Day 19 - Jessica & Coltan

Two things before I get started recapping tonight's date. 1.) Buckle up, boys and girls, this is going to be a long post, but I just don't know what to edit out, so you can skim or just enjoy all the nitty gritty details! 2.) To Stephanie & Brock, this is not the date activity we discussed yesterday. Just wanted you to know right off the bat. That one is hopefully still in the works, but I think you'll be entertained by what I came up with instead.

Ok, back story first. A couple weeks before this project officially kicked off, I was asking some girl friends to help me find dates. The lovely Jody responded the next day and gave me her cousin's information and said he was ready and willing to participate. I filed him away under "ask in a few weeks" since he was a sure bet. So when I finally called him last week to ask him out, there was no fear since I already knew he knew what he was getting into! He was so fun to talk to on the phone and I was already looking forward to meeting him, and then at the end of the conversation he threw a little wrench in our plans, which you'll find out about later.

I came up with 3 different Sabbath-day appropriate date ideas, and one by one each of them became un-doable for one reason or another. Yesterday I was starting to panic because I wanted to have fun, and options are much more limited on Sundays when we aim to not be too rowdy or spend money. I had decided to put my dilemma on the back burner and proceeded to ask out a different boy for a future date via text. While I was explaining to him what this whole project is about, I typed "It's something me and 3 girlfriends are doing. We each go on 10 first dates..." Except my phone's autocorrect feature turned "first" into "fort". 10 fort dates. I laughed and then, da-da-daaaah! LIGHTBULB! I could literally go on a Fort Date for date #5!! Who doesn't have an awesome memory (if not several) of building forts as children and loving everything about them? As soon as I got off work, I was off and running and I gathered all the necessary supplies to have some yummy food inside the amazing fort me and Coltan would build out of a card table, folding chairs (special shout out and thanks to the McPhie's for those), a ladder, bricks, safety pins, and blankets, sheets and a tarp.

I was so eager for today's date and to have everything waiting for Coltan at the park we had arranged to meet at, I may or may not have showed up 45 minutes early. Whoops! Luckily for me, today was absolutely beautiful! 77 degrees with a light breeze and not a cloud in the sky. So once I set up all the supplies I laid down to take a much needed breather so I could be nice and relaxed for the date.

When Coltan arrived, I met him across the park and as we were walking towards the big tree everything was hidden behind, I felt the same apprehensive feeling as I did with Nick on the potato-golfing date. What if this handsome young man with his impressive Baby Blues thought my idea was super juvenile and dumb? All I had as a back up plan was a nerf football, but one game of catch does not a great date make. Well, once again my fears were completely unfounded. When I told Coltan what we were doing and he saw all the supplies, his face lit up and he proudly proclaimed that he is an Expert Fort Builder (seriously, he and his friends have an annual fort-building extravaganza) and he got right to work! With my "help" (i.e. handing him safety pins and taking pictures)

Coltan constructed a beautiful fort, one that I was only a little bit scared to crawl inside. I was *pretty* sure that neither of the bricks laying precariously on top of the ladder above my head would fall down, and if they did I was confident that Coltan was perfectly capable of driving me to the nearest ER.

I got out the snacks I had prepared ahead of time (thank you Pinterest!) and a deck of cards and some pens/paper and crawled into Coltan's masterpiece behind him. It turns out we didn't need the cards and paper, as soon as we crawled into the fort, the conversation was off and running and the next 2 hours of talking were so delightful and stimulating, no extra activities were necessary! Now, I've had pretty great luck with good conversations on these dates, which is awesome because Great Conversations are my FAVORITE THING! But I must say, there's something about being inside a cozy little homemade den, sitting criss-cross applesauce facing each other, that encourages some good ol' no-holds-barred, all walls down talkin'.

(I just need to take a moment to show off this delicious food. Bacon-wrapped little smokies drizzled in a brown sugar glaze, and cream cheese filled, chocolate dipped strawberries. Yum!)

It turns out Coltan and I share an obsession, ahem I mean love of, choir/group musical performances. It was delightful for me to compare and contrast my musical experiences with someone who totally gets why I love music and performing it with groups so much. We talked about work and future plans, shared funny and meaningful stories and memories, and by the end of our fort session I felt like I've known Coltan for years instead of for technically only 2 1/2 hours. We share a lot of the same life perspectives, hopes and interests. We're different in plenty of ways too, so the flow of topics and insights was invigorating. (For me, at least, though as I'm writing this I'm totally laughing out loud at the thought that Coltan could have left thinking, "ugh, that was painful...glad THAT's over!" I'm pretty sure he had a good time too, but it still makes me giggle to think his experience might have been totally opposite of mine!)Oh! Also, it's getting a little ridiculous at this point, but once again my date had ONLY brothers. He is one of 5 boys. It's wigging me out but I kind of love these weird coincidences too. =)

When it got dark and we had donated a sufficient amount of blood to the local mosquito population, we broke camp. Taking everything back to the car was a much better experience with a chivalrous man around to help carry the heavy stuff. =) We said our goodbye's, which included a hug. Confession, I totally forgot about my goal and tapped out! Oy, someday that will stop being my reflex.

So there you have it, another fun and successful date with a high quality man. Who knew there were so many out there? Thanks to Coltan for being such a good sport, a fun date, and a master fort constructor!





(This picture is dedicated to Coltan's mom, just want you to know your son is indeed capable of smiling normally for the camera) ;-)

On a serious note, I'm so looking forward to the second half of this project. It's been such a good experience and I'm learning a lot about myself and letting my guard down and pushing insecurities aside. To Cody, Nick, TR, Jared and Coltan - thank you again to each of you for your time and all around goodness, and for making this once intimidating and kind of scary project such a joy to participate in!

Stay tuned folks...especially for Becca's date tomorrow. There's a special surprise for all of you that I think you'll be especially entertained by!