Hanging Out

Summer is a fantastic time of year for residents of South Provo, particularly the Deerhaven community.  There is almost always some ward activity, pickup game, or party to attend, and more often than not, your problem is choosing what to do, not finding something to do.  I took advantage of this, and made it a point to invite Taylor to many activities.  Of course, I continued to encourage and hope he would attend FHE on Mondays, Ultimate Frisbee at Bicentennial Park on Tuesdays followed by Stake Softball league games, Stake Institute on Wednesdays, and pickup basketball at a nearby church on Thursdays.  Friday and Saturday evenings were usually occupied by some random party or outing.      

To my delight, Taylor did decide to attend several of these activities over the following weeks.  At frisbee and basketball, I was happy to learn that Taylor was quite athletic.  I wasn’t able to track him down at Institute, but he was fairly vigilant in attending church activities at the ward level.  I didn’t see him very often at any of the random Friday or Saturday evening events.  Clearly I needed to step up my game!

I had conveniently run out of ink, and took my empty ink cartridge to the Think Ink store at the University Mall during a lunch break at work.  I made sure my hair, makeup, and clothes were just right.  Unfortunately, Taylor was not at work that particular day.  I asked the young man work there if he knew when Taylor would be in.  I was informed he would be in the next day and I resolved to try again tomorrow.  The next day, I repeated the same process of making sure that everything was just right with my hair, makeup, and clothes and once again made my way to the mall.  He was there this time, and we had a short, but positive interaction.  I felt like I was finally starting to make a bit of an impact and I felt confident enough to try and expand our interactions to something a little more personal.  At a ward FHE the following Monday, I suggested that Taylor, his roommate, Thomas, and I go see X-Men First Class on Friday.   I had already seen it, but seeing a movie with Taylor was well worth the price of admission (not to mention that it’s one of my favorite movies).  

Friday finally arrived and I was very excited for some one on (almost) one time with Taylor.  The evening went great with one exception.  For all the time I spent primping and grooming, you would think I would notice that one of the buttons of my shirt was undone, but alas I did not.  Taylor did, however, and he was kind enough to tell me about it.  He was very polite, but I was still very embarrassed.  I did my best not to let it affect my demeanor for the rest of the evening.   

Undeterred, Taylor and I saw each other very casually several times over the following weeks.  Most notably was my birthday.  Although there was a larger party planned for the Friday following my birthday, a group of friends and I went out for ice cream to celebrate on my actual birthday.  Naturally, I made sure that both Taylor and Thomas knew they were invited.  I was even able to somehow finagle my way into getting a ride with the two of them in Thomas’ truck.  First, we went to Sammy's, a hole-in-the-wall restaurant off Center Street in Provo.  Living up to its reputation for being a popular hangout spot, the wait to order was easily 45 minutes.  Not wanting to wait that long for ice cream, our group moved to Dairy Queen – slightly more commercial, but certainly capable of filling our ice cream cravings. 

I was very busy playing host, and making sure that I got to sit and visit with each of my friends who were kind enough to take time out of their schedules to celebrate my birthday.  I didn’t get to spend nearly as much time talking to Taylor as I wanted to – probably a good thing as I didn’t want to appear too eager.  Even so, I was not very pleased with the amount of time he spent talking to one particular female friend, Christina Laymen.  To make matters worse, he opted to drive home with her and not Thomas and, in turn, not me.  

A few days later there was a more official birthday celebration hosted by my friend Tracy (check out Tracy's blog post for all the details).  It was a joint birthday venture with another ward member whose birthday was the day after mine.  It was a Michael Jackson theme, and the main form of entertainment was the popular Wii game The Michael Jackson experience on a projector.  Many people came to the party, but Taylor was not among the attendees.  He did text me a few times, wherein I learned that he was at a play in support of a friend was participating in.  Of course I assumed that said friend was a girl (later on, Taylor would admit that this was true and that he had been out with this girl a few times).  Nevertheless, the party was great fun.   

On both nights, I went home slightly defeated, but not overwhelmingly crushed.  He was just a silly boy, and I shouldn’t let myself get too interested or disappointed too quickly.