Our Story: A Few Dates

In between screenings, I went on a few dates- with those that had been screened, and those that had not. Some of the dates were, ok, but most were pretty lame.

Whenever I came home from a date, I would often report to Rick and his roommies how the dates went. Usually we would end up staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning laughing and having fun. The post-date activities with Rick were always a million times more fun than the dates themselves.

The first date I went on was 5 days after starting my break from Jeremy. It was really weird t be out with somebody else. The date was with Paul. He was the one who bumped up his score to 93% by coming back and serenading me. He also showed up at my apartment with a homemade story book about some prince and a princess. The story ended with him asking me on a date.

We went with Paul's roommate, Bryce and his date to dinner at Wallaby's (tasty) and to a John Schmidt concert. Afterwards, we went back to Paul's apartment for homemade ice cream and to play cards. It was fun, but not that much fun. Finally at midnight I said I was tired and said it was time for me to go home.

As Paul walked me back to my apartment (we lived in the same complex), we walked past Rick's apartment. Rick and his buddies (also known as the Drill Team or the RBP- Rick Bean Posse, as his roommate kindly reminded me), were out on their front porch, chillin to some Bob Marley and BBQing hot dogs. They looked like they were having a lot more fun than I was having. After Paul dropped me off, I watched out my front window to make sure he was out of sight.

Once I was sure he was gone, I headed back out and enjoyed some hot dogs and a lot of laughs. It was getting chilly out and Rick was nice enough to share his blanket with me. It doesn't appear that he minded too much in this photo


After we had been hanging out for a while, Paul's roommate Bryce, who was with us on the double date came along. He had just heard me ask his roommate to take me home because I was tired, and then he sees me snuggling with Rick. Opps.

Paul apparently didn't get the memo about me not really being tired on our date. The next day he came over to my apartment with his huge container of homemade ice-cream. He explained that he didn't have enough room for it in his freezer and was wondering if he could keep it in mine. I didn't bother to point out that he just walked past 10 other apartments with freezers on his way to my apartment. I decided to let him put his dumb ice-cream in my freezer. Mistake.

It appeared that Paul had quite a sweet tooth and came over constantly to have some of his seemingly bottomless ice-cream. I eventually told him that my roommates said his ice-cream was taking up too much room in our freezer. That seemed to do the trick.

Some might say that I was foolish to brush Paul aside. After all, he's now practically famous with his acapella group. But you know what I say? Dork. Actually, he was a really nice guy.

On a funny side note, my mom picked up one of his CD's for me last year at Deseret Book as a Christmas present. She had no idea I had once been on a date with his. I about died when I opened it. I'm sure I said something hurtful and rude to my mom like, "Seriously? This guy is a dork! I'm not listening to this!" For the record, I have listened to part of it.

Anyway...back to the midnight hot dog roast. That night, after the crowd dispersed, I hung out with Rick and his roommate Dan until the wee hours of the morning.

One thing I liked about these guys is they were so funny, creative, and borderline bizarre at times. I was always completely entertained when I was with them. They loved to make up all sorts of dorky games that at 2 in the morning, seemed really fun.

On this particular night, they were playing with this huge gross, sticky rat thing. You know like those sticky hands that you used to beg your mom to get out of the quarter machine at the grocery store?

This rat-version was extra-large and extra gross. They kept slapping this nasty thing around and it had collected all sorts of dust, hair and crumbs from their apartment floor. At one point, they threw it across the room at me and I opened my mouth pretending I was going to catch it. Unfortunately for me, they had great aim and the thing went right in my mouth.

Because they are really weird guys, they thought this was just about the best thing ever. Dan drew a picture of me catching it and they hung it on the wall to commemorate the occasion.


The next night, a bunch of us went to a place where you can rent rooms and have your own private karaoke party. That was a fun time.

Left to right: Jeni, me, Alicia and Teri

Jeni & Dave: Lovebirds

Was Rick singing to me?

The following weekend, , I went on two more dates. Friday night I went out with a really smiley guy, Nate. He had one of the lamest moves EVER.

So, we are sitting in a packed theater, watching some improv comedy. He puts his arm around me and I had given no such clue that I was interested in having an arm around me. So, I turn and glare at him and he says, "Oh, do you mind if my arm is here? It's really hot in here and I just need to stretch out a little."

Yes, it was hot in there. Did he really thinking it was helping me to cool down with his big, heavy, sweaty, nasty arm across my shoulders? Seriously, if you want to make a move on a girl, at least own it.

After a few minutes of enduring his arm, I leaned way forward and rested my elbows on my knees so that he wouldn't have anywhere to put his arm. Good idea. What happened when I finally sat back up? Yep, the arm came back

The odd thing about the whole situation was that this Nate guy didn't seem to be the type to be so pathetically bold. He was the Elder's Quorum President and came across being really pure and tame. He was quiet, shy, and conservative. Not that putting an arm around me is a big deal, but being that forward did not seem to suit his personality. I could only stand his company until about 11 PM and then I asked him to take me home.

I went straight to Rick's apartment and told the RBP all about the date. They all thought the arm around the shoulder story was hilarious and from then on, they referred to him as SBH (Silent, But Horney).

The next night I went out with Russ, Mr 90.5%. The only thing memorable about that date was the horrifying image that was burned into my brain after he made the mistake of keeping his shirt tucked in while rock climbing. That was just too gross for me. If you've ever been rock-climbing or been on rock wall, you will know that they strap you all up around your thighs and waist, creating a triangle shaped frame around your crotch. Gross.

At this point, I was a little tired of dating, also, it seemed like this whole screening thing, which was really just a big joke, was forcing me into lame dates. I was missing Jeremy quite a bit and thinking that he wasn't so bad after all. But we had only been on our break for two weeks. And, I still had one more person left to screen.

To be continued...