History, Part 1
True Story: I started this blog in 2004. I was 26, single, lonely and depressed. I still lived with my parents.
I moved out in December of that year with my younger sister and shared an apartment with her for what turned out to be less than a year.
I posted mostly nonsense, and no one but my brother and sister ever saw it.
In 2005, my life was forever changed.
In the span of 7 months, I met a girl, fell in love and got married. Her name was Amy Hynson, a beautiful girl who used work in Rose State College's IT Services department, just like I did. On February 11th, some of my coworkers said "Hey, wanna go to lunch at Golden Corral?" They asked me this because they knew that I had never once eaten at a Golden Corral. I surprised them and said "Sure, why not?"
My coworker Susan gave me a run-down of who would be going, and at the end said, "Oh, and Amy has a test, but said she'd show up if she can." This intrigued me, because I didn't really know Amy. I had met her almost a year earlier, and I always thought she was pretty, but being the shy guy I am, I never really talked to her. She worked in a different part of the building, and I rarely saw her. (Turns out, she had had a crush on me since the beginning, and had been afraid to say anything.)
We arrived at GC and began our meal. I wasn't too impressed with the food, but I was having a good time joking around with everybody, and not being at work. Amy showed up right about halfway through the meal, and sat down in the coincedentally empty chair next to me. I thought this was cool, since it gave me a chance to get to know her better. We all continued to joke around and badmouth absent coworkers, when I began to notice that she was laughing extra hard at the things I was saying. Suddenly, she said. "I have something shocking to say, but it's going to embarass someone here." I was still joking around, and said something like "Ooh, shocking?...Let's hear it."
She then turned to look directly at me and said, "Have you noticed that we've worked together for about a year, and we've only said like, 3 words to each other?" Still oblivious, I said "Yeah, I have noticed that." She turned away and hung her head for a moment, saying quietly to everyone "I have a crush on Brandon."
In shock, all I could think to say was "Wow, Thank you!" In my mind I was thinking "This pretty girl likes me? how is that possible?" We finished our meal and exchanged a few awkward conversations about the movie Napoleon Dynamite and went our sperate ways (I went back to work, she went home).
All of this happened on a Friday, and the following Monday was Valentine's Day. I thought about her all weekend, but I wasn't sure how serious she was. To gauge interest, I sent my entire department, including her, an innocent valentine's e-mail.
She responded immediately, referring to me as "cuteness", and I knew I had a chance.
Before too long we were going on lunch dates. I was nervous and ecstatic. Terrified, but strangely confident. I had been blessed to avoid the whole "getting the girl's attention" phase, now I just had to avoid screwing it up.
On our second proper "date", on March 6th, she came over to my house to watch Donnie Darko. I remember vividly sweating through my shirt as she leaned against me on our couch. Throughout the movie, I watched distractedly, trying to come up with the best way to ask her to officially be my girlfriend. I had no doubts she'd say yes, but I didn't want it to be an awkward or seemingly forced thing. The movie did me a huge favor by containing a scene where the main character wants to do the same thing, and asks a girl if she "wants to go with him". That specific phrase was memorable to both of us, and after the film was over I turned and asked Amy if she wanted to "go with me." She quickly and happily said "yes", and gave me a hug. She ended up spending the night with me, and slept in my bed, though we kept it all PG-13.
On September 4th, we were engaged, and on the 29th we were married.
To this day, no one makes me happier than her, and I love her more every day.
Thank God for Golden Corral.
--B
