Ashley and Awkward Date Stories

Dear sweet friends. I am currently in Washington enjoying gorgeous bike rides and lovely family time with Jared's family and our first new little niece (I'm an aunt!). So when my editing friend Ashley was like, "Hey, let's swap blogs for a day." I was like, "Girrrrrl, yeah!" Because really, I have not had the brain power to come up with my own blog topics lately. So. You can find me blogging a date story from mine and Jared's early dating days at Ashley's lovely blog [real life, real love]. And in the meantime, enjoy a funny story from Ashley's own past dating life. She is loaded with good date stories! We've been friends since sophomore when we got close in a research methods class, and trust me, she is great!

₪ ₪ ₪ ₪ ₪

Hello! I'm Ashley and I blog over at [real life, real love]. I blog about my life, so that means there's a little bit of everything! I've been married for two years now, so you're sure to hear about how great my husband is and how fun all of our adventures are. I also love Pinterest and crafting, so you're likely to find a craft or two. I love all things glittered, sequined, and sparkly, but I don't pretend to have a perfect and sparkly life all the time -- I keep it real over at my blog, looking for the positives but acknowledging that things don't always go perfectly :)

Speaking of things that didn't go perfectly, I'm reminded of a date I went on shortly before Russ and I started dating. My dating philosophy was to always say yes to at least one date with anyone and to accept any and all set-ups that came my way.

My dad is sort of a big-wig in the business college at BYU, specifically in entrepreneurship. He works with a lot of students as they try to start companies--giving advice, tearing their ideas apart, and then helping them really get somewhere with their goals. And people love him for it; he's apparently really good at what he does. He also meets a lot of students this way, so when he asked me if he could set me up with John*, I was all for it.

So John called me and asked me out. He took me to Guru's, which was delicious. But throughout the entire dinner, I'm not sure I said even ten words about myself. Now, I don't know about you, but I think first dates should be a little more give and take than that. I learn about you, and you learn about me, right? 

Well, remember how I said students really love my dad for the ways he helps them? John was no exception. 50% of the time was spent talking about how truly awesome my dad is. Which, he is, but hello I'm his daughter, I already know that. And not only was John obsessed with my dad, but also my brother and my sister. He knew my brother from interactions in the business college and he knew my sister because they both served their missions in Korea. So after he talked about how great my dad was, he spent 25% more of the time talking about how great my brother and sister were. Which left about 25% of the time to talk about himself, and how great he was. It was an interesting date, for sure. I mean, how often do you go on a date with a complete stranger who knows half your family?

We He was talking while we were both munching on what was left of the sweet potato fries, when he gets up and says, "Well, should we go?" There were still fries to be eaten and he just wanted to leave them there? What a weirdo. But I got up, too, and we headed for his car. 

As he is driving me home, he starts talking about all of the cars he has totaled in his lifetime, which, if I recall correctly, was at least three. He acted like they were badges of honor or something, but all I was thinking about was how entitled he must be, since his parents continued to buy him new cars when he would total one. And what would possibly be more ironic about this situation than to almost crash the car during this very conversation? Which is exactly what happened. He nearly ran a stop sign and got me killed, though thankfully was able to stop before the other car whipped by.

But somehow I got home safe, and we said our goodbyes, just 55 minutes after we had said our hellos. Who knew such a short date could be filled with so much bad? Needless to say, there was no second date, probably because John was too busy planning a date with my dad or crashing cars for fun.

Thanks for reading about my less-than-perfect date! I'd love it if you stopped by my blog next Wednesday, when I'll be sharing my absolute worst date -- who knew there could be something worse than this?

*Name has been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.