Jeffery

I've been reading this blog about a girl and how she met the man of her dreams.  It inspired me to write down how Jeff and I met so I can remember it when I'm old and gray.  The gray has already come so I guess when I'm old :)

Not all of you know the full story of how Jeff and I met so here it is.  Enjoy!

We met on a Thursday night, September 16^th to be exact.  It was a night that I was supposed to be hanging out with newly made friends and trying to meet even more new people.  It’s hard to make friends when you are from out of state, live at home, and facing a whole new world that is college.  I was young—just 18 and not on the prowl for guys.  I’m pretty shy and so I needed to socialize with girls in order to have girlfriends in order to have them offer esteem motivations in order to meet boys.  My well laid plans were worthless once I made the decision to go to a mixer with the fraternity Alpha Gamma Nu.

I had exactly two friends a month into college.  If I’m being honest with myself they are probably the reasons I decided to go to the mixer.  I knew, even for only meeting them a month earlier, that they were great people and I wanted to surround myself with more people like them.  Of course there was the giddy feeling of knowing that you are going to go hang out with the freshman class of a fraternity too.  Though I wasn’t looking to have any sort of relationships with boys, I knew that I could and should (and would) meet, evaluate, and gossip about these boys later.

Some of the boys of AGN came in waves to pick the girls up from our sorority.  Since AGN is on our east campus and we lived on city campus, some commuting was necessary to get this mixer underway.  We knew the agenda was to arrive, play some sand volleyball, eat some hotdogs, and mingle.  When we got there, it was a little less than desirable.  There were very few boys there.  The hot dogs were red. And there was still volleyball.

Volleyball was the easiest one to get over.  I knew that I wouldn’t be participating in the volleyball because I am not sports inclined.  I figured it would be fine to sit on the sidelines with the others and socialize there.  Plus, then I wouldn’t have to embarrass myself in a miserable attempt to overcome shyness and volleyball all at once.

I know I’m a dork but I enjoy a good hot dog now and again.  I was really disappointed when I found out they were barbequing red hot dogs.  If you are not from Nebraska you may not be familiar with red hotdogs.  They are made in a town here in Nebraska and they truly are RED.  They also are all they sell at football games and any other local event you go to.  Locals love them.  Those from out of state tend not to.  I hate them.  I think they taste like those little Vienna Sausages that come 8 to a can.  Gross.  So I knew I wouldn’t be eating dinner either.  A hungry Meagan = an unhappy Meagan.

The biggest problem was the very few boys.  I didn’t notice at first that there were also fewer girls there.  Apparently there was a chemistry test scheduled for that evening and since I was definitely not enrolled in the huge chemistry class, and never would be, I had no idea that was the reasoning for the absences on both sides.  It was just easy to see on AGN’s side because their fraternity was rather small and it was harder to miss on our side because our sorority was significantly bigger.

I figured that this would pan out into a night to get to know my two friends better.

Then AGN stepped up to the plate.

The boys of the house realized that there were very few freshman boys at the mixer and the upperclassmen stepped in to socialize with us girls until the test was over.  Enter Jeff.

I was sitting on a picnic table to the side of the volleyball court with my friend Whitney and a few other girls.  Jeff, a junior (oh my!), came over and sat down and started saying hello to everyone.  He was chatting with the whole group for a while and then more in depth with another girl from the house.  I thought he was cute but he was chatting it up with the other girl so I just moved on with my conversation.  At one point, I don’t really know what happened, but Jeff and I were alone at the picnic table.  I said, “I didn’t catch your name earlier.”  He said, “Jeff.  And yours?”  I replied, “Meagan,” with a smile.  What did Jeff say next? “Well, I probably won’t remember that.”  And he looked away.

So, the thoughts running through my head at that point were something to the effect of, “Is he serious?  Did he really just say that?  Does he not want to have a conversation with me?  Do I try to keep talking or just pretend to watch this volleyball game and over analyze that very small comment?”

Luckily, he only looked away briefly and we picked up a conversation of the typical “where you from/what’s your major/do you have this professor”.  The same conversation you have with everyone you meet for the first two years of college.  Eventually, Jeff offered me a hot dog in which I told him no and went into my explanation of why.  I’m surprised I didn’t scare him away but I’m not really one to hold back feelings.  Even if they are feelings about a hot dog.

After people had got their fill of volleyball and hot dogs, Jeff offered to give us a tour of the fraternity.  He led a tour of about 6 or 8 girls through the fraternity.  I’m still surprised that Jeff didn’t think I was a crazy person.  Something clicked for me in our conversation outside and I knew I wanted to get to know him better so I thought it was a good idea to try and lock eyes with him throughout the tour and look cute.  I can only imagine what I looked like, but I thought I was working it.

At the end of the tour we all went back outside and the sun had started to set.  We knew it was about time to end the mixer and head back to the sorority.  Jeff and I were the last ones to leave the fraternity house and make it outside.  We were talking just outside the door.  I don’t know what we were talking about but I know it was really easy conversation and I definitely didn’t want to leave. 

When my friend Kelley came up to me and told me to ride back in the car she was in for the trip home, I did something that was incredibly stupid for me.  I looked up at Jeff and said something like, “Oh, I’m not ready.  Jeff will give me a ride home.”  Kelley kind of looked at me probably thinking I was as crazy as I thought I was for just saying that.  It’s not in my nature.  But she left and I was left with Jeff a little nervous now that my friends were gone and I was actually here alone with this guy.

Before we left the fraternity he asked me to call his phone and leave a message so that his phone would record my number and he would have it to call me.  I remember thinking that he wouldn’t remember me or know what the strange “405” number was.  I called and it rang.  His answering machine picked up and I said, “Hi. It’s Meagan.”  He was standing right next to me at the time I made this call and I remembered how dumb I felt leaving him a message with nothing to say.

Jeff took me home very shortly after the phone call.  I just wanted a little more time, I wanted to continue our conversations a little more.   He took me back to the sorority in his big ol’ Buick that I thought looked like a grandpa car.  We sat parked behind my sorority and talked for another hour.  In that little amount of time we got through all of the basics, family, friends, schools, and the like.  We also talked about nonsense things and everything else.  Jeff was on “beer duty” for his friends and I was just stalling before I would have to go home.  I didn’t want to leave him, for the magic of the night to fade away, for the next day to come and for everything to be written off as a “she was a nice girl” type of thing.  After all, I had refused to go to the fraternity party they were having that night as I was still afraid of parties and wouldn’t know anyone there.  Plus I had class at 8 the next morning.   Only the last one was the excuse I used.  I hoped he wouldn’t hold it against me.

Finally he had to do right by his friends and pick up the beer for their party and I had to say goodnight. 

I hoped he would call me.

Two days later, he did. 

The rest is what they call history.