Saturday, February 27, 2010

A Tale to Begin All Tales



...Joe meets Jane.

Rebecca and I met at college. It wasn't love at first sight and it wasn't hatred at first sight. Our first interactions could be summed up in two words: RANDOM and AWKWARD. We first met when she was a high schooler on campus and I was charged with 'wooing' her to not only attend the university, but to take over the college yearbook of which I was Editor-in-Chief. I remember feeling so out of place amid dozens of high schoolers on campus for Tennessee Governor's School and then having our first awkward conversation ever. I imagine it being...

Me: Hey, my name is Joe(y). Tomi wanted me to tell you...um....that UT Martin is a great school and that you...um... should really thinking about coming here.

Rebecca: Ughh. Ok. (Thinking, who the heck is this guy and WHY IS HE TALKING TO ME?)

Me: Ok.....well....have fun this summer.

THE END. AWKWARD.

Walking away I remember thinking and feeling like a total dufus.

The next time we met was her first day back on campus (I guess my UT Martin speech worked!). She came to the bookstore to complain that her pre-ordered books were packed wrong. I helped correct her order and she left the store. It was the second time we met, and no sparks flew, no numbers were given, and no lives changed. Just more randomness.

After this our paths started to cross more and more often. Nothing really stuck until we were jammed packed in a Volvo driving to Nashville to film a music video for Brad Paisley. Our mutual friend's brother needed extras to be background actors for his new music video - Mud on the Tires. After arriving in Nashville with a comfortable group of friends we PLAYED IN THE MUD all day long, I mean for like 8+ hours. There were about 20 people in the mud doing silly, crazy stuff. It was so much fun its hard to believe we got paid to do it. Rebecca and I flirted in the mud most of the day, ignoring the others.

After being sprayed down with a hose, getting dried mud out of my hair and drying off we loaded back into Rebecca's Volvo and headed back to school. Rebecca and I ran into each other a couple of times later that night and it was still a little awkward. We both liked eachother, but we were still in that shy/unsure phase. Later that night I 'bit the proverbial bullet' and called her. The short conversation that we had landed me a lunch date! I was so excited and happy! We met for Chinese buffet as our first date. Before you JUDGE my SKILLS - remember I was broke and this place was probably one of the nicer places in our dinky little college town.

After lunch we split our ways - she went to a sorority game party and I went to hang with fraternity brothers. Thankfully one of my brothers was dating one of her sisters and we crashed the game night. We just showed up, stayed for a about ten AWKWARD minutes and we left. I did notice that she couldn't stop smiling at me and I was trying to play it cool - can you imagine? Ha.

Anyways, we started dating that day and have been together ever since. It's been several years since then and I can't believe what came out of all those random awkward conversations we shared. I can't imagine life without her and now our little blueberry...aka Baby Pierce.

Joe




The video that brought us together...

0 comments:

Post a Comment