The Day That Changed My Life

Jeff and I at a street dance in Ballinger.

September 6 is an important day in my history.  This is the day, eleven years ago, that Jeff and I began our relationship, our love for one another.  And it all started so innocently...

It was August, just a couple weeks before school started for my senior year.  My good friend Mandy and I had hung out all summer, cruised the town in her Camaro and snuck out at night during sleepovers - amongst other things.  We had an awesome time!  Mandy was recovering from a foot or ankle injury and was doing physical therapy for it.  Twas there that she met this handsome fellow named Lance.  They started dating and decided to come up with this great idea to setup their two best friends.  Mandy kept trying to describe this friend, Jeff, to me.  "He's like a big teddy bear", she'd say.  "He's just so cuddly."  "He's... cute."  I was slightly apprehensive about meeting him.  

Getting ready to go to the BHS Coronation.

We decided to meet the boys at the pool, so first, of course, we had to get all dolled up. I mean who doesn't do their hair and makeup to go swimming? We thought we were soooo cool. We get to the pool and pile out of our different cars and meet face to face for the first time. I'm going to be truthful here. My general dating history had consisted of mostly short, skinny - like gangly-looking skinny, mid-range cuteness guys. And Jeff was tall, beefy and honestly (cringe) at first I wasn't attracted to him. There.  Sorry Mom, sorry Jeff... but I wasn't. Plus, he was a smartass right off the bat to boot. He had a little remark for everything. Which, of course, now I love him for! So I tried to steer clear of him at the pool and when we all wanted to leave to go to the local Dairy Queen, I faked sick and went home.

Jeff and I goofing around the day I moved in with him during my senior year in high school.

I was (am) extremely worried about people's perception of me.  I've always been the 'nice' girl and I like it that way.  I was very bitchy towards him that day and I knew it, so it was a week later when I called him to ask if he hated me.  He said no, and we started talking non-stop.  It was four hours later when I got off the phone with him that evening.  Four hours?!?!  It didn't seem that long at all.  We had decided that we would be really good friends.  A guy and a girl who were just friends, it was going to be awesome.  Looking back now, I'm sure Jeff was just trying to get his foot in the door with that line and I know I started getting flutters during that phone call that night.  So we talked every day after school, helping each other with homework and talking about our families and friends.  I acted interested when he talked about football, which was a huge part of his life.  I found myself laughing endlessly at his little quips.  I realized that he wasn't necessarily a smartass, but this was his sense of humor and how he dealt with some aspects of life.  It was the following Wednesday during our daily phone conversations that we decided we should go on a 'friend date'.  No pressure, just go and have fun as, you guessed it, friends.  Riiiiiigggghhhht.

Our first Christmas together.  He gave me a promise ring in a teddy bear that would say "I love you, I love you."  I lost the ring in AZ.  =(

I got dressed ever so carefully for my date with Jeff.  I didn't have a whole lot of hoochie clothes when I was younger, that looking back on now, I'm grateful.  Let me clarify that, I don't have hoochie clothes now either... I'm just saying.  When he came to pick me up, all of sudden I went from not attracted to him to OMG, this guy is gorgeous.  Look at those eyes and his hair and mmm, mmm, mmm.  So anywho, we go on our date which consisted of eating somewhere, maybe a movie and I think we walked around the mall.  I'm actually not quite sure.  I remember us brushing up against eachother - not that way!  Get your mind out of the gutter.  But like, draping my hand past his arm or him doing the same.  He'd put his arm around me... because friends do that.  Soon we were holding hands... because I've done that with my friends before.  He drove me back to Eden which was 44 miles away.  On the way back home I laid my head on his shoulder... because friends do that.  

Our first Easter together.

It had to be the most awkward drop off ever.  It was late, around midnight and neither one of us wanted the night to end.  My parents were gone that evening so we sat in the living and chitchatted some more.  But I knew he had to get home to Ballinger which was 36 miles down one deer-infested road and that my parents might be home soon.  He definitely wasn't supposed to come in the house.  So as I walk him to the door, both of us with our hands stuffed in our pockets, shoulders up around our ears.  

"So, I had fun... as a friend, of course."  I said.  

"Me too!"  He replied.

"So... do you want to be... I don't know... more than... friends?"  He asked.

"I don't know... do you want to be more than friends?"  I requipped.  

"Well, only if you do."  He said.

Yeah, it went on like that for around five minutes.  It was very cute, very elementary and so uncomfortable.  For some reason, we were both so afraid of rejection.  We had our first kiss that night.  When he arrived home 40 minutes later, he called to say that he missed me and that he couldn't wait to see me later that week.  And it's been like that almost always ever since. 

Sigh.