1999 - Work & The Valentine's Dance

(originally posted 09/01/2009)

February 9 - I started working at Emergency Chiropractic. Unfortunately, as history would predict for the first day of my job, I also had a cold.

Natalie and I met over at Elliot's house that night to take him and Bethany to see "Prince of Egypt." Mother Dibble could tell that I wasn't feeling very well and much to my surprise, she stuck her hand right down my shirt to feel my chest for a fever! Interesting . . . my mom always felt my forehead.

I didn't even feel good enough to focus on any moves Elliot may or many not make. I did get some candy from my secret Valentine though, and I hoped that it was him.

February 10 - Still had a cold. It's hard to train for a job when you can't hear what your trainer is saying. I got a poem from my secret Valentine.

February 11 - Still sick. Celia, the large-chested scary Administrator came to visit the office. She asked me a question and I saw her lips moving, but I wasn't quite sure what she said or asked me. So I just said, "Yes," supposing that she asked me if I was doing OK.

Mistake. Dr. Andreasen came out immediately and sat with me and asked what he could do to relief some of the stress of my training. I wasn't stressed, my head was just going to explode with this sinus pressure blocking my ability to hear properly! Celia never liked me.

I got a tape with the most hilarious song from my secret Valentine.

Side note: As Elliot reads me his journal documenting this time in our lives, I have a better idea of how we were acting towards each other and how our interest in each other was not one-sided, nor was it nonchalant. It did take Elliot longer to notice me than it took me to notice him, but the point is that he noticed. In fact, at the time we met, Elliot was actively pursuing another girl. I didn't know about her because she wasn't in town, but our budding friendship quickly made her fade into the background until she was gone completely. Go me.

Thank goodness for some nosey friends in the ward who had to know everything about everyone. According to Elliot's journal, he had a conversation tonight with this guy who asked if he was seriously dating me. I guess nosey people can be helpful sometimes when it involves people admitting and vocalizing feelings they have for someone. Elliot admitted to him that he liked me a lot. This would have been helpful information . . . for me. This is the same nosey guy who sought me out and chased after me before I could leave a Break the Fast after church on Sunday to inform me that the mint brownies that I brought tasted like toothpaste. Great, thanks.

February 12 - A group of us went to a performance of "Annie Get Your Gun" in which a friend from our ward, Amanda Udall, was the lead. I don't really remember the story, but I got to sit by Elliot. I wasn't sure, but it seemed as though I didn't have to put as much effort into making sure I was always by Elliot. He seemed to gravitate towards me now.

I got a flower from my secret Valentine.

February 13 - Elliot and Folsom met at our apartment and we tried to go see "Life Is Beautiful" again at the theater, but it was sold out. We went to dinner at Lychee Inn instead and a quick trip to our favorite store, MacFrugals. We dropped Folsom off at home because we couldn't convince him to go to the Valentine's dance.

Elliot presented Natalie and I with a double-framed picture of us at the Renaissance Festival with our dumb heads as the King/Queen and Nat and Beth as Robin/Marion. I thought it was about the cutest thing that he thought of giving us a Valentine's gift.

Elliot was talking about being caught delivering something to his secret Valentine earlier in the week, so then I became nervous about finding out who my secret Valentine was and having to dance with him. This meant time away from Elliot, which I wasn't willing to do.

When we got to the dance, Elliot went to say hello to some of his friends while Natalie and I leaned against the wall in true Stake Dance form. A young blond man approached me and asked if I thought my boyfriend would mind if he danced with me. Unfortunately, I had to say that I didn't have a boyfriend, muttering "yet" under my breath, and danced with the guy.

Later in the evening, Randy Hilliard revealed himself as my secret Valentine. I thanked him for all of the fun surprises during the week as I danced with him, keeping my eye out for Elliot's location while still trying not to be rude. I'm sure I was completely unsuccessful.

According to Elliot's journal, we danced 3 of the 6 slow dances together, repeating our close dancing position from earlier in the week. I tried to be more obvious about my interest, feeling as though Elliot was finally enjoying some of the attention. I was still missing my Retrix days in Rexburg and dancing each weekend, so I quickly shed my shy personality to break loose on the dance floor. I didn't quite break as loose as the guy in the corner sweating his guts out dancing by himself, but I was pretty energetic and Elliot enjoyed it.

After the dance was over, we invited several people back to our apartment for ice cream. Elliot and I drove Natalie's car home and had a helium balloon sticking out of the sunroof. At one point in the drive, Elliot drove over a curb turning a corner. In his embarrassment, his quick excuse was that he was looking at the balloon, but my peripheral vision tells me that he was looking at me.

During the commotion of eating ice cream back at our apartment, someone sneakily wrote on our calendar on April 14th "Elliot and Whitney will be engaged." Our interest in each other must have been more obvious to others than I thought. And I liked that.

I wasn't quite sure I was comfortable talking to Natalie about Elliot yet, but I sure spent a lot of money on my phone bill calling Lindsay and Stacy. They were super-excited about every little detail I had to offer them and helped me analyze every move Elliot made. I was fairly certain he was about to make a good one . . . and I was going to let him.

Strawberry Jam

Thanks for teaching me Mother Dibble!