Q & A with Gramma to Many (Evy)

OK, Evy, it is your turn today...you asked about my first date with my hubby...

I waited a week for Andy to call after we had met. It was a long week. On Sunday, he finally called. He was back in town after having stood up in a friend's wedding the night before. He wanted to see me before heading back home. I should say at this point that I had very traditional parents, and they expected to meet him. I wasn't ready for that yet. So, Andy and I met at a central point, and I parked my car there. He would meet my folks another time, after I had time to figure out if this was going to go anywhere.

When I got into his car, there was a long-stemmed red rose laying on the seat for me. This actually became a tradition for us for about the first 4 months of our relationship. Once we got engaged, I told him we needed to save money. Anyway, it was a beautiful rose! We headed out to the theater about 20 minutes away. Even at that point, what struck me again (as it had the day we met) was how easily we communicated. The drive went very quickly.

We decided to go see A Walk in the Clouds (my choice), but had a while before it started. There was an Applebee's nearby, so we headed there for dinner. I don't remember what we ordered, but I do remember both of us saying "no onions". Of course, I am thinking that we both did this in case the evening involved a kiss. Umm, no. Andy doesn't like onions!

Again, we had a lovely conversation. I had not really dated in about 3 years. I dated someone in college for 3 years, and we broke up after graduation. Other than that relationship, I had just had short relationships which I look back and realize that I had intentionally ended early so that there was no point where I had to say no to certain requests (I'm sure you can figure this one out.). To be dating now outside the confines of a Catholic school now quite frankly scared me because I did (and still do) hold certain virtues close to me. Where am I going with this? I am not sure how I said it, but I pretty much made it clear that I was waiting for marriage. Just wanted to set up those parameters right away. We laugh at this conversation now because it wasn't a problem.

I still didn't know at this point if Andy was Catholic (he was and is), and as easy as our conversation was, it took me another 2 weeks to ask this question. When I finally asked him, and he said he was Catholic, I said, "Why didn't you tell me? My family has been bugging me about this one!" His response, "You didn't ask, and I already knew you were."

So, we had a lovely dinner. Then onto the movie. A Walk in the Clouds was OK. It was a good date movie. We held hands through the entire movie. As the credits were rolling, we had our first kiss. After the movie, we drove back to my car. At this point, I knew that I really liked Andy. I just wasn't sure how we would make it work. He was living over an hour away. I had done the long distance thing with the boyfriend from college. At the time, I thought it was why we broke up. I just didn't know how this could work. Obviously, it did because we will be married 13 years this December.

I got home and my Mom was waiting up for me. I think she knew back then that this was it. My Dad proposed to my Mom on their first date, and although she told him he was crazy, she knew then that he was the one.

A word of advice, though, NEVER use carmex after kissing someone. For me, it turned my lips literally fire-engine red, causing my Mom to say, "I can tell he kissed you." How embarrassing!