1999 - Tucson & More Hockey

(originally posted 09/06/2009)

February 20 - I had to wake Natalie up when I got home from my date with Elliot last night. I hadn't even mentioned an interest in him to her, so I was worried about her response. I guess the wee hours of the night is the best time to approach Natalie on important subjects. She so weird. I was just so excited that I needed to tell someone and poor sleeping Natalie happened to be the one! She told me that I shouldn't throw myself at him, which I didn't think I was doing. I argued that I wasn't going to make it difficult for him because he didn't seem like the kind of guy who responded well to girls games. Look at me, already thinking I know him. I was right, by the way. As I left her room, she said, "Play hard to get!" I don't think I slept that night. I wanted Elliot to "get" me.

Elliot and several other guys helped a few girls from our ward move into a different apartment in our complex. They came over and invited us to go to Tucson with them to watch someone play hockey. We piled into Natalie's car (Elliot, Whitney, Mike, Natalie, Taylor, and Jayme Malloy) and headed to Tucson for Taylor to win some points with this hockey-playing girl (Mindy ???). We were kept occupied on the way by trying to guess the theme music to different television shows.

I don't remember watching the hockey game, but Elliot remembers it being a joke. Girls were either gliding very slowly across the rink or flying on their bellies after they stumbled over themselves. I wasn't prepared for the cold of the hockey rink, but Elliot was near to keep me warm. Everyone else was adjusting to our sudden public display as we were. It was probably weird for them because it seemed as though we'd all been friends for so long. In fact, it'd been less than a month.

We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant and piled even more people back into Natalie's car for the ride home. Elliot and I sat next to each other, but we also had another person practically laying across us the whole way home. This was not the ideal situation for cuddling, but it didn't stop Elliot from trying to be close to me and even sneaking a little kiss on the cheek.

When we got home, we headed to someone's house to watch a movie. Little cuddling. As much as can be done in a room full of people. And goodnight. Hum, thinking more about that kiss I'm not going to give him. We've just got to get rid of all these people that are always around us!

February 21 - Bishop Dibble asked me to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting. I was so nervous because Natalie had just given a fantastically entertaining talk the week before and I was no where near as expressive as she was. I think that's when I learned that I was just OK being Whitney. So I became Whitney. And Elliot liked Whitney.

We went to Elliot's house for cookies that night, but didn't get a chance to be close to each other with his family around and Natalie as my ride. Natalie and I also made sure we made fun of their family for liking well-done (burned) cookies. We probably weren't winning any points, but it was fun to be able to joke around with Elliot's family.

February 22 - I was craving a little Elliot time BIG TIME! It seemed like it'd been forever since I had hugged him and that's really all I wanted. I wasn't going to kiss him.

I worked late, but made it to the end of Family Home Evening where everyone was just writing to missionaries. Elliot was writing to a friend on a mission and he let me read his letter. He is so eloquent. And completely adorable. In his letter he told his friend about me (you may think that even writing this whole 10-year story is too personal, but believe me, I'm leaving stuff out . . . this letter included). I needed to hug him. Now.

We tried to sneak away before the activity ended. He needed to hug me too. The moment after we left the building and seconds before we attempted to pull ourselves into our much-needed embrace, a flock of people came flooding out of the building to interrupt us. Natalie included. She was ready to go home, so we said goodnight. Hugless.

1999 - The Lunch Date + The Move

(originally posted 09/04/2009)

February 19 - There was no hiding the fact that I was watching the clock all morning until Elliot finally picked me up from work to go to lunch. We went to Applebee's, a good choice to offset my pickiness. I had on my scrubs and Emergency Chiropractic polo shirt (not very glamorous). When Elliot asked if they were real scrubs, I lifted up the back of my shirt to show him the actual "Scrubs" label located on the rear of my pants. He said, "Oh no, don't get me looking down there." I blushed and determined that I needed just one or two more obvious hints that he liked me before I'd make any moves. He certainly wasn't moving fast enough for me, but I still didn't know what to do!

The lunch was enjoyable, but we were both obviously nervous and didn't talk as easily as we did on the phone. Plus, I was still thinking about him looking at my ghetto-booty. He may have been too.

OK, now don't judge. I certainly didn't. I still had some time before I had to be back at work, so Elliot took me to a second-hand music store and . . . wait for it . . . got totally excited when he found a Mariah Carey CD! Seriously, gag. He immediately purchased it, and though I was seriously skeptical about his music choices, he was even more endearing to me than he had been before. Plus, I caught him looking at me while he was driving. Just one more hint and I'll make my move.

Elliot's brother had invited us to join him and his wife Xan at an ASU vs. BYU baseball game that night in which Adam's old friend was playing. We were to meet up with some of his friends to eat wings later. I called Natalie to gather some clothes for me to change into and Elliot was going to pick them up before he came to pick me up for our second date of the day. If my booty looked good in scrubs, it'd look even better in my cute jeans.

Again, the minute-by-minute countdown made the rest of the day go very slow. Elliot finally picked me up and we headed to the ASU ball fields to meet Adam and Xan for the rest of the game. They seemed happy to have us there, but neither Xan nor I are huge conversationalists, so I tried to ask questions about the pregnancy and excitement of having a baby. Adam and Elliot, brothers of course, had plenty to talk about.

After the game was over, Adam wanted to introduce us to his friend. In the introduction, Adam said, "This is my brother Elliot and his girlfriend Whitney." Completely taken by surprise, I quickly responded, "Oh dear, he moves fast doesn't he?"

Thankfully, Elliot and I can give some credit to our siblings for getting us together. Natalie, because she moved me to Arizona, and Adam because he made it clear that Elliot had obviously talked enough about me to make him think that I was his girlfriend. Green light for me. Go Whitney.

However, my response to Adam's introduction gave Elliot an instant headache. Elliot assumed that my response was negative and all of his presumed flirtations were in vain. I'm really good at ruining great situations, but thankfully this one wasn't a total loss. It gave me my window to make my move because Elliot's sudden headache had rendered him unable to make a move.

Elliot's insta-headache also made him unable to drive, so he handed over the keys while I drove to Wingers. We were early, so we reserved a booth for the group that would be arriving later.

God bless Grandma Anderson who taught me this trick. Apparently there are pressure points in your hands. When we'd complain of headaches as kids, Grandma would grab our hands and put pressure on our pressure points to make our headache go away. I told Elliot of this trick and offered to try it on him and threw in a little neck rub for good measure. His headache went away as fast as it came, but that didn't stop me from hanging on to his hand when the rest of the group showed up at the restaurant. He wasn't denying it either, even when we got a few interesting looks from his friends.

Apparently getting together with Taylor Wiscombe meant that Mad Dog Inferno hot sauce had to be busted out to ensure that someone would inevitably go sterile. Elliot and Taylor had tried the sauce twice before and Folsom referred to it as "lava in a bottle." I agreed to try some and dabbed a tiny dot on a piece of chicken, placed it in my mouth, and immediately ran to the bathroom or somewhere near a fire extinguisher to put out the fire in my face! I can't imagine trying any more than the little dot I tried, and wondered at the sanity of Taylor and Elliot who had both tried it several times. They were both running low on brain cells.

After my Mad Dog recovery (seriously, don't try it), I cleaned myself up and returned to my new favorite position, right next to Elliot as he reached out to hold my hand again. Such a little gesture, such a huge smile. The group decided to go to the new movie "October Sky" at the Ahwatukee theater.

By the way, every time someone would say "Ahwatukee," my sister Natalie would say, "Bless you." It still makes me laugh.

Elliot made no effort to keep me from holding his hand, and even reached for my hand while we drove to the theater. I imagine that he was feeling pretty confident and relieved that his headache was gone. We settled into our seats at the theater and though the movie was really good, Elliot had recently made focusing during my movie-going experiences extremely difficult. We held hands and practiced making ourselves comfortable cuddling. It wasn't hard. We were naturals.

After the movie, I had to laugh out loud upon finding Luke Wiscombe snuggled up and sleeping in the fetal position across several seats at the end of the row. Apparently the rocket scientist didn't interest him.

Elliot drove me back to my car at work and I was not excited for the night to end. I was so happy about the whole day, the lunch date, the instrumental introduction, the hand holding, and the cuddling that I just wanted it to continue. Elliot said that he'd follow me home just to make sure I would be safe (because of the late hour). He walked me over to my car and before I even unlocked the door, I turned to Elliot who was very close behind me and let his arms wrap around me as I nuzzled my way comfortably into his chest. I fit perfectly in his embrace and just let myself stay there for a while.

I felt like I had focused so much time on getting to this point that I hadn't thought of the next step. Kissing. WAIT A MINUTE! I had to throw around the pro's and con's of letting him kiss me that night really quick before he tried to do it! This was good, it kept me in his arms a little longer.

I decided NOT to let him kiss me. I made it only possible for Elliot to kiss my forehead and give me another hug before he opened my door for me. He followed me home and I could see him in my rearview mirror the whole time. I was dying to know what was going through his mind at the time because he looked a little spacey. I know I was.

I'll let him chase me for a while.

1999 - The Renaissance Festival & More Hockey

(originally posted 08/28/2009)

February 6 - Natalie and I drove over to Elliot's to pick up him and his sister Beth to go to the Renaissance Festival. I was still reviewing the previous night and watching for all signs of interest from Elliot. Historically I wasn't one for reading signs properly (hence my absolute waste of over a year in college loving my FHE brother), so I wanted to be sure before I continued my pursuit of Elliot.

Elliot's sister Bethany was 14-years-old, but still very into dressing up. For instance, one time Natalie and I showed up at their house and Bethany answered the door wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots because she had been watching Dances With Wolves. For the Renaissance Festival she was donning her belt and wooden sword. This became very hilarious as we were walking around the Festival when without a word, a random Festival actor and Beth paused, stared at each other for a second, took their stance, and drew their swords! They began a short sword fight that nearly made me pee my pants from laughing so hard. It couldn't have been planned better, if it had been planned.

Elliot's journal includes information about how many cat-calls and come-ons Natalie and I got while we were there, including a man with an eye-patch looking at Natalie and saying "Methinks I am in lust with ye!"

I did my best to be close to Elliot, but not too close. I wanted to be obvious, but not too obvious. What am I saying? I had no idea what I was doing! I just knew I wanted to be near Elliot for the very purpose of his occasional lead with his hand on the small of my back (refer to "the small of the back" excitement from The Never-Ending Date - Part 1). Who cares that I was probably just in his way, but I thought for sure that there were a couple of times that he was getting close to me on purpose. I was super aware of how close he was to me in the torture chamber. Hum, sort of wish we were in a place that wasn't so horrific.

He didn't know at the time that he might regret my amazing ability to eat, but we headed over to the jousting tournament with giant turkey legs in our mitts. Yum, turkey. I cleaned the bone in record time to which Elliot was totally impressed. Nothing keeps me from me and my turkey.

(not sure why I'm not looking at the camera . . . perhaps that giant heaving bosom was hard to look away from or I was making sure Elliot wasn't looking)

So after we'd had enough of the busty peasants, turkey legs, sword fights, and jousting, we headed home to prepare for another hockey game.

Natalie's co-worker gave her 4 tickets to the Phoenix Mustangs hockey game, so we took Taylor Wiscombe and Elliot. We were 4 of the meager 200 fans in the stadium, and just so happened to be sitting right behind 4 other fans (2 men, 2 women) though every one of us could have had a whole section to ourselves.

We made sure we made up for the lack of fan support by being extra loud and calling out players names randomly ("MENICCI!!"). At one point, one of the men in front of us turned around to Elliot and in an extremely snippy manner said, "Could you please stop clapping so loudly in my ear? I'm going deaf!" and then he and his guy friend got up and left.

FYI, Elliot does indeed have a loud clap, but he wasn't clapping in his ear on purpose. In the short while that I'd known Elliot, he surely wasn't maliciously trying to make that man go deaf. We discussed the snippy man for a second when the woman turned around and in the same snippy manner of her son, explained that he was tired, had just gotten off of a long day at work, blah, blah, blah . . . and then she got up to leave as well.

We had successfully emptied the poor stadium of 3 of it's fans, but one woman was left in front of us (Natalie's coworker). She turned around and made a remark about the snippy man that can't be mentioned here, but is quoted directly in Elliot's journal. It didn't really apply to the situation, but it made us laugh and made Elliot feel better about his exuberant clap.

February 7 - Natalie and I met Elliot and Folsom at a fireside and listened to President Monson speak. We invited them back to our apartment for ice cream and Anderson Trouble. I hadn't discussed my feelings for Elliot with Natalie, so I was grateful that she enjoyed their company as well. This made it easier to convince her to go with me to places where Elliot would conveniently be and to invite him over when the opportunity presented itself. Elliot is so handsome all dressed up in a shirt and tie. I couldn't wait for the next week's activities that would surely involve Elliot.

Sun Splash Date Night

I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Sun Splash on a date with Elliot, so when Xan and Adam called a few weeks ago and said they were going, we joined them along with some of Xan's siblings!

We were there for almost 3 hours and only had time to go on 6 rides. While standing in line, our conversations consisted of ways we could improve the efficiency of the rides. It was totally fun though and great company!

Adam & Xan Dibble, Luke Wiscombe, Anna & Taylor Wiscombe, Bonnie Wiscombe, and Katie Wiscombe

This was a great weekend because I got THREE DATES! We went to the temple before Sun Splash and then we went to watch Inception on Saturday (which was awesome, by the way). I HEART DATE NIGHT/WEEKEND!