Dances and Dates

I was never one that the boys went after. Honestly, I just wasn’t. But college was a ton of fun for me. I was the fun, bubbly, outgoing person I had never been able to be in high school. I had fun roommates, and I had lots of friends who were guys. I always had a crush on somebody or another, but to tell you the truth, they were always the boys I didn’t know too well. I had plenty of boys who were awesome friends, but I never had crushes on them and they never had crushes on me. But my friends and I were very good about going to every single girls’ choice dance. We had a lot of fun asking in creative ways, and the coolest boys were the ones who answered back in cool ways.

Here are Sheri and I blowing up balloons. We put one puzzle piece in each balloon, and when the puzzle was put together it asked “Will you go to MORP with me?” or something like that, and then we signed it with our social security numbers. The boys had to take the numbers to the library, and use the computers to look up our schedules to find out who was asking. (*Note—I do not recommend to anyone that they give out their social security number. What were we thinking??)

This is Carol and I after we went over to the Davenport boys apartments in the middle of the night to ask a couple of our family home evening brothers to MORP. We were tired, but jazzed!

This was the time I asked Jason, and this is how I asked him:

*GET READY*KAZOO*CAN CHEWS*TO BE A SMARTIE*AND GO TO PREFERENCE, MY TREAT*

The cards and the items that went with them went in the pockets. I don't remember why we went in the middle of the night, but I think we just went in and hung this in on the hall in the stairwell of their building. And I have no clue how he answered me, but it was Jason, so you know it was awesome.

Here are the pictures I have of the different dances we went to through the years. First, pictures from stuff we did before going to the dances:

This is April and Steve

(They ended up getting married a few years later! Yay!)

We went to Big Jud's. I was with a guy named Steven Garrett.

In our apartment. From left to right: Julie went with Alex, I went with TJ. TJ is actually standing behind Carol, and the guy behind me, whose name I really can't remember, was Carol's date. On the right end is April, who went with my cousin (once removed--ha!) Ivan.

For another dance, we went out to a Chinese place for dinner. Julie is in the purple, and she went with John, who is sitting on the end looking over his shoulder. I can't remember the guy's name next to Julie, but he was Maggie's date (Maggie is in the red in the back). On the opposite end of the table is Ruth Anne, who is barely visible, who went with the guy to her left, again whose name I don't know. I went with Jason, and he and are sitting on the wall side of the table.

For this MORP date we made dinner at our house. I went with Jotham Hatch (who is from Preston, Idaho, where I was born), and we are in the green shirts. Behind me is April's brother Leonard, and his date Loree, who he married. (They may have already been engaged--I think she was up visiting him from Arizona, actually). Next to Loree is April and her date, Kevin.

On another date I went with Jotham again, apparently. I don't remember going with him twice, but since I'm wearing a dress in this picture and jeans in the previous picture, I can only deduct that this was a second date. In this picture we are finger painting our favorite Book of Mormon story with pudding. And I really can't remember what story it was that we were painting.

April went with Brandon, who was a good family friend of theirs from Montana who drove down for the occasion.

Julie and Kevin with their pudding painting.

Here are Brandon and Jotham, making the pudding for our paintings.

Here we are in our apartment, ready to go to another dance. First are me and Scott, then Heidi and Mark, then Sheri and Kevin.

A picture of me by myself before the dance.

This was a MORP date I went on with a guy named Andy. We got the keys to the shop (Grounds) where I worked, and had permission to set up a dinner here for before the dance. I remember we even made ice cream the elementary school way, in ziploc baggies, for our dessert. Ha! Such silly fun.

Here are the pictures I have that were taken at the dances:

Honestly, I do not remember who I am in this picture with. I vaguely remember his face, but only because of the picture. Ruth Anne is with Jason in the stripes, Maggie is with Troy in the life jackets, April is with Steve in the front in the denim, and Alex is in the back with a girl I don't know.

MORP: Jotham and me, Leonard and Loree, April and Kevin

This second dance I went to with Jotham looks like it must have been Preference. Kevin and Julie, April and Brandon, Me and Jotham. Incidentally, Jotham was a BLAST to country dance with. He knew exactly what he was doing, and I adored country dancing back in the day. He is the only guy I ever went to a dance with who could really kick it up the way I liked.

This one was definitely a strange, strange date. Josephine and her date are on the ends of the back row. Alex and some girl are in the red. April and John are in the white. Julie and some guy are on the left in green, and Tom and I are in the front in blue. Tom was an absolutely weird guy, who I did not know well at all, and he kept throwing salt at me all through dinner. What was his deal, anyway? I never talked to him again after that night, and I don't think he cared at all. Ha ha! (Incidentally, he served his mission in Turlock, and happened to be roommates with my friend Travis, from Turlock, at the time of this dance).

Me and Andy, Kevin and Sheri.

Ivan and April, TJ and Me, Alex and Julie, ? and Carol

April and Steve, Brenda and ?, the couple in the middle I have no memory of at all whatesoever, then there's me and Steven, and Susan (Brenda's twin) and some guy.

The great thing about going with groups is that each couple got a picture, so we got to have as many poses as we had couples! In these last pictures are Jason and me, Julie and John, ? and Maggie, and ? and Ruth Anne.

And sometimes we just organized big group dates for the fun of it. We did a lot of crazy, awesome, fun group dates. I wish so much that I had taken more pictures of them! These are the only ones I have. This first picture is at the top of R mountain, which we hiked for the first part of the date. The next picture is us having a BBQ for the second part of the date--we went to a recreation area somewhere else and...fingerpainted our favorite Book of Mormon stories. (I know, I know, recycled date ideas, ha ha! But they were all different guys, so it's still cool, right?)

Dan and Carol, Me and a guy named Jared. Dave Searcy is in the peach Hard Rock Cafe shirt. It's probably the only picture I have of him, but he was an awesome friend of mine. He worked with me on the Grounds crew, and that last year before he went off to BYU he and I used to take lots of walks together and we'd just talk. I never crushed on him, but I do have very fond memories of a great friendship with him.