Our Story, Day 2

Day two of "our story"

Back in the day before texting, the main form of communication outside of talking on the phone was instant messaging. I had both AOL instant messenger and MSN messenger. While on that youth trip, I got everyone's messenger name that I didn't already have so I could talk to them outside of church. Well, as a joke, someone on the trip gave me Pauls messenger name rather than theirs. I am pretty sure they were trying to be mean to Paul and at the same time, thought I was annoying.

I messaged Paul and he of course asked how I got his name, he was probably taking notes and going to toilet paper someones car over it. We chatted a couple of times online, he seemed like a nice enough guy. For an old guy that is. He was friends with someone in the church I was interested in, this gave us some common ground.

As my relationship with Christ grew stronger, and I started handing over more of my life to Him, I started losing the obsession I had with wanting a boyfriend. I still wanted one, but was starting to see that wasn't all life had to offer. After I had read the book I bought at the youth conference, Choosing Gods Best, I contemplated the radical idea of leaving my love life up to the Savior. I found that the closer I got to God, the less I wanted to pursue a relationship with a boy. The one boy I had been obsessed with wanting to out with for the past three years was not even appealing to me. The one guy at church that I was interested in, evidently was not interested in me. So, after a week or two, I took the leap, I left my love life in God's hands. I decided to focus on being Mrs. Right, being a whole woman, rather than spending my time searching for Mr. Right. 

Right about that time (which was about 2 months after the youth trip) was when I caught Paul's attention. I wasn't trying to, it just happened. The outfit I was wearing evidently was quite memorable to him. He will tell the story of the girl in a red shirt and black pants that walked into church one morning. He saw me from his car but didn't know who I was, just that I looked nice and he wanted to meet me. To hear him tell the story, he darted for the door so he could make a good impression but didn't make it before I got in and lost in the crowd. Once he finally got in and saw who the girl was in the red shirt, he realized that I was not actually twelve but he was still too old for that girl. 

He did end up talking to me that day. Apparently he noticed that I had the attention of some other guys. There were about five of them hanging around talking to me after service that morning. In true Paul style he walks up and says "Guys you look like flies on crap." The boys had a deer in the headlights look and all slowly walk away. Really, even though it was a bit insulting, it was smart. He then had me all to himself. 

How did I feel about the comment? I'm pretty sure I asked him WHY he just said I was a pile of crap. I have no idea what else we talked about at that time, I'm sure it was something we had in common, besides the color pink, Coca-Cola and pouring Doritos on our plates. Since he realized I was NOT twelve.

Later that afternoon he got online and messaged me. He let me know I was very pretty that morning. Immediately I responded with, "I thought you had a girlfriend." He let me know that they had broken up a few weeks prior, and that he was just trying to complement me. 

That night at church he even came over and started chatting with me. One of my friends accused us of flirting since we were having a conversation. I pointed out that flirting was what she and the guy sitting next to her were doing, not what Paul and I were doing. Really, we weren't flirting, we were talking, he was way to old for me to consider in that way even if I had been looking.