I got the email below from Andy on February 5, 2004. I thought the attached agreement was pretty funny.
Jess,
After talking about our thoughts and expectations, I remembered seeing this in an email. I thought I HAD to find it and send it to you. Some of it, because of our relationships to the Lord, obviously doesn’t apply. I thought you might enjoy it anyway. In any case, it’s a joke, I don’t intend for you to take ANY of it seriously.
God Bless,
Andy
For our second date, we planned to meet in St. Cloud (where Andy lives) on Sunday to check out a church together. (Andy moved from the cities to St. Cloud just a few weeks before I met him, so he hadn’t found a church yet.) I had spent Saturday at my parents’ house in Grove City. It was snowing like crazy Sunday morning. Andy wanted to go to the earliest service at 9 a.m., probably so he could spend more time with me that day. Because of the road conditions, it wasn’t safe to drive the speed limit, but I’m pretty sure that I drove the speed limit or even exceeded it so that I wouldn’t be late. I got there a little before 9, so we decided to go to the later service. He showed me around his apartment and we goofed around on his computer. We lost track of time and ended up being a few minutes late to the later service. Church was good. I found out months later that during the service, Andy had his hand strategically placed so that I could grab it. He was lucky that I was too oblivious to notice that. I was definitely not ready to hold his hand. I just met him! After church we went to Target and then to look at furniture for my house at Hennen’s. Here is what Andy had to say about our date on his blog:
Interesting Superbowl Sunday
Yesterday was probably the best Superbowl Sunday for me that I can remember. The game itself was okay, but it was before the game that made the day great. I had a great time on a second date that most would be unimpressed by. What can I say? We looked at toilet bowl cleaner together! I hope she gets a chuckle reading that. She showed up early enough to go check out a new church with me, which I liked but will be checking out at least one other before I become a regular attendee. We then went to look at furniture, which was a lot of fun. A quick trip through Target, some lunch, and then some time just talking and getting to know each other a little more.
Posted: Thursday, July 8, 2004
Andy wrote the following on his blog about our first date: “So I mentioned a seven-years-without-a-date streak in a previous post. It did, in fact, come to an end last Saturday. I had a great time with Lager Lover’s friend (also his girlfriend’s sister). We bowled a few rounds and had dinner. It was the first I’d bowled since I was in high school, and the same for her. We did alright for not having bowled in such a long time.”
Posted: Wednesday, June 16, 2004
By the time our first date came, I had seen Andy once and had spoken to him for a few hours on the phone. In spite of that, I was really nervous. He picked me up at my house at maybe 3 p.m. We went bowling because I wanted to do an activity that could involve both conversation and fun. Neither of us had been bowling for years. We bowled 4 games – I won two and he won two. One highlight of bowling was how excited Andy got every time I got a strike (didn’t happen too often). One time after I got a strike, Andy told me that he had just prayed that I would get a strike. I felt selfish because I hadn’t prayed for him to get a strike yet. As soon as I prayed for him to get a strike, he got one, but I didn’t tell him that I prayed that. Another memorable moment was when Andy fell down while throwing the ball once. We gave each other high fives for most strikes and maybe for some spares too, but otherwise didn’t touch each other. After bowling, we called Phil and Katie, who had stolen our date idea and were bowling at the same time in Fargo. It was fun to talk to them because both Andy and I knew them and it made me feel more comfortable and connected with him. After bowling, we went to eat at Applebee’s. I correctly guessed that Andy would order a burger. He incorrectly guessed what I would order. Dinner was just fine. We had plenty to talk about. After dinner, Andy drove me to my house and said he wanted to see the bumper sticker on my car (HESCMNBK – Tell a Friend), which had somehow come up in our conversation. Then we looked around my house a bit. I think I decided I could check to see if he had ideas for what to do with my house since he has an architecture degree and I didn’t know what else to do with him. He was probably just too nice to tell me all the things he’d really want to change. After that, we decided to play the game Bible Trivia at my wobbly kitchen table. I think I probably did better than him only because I picked the cards I wanted to be quizzed on and I chose simple subjects like “John the Baptist.” Andy let me choose his cards and I chose difficult subjects like “death.” At one point, after missing a couple questions in a row on the subject of “death,” Andy asked laughing, “What category is this anyway?” I think he stayed until 10 p.m. or so. He joked that he should leave his cell phone with me and freak out Phil if Phil called Andy the next morning to see how things went. When Andy left, he didn’t go for a hug. That was fine with me.
Posted: Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Andy wrote the following message on his blog just before we started dating: “I had a depressing thought on my way back to work from lunch. I realized that the last time I had a real date with anyone was almost exactly seven years ago….Well, hopefully that streak is about to end. I won’t say much more until it does end though.” Well, Andy might not have been proud of his 7-year no-dating streak, but I was.
Posted: Wednesday, June 16, 2004
It was the evening of Saturday, December 27, 2003. I had just spent that day and the previous day moving into my new apartment from my parents’ house. I hadn’t spent a night there yet, but I was about to for the first time. Phil called and said that he and his girlfriend Katie were on their way through St. Cloud on their way back to Fargo. They didn’t have much time to stop, but they’d like to say “Hi” and see my new place.
They didn’t stay long, maybe 10 minutes. Before they left, Phil asked if I’d like a date the following Friday night. I found the question a little odd, and uncomfortable, since I hadn’t had a date in almost seven years, but I knew that Phil was just being a good friend. Before I could answer, he started telling me about Katie’s sister, who lives in Golden Valley. While I felt uncomfortable about the prospect of a blind date, I figured it wouldn’t kill me. Phil whipped out his cell phone and started calling Jessica. She didn’t answer. He tried a few more times. No luck. They told me a little about Jessica, that she’s good looking (Katie threw in “better looking than me”), a practicing lawyer, and fun. Katie mentioned to me that she didn’t think it would go anywhere though. When they left, I figured that was the end of that, the subject wouldn’t come up again.
Continue reading “The Day We Met II: Andy’s Side of the Story”
Andy and I met on January 17, 2004. My sister Katie and her then boyfriend (now husband), named Phil, were over at my house that Saturday. Phil had gotten the idea about setting me up with his good friend named Andy a few weeks earlier. (Phil and Katie had actually placed several calls to my house late into the night on December 27, 2003 from Andy’s place in St. Cloud but I was working out on my elliptical with the TV cranked up so I never heard the phone ring. Their messages said stuff like, “Jess, how are we supposed to set you up if you’re not at home?” I talked to Katie the next day about Andy and she said to not worry about it. She said that Andy was, “a really nice guy who would treat [me] well, but probably not [my] type.” Anyway, so while Phil was at my house, he decided to call Andy’s cell phone. I protested a little because I didn’t like the idea of getting set up. I was waiting on God to introduce me to the man He had chosen for me and I thought that getting set up probably wouldn’t be part of God’s plan. But Phil ignored my protest and called Andy. Andy was in the cities somewhere with a good friend and that friend’s wife. Phil told Andy that he should stop by my place. It sounded like Andy wouldn’t come until Phil said, “If you don’t want to hang out with cute girls [i.e., me and my sis] that’s up to you.” Suddenly Andy’s tune changed and he said he’d come by at about 5 p.m. Prior to 5 p.m., I had re-done my make-up probably twice and brushed my hair a few times. Andy didn’t show up at 5 p.m. Apparently his good friend’s parents had stopped by and they were holding Andy up. I found out later that Andy was quite annoyed by this. I think Andy and his good friend and his friend’s wife showed up at my house around 7 p.m. I was actually expecting Andy to look wild or weird (maybe he would smell like he hadn’t showered for a few days, maybe he’d be wearing baggy olive-colored corduroy pants and a ratty t-shirt that covered some tattoo that he had gotten in his youth) since I knew that Phil had some crazy friends. When they came in, I couldn’t tell which of the guys was Andy. Both of them looked normal, so that was good. So, I shook hands with the first guy in the door, who happened to be Andy. It wasn’t love at first sight for me (or him, as far as I know). But, I didn’t totally rule him out either. I showed them around my house, which Andy guessed that I must have just moved into (actually it was two months earlier), but I still didn’t have much furniture yet. My most memorable moments of the night were when Andy described my couch as something like a worm that was cut in half (I didn’t have his imagination so that was weird), when he talked about his acid-reflux problem, watching him eat the ice cream and rock hard fudge topping that Katie and I had whipped up and turning down his offer for me to join him and his friend and friend’s wife in going to a local comedy club.
Posted: Sunday, June 13, 2004