Friday 2/1/2002 10:00 pm: My friend Kandie and I were just finishing up our patrol of the neighborhood (we were volunteers on the neighborhood watch) and stopped in at the local 7-Eleven to get our last Big Gulp re-fill of the night. While we were on our way out I noticed the guy behind the counter was pretty good looking and he was always nice when we went in. We sat in Kandie's truck finishing up our paperwork when I told her that I thought the guy inside was cute. She was surprised because I had never really been interested in a guy before. I had friends that are guys but never a real boyfriend before. Anyway we finished up the night and she took me back to my house. (so when Julie said she thought I was cute Julie insists her friend said, "really?" because she hadn't ever been that interested in a guy before but I know because Kandie couldn't believe that Julie had said that about me - or anyone - in a 7-Eleven smock. Even my family was a little concerned about what kind of girl would look at a guy in a green 7-Eleven smock and say to themselves, "yeah I want to see more of that!")
Saturday 2/2/2002 9:00 am: I was working at the U.S. Post Office delivering mail and was just about to start my route when I checked my voice mail and had a message from Kandie. It said "You know that guy from 7-eleven last night? Well I went back after I took you home last night and gave him your phone number. So he is going to call you." What?! I didn't even know this guys name and now he is going to call me??? So as I was delivering the mail I just kept thinking of how this phone call was going to go. A few hours passed and my phone rang (I still remember that old gold Kyocera cell phone)and it was him, what's his name. Of course I followed all safety precautions and put the mail truck in park and answered the phone. "Hello?" "Hi Julie this is Ray from 7-Eleven, your friend gave me your number." "Oh, Hi. yeah I remember you" "There is a Superbowl party at Diamond Lil's Stake house tomorrow and I was wondering if you would like to go with me?" "Yeah that sounds great, see you tomorrow". I gave him my address and hung up. I have a date tomorrow!
Sunday 2/3/2002 3:00 pm: Superbowl Party at Diamond Lil's, St. Louis Rams vs. New England Patriots, all you can eat ribs and salad bar. I was routing for the Patriots to win although we didn't really see much of the game. We talked a lot and learned a lot about each other. We enjoyed each others company and laughed at the ads. The Patriots won and he took me home. He asked if we could go out again and I said yes.
Here Julie is being nice to me. I talked the whole time. Her first impression, or I guess the second impression (7-Eleven smock being the first), was that I never stopped talking. She was just too nice to include that here. Thanks, and I love you too Julie!
Wednesday 2/6/2002 7:00 pm: (Okay I will let the Olympics take some of the credit) The Olympic torch passed through Provo in front of the Provo Temple. We set some blankets along the route and waited for the torch to pass. We sat there talking and getting to know each other more. The torch came and went, we cheered and it was over. Now what? So we decided to go to a movie. We saw "A Beautiful Mind" with Russel Crowe and Jennifer Connelly. The movie was great and at some point during the movie he reached over to hold my hand for the first time.
A few other dates scattered throughout...including going to Salt lake to attend a medals ceremony and see all that was going on downtown during the Olympics. It was cool. Even when it wasn't snowing they had some kind of fake snow coming down from the tall buildings every night at the Olympic Plaza
Thursday 2/14/2002 Valentines Day 5:00am: As I was leaving for work before scraping the ice from the car windows I removed about 30 little valentine cards that were placed there by Ray sometime during the night. It was really sweet! Each card had one word on it and the envelopes were numbered. When put in order the cards formed a cheesy poem. It was a lot of fun and I felt pretty special that he would go through the trouble of doing that for me.
Later that day: We went to dinner at Ottavios Italian Restaurant. After dinner we hung out downtown and enjoyed some of the Olympic festivities in the area. Later we went to a park where we danced outside to the car radio and had our first kiss. (I know 2 weeks in and finally a first kiss). For the record, I tried to kiss Julie a few times before that but apparently she had been practicing the turn-the-head-right-before-my-lips-find-hers maneuver because she was a master at it. First kiss was wonderful and romantic though.
I'm sure there were more dates here...
Thursday 2/21/2002 dinner time: We thought we should take advantage of having such a historical event as the Olympics so close to home so we went to Park City to enjoy more of the festivities. While there we ate dinner at Texas Red's BBQ. The portion size was huge and I ate way too much. Later we were walking down the streets of Park City and I was sick to my stomach. I had to find a bathroom quickly. The closest bathroom was in a bar called The Fat Tire Saloon (I was 20)so we went in and I made it to the bathroom. While I was tossing my cookies Ray was watching the final moments of the U.S. vs Canada Women's Hockey game(by watching the Hockey game she means that I was pacing outside the bathroom worried that this awkward moment might make her want to just be done with the evening....and with me. Puking in a bar underaged isn't exactly a girls dream date.). It was a sad moment for me and our country.
That about sums up our iconic dates in February 2002. I must say that we lasted longer than all of the restaurants mentioned above. We dated for almost 2 years before we were married but every two years when the Olympics start I feel a little nostalgic of our first month together as a couple.
~Julie
