In the beginning

Today marks the one year anniversary of our first date (of round 2). Nate and I waxed nostalgic thinking back to that first date and how much has happened in the year since then, and seeing as I haven't written anything about our beginnings here or in my personal journal I thought now would be a good time while the details are fresh in my mind, sorry if it's kind of long.

Nate and I met in January 2007 through a LDS singles website. Though a number of friends had urged me to try the online scene I was strongly opposed until that year I decided to give it a try as part of a New Year's Resolution. My dear friend Stefani helped me put together a profile and Nate was one of the first people I clicked with. We really connected well and had fun talking a lot online before we finally met. We went out a couple of times and, well, our second date was kind of a flop for both of us. Shortly thereafter I left on vacation to Paris, he got busy with year end exams and started dating someone else, and we ended up falling out of touch. I figured it had run it's course and that I'd never hear from him again.

Flash forward 9-10 months later (which seems like a lifetime)and we were unexpectedly thrown back into each others lives again thanks to the power of Instant Messager. I was dating someone at the time and Nate had just gotten out of a relationship so we talked often as friends while I tried to pass the time at work. During our time talking I found myself wishing I had the connection and communication that Nate and I shared with my boyfriend at the time. Not long after that realization, my boyfriend unexpectedly ended our relationship. I was heartbroken and in the aftermath the following day at work I found myself desperately wanting to talk to Nate, and sure enough he was there. From then on our relationship quickly grew closer, though it would take another 3 weeks before we finally saw each other again since he was swamped with finals.

Saturday, May 17th finally arrived and I made the long trek out to Glendale dressed in my new outfit feeling full of nerves and excitement. It had been a long time since I'd felt this way about a first date, and yes we considered it a second first date since it had been over a year since we'd last seen each other. 45 minutes later when I arrived at his apartment, Nate took me on a tour of his school campus and then we headed off to Texas Roadhouse for dinner (Nate's traditional post final treat). After dinner we returned to his apartment for a mini Office marathon, then he suggested we go do some geocaching at a few sites nearby. This was my first time geocaching and I felt a little silly scouring the locations looking for the little treasures as Nate stood back and watched since he already knew where they all were.

The time came for me to go home and for some reason (it must have been construction related) I decided to take the I-17 home from the 101 in Glendale. Much to my surprise, I discovered after entering the ramp for north and southbound split that the southbound ramp was closed thus forcing me to go north. I either missed the sign completely or I had a subconcious desire to go to Flagstaff. To my further dismay I quickly found that the first couple exits off the freeway were closed and I had to go several miles in the wrong direction before I could get turned around. Once I finally got driving in the right direction it was late and I just wanted to get home. As I passed through Phoenix I spotted something strange a short distance ahead of me in the lane I was in. As I got closer I realized what it was, two lone road flares smack dab in the middle of the road, no stranded cars around, no other flares were leading to the shoulder. I quickly looked in my rearview and passenger side mirrors only to find several cars beside me leaving me with the only choice of going over the flares since there was no room for me to change lanes. I figured I was going fast enough that no harm would come to my car, nevertheless I drove the rest of the way home with my window down constantly checking for burning smells (which were there slightly) and watching my heat gauges convinced that my car was going to blow up right there on the freeway. I finally managed to make it home in one piece though this wasn't the only time we experienced car related mishaps while dating, including getting my car locked in a parking garage and Nate's battery exploding on the freeway.

From then on we tried to see each other as much as possible, which much to our suprise never seemed to be more than 2 weeks. It didn't take us long before we both independently of the other realized that if we took the best parts of all of our previous relationships we'd have each other, and the rest is history.