Wandering Wednesday: How I met your Father.

Yesterday Erin did a post about how she met her husband, which reminded me that I wanted to do a similar post.  Or rather, my Mom wanted me to, well, kind of.  I’ll get to that.

Let’s see.  I graduated from college in May 2001.  I was still living in my hometown, where unless you want to marry someone you went to high school with, the eligible bachelor population is rather scarce.  Blind dates were out of the question, as the last one I went on was set up by my sister (she came along too w/ her bf) and my date was still wearing his shit-kickers from milking the cows and he later asked me if I had accepted Jesus into my heart. 

With great trepidation, I decided to try online dating.  This was huge, because in 2001 online dating was not exactly as popular as it is today.  Basically, my Mom was convinced that online dating would lead to me being raped, murdered, and left for dead.  She was wrong on all counts, but I suppose it was possible. 

I first posted an “ad” on the excite.com personals (which I don’t think they even have anymore).  Within days there were probably 50 dudes wanting to tap my ass go out on a date.  However, dial-up internet made it impossible for me to weed through all the losers. 

So, I took the ad down and decided to answer an ad instead.  I think my search criteria was:  male (seeking female, duh!), between 25-30, non-smoker, never married, and no kids.  Naturally, I picked the most attractive guy and sent off an email (to Shawn).  He wrote back, we exchanged several emails, and he asked me to go out several times before I decided to finally go for it.

To say I was nervous was an understatement.  Obviously I had dated and had boyfriends before, but this was different.  I was 21 and he was 27.  He had a real job, a town house, and 2 cars.  I drove an hour to meet him (which sounds bad, but I think that was my choice) and I met him in the Home Depot parking lot. 

Not to get off track, but a month or two ago Alivia asked us where we met and we told her we met in a parking lot.  The next week she told my Mom that “My Mommy and Daddy met in a parking lot!”  My Mom may have gotten after me for this, I guess she thought that it made me sound like a hooker. 

Back to the parking lot.  I met him there, but then got in his car to go on the date, so I’m not exactly sure how that was any safer?  Don’t tell my mom, mmkay?  We went to the zoo, then to TGIFriday’s for dinner, then played mini-golf, and then we went to a park for awhile.  We talked for a long time at the park, and Shawn told me he had been married before.  What?  He said he had it posted on his ad (which he later showed me), so I’m not exactly sure how he showed up in my search results.  He should have been weeded out!  I’m just sayin.

After the park he took me back to my car, but then asked me to come to his place to watch a movie.  I went, but again, don’t tell my Mom!  The movie we watched I wouldn’t exactly consider a first date “type of movie.”

The funniest part was that during the whole movie Shawn’s stomach was making those weird fart noises that are inside your belly, but will never come out.  Do you know the ones I’m talking about?  (He’s going to kill me for writing this!)  He kept going to the bathroom, which was annoying because he had this weird roommate who everyone was convinced was a child molester. 

Needless to say, he regretted asking me to come over for the movie and there was no kiss.  He didn’t try to kiss me on the second date either, so I was all “are you gay, or what?!”  He said he wasn’t, and we kissed, and the next day he sent me a dozen roses to prove he wasn’t gay. 

Our first date was in July, we got engaged in December, and were married the following December.  And, yes, I’m glad he wasn’t weeded out.