we took off for the dance. Now comes my second favorite part. As we walked in, we looked around for Emily and her boyfriend only to be approached by a shorter girl. "You two look like you're married" she said, "Are you married?" Nope, we're not. "Well are you engaged? (looking at D's finger)" Um, nope. "Well you look like you should be married, marry each other soon." Ok, will do, thanks. I thought that the girl knew D, but apparently it was a total stranger. Who does that? I got quite the kick out of it, don't know exactly what D thought. Now comes the worst part. We walked into the dance. It's not that I think people are watching me, or care how I dance or what I do, I feel totally uncomfortable with myself and dancing. It's a complete self conscious horror-fest for me. I can do slow dancing, who can't? I was slightly worried about stepping on D's dress cause it was just slightly longer than her shoes would prop her up. At one point I swore I ripped it when she walked off at full speed while I was standing on it. Not cool. I have no rhythm, and I just don't like it. I do admit, D looked like she was having so much fun dancing that I almost want to learn how so I can join her. Almost. I do have a good friend who has offered to help me learn. We didn't stay long, maybe 30-40 minutes. For the first time ever I was grateful that I had drill the next morning. I didn't want to leave D, but I was so glad to get out of that dance. Oh, and Emily has pictures of D in her dress, but she's non responsive when I asked her to send me some, and in serious danger of incurring my wrath. Pictures of D when she's looking that good, or any picture of D for that matter isn't something to be held from me.

It's been a while...

If you didn't read the title of this entry, you may not have known it's been a while. Its been a while since I've written, since a lot of things. A friend of mine has coined the term monoblogue, in which you think of things you want to say in your blog but you do it during the course of the day. I find that I monoblogue quite often, almost every day in fact. I wish i were better at writing in this, as I started it in an effort to count this as a journal of sorts.
My sister and I are going through the Bountiful temple on Wednesday morning for the first time. For her, she's getting married on Saturday, but for me, this has been a much longer journey. For those who don't know me, I used to, shall we say, sow my wild oats back in the day. I always struggled in staying close to the mainstream of the LDS church even though I believed its doctrine. However, these past months, about a year now, I finally "got my act together" so to speak and decided that enough was enough, it was time to grow up and do the things that I knew I should. I've made that decision before, and had some false starts, but this time was somehow different. I think a great portion of the difference was this time I had an amazing support structure around me. I had some really great family and friends who have been with me through thick and thin. I have an amazing girlfriend, who even though we weren't dating at the beginning, has been a huge source of strength and a perfect example to me. I had a church ward that I finally felt like I belonged to, who went out of their way to include me in their lives and activities. The time was ripe... I'm tempted to shut myself in my room and lay in darkness to prevent anything from happening to mess it up!
This upcoming week is going to be crazy for me and my family. My parents and my youngest sister are flying in at 1pm Tuesday, then we'll be going to the Draper Temple open house. My girlfriend will be coming down for dinner and the "meet the parents" thingy will happen. Personally I'm not stressed about it, and I don't think any of the other parties involved are, but I plan on playing the oblivious man part. Then Wednesday is the big day for my sister and I, and my parents leave on Thursday morning for Las Vegas. Vegas is where Laura is getting married, on Valentine's day. Is that cliche'? My wonderful, amazing, beautiful girlfriend whom I love to embarrass will be driving down with me on Friday afternoon to Vegas. I'm actually looking forward to the 6 hour drive, I get to spend it with someone I love! She's really going out of her way to do this with me, she's got two tests, two rather large assignments, and her church calling to deal with before we leave on Friday. I can't tell her how much I appreciate that she's going. I can't wait to see my family (sans my brother and his family).
I suspect that we don't realize how much influence our parents have on us till after we move out and are on our own for a while. One thing that I have picked up from my Mom and Grandmom is that if I'm going to have company, my house has to be clean! My grandmom, when she lived overseas, would clean her house before the maid came so she wouldn't think that she was a bad housewife. I'm planning on giving my house a thorough cleaning tonight since I won't have time to do it before I go to work tomorrow. Thankfully I'm going to have some help. My friend Rachel wants to use my washer/dryer so we're going to trade services.
Also, my Army unit finally consented to letting me go to Warrant Officer School on the 25th. So finally they're going to stop fighting me on it and just let me go. Prayers have been answered! Warrant school is going to be very hard, I know there will be parts of it that I won't enjoy, and i sure won't enjoy being away from D, ( my girlfriend and yet another rip off from my monoblogue friend). I got really tired of saying "my girlfriend" and it kinda protects her privacy a bit. Random, I know. Anyway, I'm looking forward to this week, crazy as it will be between work, doing some prerequisite stuff for Warrant school, family and travel, but it's going to be so worth it.