After our AIM conversation I went out with Sunshine several more times. We had fun together but he wasn’t exactly “Mr. Traditional.” He told me several times that he had no interest in going to the Freshman Formal, but I didn’t think that meant I couldn’t go. So, when a friend asked me to go to the formal with him I said yes. I had no interest in my date what so ever, so it was no big deal to me. (I never dreamed that Blake might want to ask me.) One night, while talking to Sunshine he asked me to go to the formal. I explained the predicament and he didn’t take it that well. That is when I realized he had an anger problem, so to speak. I only went out with him a few more times…

So, formal night comes around and my girlfriends and I spend hours getting ready. Everyone helped each other with makeup and hair-dos. Getting ready for the formal probably was more fun than the actual formal. Formal Date comes and picks me up and we head to the Windsor Hotel where the formal was held. We sat at a table with Cheryl and her date (CBH boy), Ashley and her date, and I can’t remember whom else. Before dinner I wandered around talking to people and taking pictures with everyone. During my stroll I came across Blake and his date. We talked for a while and took a picture (see below). I didn’t really want to go back to my table, but I had left my date alone. Following dinner we sat around and listened to Stephen Speaks play his super popular music. It was obviously just TJ and his guitar, but I thought his name was Stephen, as did pretty much everyone else.

Formal ends and everyone heads back to their dorms to change clothes. Formal Date picks me back up, along with his friend from home who was staying in my room, and we headed out to lake Fort Phantom. We walk up to the bonfire, I find my friends and Formal Date disappears. I’m standing around, leaning on a truck listening to Ashley’s date play the guitar and up walks Blake, sans date. We stood there talking for a long time. I never noticed how late it was but after a while Formal Date walks up. He says (and I quote), “I’m going to go on back to campus, you can just ride home with Blake.” I turned and looked at Blake and he had the same shocked look on his face. I said, “No, that’s okay, I’m ready to go.”

I didn’t feel bad for Formal Date because he knew that I had no feelings for him, and I thought he felt the same way. I found out later that wasn’t necessarily the case. School ended and Blake and I talked over the summer. As he said earlier, that’s when things heated up.

It wasn't so much what happened on our first date...but how we got there in the first place.

Once Sing Song concluded (and we sucked, by the way), I didn't see Moriah except for in The Bean, ACU's main cafeteria. So, I had my friends. Moriah had her friends. Every once in a while I would time my trip to the ice cream counter so we would stand in line together and be forced to talk, but I was struggling here. At one point, I just bit the bullet and started going over to her table and spending a few minutes each day before I would leave for my afternoon class (aka nap).

In these brief conversations we would have, I started throwing in this line about "we need to make some Blake and Moriah time." Upon reading this, it wasn't as sneaky as perhaps I intended to be. Eventually I was walking Moriah out of the lunch room each day. This was a new thing for me. All the girls I had tried to date before were first my friends.

One day, I decided it was time to just ask her out. I walked Moriah all the way back to her dorm, but we had a third wheel, a tagalong. Our good friend thwarted my efforts. I would persist. I eventually asked her out, right there in front of the fountain drinks. I said Friday. She said, "I can do Thursday." (little did I know, she already had a date for Friday.) I did back flips all the way to my dorm.

So we went out. Hit up a small Italian restaurant. I was funny. She was pretty and smiled a lot. And I remember she had a phone that lit up when you called it. I really hadn't gotten to talk with her at any length until this time. We then went to Grace Bible Study, which is more like a Jeff Berry concert.

I dropped her off that night at Gardner Dorm. She was wearing one of her knee-length, hooded sweaters, if I remember right. I said we should do it again. She said great. Almost asked her to freshman formal. Thought she already had a date. She didn't.

So later that night, I spend a few hours on AIM, chatting it up. We had already exchanged user names.

It went down like this:

Blake1005: I meant to bring this up tonight, but I didn't want to come off too strong. I've heard you're dating someone. Is that right?

moeydawn: Actually. Yes. His name is Gill.

Blake1005: I'm not trying to squeeze into anything. I don't want to mess something up. I really didn't know, but just to let you know, I'm around. I can wait.

moeydawn: Yeah. I had fun, but I feel bad. Gill and I already have this thing going. Sorry


Little did I know, I was talking to Moriah's friend, Kenli. We would talk aplenty on AIM and flirt from afar for the rest of the year. We chatted by phone several times over the summer, and then things started to heat up.

It all began with Sing Song.

In the fall of 2001, I went to ACU without a care in the world… I also went not knowing a soul. Okay, I knew a couple people from Camp Blue Haven (CBH) and a couple of my sister’s friends who were seniors.

I was blessed with a wonderful (potluck) roommate, Cheryl. She was quiet at first but we really hit it off. Cheryl and I hung out a lot with the girls on our hall. I honestly didn’t have much interaction with a lot of freshman guys. I actually went on several dates that first semester but nothing ever came from them. Many times I didn’t want to go, but Cheryl always talked me in to it. She would say, “If they are going to get up enough courage to ask you out, you can’t say no… and it’s a free meal!” I would go and have fun, but I could always find some little something about the guy that I wouldn’t be able to get over.

I ate dinner a couple times a month with one of the guys I knew from CBH. He was nice but I honestly didn’t know him that well. He had been in my brother cabin a couple times and we won the “Best Boy/Best Girl Camper” award our last year at camp. During one of our dinners he asked me if I would be interested in helping him direct (I ended up mostly organizing things) the freshman act for Sing Song. I immediately said yes. I knew it would be really good for me to step outside of my comfort zone and meet A LOT of new people.

The week before finals we scheduled the try-outs for Freshman Sing Song. *For those of you who aren’t ACU people, Sing Song is huge and mostly everyone wants to participate, so you have to have try outs to whittle the numbers down. Try-outs were held, over a three night period, in the Gardner dorm. I sat in on every audition and ranked everyone as to how well they sang and how good their ‘Sing Song’ face looked. I’m going to be completely honest… I don’t really remember much about those nights, I don’t remember meeting Blake, but he does remember meeting me. I do remember not really caring about how people sounded but looking for people I thought I could be friends with. Totally shallow, I know. (Sorry to any of you reading this that did not get chosen… obviously we’re friends now, so it doesn’t matter, right?)

Christmas break happens. Blah, blah, blah. As soon as school starts we have our first practice. This first practice gives CBH guy and I a chance to see who has what it takes to stand on the front row. I (of course) put myself on the front row, and guess who stood just one person away?

I’m going to go ahead and admit that I’m copying Kara. I’ve enjoyed reading her “How I became a Sheets” story so much that she inspired me to write the tale of how Blake and I met and fell in love. I’m not going to promise that it will be very funny or even very interesting, but maybe it will give you a little more insight about us as a couple. More than anything, this will be for me to reminisce. I hope you enjoy our story. The first installment will be released tonight (I decided to change the date), and no, there are not any advance copies available.