Friendly Man #17

Remember my ward date night? Well, it wasn’t tonight. It was last week. I did A LOT of work to make it happen. We had about twice as many girls sign up than men. As a result, my relief society presidency, along with members of the elder’s quorum presidency, got together to beg other guys to go. We each found a few willing men and soon had a date for most of the girls…just not my friend and I. We weren’t too worried though. We were planning the event and went to make sure things ran smoothly. It was a lot of fun and people seemed to enjoy themselves. What does this have to do with Friendly Man #17 you ask? Well, he is in the elder’s quorum presidency and thought it quite unfair that my friend and I did not get dates. So, he asked to take each of us out on dates to make up for it.


True to his word, he planned a date, set the time, and showed up when he said he would. The plan was bowling. Thank goodness for something other than dinner huh?! And really, bowling is fairly standard so why don’t more guys just do something simple like that?? It is more fun to participate in an activity and see how people react than to just sit around and try to get some conversation out between bites of food. But anyway, back to the story at hand.

As soon as he picked me up, the conversation easily flowed. We have been friends for a couple of years and in fact, he is very good friends with Gentleman #1. It was nice to converse on a date about things other than the typical “getting to know you” questions which so often come up. Of course they are necessary when getting to know somebody but still, they get old. But anyway, he took me to a bowling alley I had never been to. It was full and would be for quite some time so we headed off across the valley to another location. On the way, he asked if I was a bowler. I told him that I was not and asked if he was. He tried to be modest but said that he was pretty good. He told me that he has been several times lately with his friend who was very good and had been giving him some tips. Apparently he had even beaten this friend on one occasion. I counseled him to be patient with me and he promised he would, though maybe seemed slightly disappointed that I wasn’t any good.

At the second alley we still had a little bit of a wait time. There was an arcade however, so we played! How fun, I haven’t done THAT in a long time!! It was fun to be silly and try out the games and simulated jet plane experience! Finally our lane came open, he bought us an hour, and we set out. He named me “terror” and put me up first. So, I grabbed my little 9 pound ball and set out for my first strike of the night. Yes that’s right, I know how to get things started! It really just went up from there. I kicked his trash, really, kicked his trash…on EVERY game! My highest score was 142. I already gave out my disclaimer that I’m not much of a bowler so that was pretty good for me. I felt bad that he felt so dumb but at the same time…haha, he was the one that was bragging!

We bowled 3 ½ games and it was pretty fun. I always enjoy bowling but don’t do it often enough! Afterward we purchased some ice cream and ate it in the car and talked a little more. He has a stick and accidentally touched my leg briefly on a shift and apologized profusely claiming that he wasn’t trying to “make a move,” or whatever. Oh my…AWK-WARD! If he hadn’t of said anything, it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal. I do it all the time in my car…and I never apologize! Other than that though, and him letting me know frequently that this was “my date,” things went pretty smoothly. I had a really good time. I don’t want to date him…I already knew that. He is much younger than me and I’m not in the least attracted to him, besides our personalities and interests varying to a great degree! It was nice to go on a chill date though…that neither of us had to really worry about!