Today marks exactly three years since mine and Jared's first "official" date. We'd studied for German tests and gone jogging together before, but this date was the real deal. We began the evening with a crepe dinner at the Awful Waffle (out of business now), where Jared was too nervous to eat in front of me, and I was self-conscious because I had eaten my whole crepe and he'd barely finished a fourth of his. I dared him to shove the rest of his crepe in his mouth, and he surprisingly did it. That completely broke the ice, and we've eaten messily in front of each other every day since. Truuuue love.
After dinner we watched a spooky play at the Echo Theatre (also out of business now), where the seats were so close to the stage that the kid in my ward who was in the play accidentally spat on me a few times. Then we spontaneously decided to grab some garbage bags and go "sledding" in Rock Canyon Park with Jared's good friend Jimmy and Jimmy's fiancee, Demi. It was the best first date either of us had ever had, and we've been dating nonstop ever since (we're still in business). Jared liked that there were no games and no guessing with me. I liked that he was the perfect gentleman, but would also humor my less-than-classy dares. Tonight we celebrated by making and devouring crepes together. He took a breather from studying to make the crepes while I whipped up some brown-butter chicken and a lemon cream sauce for the filling.
Switching gears, when I arrived home in Grenada last week after being away from Jared for over a month, it felt like that first date again in many ways. Jared was waiting for me as a I walked out of the airport, and it was like I was meeting him for the first time, even though we had been Skyping daily. His voice sounded different, his hair seemed blonder, and I swear he was a few inches taller than I'd remembered. I was starstruck and in disbelief that I could be married to this handsome, somewhat-familiar man. It was one of those strange Twilight-zone moments that you'd have to experience to understand. It was odd to kiss him again, I started crying when he gave me a hug, and I couldn't stop sneaking peaks at him as he drove me home.
Jared is the sweetest. He had spent the afternoon decorating for me to come home. He made a sign, bought Christmas decorations that he hung around the apartment (he gets me), picked flowers from our yard, had dinner in the crockpot, and lit all my favorite candles. Then he took the next day off from school so we could hang out together. Medical school can be tough on relationships because even when you do find a moment to spend together, the student is always thinking about his studies to some extent (by necessity--and you do get used to it). The day or two after I returned were the first days since before medical school that I really felt that Jared was 100% my own. I'd almost forgotten what that was like, and it was wonderful. I'm so grateful that he's working so hard now so that we can enjoy more days like that sometime in the future!
