Pat-C Part II: Mr. Nice Guy and our first "date"

A little more background to let you know the kind of guy Pat is. He's Mr. Nice guy. So much so that many a girl thought he was totally in love with them because of his gentlemanly ways. Naive Pat was just trying to treat girls the way his mom always taught him to and didn't realize he was breaking so many hearts along the way by sending what was often interpreted as signals of love when it was really just courtesy. This was such a problem, that when Pat and I were on the brink of starting to date and our conversations were no longer me "running into" him, I was cornered by another girl questioning my intentions with Pat and telling me all of the reasons she swore he was in love with her. I tried to answer vaguely about my feelings without spelling it out that opening the door for you does not equal love. She was hilarious and actually brought us a wedding gift before she went home for the summer.

Before our actual first "date", we went on what I'd really consider to be more of a date. I don't know if I've never considered it our first date because it was during the day instead of a typical Friday night date, or if it was because we were just going as friends, but maybe I should dub it as our first date since it's much more romantic and more "us" in my opinion. The day before the "date", Pat and I went out for lunch. We went to Wendy's, and then went on a drive up Provo Canyon and looked at the fall colors and talked and talked. We weren't done talking, so he kept driving, and we ended up back at his parents' house. I met the family dog and we sat on the back porch and chatted some more. I skipped all of my classes that afternoon and had a great time relaxing and getting to know Pat better. Maybe I don't deem it our first date because we were still in the "just friends" stage, but it really was a great turning point for us. But back to what we've previously deemed as the first "date."

Our first "date" was the weekend after general conference. I put date in quotes because you'll have to understand how truly un-date like it was, but I have to give it some credit. It was homecoming weekend, the second weekend in October, and two of my roommates were going to homecoming. I was trying to make plans to go out to eat with my other roommate, but in the mean time she was talking to Pat and trying to give him the nudge to ask me out that night. The three of us all ended up going to dinner. On the way there, we got in a car accident. The brakes didn't work well enough and my roommate rear-ended a car. Luckily we were all fine other than "smurfie" my roommate's blue car. Another roommate came to pick us up, and we went back and got Pat's car and continued on our "date" plus third wheel. Typing this makes me realize how it must've been meant to be, because any date that goes this badly would usually end up being the last date with that person! So we trudged on to Chili's (which I don't even particularly love), came back to our apartment, and watched "The Saint" (which I also don't particularly love). The one thing I was loving was Pat, and we pretty much saw each other every day after that. Only three weeks later, I met his family on Halloween. One of his brothers wasn't living in Utah at the time, but was in town for a job interview, so it seemed like a good time to meet them since everyone was around. Looking back I was so nervous and so naive, but they were kind and we had a nice time.

Tune in next time for some of our dating highlights and the proposal.