Multiple reasons why I broke this story into three segments: First, I was three posts behind when I started this post a day challenge; Second, each of the events have a sizable amount of time separating them; and Third, I thought it was be fun to write a series.
Here it is, the conclusion of this mini-series.
Part 3 - Our first date(s)
As the seasons pass, so did the time, and both of us thought the other was happy in the relationships that we found ourselves in. What we both went through separate relationships, they both crashed and burned. By Dec 2002, we were both single, and had healed from the broken friendships and engagements. Wait, sorry, only I was engaged. Caitlin talked about marriage with her boyfriend, but those conversations progressed from "When we get married" to "If we get married." I was rather callous when I broke off my engagement, but I'm glad I did. I read that you shouldn't avoid breaking up because you're trying to figure if it's going to hurt or not, because it is going to hurt either a little or a lot. And the longer you hold on, the worse it gets.
Then came the Christmas season of 2002. As mentioned earlier, my sister still kept moderate contact with the Tolleys, even though she had been married for five years at this point, and not to their son. Caitlin's mother was working at the LDS Bookstore in town at the time, and my sister was in doing some Christmas shopping. As women are wont to, they got to talking, and somehow or another, I was brought into the conversation. "How is Steven? Did he get married?" "No, he broke that off." I'm sure the discussion was a bit more involved than that, but when it was indicated that I was again single, a plan was hatched. Okay, phone numbers were exchanged, and my sister 'encouraged' me to call Caitlin and ask her out. She was nineteen now, so I wasn't quite as taken aback as I was approximately two years ago. Still, it took me a good few days before I called up Caitlin and asked her out to the Odyssium on Jan 4, 2003. I figured it would be a good first date where we could get to know each other more than sitting in a movie theatre for a couple of hours. Also, I really wanted to go see the touring exhibit about medical technologies which was going to be finishing up that month.
Immediately after I finished my phone call with Caitlin, I called up my sister. At this point she was down south in Lethbridge for Christmas holidays, so I left a message on her answering machine that was something like this: "Just called to let you know I finally called Caitlin and asked her out. I hope you're happy!"
My sister called me the day she got back into the city, January 6, 2003, and she asked me how the date went. I simply replied, "Which one?"
After I had left my puzzling message on her answering machine, Caitlin called me back, and invited me out to her family's New Year Day Medieval Feast. I said yes, not know what I was getting myself into, but that day I got a ride down to Beaumont courtesy of Dave Pratt (who earned the well deserved Best Man spot at the wedding) and then I was taken to the costume closet where I was given peasant attire. This attire included tights. Wrapped leggings, but they were still a form of tights. Caitlin was impressed that I put up with that, and that I stayed in costume for the entirety of the evening.
We then made plans to get together the next day, a simple dinner party at Dave Pratt's place, where we watched Bandits, and then the day following that, we were chez Tolley again, this time for a dinner party and round of Shanghai.
The Odyssium date went really well, and by the end of these dates, we had exchanged email addresses, as Caitlin was heading back to Red Deer College.
We wrote every day, and the day I proposed...
Is a story for another time.
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