Matt's Point of View

Hi, so I'm Matt. I don't know what details Emily has told about how we met and our first dates, so I'm gonna tell it how I remember it. I think the best place to start, like the best place to start talking about Christmas gifts is with Santa Clause, is with Brenda. Remember, Brenda = Santa Clause, Emily = Christmas Gift. Now that I've made it as confusing as possible I can start. Brenda started telling me about her niece that I just had to meet. A lot of my mom's friends from relief society had nieces or grand daughters or recent parolees that I should really get to know, so I didn't exactly take it seriously. That started about novemberish of 2008, so i might have been a good thing I didn't rush off to find Emily. There's a right time and a wrong time to get a Christmas gift, open it early and Santa's unhappy, so I guess the time had to be right to find Emily.

Anyway, enough with the cheesy analogy. School let out for the Summer and I got call telling me that the niece was coming to town in a few days and was expecting a phone call to set up a date. This was with her niece, not a parolee, so I gave her a call and set up the date. It was simple, dinner alone and then board games with some friends. So simple, I'm surprised it fell through.

The first thing that happened when I went to Brenda's to pick her up, was a surprise from Erin (Brenda's Husband). He introduced Emily's sister as Emily. Emily's newly engaged and very much in love sister. I reached to shake her hand and she jumped nearly two feet to plaster herself against her fiancee with that engagement ring extended as far as she could get it without touching me. It was as awkward as it sounds, Heather and I are friends now though. I have to hand it to Erin, it couldn't have gone better if he had planned it.

The sandwich shop I had planned on was closed and so we had to improv a meal. Wal mart normally wouldn't cut it for a substitute, but tonight didn't start normal so I shouldn't have expected normal. She just seemed so calm despite the fact that I thought everything was going wrong. The one part that went according to plan was the board game. Four of my friends thankfully showed up on time to play a few games while my nephew tried desperately to join in.

He had been having .... issues.... like many eighteen month old children do, so I wasn't exactly thrilled about his addition to the fun. Ok, the past four nights in a row little Matthew had thrown up without warning and in some awkward places. He'd been eating gummy bears and technicolor vomit just wasn't going to go well on a first date. Thankfully, he kept the bears down until he got home and I got a yes when I asked Emily out about three weeks later.