The Way We Met
Chris and I were married on the 29th of August, 2008. Now that we are in a married student ward at BYU, we often meet new married couples. When conversant with these couples for the first time, the subject of “how did you meet your spouse” almost always comes up. For Chris and I, the story never gets old. The telling of our story always begins with a smiling glance at each other, as if we were remembering together. The classic answer to this “how did you meet your spouse” question is for couples to say that they met in a singles ward while going to BYU. While Chris and I were, in fact, in the same singles ward before getting married, this is not how we met. In order to correctly tell this story, and for the reader to fully understand it, a preface to our meeting is required…
Preface
Our initial meeting was the 6th of March, 2008. At this time, I was in my second year of college at BYU, studying Political Science. Chris was also in his second year, studying Philosophy with a goal for law school. By this time, he had been home from his mission in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for five months. Chris lived in an apartment, all with roommates who had also recently returned from missions. One of these roommates, Casey, was dating one of my roommates, Tessa. Because these two were dating, I had the opportunity to get to know Casey well. I would also see Casey and his other roommates often at church and ward activities, although I had never actually talked to any of them.
This semester met a new job for me also. I was a new-hire for the BYU Library Security, employed by the BYU Police. During this semester, I was working mostly closing shifts, which mean that I didn’t get done with work until after midnight. Also, since I didn’t have a car, I had to experience a 30 minute walk to my apartment, during the winter months. I did not enjoy walking home by myself in the dark and in the snow, but I needed the money.
The 6th of March was one of those dark and snowy nights. I was at work, preparing for a large test that I needed to take the next day (my job allows me to do lots of homework, so I took advantage of that this particular night). At around 9pm, I realized that the heavy snowfall was not going to let up for my walk home, and I had an extremely heavy backpack that was full of books. I was not looking forward to my walk home that night, so I began to ask co-workers for rides home. To my despair, no one was in a position to give me a ride. I accepted my fate and continued studying.
At about this time, Casey was getting to ready to leave his apartment to come study at the library. He asked any of his roommates if they wanted to join him. Chris (who had never before studied at the library) decided that it was time for a change, and wanted to try out the library; so he went with Casey. On the car ride to the library, Chris told Casey that he was going to meet a girl in the library that night and was going to get her phone number. So, the night in the library for Chris was as much about scoping out girls in the library, as it was about studying.
The Meeting
At about 10pm, I decided that instead of studying, I would do part of my job, which was to patrol the library. During my patrol, I ran into someone I knew, Casey! I knew that the guy sitting next to Casey was one of his roommates, but I didn’t know his name, or anything else about him, so I visited mostly with Casey. After talking with him for a few minutes, I headed back to the control room to continue studying. As I was walking away, I could hear whispering from behind me. I would later find out that it was Chris whispering to Casey, “Oh dang, I HAVE to talk to her! Did you see her? I HAVE to talk to her!” Casey then told Chris, “Well, I have her number, I can give it to you.” Fifteen minutes later, I am back working and studying for my exam until I am startled by an excepted text from an unexpected number. This began our conversation:
- “Hey, this is Chris, we were just talking. Hey what would you do if I tried to steal a book from the library?”
-Me: “Well, I’m pretty sure I would tackle you, so don’t try it!”
We continued some light, playful flirting through text for about an hour or so. Meanwhile, I was also texting my roommate, Tessa, and told her about my new introduction to Chris. Tessa told me that she thought Chris was dating someone because Casey told her that Chris had gone to Idaho on a trip with some girl. However, she told me that she wasn’t sure how serious it was. So, I kind of backed off from the flirting. I was confused as to why he would start texting me while he has been spending time with some other girl. A few minutes after our conversation ended, I saw Casey and Chris come up to the security desk on their way out of the library. They came to say “bye” for the night. One of my coworkers joined in on the conversation, and preceded to tell Casey and Chris that I still had no ride home for the night, and that since Casey and Chris lived in the same apartment complex as me, that they should pick me up from work. Casey explained to me that he would be unable to do so, but that Chris would be available to pick me up. Chris casually agreed to pick me up in an hour from work. For the next hour, until me shift ended, I thought about how awkward the car ride was going to be because of the possibility of him dating another girl.
The Pick-Up
When my shift ended, Chris was waiting for me in his car. I sit down in his car, and we say hi. I noticed that he was on the phone, and I could hear that it was a girl voice. He was on the phone for most of the ride, and he ended the conversation with “I love you, bye.” At this point, things got really awkward for me. Here I was, initially thinking that I might be interested in this guy, and he is already dating a girl, and is giving me a courtesy ride home because Casey volunteered him! (Only later will I find out that Chris was not dating anyone at the time, and the trip he went on a couple weeks before was with a girl he had wanted to break up with, and finally did right before he met me. The girl that he was on the phone with was actually his sister!
The Drop-Off
When we finally arrived in our complex parking lot, Chris began the small talk as we headed to our buildings. Walking to my apartment meant that we would have to stop at Chris’s apartment on the way. We stopped and talked there for a minute, and then I started to say “bye”. Chris, however, did not want to end the conversation so soon. He quickly changed subjects from “bye” to, “Hey, can I ask you a question? What do you think this stick is for?” I pointed down and I looked to see a large walking stick, leaning against the wall of his apartment. That question hit it off. We started joking about all the uses a stick like that could have, from long hikes to reenacting a Star Wars Scene.
We continued walking from his apartment to my apartment, and continued finding things to talk about. Neither of us cared that it was snowing outside, we were having fun talking to each other. We got to know each other very well that night. There were a few things about each of us that stuck out to the other one. For me, I really liked that he planned on having German shepherd dogs when he had a home (I am close to obsession with German Shepherds). For Chris, he remembers most that I told him I could cook Thai food (he loves Thai food). This might show you how diverse our conversation went. We talked about everything, and most of our topics of interests we found to have in common. Some of the things I remember was how both of us liked to watch Seinfeld, Chris likes to work on cars, he ran track in high school, and he likes outdoor things. Overall, however, three things stuck out to me that night: 1) his eyes were so big and blue!! 2) he was so funny! 3) I have never talked to someone that easily after meeting them for the first time.
This night was not over yet. As soon as Chris found out that I could make Thai food, he said:
- “We should make Thai food together sometime!”
- Me: “Ya, that would be fun, I could show you some recipes!”
-Chris: “How about this Saturday?”
- Me: “Um, ya that should work for me!”
- Chris: “Great, then it’s a date!”
My immediate thought to myself was, “Wait, what just happened? I have a date for this Saturday?” And then I thought, “Wow, this guy is smooth!” I was very impressed with how smooth he talked with me the entire night. Shortly after that, we finally said our good-byes and I went inside. I told Tessa all about meeting Chris, and how I had a date for that Saturday.
Waiting
I could not wait for Saturday to roll around. It seemed very far away. However, I did hope that I could see Chris Friday night at the ward activity. For our ward activity, we had to have dates, because it was a Pajama Prom. Chris and had already made plans with other people, but we both secretly hoped that we could see each other at the activity. I was watching the door the entire time at the activity, waiting for Chris to show up. Finally he came, and we talked a bit during the activity, but we didn’t want to be rude to our dates, even though neither of us were interested in our dates.
First Date
Saturday arrived, and I was supposed to meet Chris at 4:30pm. Randomly, at around 2pm, I received a phone call from Chris. He called just to chat and verify our date. He was working on the speakers in his car door while he was talking to me. He asked if there was anything else I wanted to do besides make a Thai dinner. I told him that there was a women’s volleyball game that night, and that since I use to play, I get really into volleyball games. Chris agreed that it would be fun to go to one of those games. So, our date was as planned: Chris was to pick me up at 4:30 so we can run to the Thai store, pick op our ingredients, come back to my apartment and make the food, run to the volleyball game, and then watch a movie at his place afterwards.
After he hung up the phone, I thought about how impressed I was that he would call me before we had even gone on our date. This was because the guys that I had dated before would only stick to texting, and would not call me on the phone, even after I told them too. This bugged me that those guys could be such “boys” when it came to phone calls. Because of this, I was already so much more impressed with Chris because he actually called me.
4:30 pm rolled around, and I had got all cute, waiting for him to show up. Chris showed up right on time. If you ask him, he will tell you that the thing he remembers most about picking me up at my apartment was how pretty I looked standing in the hall way. I didn’t find out about this little detail until after we were married. We go to the Thai store to shop for our food, and the owner of the store actually knew my aunt from back home! I got to talk with him a little bit, and he helped Chris and I pick out our ingredients. Coming back home, I was ready to get started on making our Pad Thai. The shrimp we bought was the full body of the shrimp. So this meant that while I was preparing other foods, Chris had the lovely job of tearing off all the heads, shells, tails, and legs. All without complaining. I will always look back on this experience with a smile. Cooking something together for a first date was such a good idea, and I will always recommend this for others on their first date. This is because I got to know Chris so much more by working together with him. I also got to know him much better because we could talk while we worked. We also got to eat yummy food! Once the dinner was ready, I thought it was interesting that he salted his Pad Thai after tasting it. “This guy really likes his salt” I thought (You don’t salt Thai food). The food was great, and once we were done, we left the leftovers for our Chris’s roommates (great, I can score points with his roommates, I though).
The volleyball game was also very fun. I don’t remember who we were playing that night, but I remember that it was a very close game, because I was cheering a lot during the game. There were even times when I would stand up and cheer and yell. Chris took one of these moments of me standing up to put his arm on the back of my chair. “Wow, this guy is smooth,” I thought to myself; but I liked that he did it! I even leaned into his arm a bit. I would later find out that all of my cheering during that game were good signs to Chris because that meant that I liked sports.
After the game, we went back to Chris’s apartment to watch a movie. I even remember the movie that we watched. It was The Guardian, and Chris had not seen it yet, but I had. In Chris’s apartment, next to the couches in the living room, is a very large love sac. For anyone that doesn’t know, this is an over sized bean bag. Of course, Chris and I chose to sit on the love sac for the movie. This made cuddling easier. The movie was great, and cuddling with Chris was even greater. I was leaning on his chest, which made it possible to hear how loud and how fast his heart was beating. I found this a little funny, but of course I didn’t say anything (not until after we were married haha). When I finally told Chris after we were married about his fast heartbeat, he said “Well, what else do you expect when I was sitting next to the hottest girl I have ever seen?” This made me smile. What happened next, I was not really expecting. After the movie was over, we just talked for quite a while. Neither of us wanted the date to be over. After talking for a couple hours, Chris turned on his “smooth” switch again. Chris said:
- “How long do you think dates usually are?”
- Me: “I don’t know, maybe 3 hours”
- Chris: “Hmmm… and it’s almost 1am. So technically, this is our third date.”
- Me: [laughing] “Ya, I guess that makes sense,”
- Chris: “So, since this is our third date, it’s okay to kiss now, right?”
So…
I will spare everyone the details, but the night ended well. From then on, we hit it off well. The following Monday, he asked me to be his girlfriend, and then Saturday, he told me he loved me. Because we were in the same ward, and our apartments were a ten second walk away from each other, we spent every minute of every day together. Consequently, we got to know each other very well and very fast. It was for this reason (and because Chris doesn’t like to wait when he sees something he likes) is why we only dated for three months before he proposed; and another three months before we were married for time and all eternity in the Las Vegas, Nevada Temple. We still find ourselves talking often about how we met, and how we know that it wasn’t by chance that it happened. We know that Chris’s choice to randomly begin studying in the library did not randomly fall on the same night that I randomly decided to walk around the library instead of studying. Those odds are too improbable. Because of this, I know that I was suppose to meet Chris that night. We are now happily married, and look forward to our future together.
