Love Story Part III: "Can We Make it Facebook Official?" Send.

I have had quite a few food posts as of late, so I thought on the 3 monthiversary I would finish out my love story series.  Of course there's more to the story after this, but I won't be relaying every detail and moment of our relationship the past 5 years.  It's just not going to happen.  If you missed out on Love Story I or II you can find them here and here .  

Alright so we left off with Jason texting me about how great it was to see me again and then calling me and not wishing me a happy birthday.  As our conversations started to move in the direction of "hey, I think I really like you" I knew I needed to let in the one person who's opinion I respected the most, my wise older sister.  Kimberly and I had a tradition of doing "sister's lunch" at least once a week while we were both at A&M.  This was always my favorite part of the week, and definitely helped me get through my first semester of college without losing my grounding.  

So there we were eating at the Underground. There's a 85% chance I was eating a pasta salad that was super delicious, because I ate that pretty much every time I went to the Underground. We were catching up on the day to day and finally I built up the courage to breech the Jason subject.  "So...there's this guy..."  I think I was most scared about the "he's a longhorn part."  For my family, this was just unheard of!  I think she was genuinely a little surprised.  I'm pretty confident she and my now brother in law Jason had a secret plot to set me up with someone I had gone on a retreat with in mid-November.  But she was very loving and open about the whole situation.  Likely because she knew what it was like to start having feelings for someone you had pretty much only talked to online (see Jason and Kimberly).  I felt so good to know she knew what was going on.  

As Jason and I continued our online chat sessions, we eventually started to talk about wanting to see each other again, but alas our semesters were ending and we would both be going home.  I would be Dallas bound, and he was Houston bound.  So in one of the strangest propositions I've ever made to a guy I suggested he come and stay with my family at the beginning of Christmas break.  He was a little taken aback by this..."ummm really?  Because that would be weird."  "no, no not for my family.  Kimberly and her boyfriend did it.  My parents are totally cool with it."   After a little more of this back and forth he agreed.  

So I went home to Dallas and waited anxiously for the weekend.  Oh, but first I had to tell my parents that this guy I had met twice would be coming to stay with us for a weekend.  Oh also he's a longhorn.  I was pretty nervous about this.  I remember my dad standing in the kitchen as I asked him.  He gave me this odd look.  And I said...he's also a longhorn.  To my surprise my dad's face lit up and all he said was "oh good, he's in college!"  And we were set!  Jason would arrive on Saturday night and I was so excited.

Yes, that's right.  Another conversation with Ellie  :)  I know you want to hear about the poking in the eye story now.  But you shall not.  

 Saturday night finally arrived.  I can still remember feeling like a 15 year old girl going back and forth between my bed room and the living room looking out the big windows to see if he was there yet.  I had butterflies in my tummy and it was nearly impossible to sit still.  When he arrived I went and sat down on the couch so that when he rung the door bell it would take an appropriate amount of time for me to go answer the door so it wasn't obvious I was stalking the window.  Jason had a conversation with my dad, who was quite nice to him, and then we went on our way to North Park to see Pursuit of Happiness.  Our very first date!!  

This date was very important.  While at the movie I had an "omg this is the guy for me" moment.  I absolutely cannot stand the awkward progression of two people on a first date who aren't sure if they want to hold hands or not.  The "oops did my elbow accidentally touch yours?" "oh our pinkies just grazed" "heyy my pinkie is on top of your pinkie.."  No thank you.  Well, as I leaned toward Jason after we sat down at the theater, I prepared myself to endure this horrible game.  To my utter delight, Jason took my hand and held it.  No game, no drama.  He wanted to hold my hand so he did it.  Yes this is my kind of guy! 

The movie was great and we returned to my house and retreated to our separate rooms.  The next day he took me to Jason's Deli, because well, his name is Jason.  Later that night he joined me, my family, and my church choir to go Christmas Caroling.  Now, for me this was an annual event in my life.  It is one of my very favorite times of the year and I LOVE singing Christmas Carols.  I was surprised to learn that this was not a regular occurrence for Jason.  Wait, so you mean you don't know every word to every Christmas Carol ever?  huh.  Jason was such a good sport during all of this.  He hummed along when he could and never stopped smiling.  We decided to leave a little early and head back to the house to watch a movie.  As we were leaving my dad gave Jason a hug.  Years later he told me this was one of his moments.  It really amazed him to feel so welcome so quickly.  He knew I came from good stock.  

So we went back to the house and put in Call of the Wild.  Romantic, I know.  So we're sitting there and I scooch in to be a little closer to him, with his arm all up around my shoulder.  And then, our first kiss.  Right there sitting on my momma's couch.  It was so sweet and perfect.  I must have blushed because I remember not being able to go in for another kiss because I was smiling too much.  How/why Jason liked me is a mystery, I was/am such a little nerd.  My parents came home and that was that.  Jason left the next morning.

I would love to hear Jason's side of this story (hint hint guest blog Jason?).  I can only imagine how he felt coming to some girls house to not only meet her parents but stay at their house for a couple of days.  What I do know now is he had an exam later that same Monday he left from Dallas...turns out it didn't go too well.  I had no idea he had an exam later that day or else I would not have okay'd this trip.  I'm glad I didn't know because we would have missed out on so many awesome moments.  

A couple days later, around midnight as the day was turning from the 21st to 22nd Jason was in a car on the way to Michigan to spend Christmas with his family.  We had been texting pretty much all night.  After a pause in our conversation I get this text "Hey so Jake doesn't believe that we've been talking.  Can we make it facebook official?"  And that my friend is how Jason officially asked me out.  I was actually super unsure about this request.  I was so excited I wanted to immidiately change my facebook relationship status, until I realized I didn't know what he wanted to make official.  Were we in a closed relationship?  An open relaitionship?  Were we complicated?  I didn't know.  I remember asking Kimberly what I should do and she wasn't sure either.  I waited him out and he changed the status himself.  Closed relationship!  Oh wow I could have floated down the stairs to tell Kimberly!  It's amazing how silly he made me feel.  But it was official, we were official.  

About a week later I went down to meet his family, fell in love with them, and the rest is history.  

Okay one more clip of a conversation with Ellie to wrap this one up.  

Until next time, 

The Vrly Fries