The beginning of Dave and I that is. People often ask how I met Dave. After all, I am from the Twin Cities. He is from Duluth. He lived in Kentucky when I met him. His immediate family lives in North Carolina.
Well, we actually owe our meeting to one of my oldest friends, Heather. She lived just a couple houses away from me growing up. She ended up going to college in Duluth, while I moved out to Washington state for school. After two years, I moved home and Heather moved back to the cities too. We reconnected and started hanging out all the time. While she was in Duluth, she met Dave. Then Dave joined the Army and moved to Kentucky. One weekend in late October/early November 2002, Dave went home to visit his parents in Duluth. When he was driving back to Kentucky, he decided to visit Heather's house. On that Saturday night, that's exactly where I was -- at Heather's house.
Heather, her roommate and I had plans to go to Stargate, a local dance club. I was upstairs in Heather's bedroom talking to another friend, Megan, trying to convince her to join us when Dave arrived. I remember hearing him walk up the stairs to find Heather and I as I tell Megan that she better join us because Hot Dave is here. Funny thing is...I hadn't even seem him yet.
Then he walked in the room and we met. I remember thinking...yeah, he actually is pretty good looking. If Megan ended up joining us, Dave could totally pass off as Hot Dave. He was tall with broad shoulders. Beautiful blue eyes. Wore a Northwest Airlines t-shirt (a shirt I'll never let him get rid of. It's a collectors item now) and a Corona hat. But after I met Dave, I was no longer all that interested in Megan joining us. Quickly, I got off the phone with her, so I could get to know Dave better.
Here's what I knew about Dave before I met him: He was from Duluth. He was in the Army. He was home on leave and driving back to Kentucky. He was supposed to drive down to Rochester to visit his grandma, but was stopping by to say hi to Heather and might not go to Rochester as he originally planned.
My dad had been in the Army too. I was pretty sure my dad had been stationed in Kentucky as well. So that's what I first talked to Dave about. He was pretty quick to show me his dog tags. But as I talked to him, I quickly become surprised at how easy it was to talk to him. Generally, I'm pretty shy around people when I first meet them. But there was something comforting about Dave's demeanor where I felt I could talk to him. I felt like he was an old friend.
Soon it was decided that Dave would not be leaving to visit his grandma. Instead, he would be joining us three girls to go to the dance club.
We had a good time a Stargate. I loved that Dave was there and the fact that he was giving me attention. (Especially because there was a boy there that I had dated a couple of times that I wanted to make jealous...minor detail). I remember dancing with him to Justin Timberlake. I swear we danced to "Let's Get Married" by Jagged Edge or a similar song with a similar message -- but I'm probably making that up.
We left the club late. But the night was not over yet. We went back to Heather's house and watched a movie. I remember clearly at one point Dave was comparing our hands and pointing out that the lines are almost identical (I was skeptical and figured he probably used that line on every girl. Don't everyone's palms look similar?). He gave me a back rub too. I remember that vividly, because I was thinking, "Yes! A guy that likes to give back rubs." (But it ended up that wasn't really the case. It's all good, though. I still love Dave!)
Heather and I left for a while to go to a house of a friend of hers. (It's funny that I used to be able to stay up so late back then. I'm definitely not the same girl!) Dave stayed back at Heather's to sleep for a couple of hours before he got up really early to drive back to Kentucky.
I remember him waking me up when he left, asking to exchange numbers. Half asleep, I gave him my number and then he gave me mine. I couldn't remember his name, so I just put in some letters so that I could save the number. I figured I would figure it out later. All that matter was that I saved this boy's number, because I enjoyed my time and liked talking with him.
That was it. He was gone and it would be over a month until I saw him again. I'd only see him once more before he deployed to Iraq.
I had to wake up fairly early to go to work. I called him as I drove just to see how his drive was going. Thank goodness I remembered his name when I woke up! But I never changed his name in my phone. It was always Jab (ironically my initials now).
The best part of the day after I met Dave was that I had a message from him when I left work. I was so pretty pumped that this guy decided to call me.
And that is the story of how we met.
Read my previous Flashback Friday posts: Dave's homecoming | Otis' homecoming
J.B.
Well, we actually owe our meeting to one of my oldest friends, Heather. She lived just a couple houses away from me growing up. She ended up going to college in Duluth, while I moved out to Washington state for school. After two years, I moved home and Heather moved back to the cities too. We reconnected and started hanging out all the time. While she was in Duluth, she met Dave. Then Dave joined the Army and moved to Kentucky. One weekend in late October/early November 2002, Dave went home to visit his parents in Duluth. When he was driving back to Kentucky, he decided to visit Heather's house. On that Saturday night, that's exactly where I was -- at Heather's house.
Heather, her roommate and I had plans to go to Stargate, a local dance club. I was upstairs in Heather's bedroom talking to another friend, Megan, trying to convince her to join us when Dave arrived. I remember hearing him walk up the stairs to find Heather and I as I tell Megan that she better join us because Hot Dave is here. Funny thing is...I hadn't even seem him yet.
Then he walked in the room and we met. I remember thinking...yeah, he actually is pretty good looking. If Megan ended up joining us, Dave could totally pass off as Hot Dave. He was tall with broad shoulders. Beautiful blue eyes. Wore a Northwest Airlines t-shirt (a shirt I'll never let him get rid of. It's a collectors item now) and a Corona hat. But after I met Dave, I was no longer all that interested in Megan joining us. Quickly, I got off the phone with her, so I could get to know Dave better.
Here's what I knew about Dave before I met him: He was from Duluth. He was in the Army. He was home on leave and driving back to Kentucky. He was supposed to drive down to Rochester to visit his grandma, but was stopping by to say hi to Heather and might not go to Rochester as he originally planned.
My dad had been in the Army too. I was pretty sure my dad had been stationed in Kentucky as well. So that's what I first talked to Dave about. He was pretty quick to show me his dog tags. But as I talked to him, I quickly become surprised at how easy it was to talk to him. Generally, I'm pretty shy around people when I first meet them. But there was something comforting about Dave's demeanor where I felt I could talk to him. I felt like he was an old friend.
Soon it was decided that Dave would not be leaving to visit his grandma. Instead, he would be joining us three girls to go to the dance club.
We had a good time a Stargate. I loved that Dave was there and the fact that he was giving me attention. (Especially because there was a boy there that I had dated a couple of times that I wanted to make jealous...minor detail). I remember dancing with him to Justin Timberlake. I swear we danced to "Let's Get Married" by Jagged Edge or a similar song with a similar message -- but I'm probably making that up.
We left the club late. But the night was not over yet. We went back to Heather's house and watched a movie. I remember clearly at one point Dave was comparing our hands and pointing out that the lines are almost identical (I was skeptical and figured he probably used that line on every girl. Don't everyone's palms look similar?). He gave me a back rub too. I remember that vividly, because I was thinking, "Yes! A guy that likes to give back rubs." (But it ended up that wasn't really the case. It's all good, though. I still love Dave!)
Heather and I left for a while to go to a house of a friend of hers. (It's funny that I used to be able to stay up so late back then. I'm definitely not the same girl!) Dave stayed back at Heather's to sleep for a couple of hours before he got up really early to drive back to Kentucky.
I remember him waking me up when he left, asking to exchange numbers. Half asleep, I gave him my number and then he gave me mine. I couldn't remember his name, so I just put in some letters so that I could save the number. I figured I would figure it out later. All that matter was that I saved this boy's number, because I enjoyed my time and liked talking with him.
That was it. He was gone and it would be over a month until I saw him again. I'd only see him once more before he deployed to Iraq.
I had to wake up fairly early to go to work. I called him as I drove just to see how his drive was going. Thank goodness I remembered his name when I woke up! But I never changed his name in my phone. It was always Jab (ironically my initials now).
The best part of the day after I met Dave was that I had a message from him when I left work. I was so pretty pumped that this guy decided to call me.
And that is the story of how we met.
Read my previous Flashback Friday posts: Dave's homecoming | Otis' homecoming
J.B.
Awwwwwwww
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