flashback friday: dating 101

When I was home a few weeks ago, I did a quick drive-by of some of the old places we used to hang out at BYU. Surprisingly, I kind-of missed the place...The Creamery, campus, the dollar movies, Cafe Rio (it's just not the same outside Utah county), my badminton class (my favorite next to bowling class), the "wars", the Roasted Artichoke restaurant (best grilled portobello mushroom and eggplant sandwich and clove lemonade), and even all the parking tickets that would greet me after class (I racked up so many I was asked to never park on campus again). Driving by campus and my old house reminded me of my dating life at BYU...and I dated some real winners (this list does not include my stellar dating years at the other 2 colleges I attended: Mr. Bean at the U of U my Freshman year and KC at Utah State my Sophomore year)...

• Josh, the "convict" who was in the ROTC and was so proud to wear his uniform and combat boots all the time (kind of embarrassing). He took me on dates to his grandmother's house and to watch him play roller hockey. Sounds fun, right?


• Mark, the goth, and aspiring film director who had a 5 second role in Pride and Prejudice : A Latter-Day Comedy. Our relationship also lasted about 5 seconds.


• Justin's friend...I don't even remember his name (Sam?)...Lindsey, help?!?! All I remember was he was tall and skinny and he took me to a Peter Brienholt concert at Sundance. When we returned home from the concert, I was locked out of my house. My roommates had all gone to Fall Fling. My date crawled in my window and unlocked the house. The night was still young, so we headed to Fall Fling to find my roommates. I ended up ditching him for my roommates...horrible, I know. Funny thing was he asked me out on a few more dates after that and I said yes.


• Dave, the Young Ambassador turned singer for Jericho Road. He was comps with my cousin's husband on the mission. They set us up on a double date at Chili's in SLC a few weeks after I returned home from Russia. First date was good. Cute, nice, good conversation. So we made arrangements for a second date: to hike Y Mount. He picked me up at my house the next Saturday. It was a perfect day for a hike. We made it to the top in good time and then he got weird: he took off his shirt and laid out on the Y to get a tan "for his upcoming performance"...he said this. Promise. Any guy that cared more about their tan (and this was during my foolish days of tanning beds) than I did, was not my man.

I finally got it right and went on a date with Aaron my Junior year and have loved every date since. My favorites have been our nights at a Broadway production, the numerous Cirque shows, and the Harry Connick Jr. (2x) and Michael Buble concerts. I love that my husband has the same taste in music and entertainment as I do (speaking of music and dating...I went on a date in high school with a guy named Pace to the Rolling Stones concert...random). Sadly, I have no photos of my "awesome" dates from my Y days, but I did find some fun dance pictures from high school. We always had a lot of fun: from girls choice dances to the monster truck rally to Olympus boys.

Prom, Sophomore year
It was my first official dance/date (and I was only 15!). His name was Eric B* and he was a Senior and all I remember was he wore white high-top basketball shoes with his tux...I hate high-tops! I had borrowed my cousin Lee's red velvet dress and tho't it was soooo cool...that's when crushed velvet was in like 15 years ago. When I returned home later that evening, my house had been toilet papered and egged by my off/on boyfriend that I had all throughout high school.

Girls Choice, Junior year
I went to girls choice with my good friend and teammate, Lyle S*. Our shirts were pretty awesome (click to enlarge). I think that was the year we drove over to Heber in a white out to eat at Chicks Cafe. We were high class :). He was such a nice guy. I wonder what ever happened to him. We lost touch after I was married.

Monster Mash, Senior year
This was a Girl's choice and Brittney M* and I were a couple that night..Pebbles and Bam Bam. Both of us were too cool to ask anyone to the dance. My "boyfriend" at the time (who I had met that summer at EFY...lame story) was from Washington and I tho't I was too cool to waste my time with anyone else. It was actually pretty fun not having a date and our costumes were a hit.

Girls Choice, Senior Year
I went with Scott C*, my friend and teammate. It was a good group of people and we had a blast. We took the guys to a monster truck rally before the dance. They tho't we were pretty cool chicks. I can't believe how short I cut my hair Senior year.

Prom, Senior Year
We had a big group of girlfriends that were so much fun and diverse as illustrated by this photo. I never was the Prom the Queen, but am proud to say I did hold the title of Senior Ball Queen, along side my best friend Jake, who was the King. As I was looking through my photos, I realized that I didn't go to one high school dance with some one I really liked or called my "boyfriend" (as we would so loosely called our significant others in high school. how lame was high school dating? drama. drama. drama. my relationships were over before the next quarter began. I got bored really fast and moved onto something new).

sisters at Prom, Senior year
we were all friends and had sister's who were 2 years younger, who were also friends.

now share your dating (horror) stories!