Ah! Another exciting installment of my own personal love story...If you need to catch up, check out the rest of the story here....
Leaving college for home that spring was bittersweet. I really enjoyed being independent and living with friends but also enjoyed being home on the hill in upstate New York. On the drive home I thought about S and wondered if we would stay in touch. I knew that he was going to stay in Ohio through the summer and continue working as the music director for our church but beyond that I didn't know much at all.
A month came and went and I was working for Walmart of all places (yikes) and spent most of my time there. The bad thing about going to Cedarville is that they had the trimester system so ALL of my friends got home a month before me and left a month before me--which meant very little time for having fun! Emails from college pals kept me going through those long months at home but my favorite was the "real" mail that would float in occasionally. I believe that anyone can send an email but it takes someone extra special to send real mail--and to those who do (you *KNOW* who you are) it is more of an encouragement than you know...but I digress.
Imagine my surprise when I found a white envelope in the mail with an unfamiliar crooked scrawl. Hmm....From Ohio? Inside I found two folded pages of pencil written letter from S. Ah! He loves me! I knew it! (20 year olds sure can be silly!) I hastily opened it and read all about S's summer and how he wanted to keep in touch but didn't have my email and how he'd like to call but didn't have my home phone number....be still my little heart! (I still have this letter and copies are available upon request for the mere fee of....never mind, it's too priceless to price)
We started trading email back and forth and boy were those emails the HIGHLIGHT of my week. It's worth mentioning that my sweet husband is not necessarily technologically advanced--his emails came from his mother or father's account, (I eventually had to set up an email account for the poor little lamb when we got married =), so he went to great pains to be in touch.
We eventually turned to talking on the phone for hours about anything and everything. We are very similar in our likes and dislikes and S is hilarious and can keep me entertained like no one else can.
***I remember the first time we talked on the phone there was a storm brewing in Ohio and S actually got shocked through the phone by lightning and had to call me back.... He was unharmed but these are the kind of oddly amazing things that happen to my husband****
I was super excited by the time September rolled around and was itching to get back to Ohio to see if our friendship would go anywhere exciting. Finally I arrived back in Cedarville (goodbye Walmart--and Never again!) and was reunited with all my dear friends. I unpacked my bags and anxiously waited by the phone for him to call so that we could get together...
one day came and went...
another came and went...
What in the world was going on? He KNEW I was back in Ohio! He told me he was going to call! More importantly I told all my friends he was going to call! Why didn't he call?!?!
Finally on the third day I was getting annoyed! Well! He isn't worth a second thought! and at that minute--just when I gave up hope, he showed up in my dorm.
Apparently he had tried to call but my demon roommate had turned the ringer off the phone because she needed beauty sleep or something and had never turned it back on!
He came in and we hugged awkwardly....all in a "i like you but don't know what we are doing or what it all means yet" kind of way and clutched in his hand was a bag of stuff. He explained to me that he knew I wanted a fish so he had a bag of fish supplies and we would go out that night for dinner and a movie and to buy me a new pet.
Our first intentional date! And I couldn't wait....
Showing posts with label Hay Bales to Highways. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hay Bales to Highways. Show all posts
Friday, April 11, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Hay Bales to Highways Chapter 4
When we last left our story S and I had gone our separate ways and had only shared a few passing "hellos" and "goodbyes" on campus. My sophomore year I started working on Saturday mornings at the dining hall scanning students in to eat. One of the highlights of my mornings was scanning in S who never missed the ever famous Cedarville biscuits and sausage brunch (like so totally gross! gravy and sausage? for breakfast?!?). He would come on those mornings with his roommate Josh who told S later on that he "knew" something was "there" between us--it must have been in the "special" way I scanned S's i.d. card! Ha!
I had been in "like" all year with a friend-boy and had gone on dates but it never amounted to anything and I distinctly remember lounging in my dorm room with my friend Rachel and comiserating about our single status, "If I don't start dating someone soon I won't get married at the end of my senior year!" (Cause, THAT would have been the end of the world!) "The only person I even know who I could possibly see myself dating or marrying is S but I think he's dating someone else...." (See, S--I TOLD you that I always loved you!).
Spring quarter finally came and my friend Sarah, S and I all started taking a class called God and History. We weren't in the same section but it turned out that our schedules worked out in such as way so that we could eat lunch together and sometimes S would even CHOOSE to sit next to me *gasp*! I was so silly back in those days--goodness knows my cheeks are red just thinking about it!
It came to be time for finals and Sarah asked me to join her and S at a local ice cream place called Young's to study for our exam. Sarah was dating a boy who she spent a lot of time with and at the last second told me I was on my own to study with Steven! I couldn't believe it! I told her there was NO way that he would just want to study with me if Sarah weren't there and then I begged her to change her mind and come! She didn't and I'm so glad for it!
S picked me up in his car *gasp* and took me to Young's where he bought me ice cream *gasp* and we studied. My husband always had the best sense of humor and kept me laughing all night (and he still keeps me laughing all the time!). After we studied he asked me to play mini golf *gasp* with him and we had a fabulous time where I totally beat him, although, I'm sure he will deny this ever happened or say that he LET me win.
We got into his car and headed back to campus talking about anything and everything and all the while I was thinking how much I liked him and that it was a shame he was graduating this year and that I wouldn't see him anymore and that there wasn't much of a future for our friendship. Little did I know he was going to stick around a bit longer....
I had been in "like" all year with a friend-boy and had gone on dates but it never amounted to anything and I distinctly remember lounging in my dorm room with my friend Rachel and comiserating about our single status, "If I don't start dating someone soon I won't get married at the end of my senior year!" (Cause, THAT would have been the end of the world!) "The only person I even know who I could possibly see myself dating or marrying is S but I think he's dating someone else...." (See, S--I TOLD you that I always loved you!).
Spring quarter finally came and my friend Sarah, S and I all started taking a class called God and History. We weren't in the same section but it turned out that our schedules worked out in such as way so that we could eat lunch together and sometimes S would even CHOOSE to sit next to me *gasp*! I was so silly back in those days--goodness knows my cheeks are red just thinking about it!
It came to be time for finals and Sarah asked me to join her and S at a local ice cream place called Young's to study for our exam. Sarah was dating a boy who she spent a lot of time with and at the last second told me I was on my own to study with Steven! I couldn't believe it! I told her there was NO way that he would just want to study with me if Sarah weren't there and then I begged her to change her mind and come! She didn't and I'm so glad for it!
S picked me up in his car *gasp* and took me to Young's where he bought me ice cream *gasp* and we studied. My husband always had the best sense of humor and kept me laughing all night (and he still keeps me laughing all the time!). After we studied he asked me to play mini golf *gasp* with him and we had a fabulous time where I totally beat him, although, I'm sure he will deny this ever happened or say that he LET me win.
We got into his car and headed back to campus talking about anything and everything and all the while I was thinking how much I liked him and that it was a shame he was graduating this year and that I wouldn't see him anymore and that there wasn't much of a future for our friendship. Little did I know he was going to stick around a bit longer....
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Hay Bales to Highways Chapter 3
Time for the next installment of Our story. First of all, read the rest of the story here if you haven't already...
...I'll never forget the first time we met. It was the first week of my freshman year at Cedarville and let me tell you, Cedarville was a strange new land. There were strange things like "ring downs," strange nicknames for all buildings such as, "the hive" and "chucks" and weird organized activities like Brother-Sister events. I suppose brother-sister outings were developed to foster relationships between the sexes since we lived in separate dorms. This new "culture" was very odd to me but hungry for friends and fun I tagged along with my girls, Rachel, Patty Lynn and Diane and met "the brothers."
My friend Diane was absolutely in love with a boy named Michael who was cute in the traditional preppy way but also an attention hog. Upon seeing all the "sisters" he dropped on the ground in some strange crying/whining routine and I couldn't believe Diane didn't have enough sense to NOT like him. You see, even though she didn't have a lot of sense about boys at the time, Diane had an older sister at school and was therefore, a great source of information. And Diane, her sister and sister's friends all sang in a choir at a local church directed by S and she had told me all about how AMAZING he was and that he was dating this girl but that, "it would never last." So, as you've guessed by now, S was one of my new "brothers" and was friends with Michael the shrieking moron on the ground and when S told him to stop being annoying and to get up--I knew I was going to have to like him...
(By the way, I MUST mention that Michael is no longer a shrieking moron; he has a beautiful wife and precious baby girls and is a respectable, wonderful person).
...And, like him I did. I joined his choir with Diane and stayed through the long Sunday afternoons (it was just far enough away that we didn't drive back to dorms between Sunday morning and Sunday night services) with my new musical friends. I went to church there for a year, singing in the contatas and the choir every Sunday and I'm pretty sure I even played piano a few times.
We had so much fun those Sunday afternoons--there was the time that Michael folded himself up and took a nap in a baby crib, there were the times we played games all afternoon, we always ate lunch together--it was really wonderful. The only things that wasn't so wonderful was the fact that S spent nearly my entire freshman year dating the girl with whom Diane said it would never last. Well, last it did and she and her friends were there every Sunday afternoon with us--or on particularly devestating days S would go out to lunch with her instead of eating with us....those were the longggg afternoons.
Eventually I got a little annoyed going to a church so far away since my friends didn't want to attend there any more and started going to church with them and my NEW crush whose name isn't worth mentioning but who stole my interest away from S for a while.
It wasn't until the end of my Sophomore year that life started changing and my eyes drifted back to my Mr. Wonderful and his eyes drifted towards me....
...I'll never forget the first time we met. It was the first week of my freshman year at Cedarville and let me tell you, Cedarville was a strange new land. There were strange things like "ring downs," strange nicknames for all buildings such as, "the hive" and "chucks" and weird organized activities like Brother-Sister events. I suppose brother-sister outings were developed to foster relationships between the sexes since we lived in separate dorms. This new "culture" was very odd to me but hungry for friends and fun I tagged along with my girls, Rachel, Patty Lynn and Diane and met "the brothers."
My friend Diane was absolutely in love with a boy named Michael who was cute in the traditional preppy way but also an attention hog. Upon seeing all the "sisters" he dropped on the ground in some strange crying/whining routine and I couldn't believe Diane didn't have enough sense to NOT like him. You see, even though she didn't have a lot of sense about boys at the time, Diane had an older sister at school and was therefore, a great source of information. And Diane, her sister and sister's friends all sang in a choir at a local church directed by S and she had told me all about how AMAZING he was and that he was dating this girl but that, "it would never last." So, as you've guessed by now, S was one of my new "brothers" and was friends with Michael the shrieking moron on the ground and when S told him to stop being annoying and to get up--I knew I was going to have to like him...
(By the way, I MUST mention that Michael is no longer a shrieking moron; he has a beautiful wife and precious baby girls and is a respectable, wonderful person).
...And, like him I did. I joined his choir with Diane and stayed through the long Sunday afternoons (it was just far enough away that we didn't drive back to dorms between Sunday morning and Sunday night services) with my new musical friends. I went to church there for a year, singing in the contatas and the choir every Sunday and I'm pretty sure I even played piano a few times.
We had so much fun those Sunday afternoons--there was the time that Michael folded himself up and took a nap in a baby crib, there were the times we played games all afternoon, we always ate lunch together--it was really wonderful. The only things that wasn't so wonderful was the fact that S spent nearly my entire freshman year dating the girl with whom Diane said it would never last. Well, last it did and she and her friends were there every Sunday afternoon with us--or on particularly devestating days S would go out to lunch with her instead of eating with us....those were the longggg afternoons.
Eventually I got a little annoyed going to a church so far away since my friends didn't want to attend there any more and started going to church with them and my NEW crush whose name isn't worth mentioning but who stole my interest away from S for a while.
It wasn't until the end of my Sophomore year that life started changing and my eyes drifted back to my Mr. Wonderful and his eyes drifted towards me....
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Hay Bales to Highways Part 2
The continuation of one country-turned city girl's story. You can read part one here.
...Moans and groans of, "Urgh! What's that smell?" rang through the old house that night after my mother had just turned on the stove for the first time to make us dinner. As the kitchen was filling with smoke and the air was tinged with some unnameable smell my parents ran to the stove to turn it off and investigate. Upon lifting the lid of the stove we discovered the culprit--a poor little mouse family--may they rest in peace--see, I told you--there were critters EVERYWHERE and I do mean EVERYWHERE! It was a long time until we got that mouse smell and that mouse problem under control...
Anyways, I grew up free as a bird being able to ride my horse, explore the fields, play in the pond, roam the woods, traverse the trails on a 4-wheeler--you get the picture. I do love me some country livin! My childhood was full of the chores that come with living in the country--planting seeds in the spring, baling hay all summer, stacking wood all fall, and then the winter would come.
Ah Winter!
You are but a fond memory to me. You see, in South Jersey our winter consist of occasional showers and temperatures that hover around the 40s but in Upstate New York it's a whole different story. We have things there like "lake effect snow" (code for a whole crap load of snow dumped on ya'll everyday without stop), 4 or 5 months of winter (oct-may)...etc.
So even though I embraced country living I had always wanted to see a bit more of the world so after high school I packed off to college in southern Ohio. I was very comfortable there as our dear college lay between a forest, wide open spaces and some cornfields--I was right at home...although I must say there were many things that made college better than home--friends available 24/7, all the book learnin' a country bumpkin who loved to read could ask for, and a certain music man who caught my eye my very first week of school--i'll never forget the first time we met...
to be continued...
...Moans and groans of, "Urgh! What's that smell?" rang through the old house that night after my mother had just turned on the stove for the first time to make us dinner. As the kitchen was filling with smoke and the air was tinged with some unnameable smell my parents ran to the stove to turn it off and investigate. Upon lifting the lid of the stove we discovered the culprit--a poor little mouse family--may they rest in peace--see, I told you--there were critters EVERYWHERE and I do mean EVERYWHERE! It was a long time until we got that mouse smell and that mouse problem under control...
Anyways, I grew up free as a bird being able to ride my horse, explore the fields, play in the pond, roam the woods, traverse the trails on a 4-wheeler--you get the picture. I do love me some country livin! My childhood was full of the chores that come with living in the country--planting seeds in the spring, baling hay all summer, stacking wood all fall, and then the winter would come.
Ah Winter!
You are but a fond memory to me. You see, in South Jersey our winter consist of occasional showers and temperatures that hover around the 40s but in Upstate New York it's a whole different story. We have things there like "lake effect snow" (code for a whole crap load of snow dumped on ya'll everyday without stop), 4 or 5 months of winter (oct-may)...etc.
So even though I embraced country living I had always wanted to see a bit more of the world so after high school I packed off to college in southern Ohio. I was very comfortable there as our dear college lay between a forest, wide open spaces and some cornfields--I was right at home...although I must say there were many things that made college better than home--friends available 24/7, all the book learnin' a country bumpkin who loved to read could ask for, and a certain music man who caught my eye my very first week of school--i'll never forget the first time we met...
to be continued...
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Hay Bales to Highways: The Story of How I Came to Live in Jersey
Well, I figure I had better tell you how I got to the country in the first place before I tell you about how I came to leave it. When I was 5 my family moved out into the country (from a lovely, new, "modern" house)--and when I say country I don't mean it wasn't congested and there were animals around--I mean it was RUSTIC and not in that cute provincial decorative way either!
The homestead we moved into was about a mile away from the closest neighbor which happened to be my grandparents. My Dad had spent his whole life just down the road where he grew up with his brother and three sisters and had wanted to enlarge our farm (which currently consisted of 2 holstein cows) so we moved next door to his childhood home.
My Dad's parents ended up moving to the middle of nowhere a bit after they were married and it was a BIG change for them! They came to the tiny fish-town of Altmar from the Big Apple! My Grandmother Rose Veronica had spent her life in NYC and was terrified when they moved to Altmar. She couldn't believe there weren't any street lights, was amazed at how dark it was and I'm told she went gray just about overnight because of how fearful she was of living in the dark, in the woods, in the middle of nowhere on a single lane dirt street.
When my family and our two cows moved to Altmar things were a bit better--the road was now two lanes and paved but we had things like coy dogs (WILD howling prowling dogs that ate chickens and possibly small children...well maybe not the children part) and SNAKES everywhere! Seriously, you couldn't go outside without seeing snakes (one time my dad walked into the barn and one fell from the rafters and landed on his neck) seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to!
And the mice...urgh! Mice of every color were running through that house and taking up residence in every nook and cranny--I saw black mice and white mice, grey mice and little holstein cow colored mice. And the bats...
I left out the best part of all--NO INDOOR RUNNING HOT WATER. Seriously, there was plenty of cold water but no HOT water! Of course, this was the first thing my handy man father fixed but we took plenty of sink baths before we hooked up the hot water!
I remember the first time we turned on the oven to cook a meal--you won't believe what happened...
The homestead we moved into was about a mile away from the closest neighbor which happened to be my grandparents. My Dad had spent his whole life just down the road where he grew up with his brother and three sisters and had wanted to enlarge our farm (which currently consisted of 2 holstein cows) so we moved next door to his childhood home.
My Dad's parents ended up moving to the middle of nowhere a bit after they were married and it was a BIG change for them! They came to the tiny fish-town of Altmar from the Big Apple! My Grandmother Rose Veronica had spent her life in NYC and was terrified when they moved to Altmar. She couldn't believe there weren't any street lights, was amazed at how dark it was and I'm told she went gray just about overnight because of how fearful she was of living in the dark, in the woods, in the middle of nowhere on a single lane dirt street.
When my family and our two cows moved to Altmar things were a bit better--the road was now two lanes and paved but we had things like coy dogs (WILD howling prowling dogs that ate chickens and possibly small children...well maybe not the children part) and SNAKES everywhere! Seriously, you couldn't go outside without seeing snakes (one time my dad walked into the barn and one fell from the rafters and landed on his neck) seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to!
And the mice...urgh! Mice of every color were running through that house and taking up residence in every nook and cranny--I saw black mice and white mice, grey mice and little holstein cow colored mice. And the bats...
I left out the best part of all--NO INDOOR RUNNING HOT WATER. Seriously, there was plenty of cold water but no HOT water! Of course, this was the first thing my handy man father fixed but we took plenty of sink baths before we hooked up the hot water!
I remember the first time we turned on the oven to cook a meal--you won't believe what happened...
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