The Sticky, Sweet Kind

Right.

Well then, this is me, begging your forgiveness in advance, for the post I am about to write.

It is to be a mushy post. Having to do with valentines day. It's going to be oozing like tree sap.

If you don't want to read it, you don't have to.

But I would prefer you read it because I want to tell someone.

 Give me one post to be a girl, okay? I promise I'll stop after that.

 Before we get into the sticky mess of the post, let me back you up just a touch.

Go back to Monday.

On Monday evening, my dad and Minion 1 were gone, and me and the remaining family members went to town for a quick shopping trip.

Mom treated us to our first Chinese restaurant. (It was good, by the way) I ate my fortune cookie, and wasn't too interested in the fortune, but I read it anyway and laughed. It said-

"You will shortly receive pleasant news of a personal nature."

My mom and minion 2 laughed and ordered me to keep it, just in case.

I have no idea what they thought would happen.

I had no personal prospects of the romantic sort.

But I threw it in my purse and tried to finish the unholy amount of food that had been piled on my plate. We drove home in the fog, and I was pretty tired when we got home. There was an message on our answering machine and I pressed the button for mom and headed into the kitchen.

This is what I heard.

"Hey, this is Jarod-"

Pause:

Jarod is from church. He has never called our house. Jarod wants to come to my house for a bluerock shoot with my dad and some guys from church. I thought that was why he was calling.

Play: 

"Um...I just wanted to talk to Maddie, so...give me a call back. Thanks. Bye."

Imagine me coming in from the kitchen and screaming "What?"

Then picture my mom and sister screaming louder. And my mom calling my dad and playing the message into the phone. And panicking. And wondering what he wanted. And laughing. And telling me not to get my hopes up. At the same time planning our date.

I finally got her to shut up (she was still shaking though- literally), and I mustered up the courage to call him.

And I got an answering machine.

I left him a message and did not sleep all night. (that may have to do with me getting sick on the Chinese food, I ate, but it may not) The next day I fretted my way through school hours, and endured the constant teasing and "don't get your hopes up" from my family, along with tears and hurt looks from my Minions.

Mom would not let me leave the house in case he called, no matter how many times I told her he was in class. Finally, minion 2 needed to go to piano lessons, and mom was busy trying to get ready for company so I offered to take her.

"But he might call!"

So I just called him again, terrified I would get that stupid little voice mail.

Do you have any idea how terrifying it is to leave a message on an answering system that doesn't actually say Jarod can't come to the phone? It just says *number* isn't available- leave a message.

What if it wasn't his??

Luckily, he answered on ring number three.

What came after that was a lot of nervous laughter and "I don't knows"

What I managed to pry out of him was

"Are you doing anything on Saturday, cause I thought maybe we could do something fun on Saturday...if you think of something fun to do, call me."

*cue another panic scene from my mom and minion 2*

Then I hang up and check the calendar, thinking, okay nothing going on this Saturday.

That's when mom came and looked and screamed again.

"That's valentines day!!"

You know what I said?

Shoot!

I don't know why. I was actually super excited. But I said shoot anyway.

So all day Wednesday I was trying to find a movie or something to go watch. I figured we would both like American Sniper, but there's some *ahem* steamy parts in that, and I don't know about him, but I'm not cool with that up on the screen on a first date.

So last night, I called him back before youthgroup and got that dastardly answering machine again.

Then he called back right in the middle of youthgroup so I ran out of there and sat outside freezing while we hashed over where to go.

I don't like Mexican.

He don't like pancakes (what??)

He likes Chinese.

But he wants to go to a town with no Chinese food.

His roommate wouldn't stop laughing and most of the phone call was taken up with Jarod yelling at him to shut up and get out. Which I appreciated.

So...very long dramatic story cut short.

I am going on a date today, for the first time ever in my life.

I have no idea where we are going on that date, or what we will be doing, but I am going.

In short-