But First...a Love Story

I wanted to warm up this professional chunk of Internet real estate with some personal background. I'll talk plenty about probiotics, soy allergies and coconut oil in this space, but for now, how about a little love story?

The last personal blog post I began writing (in May of 2012, on Spidatter) never got posted, and looking back now, I am so glad it never saw the light of your glaring little computer screens. It was about being single and trying to date, but hating dating, and then I quoted a Bonnie Tyler song and talked about Disney princes. It was a low(er) point. 

And then right when things seemed to be getting even lower, I got an unexpected text message from a guy I barely knew and couldn't even remember exchanging numbers with. 
I swear—you think you have a glimmer of an idea of how your own reality might play out, but then life pulls the chair out from under you. I think another way of saying that might be that our plans are not God's plans, and his plans are better...but at the time it felt more like the chair being pulled out thing. 

It was a Thursday night in the middle of July 2012. I was living in Seattle, packing for a week vacation to be split between family in Santa Barbara and my BFF in Chicago. I remember being in a frenzied, last-minute packing mode when I received the above text.

Background on David:
I knew...of him.
He's a little over four years older than me, and while we grew up in the same town, we went to different schools, churches and colleges. We frequented some of the same circles and had a few mutual friends. And by frequented I mean I have three faint memories of us crossing paths. Ever.
To this day, we have no idea how I had his number already in my phone. 

Background on me:
I was interested in someone else at the time. In Seattle.

Clearly I needed some reinforcements, a.k.a. a good girlfriend who also knew David.
Looking back, this part cracks me up. Dave's first text came in at 8:50; I texted Ahnika my inquiries at 8:51. But then waited an hour to get back to him...

Yah, you read that right. 

"He just told me that his friend texted you."

Intrigued, and feeling a little bit like I was in junior high again, I pretended not to know and continued the text bantering with David about our upcoming hang-out (read: date). 

The next text from David was—and I quote—"Sailing Sunday, or dinner Monday night?" I thought his phone must have auto-corrected "coffee" to "sailing" and "lunch" to "dinner," but I stayed the course. Finally—such grown-up offers!

I responded with: "Do you sail?" [He laughs at this now—as if he'd offer to take me sailing with no prior knowledge! But I still think it was a fair question.]

By this time Ahnika and I were on the phone with each other—no surprise there. And she instructed, "Go with sailing! Dave is an avid sailor. Oh my gosh why haven't I thought of this before?! You need to date Dave Given."

"Oh Ahn...like that's ever gonna happen." 

Heh heh...joke's on me...