“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”
The date: November, 2002
The location: Galyans Outdoor Store, Gaithersburg, MD
When Justin and I first met, I didn’t know his name. :) In fact, on our legendary ”first date” to Chicken Out, a month after we met- I still didn’t know his name. To me, he was just the cute guy in Ski-Marine-Bike who was going to teach me how to ski (someday). And then, over our free chicken meal (thanks to a handy coupon) our 30 minute lunch-break-date turned into a 2 and half hour executive lunch date. As I floated back into the cashier booth at Galyans, I was approached by a co-worker who said “I heard you had lunch with Justin.”
Justin!?! Who is that?
“Who are you?”
“Jim”
“Jim?”
“Justin’s friend…” (I think this is where Jim realized I didn’t know Justin’s name or was struck by a moment of shyness realizing that I had no clue who he was)
“Ohhh…. Justin, yeah… we had lunch at Chicken Out.”
Okay – so I was pretty busted at that point. Honestly, I can’t remember when I actually fully confessed to not knowing the name of man I would eventually marry on our first date. However, it is this relatively minor detail that creates a discrepancy between my version of our first date and his.
Justin would tell you that after our lunch at Chicken Out (December 24th) he played it really cool for a few weeks. Sure – he tried to coerce me into canceling my New Years Eve plans a few days later. And sure – he sent me ultra suave emails with “random quotes” from his Philosophy text books in the subject line (to which I responded with quotes from my Psychology text books). But he was honoring all of the codes of guy conduct and playing it very, very cool. Until, what he considers to be our “first date.”
