The date crasher.

A little piece of the love story...

Once upon a time, not long after I made those fajitas, I decided that I was quitting jerks. I declared it boldly and it was received with chuckles and pity pats on the shoulder. Fall 2008 proved to be quite the semester and I was tired. I wanted a fresh start in the new year. I walked into that semester confused and lost after a fairy tale didn't quite end in happily ever after. After that, things kind of got sour. Provo's Jerky Guy Block was a block I'd been around way too many times. It was like a bad rollercoaster and I didn't know how to get off. That's not to say that every guy I went out with was a jerk. There were sweet, great people peppered into the mix... for one reason or another we just didn't work. That's life's funny way of teaching you what you need for the big win. Anyway, amusement and disbelief motivated me to just decide to quit dating altogether. It seemed like a better idea, anyway. That way I was less likely to lose at my own goal.

A few days into Winter semester 2009 I came to the realization that maybe quitting dating was a little bit boring, so I decided to accept invitations from nice guys I already knew. One was from a guy from the ward. A guy who used to be a good friend of mine but decided to cut me off from his existence when I went out with Fajita Guy. Unbeknownst to me, he happened to have a very large crush on me for a very long time. Sometimes guys can be such drama queens! Anyway, he said he was ready to be my friend again and wanted to know if I would go on a "friends" date with him. I said yes, and that's where things started to get interesting.

It was January 16th. I remember this because it's my brother's birthday. I was on a birdwatching trip with my biology class. It was cold out, but the sun was golden and glorious. I was happy with life and its simplicity. My phone rang. It was my date, wanting to know if I was still able to go out. I started to wonder if this really was a friends date...

After my birding excursion, I got all ready to go and we first went to a party and then ice cream. After, we headed to my place to watch a movie. We didn't have a TV so we moved the couch up to my computer and just as I got the DVD queued up, there was a knock on the door. I opened the door and there were three guys standing there happy to visit me. I only knew one of them. The one I knew said "Hi, you busy? This is Dan. And another guy named Dan." They had a clear view of the couch and computer and the guy. I felt awkward. They felt awkward. I mumbled something lame like "I'm kind of busy right now..." and they decided to leave.

That's what my date saw... I saw something different. When I opened the door, there were 3 guys. One I knew, two I didn't that were both named Dan. There was one of those Dans that caught my eye. He was blonde, good looking, and his smile and eyes gave me a very stirring vibe. It's almost like they were saying "I am a good person... I am not a jerk. You need to get to know me."

So, I got back to the movie, but I wasn't thinking about my date, or the movie. I was wondering how I could get to know this Dan better. I'd only been around him for a few seconds but I knew that I would regret it if that's all I got.

And that's the story of how my second to last first date went down... and got crashed... and how I first met Dan.

[RACHEL]