The Story: Jesse's Wrap-up

I was feeling a bit nostalgic and was looking back through some of our old posts, and I noticed that the Our Story series never got completed on the blog, though in non-blog life we've started in on the beginning of the next Big Story.

We left off with Charlessa's phone battery dying as I was talking with Charlessa's father, right as she walked back into her house. A slicker bit of timing couldn't have been choreographed! The only problem - I had to wait to hear back from them to see what they thought about Charlessa and I starting to date - pins and needles!

Much to my relief they were supportive, but then I actually had to ask her out! Where else would I do that but at the clogging barn!?! So, on August 18th, 2005, after clogging was over, Charlessa and I were talking outside and enjoying the beautiful night, or at least she was, my stomach was busy tying itself into knots. I'll be darned if I can remember what I actually said; my biggest impression of that night was lots of stammering, looking at my feet, hemming, and hawing. But, she had mercy on me and said that dating would be good! Whew! That was the second of my three impressions that night - relief! Our first date would be a community play, The Tempest, I think)

So what was my third memory/impression of that night? What the heck do I do when we're saying goodbye? Hug her? Give her a peck? Just say bye? Hold her hand? Aaack! I think we finally stumbled into a hug. Don Juan, I am not!

I'll spare everyone the mushy stuff that went on all through our dating - it's pretty standard stuff, I guess. Well, sort of. I might have been a bit more backwards that most guys - it took me almost two weeks to screw up the courage to hold her hand. It wasn't until a dinner at Tuscarora's and walking through downtown Leesburg afterwards that I finally held her hand. I'm pretty sure I managed to fumble that too, but oh well. Like I said, not Don Juan.

We spent a very happy 9 months, to the day, dating before I finally asked her to marry me. As stressed and nervous as that was, I think I was still more nervous and tongue-tied when I first asked her out. Of course, I had the requisite set of nerves when I wrote to her parents to see if they had any objections to getting a son-in-law. I chickened out on that though - after planning and writing out thoughts and plans for giving them a call, I finally just wrote a letter. The only drawback with that was waiting for the post office to ferry letters back and forth!

THEN, I got to have fun! Picking out a ring was so cool!

That, of course brings us to, "Popping The Big Question"!