Official

We left off the story here.

I'm not a fan of long-distance relationships (is anyone?), but when you want to get to know someone, talking over the phone is an amazing way to do that in no time.  I don't know that there was one day Matt and I didn't talk throughout that whole summer, despite my full-time work schedule and Matt's taking classes and driving thousands of miles to Idaho and California.  And when we talked, we TALKED...for a minimum of two hours, though it was often more than that.  When you're talking for that length of time as frequently we did, we were almost forced to talk about deeply personal things right off the bat.  So by the time we saw each other again in August we were heads over heels for each other and knew we were incredibly compatible.

Skyping with Matt

However, I wasn't completely sure Matt was interested in me (I was an idiot).  I also had a fear that Matt would be one of those smarmy guys who might never make things 'official' and we'd transition into dating instead of making it official.  I didn't think he would be the kind of guy to do that, but as we can already see, I wasn't the most logical person at the time.  Fortunately we only had a single day together where we were 'just friends'.  I think he helped me buy a mattress and move into my new apartment off campus that day.  That afternoon he promised that he would take me on an adventure - an adventure he had talked about for at least a week but wouldn't divulge any information about...basically it was a date without calling it a date up front.  I was so excited and nervous, especially since I was in the dark about what was to happen.

We spent many a night playing poker - before and after we were dating.

To start off the night we stopped by good ole' Kroger for an alcoholic beverage (Lambrusco, if you must know) and then headed towards an old rusty bridge that he wanted to drive on which was closed (thanks be to God!).  For part 2 of the date we crossed the bridge into West Virginia and traveled down the river towards Wheeling.  Previously Matt had found an underside of a bridge on a random road that he wanted us to have 'the conversation' under.  He wanted to be inconspicuous and act like he had found the bridge on accident.  To try to get us there he feigned that he needed to go to the bathroom and was going to try to look for one while we were driving.  To his disappointment I actually did have to go to the bathroom, so he had to pull over at a McDonalds.  Almost two minutes after we were back on the road he told me that he needed to go again - which started making me suspicious.  He turned onto a road and drove down it a little bit and 'happened upon' this bridge going over a little stream.  He got out and left me in the car for a bit, which convinced me that something was definitely going on.

I am the Rock Band Champion

When he retrieved me from the car he told me that there was something cool underneath the bridge that he wanted me to see.  I eagerly got out of the car and followed him down the slope and rocks to get underneath the bridge.  And to my amazement, Matt had lit at least 100 little tea light candles and had placed them all along the beams of the bridge.  It was so beautiful!  I'm so sad that neither of us took pictures that night.  We actually found the bridge a couple of years later and there were still candles underneath that Matt had left!  If we ever had a spot, that would be it.

But back to the story...

Things get a little hazy here - maybe from the wine we had or from my nervousness about being asked if we could date each other.  Either way, we did have wine (one of us broke a glass, I think it was Matt), I said yes! and we had our first kiss underneath the bridge.  It sounds romantic (at least to me it does) and it was!

This kiss wasn't as romantic.

In our twitterpated state we finished the night by looking for fireflies, eating Chinese food down the hill from campus, and watch the Sponge Bob Square Pants movie on the floor of my apartment.  That might not sound as romantic, but I think it describes us and our relationship perfectly.