Part 1 (this is REALLY long)

Brett and I have been married now for six years, six months, and 23 days, give or take. In honor of the occasion, I thought I would recount the story of how we got together. Again. (Since some of you noticed a few inconsistencies in my previous account. Like the fact that I’m not dead.)

So, when I told Kami that I’ve been itching to write about how Brett and I hooked up, she said, “Is it going to start out, ‘I moved to Utah State and thought that Kami’s next-door neighbour was really hot. Then I met his roommate.’?” No, come one Kami. That’s not the full story. (But it’s true that everyone thinks Drew is good-looking, right Jessica?) ;)

Anyway. Here’s the REAL story, with all the details. (Far, FAR more details than you’ll probably ever want, but that’s the way it’s going to be.)

A few days after my seventeenth birthday, I moved to Logan to attend Utah State. My sister Kami came too (yes, we’re joined at the hip pretty much. Okay, not really, but in all our years of moving around, we did manage to attend the same school all but 1 year, and that year I came up to her school for a math class one period of the day and we went home together), and my sister Andrea had just graduated from BYU and was starting graduate school at Utah State. We thought it was really cool to hang out together, especially since we hadn’t seen much of Andrea for the past 4 years. So when we got together, we were often excited and sometimes a tad bit, um, silly. (In a mature sort of way. Of course.)

So anyway, Kami lived in a dorm that was right opposite mine, and she did have some next-door-neighbours. (Quote from my journal: “The boys that live next door to her are pretty cute.”) And though we saw these nameless cute boys from time to time since they sometimes did things with Kami’s roommates, and eventually did learn their names, we didn’t think a whole lot of them. Except that they were a bit boring. (Brett thought we were weird. Rudie.)

Aside: Brett and Drew were roommates when they were freshmen, and became fast friends when they discovered their similar passion for hammering on engines and taking apart and then putting back together all things motorized. Also they were both mechanical engineering majors. They went on their missions the same time, and came back and roomed together again. Here they are in the MTC.

The only other things I remember about Brett from this time of not really knowing him was that sometimes he wore a shirt that was bright orange and had camels on it, and I would say (in my oh-so-coy way), “Hey, there are camels on your shirt.” Cause I was cool like that. Also, one time his dorm hosted a night-hike to the Wind Caves, and I went with another boy, and only later came to realize that Brett had been there too.

One Sunday, Kami and Andrea came to my apartment for dinner, and we cooked a roast and potatoes and gravy and other good stuff. Being that we are females and had made such a fine feast, we felt a need to share it. With persons of the opposite gender. About the time dinner was close to being ready, I saw out the window Brett and Drew walking home from church. I impetuously opened the window and asked them if they’d like to come for dinner. Being males, they accepted. When I turned around, Kami (I think), said, “Why did you invite them?”

So we ate our dinner together, Kami, Andrea, and I all talking and telling stories and laughing, and Brett and Drew just sitting there. Not laughing. Or talking. At least not much. Quote from my journal says: “It was kindof fun, they aren’t THE most entertaining people in the world.” Haa haa ha. I think that is so funny now. Considering who they ended up becoming.

Oh, it also says in my journal that one night after Kami and Andrea and I watched the movie 8 Seconds, we were a little hyper and played Can’t Touch the Ground in Kami’s lobby (no wonder Brett thought I was weird), and then at some point Brett and Drew must have come in, cause then Andrea and I played pool against them and beat them in 3 games (of course, we didn’t count the first two games which they won).

So anyway. On December 1, I felt like going outdoors, so my sisters and I went up the canyon (oh, wonderful Logan!) and made a campfire and roasted marshmallows. When we got home, Kami’s roommates had a party in the lobby of their dorm. Actually a dance. So, ever excited to go to a dance, I did my hair a bit and got dressed (but didn’t shower…I wonder that I didn’t shower since I must have smelled like smoke?) and went over. Not many people were there but some. And Brett and Drew were there, and I danced a bit with them, showed them a few swing moves, and saw for the first time how fun and hilarious Brett really is. I was hoping a little that he would ask me to dance for the final song, but Kami’s roommates (who were a bit of the goody-goody types, actually not just a bit) had instructions to end the dance at midnight, so at 12:00 sharp they turned off the music. So I went over and coaxed Marshelle to play one last song, for after all, dances MUST end with a slow song. Finally she did, and Brett did ask me to dance. Yay!

So then, the dance ended, and some people went home, but others stayed and played games. We played Murder in the Dark, which would really not be a very fun game except that it involves holding hands, and I made sure to sit by Brett to hold his hand. We also played Psychiatrist, which is the game where one person (the psychiatrist) goes out, and you all decide on a problem to have, and then the psychiatrist has to figure out what it is by asking people questions. So one of the problems we had was to think that we were twenty years in the future. So, by the time the psychiatrist had it pretty much figured out, he was going around asking everybody their age, and so when it was my turn I said 37. So anyway, games ended, we all went home, it was very late.


The next morning around 11:30, I was still in bed when my roommate came in and said, “There’s a guy at the door named Brett.” Being very shocked, and groggy, I said, “Are you serious?!” So, I was a little embarrassed to be in bed, but hey—it was a late night, and it was a Saturday. Anyway, Brett asked if I’d like to go to Salt Lake with him to look at a car that he was thinking of buying for the frame, and also to go to the junkyard. I said yes, and hurried and showered and got ready.

We drove to the junkyard first. (It was the one by Smith and Edwards, between Brigham City and Salt Lake. We’ve gone there several times over the years, so every time we go I can sigh a little “oh, what a romantic place for our first date” sigh.)

As we were walking around the junkyard searching for the right car with the right part (I have no idea what part he was looking for…oh, I just asked Brett and he said he thinks it was a turn signal switch), Brett said, “So, is this your first date to a junkyard?” Yes, yes it is. (And frankly, why did I not run away right then? Had I but known that the majority of our fairly-infrequent-marital squabbles would stem from me wanting Brett to come spend time with me instead of tinkering with his latest pulled-out-engine…well, I guess it’s good I didn’t.)

Oh, and by the way, Drew was there and his older sister, Heidi. (I can’t remember for sure, but maybe he needed a part from the junkyard too? It’s likely.) Anyway, after the junkyard, we went to the place in Salt Lake where the car was that Brett wanted to look at. I do remember what kind of car. It was a Chevy Nova. You see, Brett had this 1960 Ford Comet that he had worked on restoring for many years, and he wanted a new frame for it. He thought that the Nova frame would fit. So, we found the place, Brett got out, was looking at the car saying “Yes, yes!” and then, he knelt down on the ground to try to get a look at the underside of the car (oh how familiar that pose is to me now), and said, “No, no!!” for it was a unibody. Which means, no frame to steal. Sad. We toured a couple more of Salt Lake’s junkyards, and then had some Taco Bell and went home.

Brett asked me if I wanted to go to a stake dance that night, and I said yes, because we already couldn’t get enough of each other. So we parted for a short while, so that I could eat some Chinese food that Andrea had cooked for us, and then went with Brett and Drew (funny how many of our first times together involved either my sisters or Drew or both) to find the correct stake center. Which was harder than it sounds. The dance was lame, so we didn’t stay too long, and on the way home, Brett and I rode in the back of the truck and Brett put his arm around me. Sigh.

When we got home, we were planning to watch a movie, but Kami and her roommates were in the middle of watching it just then. So, we played a card game called Ligretto which Brett had got on his mission in Switzerland, and waited for the movie to get over. When it did, all the people who had just watched it, and a few other people who lived in the building decided to come watch it again (looking back it seems that college was one big party! Sheesh—didn’t we ever go to class or study?). So, it wasn’t my fault that everyone was so squished that I had to sit very close to Brett on the couch. And he had his arm around me. And as I sat there, pretending to watch the movie (which was Frequency, which I had already seen), I was really just contemplating whether or not to hold Brett’s hand. There are lot of considerations, you know, but ultimately I had to hold his hand. It was nice. (I still love his hands oh-so-much. They're one of my favorite physical features of Brett's.) When the party broke up, Brett gave me a good-bye hug. Awww. He smelled very good. I think I said that to my roommate when I got home.

So, all’s well so far. The next day, Sunday, I tried to look extra cute, and Kami decided to come to my ward to see if she can spot a guy that she met at a stake dance (his name was Parley), so we’re walking to church, and we see Brett and Drew walking home from church, and we agreed on dinner at Brett and Drew’s apartment after church.

So when I got home, I straightaway went to Brett’s house, and we talked for a few minutes, and then Brett said, “Let’s go for a walk.” So we go outside, and we’re holding hands (I remember being VERY mad that Brett was holding my hand during this), and Brett says, “We need to talk.” Which sends up a little warning flag. Then he says, “I really like you, but….” aww, man! Anyway, the crux of the matter was, I was too young. Remember back when we played the Psychiatrist game, and I had said I would be 37 in twenty years? Well, I guess the fact that I was 17 was hidden in the bottom of Brett’s consciousness somewhere, but he had only just given thought to it. So, after a very short little spiel, he said, “Well, when DO you turn 18?” and I said, “Not until August. 21st.” Which wasn’t very helpful. So we determined to just be buds.

So we went back inside, and had dinner, but I didn’t really talk to Brett anymore, I just hung out with Kami. Brett has told me since then that I seemed kinda rude, but what did he expect? He had just cooled whatever it was that we had going.

My dad called me that night, which is a rare thing indeed, and so that was pretty cool. He asked me what I had done that weekend, so I was going through some of the weekend’s activities (leaving a few items out) and he observantly noted that the name Brett was coming up a lot. I replied that it probably wouldn’t anymore, and he asked why, and I told him that basically Brett thought I was too young. He said, “It didn’t stop me,” and I said, “No, it didn’t.” Then he asked if I told Brett that my mom was a certain obscenely young age (which I will not specify here, because I have repented of my wicked ways of telling everyone I met that my mom was 15 when she got married because my poor mother would shake her head and seem very sad when people in a new ward would approach her and say “So, your kid tells me you got married at 15.” I was VERY young when I did that. But I just thought it was so cool.) when she got married, and I said no. And he said, “Yeah, didn’t want to scare him off, right?” And then he said that it was a good thing that it didn’t stop him. And I said, Yeah. That’s because you’re not the run-of-the-mill type of guy.” And he said, “Nope, and I never shall be.”

But fine. This was not a major deal, after all, we had spent only two days together. (Pretty much the ENTIRE two days, but still.) There just wasn’t much there to have to get over. So I thought.

p.s. I did not copy this idea from a certain blogger who also has red hair. I hadn't read her blog for a long time, and when I did and saw that she was writing her hooking-up story I was really mad because I knew everyone would think I was stealing her idea, when really I had been wanting to do this for a long time.