Valentine's Day = Nostalgia

It's almost Valentine's Day, and it always makes me nostalgic. Do you know the story of LL and me? I'm going to assume that you don't know at least some of the details, and I think it's a good time to fill you in. :o) I had great roommates in college; they are still my closest friends today. One of my roommates was Danielle, and she and LL grew up in the same area. They became friends, and since he hung out in our apartment quite a bit Senior year, he became friends with all of us. Every Christmas at Messiah College, they have a dance called the "Christmas Tradition." Not being big on dancing, and never went to the Christmas Tradition, but senior year my roommates all begged me to go-- it was our last chance! I was on the fence, but when our friend Matt asked me to go, I decided I would. So the four of us got all dressed up and ready for the dance (Danielle, Becky, me, and Nora):

I went with Matt, and Danielle went with Lloyd:


We all had a great time. Although there may have been some romantic interest on one part or another, neither Matt and I or Danielle and Lloyd ever "really" dated. We graduated from college, and Nora and I continued to live together. Danielle moved out on her own, and eventually started dating...guess who? Matt!And they got married, too. In fact, she is the one in the previous post--Danielle and Caleb with Collette and I.

A couple of years after graduation, my great friend Lacosta was getting married. It was about the 6th or 7th wedding that year, and I was single, and sick of going to weddings alone. Nora convinced me to ask LL to come with me, becuase we had been friends for years. "It won't be weird," she said. "He won't get the wrong idea. He's friend with both you and Lacosta." I agreed--we had been friends for years. So I invited LL come with me to Lacosta's wedding. Here we are at the wedding--the shot we affectionately refer to as "The Redhead Sandwich":

Well, we had a great time at the wedding. And apparently Lloyd DID get the wrong idea, because about a month later, he asked me out, officially. (He will try to tell you I asked him out when I asked him to the wedding, and that was our first date. All I have to say is I NEVER EVER asked a guy out, and I had no idea I was on a "date" at Lacosta's wedding.)

Anyway, what does this have to do with Valentine's Day? Well, LL and I were living about 1.5 hours apart when we started dating, and our first date was the week before Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day was our second date. We had Chinese food (and by the way, my fortune that night said "your love life will be happy and harmonious" and LL's said "the very thing you need is right before your eyes." Coincidence?!!? I think not!!!) and stayed in, while Nora and Steve decided to go out. Well, it started to snow. And snow. And SNOW. Steve and Nora barely made it back to the house that night--he was going to drop her off, but the roads were really bad, and his little Mazda Miata was having trouble in the snow. And Lloyd--well, there was no way he was going to make it back over the mountains home that night. So, he spent the night in our guest room and Steve spent the night on the couch. By the next morning, a state of emergency had been declared-- all the roads were shut down, and we got several feet of snow. We ended up being snowed in until Monday!! The four of us had a great time playing games, making food, and of course playing in the snow. Our first Valentine's Day together turned out to be a very memorable one!