Trust Your Crazy Ideas (Part 7)

Continued from Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6…

On November 10, 2001, my mom and I went to St. Louis Christmas shopping.  On the drive over, in Grandpa’s smoke-filled, burgundy Impala, I told my mom about Mike.  Her advice was to date both Jason and Mike and see who “flipped my cookie.”  I explained that I didn’t think it was fair to date both of them and tried to explain that I really didn’t have any desire to date Jason anymore.  Mom liked Jason and was correct in her assessment that this was a very impulsive decision on my part, but I couldn’t find the words to explain to her (without sounding like a doe-eyed 20-year-old) that I already knew I was in love with Mike.  At least I didn’t have to try to hide that I was juggling two boys anymore because in our 800 square foot home, talking on the phone was far from a private event.  Luckily, Grandpa was pretty oblivious.

On November 13, Mike and I went to dinner at Kracker’s in Charleston.  Our after class dinner dates were quickly becoming a weekly occurrence.  After dinner, having no where else to go, we made one of our many sojourns that fall to Fox Ridge State Park.  We were leaning against the car – deep in tongue thought – when these crazy deer appeared out of nowhere.  For some reason, I was very scared the deer were going to charge us (I had been having nightmares about deer coming through windshields).  If Mike didn’t already think I was totally crazy – he definitely would after my deer fears – however, that night, as I was getting ready to get out of Mike’s car to transfer over to mine in the W lot, Mike told me he loved me.  I know that my jaw dropped as I totally wasn’t expecting him to say those three little words yet, but I didn’t even have to hesitate before replying, “I love you too.”

I stayed with my friend Tiffany in Charleston that evening and finally broke down and told her about Mike.  Tiffany had been involved in setting Jason and I up on our first date so I had no idea how she would react, but she was surprisingly supportive.  It was nice to have someone else who I saw a great deal of during that time who was “in the know” about the Mike situation.  The next evening, we drove to Champaign to meet up with our friend Jenny, go shopping, and go out to dinner. On the way home, I got a wild hair and decided we should drive around Urbana, despite the fact that it was pitch black, and try to find Mike’s house.  Why that seemed like a good idea, I’ll never know.  She had to have wanted to shoot me.  Long story short, we didn’t find the house (I am directionally challenged) and we made it back to Charleston very late!

My relationship with Mike continued to progress and we often found ourselves skipping the classes we had together and going to Fox Ridge.  It’s no wonder I received 3 of my 5 total B’s in college during this semester and they were all my afternoon classes!! I’d never skipped or missed a class before Mike entered my life, so this was another dramatic change for me and for my GPA!

I tried to break up with Jason again on Thanksgiving evening.  Once again, that did not go as planned…   Jason took me to Champaign on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  He wanted to try to date me again, but I was way past that by this point.  Finally, I just gave in and suggested Champaign, mostly in hopes that we’d run into Mike (and yes, probably Michelle).  Jason and I went out to eat and to see the movie Serendipity.  As I watched the movie, all I could think about was Mike and our serendipitous relationship…  Much to my chagrin, we didn’t run into Mike either…

Mike and I talked on the phone for the first time on Tuesday, November 20.  As I’ve mentioned, I’m not a big phone person, and after my first attempt at calling Mike, I was slightly gun shy to pull that trigger again.  However, it was the week of fall break, and while we were still emailing constantly, we wouldn’t be seeing each other in person that week.  I was already going into withdrawal.  After this conversation, we began talking on the phone regularly.

Finally, on Monday, November 26, Mike gave me the news that he had ended his relationship with Michelle.   When I asked how it had gone, he said it was more difficult than he had anticipated.  Mike had never directly broken a girl’s heart before and while I knew that their relationship wasn’t serious in his mind, I was also fairly certain that it was very serious in her mind.  The break up was a relief for both Mike and myself and very freeing – at least we were out of one of our relationships – and I knew that Mike was serious about pursing a relationship with me.  Quickly plans were made for me to come up to Mike’s house for an evening…

To Be Continued…