During college I was not overly excited about the whole "family home evening" scene. You practically had to twist my arm to get me to go to these socially awkward events. In fact, anything that had to do with forcing the singles to mingle I steered clear of. But, on occasion I would attend if there were good reasons. On this particular Monday night I had a very good reason to attend.
It was true, I had been casually seeing a girl in the ward (referred to as "Kami" in the previous version of the story). And yes, this girl did happen to be at family home evening that night. But she was not the reason I broke tradition and ventured to the church on this cold fall night. See, there was another girl in the ward. A girl who I was becoming more and more interested in. Sarah Thomas from North Salt Lake had taken me completely by surprise in the previous weeks. She had dazzled me with her looks and backed it up with wit and humor. And to top it off there was just something about her that I couldn't explain. Although I was unaware at the time, Sarah Thomas was the reason I went to family home evening that night.
As I was sitting at a table talking to fellow single ward members I saw this girl walk in wearing a purple shirt. To my surprise I was oddly excited to see it was Sarah Thomas walking in the door. Lately, this had been happened quite a bit. I would get excited every time I would see Sarah Thomas. I would always shrug this feeling off thinking that I was perfectly content with the current girl situation. On this night I would realize that those feelings of excitement meant that I liked Sarah Thomas more than just a friend. As her roommate and she walked in they immediately came and sat by me. We talked for a bit and I got the impression that they weren't planning on staying long. I found myself conjuring up some plan in my mind to spend more time with Sarah Thomas. While we were talking by the snack table she mentioned she had to go to the library to do some homework. Bingo! There it was. I could go to the library and talk to Sarah Thomas. I said goodbye to Sarah Thomas and her purple shirt knowing that we would meet again that night.
This is where Sarah's and my stories begin to differ. I actually did have an assignment that I had to do. Yes, I could have easily done it at home and probably would have had Sarah not gone to the library. I saw this as an opportunity to one, get my assignment done and two, find more out about this Sarah Thomas. So off I went to the library. As I walked in I immediately began to look around, hoping my trek to to library wasn't in vain. It wasn't. There was Sarah Thomas with an empty computer right next to her.
I hurried over to her and sat down before anyone else could steal my seat. I could tell by the expression on her face that she was a little surprised, but also excited that I had sat next to her. She inquired as to why I was at the library. I told her that I did have an assignment I needed to finish (which I did) but I neglected to tell her that I also came to see her (I didn't want to sound like a creeper). I then began my (very short) assignment. It didn't take long to finish (more like 30 minutes rather than the 5 Sarah claimed) and I asked Sarah how long she was going to take. She said she had only started so she wasn't sure. I began to check my email (no YouTube or Facebook) and take my daily dose of ESPN.com. After about 20 minutes (Sarah has now had over an hour to do her homework so I didn't feel bad about distracting her) I asked if she was done yet, because I needed a ride to me car. It had been snowing that night and I didn't want to walk the three (not two) blocks to my car. Yes I had ulterior motives to talk to Sarah Thomas, but my primary objective was a ride to my car. So after hardly any convincing at all Sarah Thomas and I were walking out of the library to her Rav 4.
What happened next, in my opinion, was a defining moment in our future relationship. I'm not sure the exact words that were spoken in the short ride to my car, but it was during that time I realized that I liked Sarah Thomas. All the feelings of excitement when I saw her and going out of my way to talk to her had finally made sense to me. I was falling for this blonde-haired girl from North Salt Lake and I was getting the vibe that she was falling for me. As she dropped me off and I watched the Rav 4 drive out of sight, I knew there was something special about this girl and I couldn't wait for our next encounter.
6 comments:
I kept refreshing the page wondering what happened to my latest blog post - thinking this was my old hitchhiker post. Much to my surprise it was actually a cute story from my very husband.
I thoroughly enjoyed your version.
I enjoyed your version, too, Jeff. Please add your side of the story to all the tales Sarah has posted!
I loved hearing Jeff's perspective too, thanks Jeff!
HAha I love hearing the two sides. Keep it up! The stories are great and very cute!
Jeff, who knew you are such a good writer?!? You should write more--and more often!!!
Aside from enjoying hearing your side of the story so much, I think my favorite thing about this whole story is how much you used "Sarah Thomas" throughout the story. That cracks me up because Sarah would always say "Jeff Excell" anytime she told me anything about you when you were first becoming aware of each other and doing your interacting. In fact, I think she called you by your full name up until you got engaged. And I still love to use your full name because I like it so much because I heard it so much when you and Sarah were dating.
Great post, Jeff Excell!!!
I loooooove jeff. Awwwwww.... I love your husband sarah. In a not creepy, weird way, of course.
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