Spilled Fries, Dancing, Milkshakes, and Pod Races

Last month, Gary and I celebrated the 10 year anniversary of our first date. We . . . well . . . I decided it would be fun to re-enact the whole thing- down to the very clothes we wore. I surprised Gary when we left for our date and I just told him to drive South. It was so fun! I have a psycho memory and since I remembered what we wore and we still have the actual clothes, I thought, why the heck not?? :) So, here's our little story: (The pictures are out of order because I'm a little rusty, and lazy. :))

Gary and I first saw each other on the first day of Social Dance 280. I was sitting on the floor in the ballroom in the WILK next to a handsome fellow from my home stake when Gary walked into the room. My first thought, "Oh, the TA is cute," and the aforementioned fellow was forgotten, because I was allowed to do that. Gary had the biggest, sweetest smile, which he threw directly at me. He said I was the cutest girl in class, just to let you know how slim the pickins were. :) Poor guy!

Well, just imagine my surprise when I walked into my D&C class the next day and saw that my dance TA was in that class. It was a little awkward as he left his seat by his friend and sat right in front of me. I knew he just felt obligated. But, would I have it any other way? Heck no!! We became friends very fast and I looked forward to seeing him at 10:00 a.m. every single day. How magical is that?!

This is where Gary sat before I came to class.

This is where he sat after I came. :)

Aw, you wanna sit next to lil' ol' me?

Here is an example of Gary flirting with me while he was my dance TA. (I made him take the picture. :)

Oh, is he looking at meee?

So, Gary asked me out a couple of times before I had room in my busy schedule to fit him in. :) I was finally :) able to go to World of Dance with him about a month after we met.

He was late. :)

(An out of order picture) After World of Dance, we saw "Star Wars: Episode 1" at the dollar theater. It was the first time a guy put his arm around me at a movie. Awww. So nice.

Oh, but before the movie and after the concert, we got milkshakes at Hire's. Well, this building used to be Hire's. It used to have a cute, huge, fake hamburger on the side (very classy) that I have wanted to take a picture by for years. So, we finally go to take a picture and it's a Greek place, no, a Mexican place, no, a Greek place. . . with no huge hamburger on the side!! I was perturbed and disappointed.

So anyway, the first thing we did was eat dinner. Gary has wanted to take me out to eat a nice dinner because the only time I really ate in those days was when I went on dates. :) But, since he was tardy, we did drive-thru at Wendy's. :) We then took our vittles to eat by the fountain in front of the ASB.

Our view of the fountain.

I haven't eaten in Wendy's in years because, well, it kind of grosses me out. But in the spirit of authenticity, we ate there and I got what I always get: a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger. This is not a picture of fake, plastic food, it is my actual burger. :) I learned a trick in my Wendy's-eating days: you have to eat the hamburger fast enough before you see the grease soaking into the bun. If I see that happening, though, I'm done!

On our first date, I knocked Gary's fries off the bench and into the dirt. I felt SO bad! Well, they have since installed better benches with backs on them, so his fries were safe. :)

WHY are Frosty spoons SO deep! They're impossible to eat out of! You have to flip them upside-down mid-bite and scoop the rest out with your tongue. But, you probably all know this. Very complicated, but worth it.

We spoke too soon! Gary did this spill himself. :) We had a good laugh over this one.

As we were passing the ATM's (which are not called ATM machines, where we do not enter PIN numbers), I had to get a picture of a place on campus that brought me anguish and despair whenever I checked my meager balance. Meager, as in negative.

We got a beautiful picture of the Bell Tower. I love it!

I was so excited to re-enact out first date and I wanted to keep it as accurate as possible, but one thing I was prepared to change was our seats at "World of Dance." Well, I went to order our seats online and saw that the only seats left that were worth getting were our exact seats as our first date. I guess it was meant to be. Too cute!

At the end of the date, Gary walked me up my door. He held out his arms and said, "Can I get a hug?" He kind of mumbled it and I thought he said, "Kiss and a hug?" (I guess you can see what I was thinking. :) I was shocked and he asked what was wrong. I told him what I thought he said and he said, "Jessilyn, it's the first date!" We laughed and he gave me a hug. . . and only a hug. :)

I love our first date. Gary treated me better than I had been treated in a very long time, if ever. From the very second he picked me up, I could be myself. I even teased him about being late. He encouraged me to talk and say what I felt about things. He opened every door and "trained" me to wait for him to open my car door. (This took a few more dates for me to get used to.) He offered me his arm when we walked and complimented me all night. It was very refreshing after a couple of years of "hanging out" with other guys.

Neither of us wanted the date to end. It wasn't fancy- I mean, we ate Wendy's drive-thru, went to the dollar movie, and had milkshakes at a restaurant with a huge plastic hamburger on the side for heaven's sake! After each thing we did, he'd say, "What else do you want to do?" Don't get me wrong, he hadn't committed the unpardonable mistake of not planning the date, we just had so much fun together. And what I love the most is that Gare-Bear still treats me like we're on our first date- only now we hold hands and we've kissed a couple of times. Sshh!