In 2002 I was a school teacher. I taught American History. My two best teacher friends taught English and Biology. We hung out with each other a lot. Nearly every weekend. There were no boys on our horizons. We were all three in our early twenties and consumed by our jobs with no time for anything much else.
One night, as the three of us sat pining and brooding as we were apt to do from time to time we made a deal. We'd just seen parts of an episode of Oprah about online dating and since we were all three dateless, all the time, we decided that we would each place an add on an online singles service of our choice, just to see what was out there.
We talked about it for a couple weeks. Knowing I had nothing to lose, I created an account at yahoo singles and decided to write a profile. I did not include a picture, made sure to note that I was tall, and talked a little bit about basketball, saying something about Gonzaga of all things.
That add got me quite a few replies. I went out on one date each with two of the guys who wrote to me. One was much older than me, wore a mock turtle neck, medallion and driving gloves and didn't get my joke about the Eagles. The other, though he had a voice that could melt butter, was in person snaggle toothed, drove a turquoise truck, and wanted me to "come up to my place" after dinner.
Um...no.
After two bad dates I sort of gave up on the whole online thing. Oprah was so wrong. Wave of the future my butt. I'd put myself out on a limb and got beaten down a bit. I left my account active but completely ignored it's existence.
Until one day......
I got a message from a boy. I don't remember what it said, something about my basketball reference, and that boy had a picture.
He was cute. He looked like he was 12, but he was cute.
I showed his picture to my friend the English teacher. Initially I thought about lining her up with him. They both were super into sports and she seemed more desperate than me. She wasn't interested. I showed his picture to my family one night. They didn't say much. My mom was creeped out by the whole online thing and wasn't sure that I should pursue it.
After some thought, I ended up communicating with the boy. We exchanged some e-mails. I found out some important information about him. I learned that he'd served a mission in Argentina at the same time, same place, as my Biology teacher friend. In a casual conversation with her one afternoon, I mentioned his name.
Her eyes bugged out of her head. She said his name out loud very slowly. He lived in her neighborhood RIGHT NOW! He was in her ward RIGHT NOW! She didn't think that I'd like him, that he wasn't my type (too opinionated or something like that) or would have lined us up months ago.
Huh? What?
At this point, I knew he was safe. That I could maybe talk to him on the phone instead of just e-mail. I had her assurance that he didn't wear driving gloves and had straight teeth.
We started talking on the phone. He was working for SLOC (The Salt Lake Olympics) and he'd call me driving from Provo to Salt Lake every night on his way home from work. We talked to each other for a couple of weeks. My mom made me get a cell phone because I was taking up too much of the house phone.
We'd finally decided to meet each other in person. A few days before he called me to tell me that he was going to be on the local news, and that I should watch to see what he really looked like and if after watching I still wanted to meet him.
I watched. He was cute. I was convinced that all deals were off however, because he just didn't seem as tall as he said he was.
We finally made arrangements for a "date" of sorts a couple weeks before the Winter Games. He was going to pick me up on a Sunday afternoon, drive me to Provo, and get me into the hockey venue for a private tour.
He came. We met. We drove. We conversed easily. I had fun. I spent the entire night trying to see if he was really as tall as me or if he was faking it. I thought that maybe he sat too close to me on the bleachers as we were talking. I was also concerned that my hands were bigger than his.
We made plans for the next night. He was going to meet me at the Huntsman Center for the Utah vs. BYU basketball game. He promised that he was only "sort of a fan" for the cougars. We were going to be sitting with my dad and one of my dad's brothers in a packed arena and I couldn't bring someone who was going to cheer loudly for the wrong team.
I had his ticket. I stood outside waiting for him. I thought I was being stood up. It was cold, getting late, and the game was ready to start. No one was outside but me, and the guy making the roasted nuts so at least it smelled good while I waited.
He finally showed.
He didn't cheer too loudly for BYU.
We ended up going out on a few more dates.
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