Keeping the love alive

I just read my Brother-In-Law's post about their recent date and made me realize I really should share my own dates so I can look back and remember the fun times we're having instead of being old fuddy-duds.

I've been accused of sharing too much information (TMI) in previous posts, so I'll be very discreet people. Don't worry. But I had an experience this last Saturday that was one for the record books and I'll let the details remain a mystery. Anyhow, Cathi and I went on a date to Hello China in Clinton. My co-worker and friend, David To, works there delivering orders. I love Chinese food. It's my favorite. Everything was tasty and we had some good conversation.

On the way home we went shopping at Walmart for some much needed weekly groceries. Our shopping list of four items turned quickly into a very full cart (You know diapers, lots more fruit than prescribed, etc). Not very romantic, but it was nice to go shopping together without kids. Then on the way home Cathi had this look of wanting a treat, so we stopped at Pace in Clinton as well and got Regular sized shakes. Cathi asked me when I really started getting "the hots" for her.

I've told her the story before but it was nice to share the experience again with her. I first fell in love with Cathi during our time together at my Alma Mater's High School's Christmas dance in 1990. It was at the Utah State Capital Rotunda. I was a freshman at Ricks College and she was a Senior at Bountiful High. I came down from Ricks for the weekend to go to this dance with her. I liked her as a friend when I asked her, but after this dance it was official, I was in love!

Everyone else was stuck to each other and I didn't feel comfortable dancing that way with Cathi so we did some wanna-be Ball Room dance moves with my arm gently on left her shoulder blade, supporting her left arm with mine at a 90 degree angle. My left hand was holding her right way out to the side and plenty of space in between. We danced all night this way keeping the four beat "square" rotating around even to the faster paced songs. We really had a fun time and weren't worried about what other people were thinking. We just had a ball, literally.

Then later in the evening Cathi wanted to hear a song by Peter Gabriel and went up with me to ask the DJ. He said he would play it if she kissed me. I was like "Oh Boy!" but she stated that I had a girlfriend already. Which was kind of true, but that is another story. She knew that I was asking her as a friend so it wasn't a slap in the face to me.

That date ended, and my old girlfriend faded away. Cathi then took up my thoughts. The next February during Valentine's Day I gave Cathi a stuffed animal with a group of helium balloons attached to his arm. The arm was holding a stuffed heart that said "I love you" on it. The animal had a pocket which allowed for the heart (which was permanently attached to his hand) to go inside the pocket. I thought this would be a good opportunity for this revelation to be a surprise later after I had left so it wouldn't be so awkward for the two of us.

So later after I gave her the valentine, the helium would lift the arm and the attached heart out of the pocket. Cathi told me years later, when we were engaged, that at the time she thought that I just bought the animal that way and didn't know that it had the "I love you" on it. She thought wrong.

Anyhow this story could go on and on and on. So to be brief, I'll stop there. But that is when I knew I had the hots for Cathi. Anyhow Cathi and I had a very romantic evening and confirmed to me that while we both are busy with seven kids and haven't been that good about having dates on a consistent and frequent basis, the love is still alive! We ought to do that way more often!