Monday, June 07, 2010

Personal History #3

The fact that I met Jed at EFY fits perfectly into the "beautiful" category of my life. EFY was my favorite place in the world, it still is to some degree. Every year I came home with more friends and higher hopes for the person I could be.
Sometimes I hate who I was as a teen. So, it makes me happy that Jed met me at one of my better times (even though he saw the ugly me... and still does too often).
It was my third year at EFY. Casi and I had driven down together in my stinky maroon Saturn. I was 16, and on the hunt for a boy.
My first love has just broken my heart (that's an entirely different story. a sad, pathetic one) and I knew that I deserved better. It was 2005.
All settled in, we girls headed down to the main lobby we sat in a circle. The boys came down, and Casi and I were scoping. big time.
The boys entered the middle of the circle, stood, and started spinning around in one collective circle. As they turned, they said their names, and Jed's was one of the only ones I remembered.
When Jed tells our story, he says that we played a name game to learn each others' names. We all had to choose a fruit or vegetable that started with the same letter our names started with. Jed was Jalapeno Jed, and I was Avocado Adrianne. I don't reeeeally remember this very clearly, but Jed seems to. It's kind of funny.
Later that night, after the FHE activities, our group was sitting outside beside a lone tree in a field. I remember watching him-- blue jeans, brown pumas, and a 3/4 sleeve baseball shirt that was white with maroon sleeves-- I was sitting beside him, and the image of him leaning back on it elbows with his long legs outstretched is still in fresh in my mind. Bright blonde hair. So tan. His ears were sunburned bad from a summer of working construction.
I leaned to Casi and called "dibs" on Jed. She said no problem, and life went on.
I tried making conversation with him a few times, like at breakfast the next day. I'm not sure what we talked about, but Casi and I, along with our new friends Jed and Ryan decided to participate in the musical, so every day at lunch we headed to the auditorium. We were the goofballs sitting in the back row, laughing uncontrollable. So obnoxious. By Tuesday night, Casi and Ryan were getting along pretty well, and Jed and I were liking each other. We were excited for the dance that night.
Halfway through the dance, Casi and Jed were dancing and talking. Afterward, Casi took me to the bathroom and she told me everything Jed said about me-- not much. Once we returned, Jed and I took a slow song and started rotating around the floor. He asked what Casi told me, and I told him. I think by now he knew that I liked him. At this moment, he felt it necessary to say something to the effect of, "I'm really sorry, but I'm not here to find a girlfriend. I'm going on a mission in a year." I just smiled and said I understood, but I was kind of speechless. I liked him, but I wasn't looking for anything serious either. So things got really awkward really fast, and by the night's end the two couples had flip-flopped. Casi and Jed walked home together, and Ryan and I walked home together. It was weird.
That's pretty much how it went the rest of the week. In private, Casi and I even joked about wanting to switch back. Really, we both did. We even asked the boys to switch back Friday night before the dance. They looked at us like "HUH?"... and we laughed it off. Dang it.
Jed and I did flirt all week, and Casi and Ryan flirted all week too. I guess we were too nervous to be alone with each other, so we went someone else instead.

After EFY, Jed and I kept in touch. We even saw each other at a stake dance the night EFY ended (planned of course). Jed was having some girl drama, so I was to go-to friend. I gave him advice, while secretly seducing him with my "different and cool" ways. I just went back and ready emails we exchanged the year following EFY. We had a funny relationship. We liked each other, but I was dabbling in Chris again, and Jed didn't deal with that drama. Also, we lived over an hour apart, and it was hard to get together. I called him Doctor Reverend Love Dazzle, and he called me some crazy name including the words Princess and Banana hammock. I don't remember.

This is something he wrote me in Dec (email).
"I love you a bunch too! which is sorta weird bc i usually
don't like mormon chicks bc they act retarded most
of the time for some reason but you actually are normal
and easy to talk to." (hahahaha, I laugh when I read this)

See? He liked me. I liked him too, but he was a really great guy. A good guy. Someone worthy of a girl much cooler, nicer, and smarter than me. I thought.

It all changed around Christmas, I'd say. I think I wrote him a Christmas card or letter telling him how I was feeling. I went to Utah for Christmas. When I came home, I had a letter from him. He told me a lot of things I needed to hear. Like how I deserved better than Chris, but if that is who I wanted then he wouldn't be mad. He said I was special and he would always love me as a friend. It was nice, and I remember time standing still and I stood by my bed and read it-- green ink and all.

After that, we saw each other every now and then. I went ice skating with him once, and we went to CPK after.
In Jan. Court warming came around. Casi was looking for a date, and I told her to invite Jed. I didn't take a date because I was filming for video yearbook. But after the dance we all went to steak and shake. Jed bought me a root beer float. Once he dropped off Casi, he came over. We sat on my big blue couch, and we talked until the wee hours of the morning. This night changed everything.

On my birthday he drove an hour and a half to my high school.
He tried to find my car to leave a gift, but he couldn't find it, so he came in and asked. The school got nervous and called me mom. She said he was good, and they called me to the office. I saw him. I was so happy, so happy. He gave me a big hug, and I couldn't believe he was here. He said happy birthday and asked where I was parked. I told him and couldn't wait to leave after school.
Truth be told, I knew he was coming. I can't remember how I found out, but I baked him a cookie bouquet and left it in my car just in case.
After school I found an amazing bouquet of my favorite flowers- lilies, a giftcard to Urban Outfitters, concert tickets to OKGO, Motion City Soundtrack, and my fav. the Spill Canvas. He also left a stuffed animal, and maybe something else.

It was amazing.

I even told my mom he was too generous. Maybe he was too nice? That's how messed up I was about love and boys. He spoiled me, and I got freaked out. But I was thankful and flattered too.

After that thing with Chris pretty much ended.. kind of. We still had a few hiccups.

The next year at EFY I told a table of counselors and friends that Jed was my future husband. I was mortified when he, in all seriousness, said "Why do you keep saying that!? We are not getting married."

That hurt, but by then, I knew we were, and I think he did too.

This shows where the tree was that I felt love at first sight (well, not technically, but i looked at him so strong)
This is me with all of the boys. Jed is behind me, and Ryan is next to him. In the grey shirt.
Me and Casi are in the front. Jed and Ryan are together in the back.
This was at a dance several months after we met. Like the next spring.
This is after the dance I mentioned above. Casi was his date, but this photo was taken at steak and shake with everyone in the group!

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Sooooo cute.

You and Jed make my heart smile.

TPlayer said...

I love everything about this post-the Lied center map, the awesome story, EFY name games, parking lot surprises, high school games where you pretend "everything is cool" and send him on a date with your best friend, the typical guy avoiding the reality of his feelings...love it! (I kinda barfed in my mouth when i saw your EFY group pic though..yeah, you could have left that one off). JK-(kinda)