3 Years Since the Day We Met

Exactly 3 years ago today I met Joshua. I had no idea that night I had met my eternal companion and husband.

April 29th, 2005 there was a single's dance at the Poquoson Chapel. The Peninsula Branch was in charge and invited Virginia Beach and Richmond to attend as well. My best friend Christina and I went together to have fun and meet people. I got all dressed up in a nice black skirt and a pink sparkly blouse that I was so excited to wear.

The dance wasn't great but okay. There were about 30 people there, maybe towards 50 at the prime of the night. I was still dealing with health problems so fast dancing wasn't an option at the time. So I greatly anticipated the slow songs, but there were a mere 4 for the entire 3 hours! I only danced with a couple of guys the whole night, one I asked, the other asked me but he was already engaged, simply a good friend of mine. Other than that my ex-boyfriend Miguel was sulking around in the shadows, trying to get me to notice that he was stalking me, but he wouldn't say anything to me so I didn't say anything to him. Christina and I were standing along the wall assessing the crowd when Miguel walked to the wall and sat down on the floor just past Christina. We both saw him and it was clear he was trying to get my attention, but I couldn't bring myself to respond to his immature tactics.

Somewhere around the middle of the dance, I went out into the hall towards the kitchen. I had noticed people hanging out there and wanted to see if I could mingle too. There was this cute guy sitting on the kitchen counter pass through in the hall. He had blonde hair, a thin build, and a handsome (but young looking) face. After standing around a moment he took notice of me and said, "Hi! I'm Joshua." I happily responded, "I'm Sarah." He told me something about how he was new to the singles branch and of course had to drop in the bragging rights of, "I was Sunday School President in the Denbigh Ward, but now I'm here at singles." By this time not only had I noticed how cute he was, but that he was articulate, intelligent, and must be a good Priesthood holder (yes, I was fast at assessing him as potential dating material, you've got to be!). My interest had been piqued. But I was concerned about how young he looked. I seriously thought to myself, either he's a returned missionary and is 21 or he's fresh from the family ward and is 18 or 19 and I don't date guys younger than me. So I asked, "How old are you?" He replied, "23. How old are you?" I was surprised, he looked so young, but I was relieved because this meant he was 3 years older than me and was indeed dating material! I answered, "I'm 20." We talked for a few moments more and left it at a general I'll see you around church. As I walked back into the cultural hall to the dance, I thought, he's cute and I'm interested, but his name is Joshua, the same as my brother. That's just weird, so forget it.

Joshua and I never danced that night and other than that brief encounter in the hall didn't spend time with each other. However, he did ask my best friend Christina to dance. I didn't see it, but apparently he was on the dance floor having fun to a fast song, she was near by, so he asked her to dance with him. As he explained later to me, "I was getting to know everyone that night. I was dancing and pulling people from the crowd out to the dance floor." Well, I didn't hear about this until her and I were in the car.

Christina proceeded to complain about Joshua for a good 20 minutes, HAHA! She told me about how he asked her to dance on a fast song, which was a little odd but okay. Then she said he was weird. I told her that I had met him that night too and thought he was nice. She rebutted, "But he was like really weird. The bad weird." I responded, "But I like weird." She took a moment to look away from the road and glare at me as she said, "You would." It was clear to her that I liked him, but she couldn't stand him. She told me about how they were having a normal conversation where he was telling her about how he works at a bookstore. Then all of a sudden he looked into the distance and said with a scared tone, "No, no... aaarrrggghhh!" And then was right back to the conversation. I admit, I found that weird, really weird too, but I hadn't seen him do it so I brushed it off as her personal interpretation of a joke gone wrong or something. That wasn't enough. She complained about his sweaty hands. I said, "I don't mind sweaty hands. I have sweaty hands." She responded, "No, these were not normal sweaty hands. They were dripping with sweat. It was so gross!" And on she went about how weird and gross he was. It was pretty funny!

Now that I know Joshua, yes, he was really sweaty hands. Like abnormally sweaty. I deal with it. And the weird "out of nowhere" terrified response, he does this thing where he will be in the middle of a conversation and all of a sudden decide to imitate what he is talking about. Even worse is when he starts a conversation like that. The annoying part is he'll do it randomly and sometimes you're not even sure what he is referring to. I know where he gets it from, his family with their inconsistent responses to his behavior has led him to have random communication at times. It's not his fault he is weird.

So what Christina saw was true, but she missed all the good parts about him, which is what I saw out in the hall. She continued to have that bad impression of him for over a year and was in Idaho when Joshua and I got closer and then began dating. It wasn't until she was back for the summer and got a chance to hang out around Joshua did she see why I was interested in him. She had heard me say all these wonderful things about him, but she had a hard time believing me when all she knew was the weird, sweaty guy at the dance, lol!

Anyway, a few weeks later after church Joshua was still hanging around. He was talking with Anne, whom was also a friend of mine so I joined them. Then Joshua and I got talking and discovered we had a common interest, CATS! Once I knew he was a fellow feline lover I didn't care what his name was, I wanted HIM! It's funny to look back now 3 years later and realize that guy who I had such a huge crush on is now my husband.