I'm going to try and quickly bring us all up to speed over the next few entries so that we can get onto the hear and now. And really, the whole point of this blog is to share our current up and downs and hope that one of you may be able to provide some awesome insight and that we may be able to show you guys something different as well.
The first few months of our relationship were probably like the beginning of all relationships. Butterflies in the stomach, changing your outfit 15 times before you go out to dinner. You floss your teeth, when the last time you flossed was on your way to the dentist. Yes, I know I need to floss more, but I have my dentist to tell me that!
But I guess, now that I think about it, our first few months were not "normal" though it all seemed perfectly normal to me!
I had just moved to the Northwest Arkansas area (NWA) a little over a month before J and I went on our first date. I spent a lot of that time sitting at the bar in local restaurants having dinner and a cocktail by myself. I have spent a lot of time as an adult alone so doing things alone has never bothered me. I'm like my mother, I can strike up an hour long conversation with a complete stranger and there are always interesting characters sitting at the bar eating alone. I say this, because I'm hoping I come off as interesting and mysterious myself when I find myself in that situation.
Anyway, I had just moved and all I had in my apartment was a camping chair and an air mattress. Which is perfectly acceptable to me and I probably could have lived like that until someone forced me to get my stuff. After about 2 weeks and a few dates, J (who wasn't my boyfriend yet) decided we should go to my home town about 3 hours away and get my items. I had a real bed there, real dishes and pots and pans. I think he may have also thought that there was a real TV there but he'll soon learn the 22 inch that we've been watching Friends on is in fact, my only TV.
A towing package was installed on the Jeep and we were going to sneak into my home town, get my items and head back. There was no need to go by and see family. I had personally just seen them a couple weeks prior and he wasn't even my boyfriend yet!! And I had made the decision many years earlier that I would only bring a man around my family if I thought it was going to stick. Even though I had already told my BFF that I had met the man I was going to marry, I wasn't ready to say it out loud (I told her this via text.) or introduce him to my family.
The BFF knew I was coming because I still had stuff stored at her house and might as well get it now. I hadn't really thought it all through. My other stuff was at my parents storage unit and I would need to get the code from them and that would mean they would know I was in town. But they were about to find out either way. And my future husband was about to find out something pretty epic about his future wife.
The trailer was picked up at the U-Haul location and we proceeded to the BFF's house to retrieve boxes. We backed the trailer up to the storage building and I climbed in to point out to him which boxes and items were mine. And let's be honest, because he was going to do the heavy lifting he needed to know where to get the items!
I really can't remember exactly what I was doing. I was pulling boxes off a piece of my furniture and he was moving the bed slats. What you probably need to know is that it was a bit dangerous in there. There was wood haphazardly stacked and you had to climb on the wood to get to my items. And I guess it's fair to say that I wear flip flops...a lot! So much so that people are little surprised to see my feet with anything else. I had brought sneakers for this mission. I was only showing him where the stuff was, I didn't expect items to get moved right then. We probably should have communicated our moves a little more. But what he did next will go down in history as the moment he broke my foot. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
However, x-rays will later reveal the foot is not broken. But I still contend they were misread and there was a tiny hair line fracture that they just didn't see. So to me he broke my foot!! :-)
Back at the BFF's storage.... I'm in my flip flops, he is lifting up the slat. It goes to snag his clothes and instead of letting it snag his clothes, he throws (okay, drops) it from about 12 feet (okay about 4) high onto my foot. I let out a scream, actually there wasn't any sound for a good 5 seconds, just making the motion with my mouth before the sound can finally escape my body. Once I hear my scream, I realize this really hurts. I look down and see this lump about the size of an avocado pit on top of my foot. And I've been known to walk into walls so this injury was more than I was expecting and it startled me. The actual first words to escape were "Why did you..." and then I stopped because I was aware that this is probably the man I'm going to try and spend the rest of my life with and I didn't want to put that on him. It was an accident and even in that moment I recognized all this. So I stopped and I switched it up. I can't really remember exactly what I said, but it wasn't blaming him. And that was important to me, even in that moment, so soon after our first date.
I'm certain it's broke, he is freaking out. What do I want to do he keeps asking. All I can think is it is really broke and we need to get to the ER. So I call my dad and ask if mom is working at the hospital that day. Oddly she's working the ER but he wants to know why. I tell him the story, I can hear his usual sigh of, my goodness what have you done now?! We head to the ER, he lets my mom know.
So there in the ER entrance, my future husband meets my mom for the very first time. What a way introduce him to the family huh? I immediately say he broke my foot but in playful way, she says it's not broken and I wish I would have listened. Because that trip, even with insurance has cost me over $1000. After I leave the ER, we hang out in the parking lot with my mom and chat. She really likes him, I can tell and well she actually says so when J walks away to get my Jeep and bring it to where we are. We still have to go back and get the trailer and load it up and drive back to NWA. Oh, and I'm on pain pills, which I've never really taken before and he gets to see a whole new side of me.
We go ahead and stop by my dad's. He knows we are here and I'm sure my mom has called and I know my dad. He would be hurt if my mom got to see me and J and he didn't. Plus we need to get the code to the storage, my poor planning and poor judgement that day was going to get J in front of my parents one way or another. Maybe it was fate... We stopped by my dad's, we chit chat, but we have to go for the same reasons we left my mom. But I run inside for a minute leaving my dad and J alone. The first thing out of my dad's mouth, "So I see you met klutz?"
J learned a lot about me that day, I'm a klutz and it's well known. I had him come all the way to my hometown to get all my prized possessions and he thought that would be furniture and other items to make my life and by proxy his life better when we were at my apartment. Instead he found out that what I really wanted was my 8 very heavy, boxes of books. The toss up is which part is more epic, the way he met my parents or that I had him come all that way to carry my books home and he did.
Just to be clear, we did get my bed and kitchen items. I had already given my couch away so we had planned to buy a used one back in the Fay. So I'll never really understand what else he thought we were going for and why he was so shocked about the 8 boxes of books. And I keep saying 8 boxes of books because as I sat there, injured, directing him to my belongings he came to the front of the storage building and stated with shock and awe, "8 boxes of books...that's what you just had to have....8 boxes of books?"
I'm glad I was on pain pills, because that moment was hysterical to me and it's etched in my memories as a huge part of a beginning, his realization that I was as a big a nerd as claimed.
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