The Beginning of Us

This week, David has been on tour with the BYU-Idaho Sinfonietta orchestra.  They've been going all around northern California and playing at all sorts of different venues.  He said last night they even played in a chapel!  They had to un-bolt the rows of chairs the bishopric sits in and the first row of the choir seats.  And even after that, they all had to squish around the organ and piano and try to make sure they could still see the conductor!  David being on tour reminds me of when he left 2 years ago to go on tour in Canada and Washington.  My sister asked me the other day about how we got together and I realized a lot of people probably don't know because it was a long and difficult process.  So here's the story!

2 1/2 years ago the symphony and combined choirs played in the Sacred Music Project.  They do this every 2 years.  That year, the name of the piece was God's Everlasting Love by Robert Cundick.  It was a beautiful piece and we went on a mini tour where we played it in Twin Falls, Idaho and Salt Lake City, Utah as well as at the BYU-Idaho campus.  While we were in Twin Falls getting ready for our concert backstage, a cellist was playing (what looked like) a very difficult piece.  So I was watching him, he noticed, and he introduced himself.  We talked for a very short amount of time where we said we'd probably forget each others names by the time we went on stage but it was nice talking.  I always remembered his name, though, because he has the same name as my brother.  So we didn't talk again until winter semester. 

I moved apartments and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why I had chosen to move away from the apartment I was in.  I moved into a really rich place and did not feel at all comfortable there.  I grew to really like my roommates, but at the beginning I was not happy.  I felt so out of place because I was not rich and had to work 20 hours a week just to get by.  At one of the first church meetings, that cellist spoke in church!  David gave an amazing talk and it really touched me.  I was even tearing up a little.  It was just the talk I needed to hear after feeling so lonely at my apartment.  I decided that I wanted to get to know David.  He seemed nice and someone that would be a good friend. 

Well, we were still in the symphony together so I thought "On monday, I'll go talk to him and just tell him he gave a good talk.  That's not weird, right?"  If you don't know, I get really paranoid that people that I just meet are going to think things I do are weird.  So monday came and went and I chickened out.  I couldn't bring myself to talk to him.  Our next rehearsal was wednesday.  This is the day!  I can do this!  While we were on break, I found David by himself walking back into the room.  I gathered my courage, walked up to him, and said "Hi, I don't know if you know this but I'm in your ward and I heard you speak on Sunday and I just wanted to say that it was a really great talk(notice the run-on sentence, I tend to do that when I'm nervous)......and I think you did amazing.......and yeah......so I'll see you at church....bye....."  and then I ran away.  This whole time David DID NOT SAY ONE WORD!!!  Nor did he change his expression.  He sat there and gave me his blank stare.  I don't normally go up to people I don't know so that experience was pretty traumatic for me!  I totally thought that he was thinking I was the stupidest person on the planet.  Later, he told me that he was thinking "Wow, this pretty girl is talking to me...I can't believe she's talking to me...that's really cool!"  but he didn't manage to say any of that out loud. 

A few days later, he asked me to help with a musical number in our ward.  I told him that the only way I would do it is if he carried my violin (because I hate packing that thing all around the church, and I was trying to get him to talk to me more!)  After church, I had to remind him of what he promised so that he would walk me to the Snow building and also back home.  When he got to my door, he asked me on our first date.  Our first date was really fun!  For our second, I actually asked him out.  I was SUPER nervous and he could tell.   He even wanted his friend that he was with to listen in because he thought it was funny how awkward I was being.  So we went on a second date and that was really fun as well.  I don't remember what we did for the third or even if we did have one, but we still hung out every once in awhile.

My roommates were planning this big date and they wanted me to go along with them.  I wanted to go, but David had been acting weird around me.  He wouldn't talk to me as much but I thought I ask him to go with me anyways.  I called (when I knew he was in class so he's have time to decide if he really wanted to go) and he didn't call back till later that night.  He said he couldn't go with me because he had some stuff he had to do.  He was being really weird about it and I knew he didn't have stuff to do, he just didn't want to go with me.  I was pretty crushed.  I told him it was alright and while my roommates went on a really fun date, I spent my friday night sitting on our kitchen counter eating chocolate chip pancakes and watching Heroes.  I kept seeing David around campus with another girl, Emily.  She's basically the opposite of me.  She's blond, very perky, and not very sarcastic.  I had a hard time with that and had given up on David.  That lasted about 3 weeks.  During those 3 weeks I kept asking David's roommate what was up with David and he kept trying to hit on me, so that was pretty awkward.  And I kept getting calls from David's old mission companion and he said I should drop David and come out to see him, but I didn't want that.  That's when I really knew that David must be pretty important to me, because I didn't care about other guys, I just wanted to be with David.

Then, a few weeks before the end of the semester, David shows up and says he wants to take me to lunch.  I agree, but was very skeptical.  I didn't want to have him run off on me again, so I kept my distance.  Basically at that lunch he told me he was being an idiot and that he wanted a second chance.  I'm not one to drag things out, and I keep telling David I should've made him work harder, but I told him that I thought starting over would be a good idea.  So we did.  We went on a couple of dates and it was really fun.  General Conference weekend, we spent it all together.  He came to Easter Dinner at my sisters house with me and we watched the Sunday afternoon session together.  Later that night he put his arm around me.  That was the first time he had given me any physical sign that he was interested in dating me.  Later that week he came over to my house and I told him we should make pancakes (I was on a pancake kick...I don't know why...) so we went shopping for ingredients and came back to the apartment to make them.  He was acting weird all night so I was kind of preparing myself for another letdown.  Halfway through us making them, David says he's tired and leaves.  It was about 10 pm.  I knew he didn't go to bed that early so I figured he wanted to be with Emily.  Again, I was feeling pretty hurt. 

The next day, at about noon, I get a text from David telling me he wants to talk.  I said ok and then he said he would let me know when.  So ALL DAY I wait for his text.  I went with my roommates to dinner in Idaho Falls and the whole time I was trying to figure out what he wanted.  Did he want to end things?  Did he want to start things?  Was he dying of some rare disease?  I didn't know and it was killing me!  So finally at about 10pm, David comes over and says he wants to talk, but we should go on a drive so we can talk in private.  So we get in my car and end up parked by the tabernacle.  David spend the next hour talking about anything but what he really wanted to talk about.  I was getting so annoyed!  I just wanted him to get it out!  Finally he says that he wants to date me, but he's leaving the next week to go on tour and then after that, back to NC for the summer.  I tell him that I think we can do it.  And that was it!  We were dating!  We spent as much time together as we could during those next few days, David went on tour and I couldn't even talk to him for the week he was in Canada, he came back for one night that we spent together, and then he was gone. 

The next year was all sorts of crazy, but this post has been getting long enough so I'll stop now.  We've been together for 2 years, married for almost 1.  It took David an entire semester to decide he wanted to be with me, but I'm glad he finally did decide on me!  Things are great now and I can't wait for him to get back!

Our first picture as a couple