Day Sixty Three

Dear Readers,
      When Raina and I first started dating, back in high school, it went through an awkward phase.  I was so young and I had no idea what I was doing.  I just knew that Raina was hot and I really liked hanging out with her.  I was young and dumb.  We officially got together November 1st of 1998.  I was sixteen and didn't have the nuances down of having a girlfriend yet.  To the point where I didn't even know how to approach the idea of going out on a date, just the two of us.  Our first actual date didn't happen until about a month after officially getting together as a couple.  I either didn't have my license yet or had just gotten it, and even if I did have it there was no way my parents were going to let me have the car to use for a date.  So, I never broached the subject.  Like I said, I didn't know what I was doing.  Somehow, by the grace of God, we managed to work through all of that and get to the point we are now, happily married.
      Our first date was not even instigated by me.  Her brother had called me saying how I should call her up and go see a movie with her or something.  I found out some years later that she actually coaxed him into calling me to get me to make a move.  She was determined to get things rolling I guess, even if I was too slow or blind to see the signs.  Just like most things as we get older, there are so many things I would have done differently knowing what I know now.  Getting back to our first date, it worked.  I called her and we worked out a plan to have her borrow her mom's car and drive us to dinner and a movie.  It was really so romantic.  We went to Carrows for dinner.  Just a little coffee shop and we were so nervous about eating in front of each other for some reason.  I think she had a salad or nothing and I had Onion Rings.  Some first date meal, huh?  We hardly did any talking and it was all so awkward looking back on it now.  My memory is going, because I am not even sure we did dinner before the movie.  Something tells me we ate afterward, because we didn't actually have dinner plans and that is how we ended up at Carrows. 
      Our movie for I first date, I don't think I will ever forget, was The Siege.  It was a pretty stinking bad movie with some pretty good actors.  Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington, how can it go wrong.  It was awful.  It is just fitting that such an awkward and silent date would have such an awful movie involved.  To top it all off, we went to the AMC in Norwalk.  Talk about ghetto.  It didn't seem like it then, but driving there now seems so much different.  I don't know if I just never saw it back then, because that is where I grew up, or if it became that way much later.  I am guessing I was just blinded by youth and being around there for so long.  It was just normal.  Our dates didn't get much better, until Valentines Day.  Actually, I am not sure we went on a date again until then.  I will have to check with Raina and her superbly better memory.  It really is amazing to see how far we have come in almost fifteen years.  I am glad she has put up with me for that long.

This Day In History: 1934
Notorious American bank robber John Dillinger escapes from prison in Indiana by threatening guards with a fake pistol.  As he left, he sang, "I'm heading for the last roundup."

Born This Day: 1847
Alexander Graham Bell

"We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world."

-Helen Keller

Yup, I am gonna start using this phrase as well as bring back "wizard".