Good Land Njerez!

Being reminded strangely of my past today, I felt the need to borrow a phrase from my mission "mom", or trainer. thank you Liz for the expression; it can almost capture the feelings I have for the universe today. Mission friends who read this, you cannot relate any of the following information with the appropriate involved parties, deal?

So a few weeks ago I got a phone call from a friend in an old ward. He said he wanted to set me up with this guy in his new ward, and would I be okay if he gave him my number and we went out sometime?

Most everyone is familiar with my dating life, and how it needs a little help, so I thought "sure. lets do it."

So I got the call last week and we decided to go out tonight. All I knew about this guy was that he was from Idaho, he ran track or something, and he liked the outdoors. That's what I got. After talking to him, I knew we were going bowling, tonight at 7, and that it would be awkward.

But I had no idea!!

You have to understand, he is the nicest of guys. Very sweet, opened my door and all. When I got in his car, I noticed it was the exact same as the Suburu legacy that my ex-boyfriend Zack had, until I totalled it. The seatbelt is what really brought back memories, how you do the bottom one and the top moves when you open the door. I don't know why but that threw me a bit when I got in, and when he said he's a civil engineer, which Zack also was going to school for, it threw me even more.

Not that there were any other similarities. My date had CD's of hymns strewn about his car, and we listened to some kind of light jazz in the stereo. He was very proper and nice, and I think my using the word "suck" was probably horribly offensive to him. Now, maybe some people would get in such a situation and think -"this guy is perfect", but I am not one of them. I thought- "this guy is not for me and I am not for him. Not even in the remotest stretch of the imagination. Not even a little bit." And I wondered what my dear friend AD was thinking.

I have to hand it to him, he livened up the bowling by making it "skittle bowling," you take a skittle before each throw and the color determines how you throw (eyes closed, dancing, backwards, the like). While I was not into it at all, he was remarkalbe, and really did a great job with dancing and backwards and such. Sadly, all I could think of is my pure, unbridled (but actually quite bridled tonight) hatred for bowling. If I never bowl again in my life I think I won't have the slightest regret. It may even be equal to my hatred for tennis. Maybe it surpassed it. Though golf is still worse in my mind.

Anyhoo, all of this is the set up. The real kicker came as we drove off for some frozen yogurt right south of campus after the bowling. "oh, so you're a returned missionary? Where did you serve?"

"albania,"

"really?!" said with just a little more enthusiasm than is normal,

"My sister served there"

"Really?! What's her name?"

~Now I want you all who know about this to take a quick moment and think about the name I am going to disclose. A sister who served at the same time as me and was actually a companion of mine. Who do you think I ended up on a date with tongight? Whose brother would make the perfect compliment to me?

"Jill Harrison."

"Wow..."

I LOVE Sister Harrison. She was an awesome missionary and probably is a great person now. But just curious, can anyone picture me on a date with her little brother? What cruel twist of fate led to this scenario being played out? I felt like the universe teamed up to make this one very amusing circumstance come into being.

So there it is. My dating life. Sister Harrison's little brother. He is a nice fellow.

And I have some new rules.

I will not go bowling on a date.

I will not date anyone still attending BYU.

And maybe not anyone without facial hair. It's a sad situation but in Utah I think it will only help me.

I will probably need to hear a swear word or two out of the guy before we go out. And I might require a certain arm width.

It's not like I'll have to turn away too many people; this may have been the first date I've been on this year. But I would rather no date than this sort of thing. Am I 18 or 28? I mean really.

Yep, that's all there is to say about that.