1999 - The Never-Ending Date (Part 1)

(originally posted 04/14/2009)

January 18-22 - This was a busy week. I continued working at Ikon Office Supplies, taking daily afternoon naps, and trying to block out the gossiping co-workers. I hated it.

Monday evening Natalie and I went to the FHE activity which was watching "The Princess Bride" in the cardboard cars everyone else made the week before. Natalie and I just sat in the middle of the room laughing our guts out and looking like fools.

Tuesday was unremarkable. Wednesday Natalie and I tried to act spiritual and go to an institute class over by Mesa Community College (MCC). I think we were both completely bored out of our minds and determined to go to a different class the next week.

Let me just throw this one in here to redeem myself for Natalie. I mentioned before that Natalie and I hadn't lived with each other for several years (like 7 or 8), and even before that it wasn't like we were the best of friends. So this experience was totally new for both of us. I must say though that Natalie was the best roommate I've ever had! She was always home from work before me and she had a little obession with fajitas, which we ate almost every night. She'd make me dinner EVERY NIGHT! Every night. I'd just sit there and she'd make dinner. Every night. She's the best.

Thursday finally brought us some good news. Natalie received a phone call from Elliot asking her on a date for Friday night. Yes, you heard me . . . he asked my sister out first! Seconds after they got off the phone, I received a phone call from Elliot's friend Mike Folsom asking me on the same date. I asked what we were doing, which totally threw him off because I guess it was a surprise, so he said, "I don't know." Me, being totally tactless and rude, called him a liar and said I'd see him the next day. My lack of tact may be one among many reasons that I didn't ever date much. Natalie had given Elliot directions to our apartment.

I was super-excited for the date on Friday, which made working all day very SLOW! I don't remember exactly what time Mike and Elliot were supposed to pick us up, but they were very, very LATE! When they finally got to our apartment, Elliot and Natalie quickly started light-heartedly bickering about the bad directions she'd given him.

We raced off to our first destination in Elliot's white Saturn which was to see "Life Is Beautiful" at the theater on Rural and University. Since we were so late, the rest of the group had already gone into the movie. We waited for Elliot's other friend Cameron to come out with the tickets he was supposed to have bought for us, but we just kept on waiting and waiting.

Call me crazy (well, they all did), but while we were waiting, a few older men that were acting totally drunk mozied on up to get tickets for a movie. One was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and cap. It ran through my mind that those guys looked like The Beach Boys, so I mentioned it to Natalie, Elliot, and Mike. They just laughed until we saw the limousine at the other side of the parking lot! We were pretty sure that Cameron wasn't coming out of the movie with our tickets, so we all ran over to the limo and asked the driver who's limo it was. He wouldn't answer us, but I was positive it was The Beach Boys. You know, I'm sure they just always hang out with each other. So the driver let us get into the limo to sit for a little while. It was awesome because I'd never been in one before.

We had some time to pass, so we got back in Elliot's car and they drove us to Scottsdale to a little ice cream shop called The Sugar Bowl. We sat in a little booth and visited for a while. This is where we all learned of Natalie's germ issues. I don't remember the exact conversation, but I know that Mike and Elliot thought she was crazy. Natalie said that she even has a hard time taking the sacrament because she knows that other people have touched it. We had a lot of good laughs and I thought Mike was awesome and totally funny and Mike and Elliot feeding off of each other was hilarious! They had a lot of silly inside jokes and noises that just made us laugh.

Now that I think about it, we did a lot of driving on this date. It was great though, because that gave us plenty of time to talk. They all convinced me to quit my Ikon job, and they almost convinced us to go on the ward spelunking activity the next day. We drove to Ocotillo to Eric Phillips house for dinner. It was a gated community (I thought those were so weird), and apparently no one could hear the gate beeping because no one would let us in! We just had to sit outside the gate for a long time speculating as to whether or not there was an Oompa-Loompa midget hiding in the gate booth.

Finally somone let us in after Elliot's head was about to explode. He was so embarrassed that absolutely NO PART of the date was going according to plan. Natalie and I were having a GREAT time with just Mike and Elliot! Apparently it was an Italian-themed night with the movie and dinner. The house was absolutely beautiful and we got to take a small tour. It was dark, so I can't recall what it really looks like, but we went into the back yard which was down some stairs to the pool area.

Shortly after we all got down there, the dinner was finally ready, so we were called back up. Elliot, who was standing right next to me, automatically reached out his hand to touch the small of my back to lead me back to the stairs. That was the actual first touch, and let me tell you that I was TOTALLY IN LOVE by then! There was electricity. I'm telling you, I got chills. Sorry Mike. I couldn't keep my eyes off of Elliot all night.

The guys served us our dinner and I knew by then that Elliot wouldn't be interested in Natalie. Elliot grabbed a plate for Natalie and sort of spun it around in his hands and said, "What do you want to eat Natalie." Natalie's response . . . "Nothing on that plate!" That's how I knew.

I really can't recall what else we did that night, but it was seriously the most fun I had ever had on a date! They invited us again to go to the ward activity at the crack of dawn, but Natalie wasn't sure she wanted to go. I didn't even know what spelunking was, but I knew Elliot would be there and I didn't care how early we had to get up. I did my best begging to get Natalie to go. I still wasn't ready to set out on my own. You couldn't wipe the smile off of my face.