Groundhog Day: First Date
My response to the question: If you were forced to re-live a single day for the rest of your life, what day would you pick?
As mentioned in the earlier post, I’ve managed to narrow my answer down to a handful of days. I’ll be sharing them in chronological order.
Answer #1: My First Date with Christy
So, it’s no secret that I essentially stalked Christy for almost six months before we went out on our first date. OK, “stalking” might be a little strong. I mean, it’s not like I had a cardboard cutout of her in my dorm room or anything like that. Because that might have been a little bit obsessive. Besides, I wasn’t creative enough to do anything like that. 🙂
I remember the first time I noticed her. I was captivated by her eyes and desperately wanted to know the woman behind those eyes. So I would conveniently place myself in the same places I knew she’d be. I even found out what classes she was taking the Spring semester and conveniently signed up for many of the same classes. (But no – I wasn’t a stalker!) And I even somehow convinced her that I was a worthy study-partner for one of our classes. Boy, I had her fooled (for the record, I did do really well in that class)!
Anyway, the day finally came where I gathered up enough nerve to finally ask her out on a date. I sat there in her dorm’s stairway and my hands shook uncontrollably. She knew I was going to ask her. People had been trying to set us up for months. But she wanted me to ask her out.
Dang – how unreasonable can you get?
🙂
I was concerned about how awkward it would be and how nervous I’d be. I mean, we’d spent a lot of time together in the weeks leading up to our first official date, but things tend to change when you put labels on them. Fortunately , I wasn’t nervous at all and there was no awkwardness, except when we debated about who should pay. I thought I should. She thought she should. We managed to compromise on that, though.
We ate dinner at a restaurant that’s no longer there. It used to be known as Cheers. I can’t remember what the place was called at the time, but it was some type of homestyle, family-cooking restaurant. Later, I think it became Joe’s Crab Shack. Now it’s a Smokey Bones (unless it’s changed again).
Then we went to see James and the Giant Peach. It was one of Christy’s favorite books as a child. So we went. Let’s just say the movie wasn’t nearly as good as the book. So the place where we ate dinner on our first date went out of business shortly after that. And the movie we watched wasn’t very good. If those were a way to gauge the future of our relationship, you’d think we were doomed.
Fortunately, those aren’t very good indicators.
We finished the evening by going to the Covered Bridge in Elizabethton, TN, and fed the ducks (shhh! Don’t tell anyone! You’re not supposed to feed the ducks). After running out of bread, we sat on the river bank in the shadow of the bridge and talked. And talked. And talked some more. We shared our hopes and dreams. We shared our life stories. It was one of those nights I’d hoped would never end.
After a few hours of sitting and talking, we realized that it was extremely late, so we decided to call it a day. I drove her to her dorm and walked her to the door. I don’t think I needed my car to get back to my dorm because I’m pretty sure I could have floated there. It was such an amazing evening.
This was one of the first days I thought of when I originally heard the question. It was magical. But I don’t think I could stand watching James and the Giant Peach every single day for the rest of my life – regardless of the company.
But it just might be worth it.
Latest posts by Matt Todd (see all)
- What would your liftoff song(s) be? - April 12, 2024
- My solar eclipse playlist (redux) - April 6, 2024
- Our Colorado bison encounter (aka how we almost became THAT viral video family) - March 23, 2024
Thank goodness you didn’t have a cardboard cut out of her. Cause that would’ve just been weird. What kind of people actually buy cardboard cut outs of people anyway? 🙂
Exactly. 🙂
We were all so glad that you FINALLY asked her out. That started a period of frustration for me. You and Christy on the phone in one room and Colleen and her beau on the phone in the other room. No one to talk to no where to go. And really couldn’t you have just sat in the lobby? It’s not like you lived really far away.
Wayne and I went to see Flipper on our first date. We wanted to see Twister, but it was sold out. It was a good day for us, but not one I would want to live over, and over and over!
The lobby? Nah. We should’ve just gotten cell phones!
🙂