I've met so many new people, and continue to each week, because of TBT. Many of my close friends that I associate with right now are through BYUSA. My best friend right now, Elise Beckstead, I met through BYUSA. And the people that I have the most fun with are all my BYUSA friends. I love them.
This weekend this is all especially on my mind because it was Preference weekend, with the four Preference dances being on Friday and Saturday. Elise and I decided to take dates and go to one of the dances, since the retreat. The dances were all Disney themed, and we wanted to go to the formal Beauty and the Beast dance Sat. night, but Sam (her boyfriend) was playing in the orchestra for the Cinderella ballet here on campus that night, so we decided to go to the semi-formal Alice in Wonderland dance on Friday, just here in the Wilk.
Getting me a date was the most dramatic part of the whole dance experience. Being me, I of course waited til just a few days before the dance to ask anyone, and I had wanted to ask Robbie (I forget his last name), from my ward last spring/summer, when I lived in the Crown. We have been friends since, and I've run into him on campus fairly regularly last semester and the beginning of this one, mostly because of our booth, he usually stops by, and is loyally wearing blue. :) We've become better friends, slowly, because of this, and I thought he would be a fun date. Plus, I was okay if anything were to happen between us...:)
So I pre-asked him on Tues., by texting him the question that, hypothetically, if someone were to ask him to the dance this weekend, what would he say? Well, turns out that his parents were going to be in town this weekend, and so he would get back to me. Well, by the next day, he had figured it out, and said that he wouldn't be able to go. So, on to plan B.
I have friends I could have asked, and it would have been really easy to, but I felt like that would be a cop out. And I kept feeling like anytime I thought about doing that, Heavenly Father would say to me, "Melissa, don't waste your time. You need to ask someone that could potentially go somewhere." Robbie fit that category, but was still just a friend, so it was still safe and not a big deal to ask him. But then the only other person really that I could then think of for plan B, that wouldn't be just a friend, was this guy in my new ward, that I've just started becoming friends with and have been interested in getting to know better. His name is Jeff Sorenson. I've, admittedly, stalked him on facebook, and I've casually asked my roommate, Alisha, about him, and from what she's told me and what I've seen of him, in real life and on FB, he just seems like a really great guy. Not just a run-of-the-mill good guy, but a really great guy.
So on Wed. afternoon, after I read the text from Robbie that said he couldn't, I was praying, kind of outloud, to myself, as I walked to the Wilk, that I would run into someone, or someone would be brought to my mind of who I could/should ask to the dance, that would be really fun and I would be comfortable with.
I ran into no one.
I got to the Wilk, to the BYUSA office, and soon after ran into Kristina Cummins. She and I like to chat and also talk about boys. So we started chatting and I ended up telling her about my dilemma of finding a date to preference, in 2 days. She asked if there was anyone I wanted to ask, and I basically said not really or something, except that there was this guy in my ward...etc. And I told her briefly about Jeff. She then promptly was all about me asking him, and right THEN. She had me log onto FB so I could write him a message (because I couldn't call or text him, I didn't have his number). I kept refusing, I couldn't just do it right then. I needed to think about it. And I didn't even know if I was really going to ask him! So I left to go think about it and do some stuff on the computer back in the computer area of the office. There I found Sam (Crane--love her!) and Johnny (the good Johnny:) and ended up telling them of my dilemma, and Sam happened to be in pretty much the same boat as me, wanting to ask this boy she was interested in, but didn't want to freak him out or seem too forward.
Well, to make a loooonnggg story short, Sam and I both ended up talking extensively about our dilemmas, with Johnny, and getting his feedback, as a male, on what we should do, and what the guys would think. He was very encouraging and actually really helpful. The things he said were very pertinent, very good points, and he didn't make fun of us for being so dramatic and over-analystic. I told him he should be a dating counselor here at BYU. He would make bank.
I later talked more about it with just Sam, and then Ryan (Greenburg--LOVE him, he is hilarious and one of my very favorite people!) came in and I told him my dilemma, and he got us all cracking up. I just love the kid, he kills me. But he said some helpful things too, encouraging me to just ask Jeff, and that he knew that I would do it in a way that wasn't creepy or anything, that was just cool or what not.
Then, as I was about to leave the office to go home for dinner group, Elise had texted me and said, "What about Jeff?" I had told her about him before, and it was just ironic that she suggested him to me during all this drama of me trying to decide whether or not to really ask him.
Then as I walked home, I called Sally and talked to her about it, and told her that he was the only person really that I could think of to ask, and the part about feeling like I needed to not be wasting my time with asking guys that couldn't lead to something more. She told me 2 things that were really great, only one of which I can remember. She said that if I keep thinking this, then I need to listen to that prompting and ask him. It was a very good point.
Then after dinner group, Alisha and Kayla were at home and leaving to go play games or something, and I had wanted to ask Alisha about it, alone, but didn't get the opportunity, and we (Elise and I) needed to ask that night, so as they were going out the door I was like, "Hold it!" And brought them back in, and told them that my plan A date couldn't go, and that for my plan B, I was thinking of asking Jeff Sorensen, and did they think that would be weird. They both were strongly in favor of me asking him and both said, very confidently, that no, that wouldn't be weird at all.
So that was the clincher. I decided to just do it and ask him.
So Elise and I went to Smith's and got some candy and stuff to ask Jeff and Sam, which we did. I gave Jeff cheese, Werther's Originals, and a bag of little candybars, and said "Jeff--I know this is CHEESEY, and not very ORIGINAL, but it would be SWEET if you would go to Preference with me this Friday! [Melissa Gurr]"
It was really fun and went really well, and we watched him answer the door, and we both thought we saw a smile on his face as he saw it and read the note. That was very encouraging and exciting! I just wanted him to want to go with me and think it would be fun.
So it was done. I couldn't believe I had asked him, it practically went again everything I believed in, just asking someone on a date that I didn't know really well yet, etc. It was totally out of my comfort zone. But I felt like I should ask him, so I did, and now I was excited.
However, that night, at home, after my phone was in my room and on vibrate still, and I in the living room (pretty much never happens...), I saw I had a missed call and message at about 12:30. It was Jeff, telling me thanks, but he is actually dating someone, and had plans Friday night.
OF COURSE HE HAS A GIRLFRIEND!!! I was shocked, as was Alisha (she is RS Pres., has lived in the ward a long time, and knows pretty much everything about everyone..:), she had even recently told me that he was not dating anyone. But at the same time I wasn't really surprised, because things like this happen to me. :)
So, as I got over the shock of feeling so good about asking him, and finally getting the courage to, and then finding out he was dating someone, it was on to plan C. Or to figure one out, anyway.
I had no idea who to ask, there wasn't really anyone that was sticking out in my mind. After our TBT meeting on Thurs., Elise and I brainstormed up a list of 6 names of guys I could potentially ask. Now mind you, at this point I was losing interest in even going, but Elise wouldn't let me not go, for which I was glad. :)
None of the 6 names were really much more appealing than the others, so I didn't know what to do.
One of the names was Dallin, this kid in our (Elise, Sam, and my) volleyball class, which we had that day. I've had a little crush on him for a while, but nothing serious. He's really nice and friendly, and we seem to click when we ever talk. But he just got off his mission, so he's like 21 probably, which is not the age I like to go for. It's kind of a turn off when they're so young. But he seems pretty with it for a new RM. Anyway, so I've never really been real nervous around him, which is good, cuz usually I do get that way, and not myself, once I start being interested in a guy. It's frustrating to no end.
Anyway, on Thursday, I saw him at the beginning of class and we peppered together to warm up and talked while we did. Throughout the class I thought about asking him, but once I was actually with him, in class, the thought seemed more ridiculous and made me more nervous to actually do.
But after class as I was stalling to leave, I was getting a drink, and I just wanted to be done with it, and have a date to Preference, and not have to worry about it anymore. So he and I walked out together and we chatted and then stopped at the locker room where he goes in, by the drinking fountain, where I continued to stall by getting a drink, and I told him if we played VB this weekend would he want to play with us, and he said yes definitely, and then Elise and Sam walked up and we discussed it more..and then they were leaving, and Dallin was about to go in to change, and I was like, "PS," and I heard Elise laugh, and then I laughed, and then I was just like, "So Preference dance is this weekend, and I am looking for a date..do you want to go?" I think I sounded more nervous than I wanted to, but oh well. So after we clarified that it was Friday (the next day), he told me that he was going to a reception, but was outwardly really bummed that he had that to go to and couldn't come with me. He just kept saying stuff like, "dang it!" and groaning, cuz he already had plans. I was surprised, and really flattered, it seemed like he would really like to go with me. That gave me more confidence than I've probably ever had asking a guy out. But he didn't seem to want to let it go or give up, so I was like (after I had told him that it was okay, it was really okay, no big deal), "Well, we're not going to the actual dance til like 8:30, so if you really want to go.." And he was like, "oh really?" and got this hopeful tone to his voice and demeanor. And I was like, "And if you really want to go, we could just wait for you, it's not a big deal if we go later." So he said he'd get my number and make some calls, and get back to me later that day.
So he did, and I left the RB with a very light step. :)
Sidenote: immediately after, I headed to the Smith Fieldhouse, to go study in the cadaver lab, but ran into Marcie Glad, from my ward when I lived in the Crown, and we ended up going down the stairs right there by the doors, to explore where they led to. There was a tunnel down there, with just painted concrete walls basically, and so we followed it, and ended up in the RB! We had found an underground tunnel on campus! And all on our own!! We felt very ecstatic at what we had just discovered. It was pretty hilarious.
Anyway, so later that night, while I was at the campaign meeting for the Greenburg and Steele campaign, Dallin texted me and said he'd be back from his reception in Nephi at 8 or 8:30 at the latest, and that he would love to go, if it didn't mess up our plans too much. Sweet!!!! He could go!!! I was so excited! I had a date, and it was someone that I was really excited to go with, and even better, he seemed excited to go with me!!!! I was suddenly very excited for the dance.
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