some men do dance under the stars: Cathy

I met Cathy a few weeks after Tim and I moved into our first married apartment. Let's just say...the complex was a hole. I remember seeing Cathy in the parking lot and coveting her long hair. She was beautiful. We became friends and enjoyed talking about all the happenings in our life. She has two beautiful baby girls almost exactly the same age as my girls. I am glad we can still keep in contact even though distance separates us. 

 

What do you remember about your first kiss?

We hadn't been dating very long when we had our first kiss.  I was in the Miss Orem Royalty that year and had to be on the parade float for the city of Orem.  Each year Orem has a fun weekend event called Orem Summerfest, complete with a parade, carnival rides in the park, and fireworks at night.  Secretly I was hoping that we would have our first kiss under the fireworks because, let's be honest, how romantic is that?  All of the royalty had to perform in the park as an entertainment act on Friday.  I was going to be singing a duet and Devin told me he would come watch.  He brought me a gigantic bouquet of flowers and then we went around the park for a few hours.  My friend's band was performing, so we sat to listen.  The band started playing a slow song and told the crowd it was a "slow dance" with their special someone.  We were just about to start dancing when I got an important phone call that I couldn't miss.  I was a little sad that we didn't get to dance, but quickly forgot about it.  The next day, Devin told me that he had found a special place to watch the fireworks that night.  I was so excited!  My wish was giong to come true!  I was so curious where it was because I know Orem like the back of my hand and I was trying to think of a romantic place that was close to where the fireworks were going to be.  We separated so I could go get ready to be on the float, and he watched the parade with my family.  I told all of the other girls on royalty that we were going somewhere special to watch the fireworks.  They agreed that he was probably going to kiss me.  

 

After the parade, we met up and walked around chatting.  As the sun started to go down, he told me that we were going to go to our special spot.  We walked over to my high school, which was right across the street.  I asked him if we were going to watch the fireworks at my high school (not super romantic).  He took me over to the side of the school, where there was a ladder propped up again the wall of the gym.  I was so surprised at his creativity.  We climbed up the ladder onto the roof, and then went to another ladder that was attached to the school to get to the very top of the high school gym.  As we reached the highest roof, I saw about 30 people on the roof.  My heart sunk.  This kiss was NOT going to happen in front of all these people.  Everyone said hi to us and Devin introduced me to all of his roommates, their girlfriends, and other friends from his singles ward.  Lame.  

 

We ended up cuddling while we watched the fireworks and there was no kiss.  It was still cute, but I was bummed.  We definitely had missed out on the best opportunity.  We climbed down the first ladder and as I was about to climb down the second, Devin asked me to follow him around the corner to an area of the roof where nobody could see us.  It was then that I noticed he was wearing a small black backpack.  We went around the corner and I asked him what we were doing.  He told me that he owed me a dance.  I was completely confused until he clarified that he didn't get to dance with me the day before at the park, so he owed me a dance.  From his backpack he pulled out an iPod and iHome (I think that is what they were called).  He turned on some slow songs and asked me to dance.  We danced under the stars (something that I LOVE doing) and I just relished every moment.  I thought that he still may kiss me, but I wasn't positive until I mentioned that he was full of surprises and he said that he had one more.  It totally felt like I was in a movie...we stopped talking, moved closer, closed our eyes, and then BOOM!  Fireworks of our own exploded!  We kissed a few times and then kept dancing to a few more songs as we talked and kissed.  Who needed the Orem Summerfest fireworks when we had our own! :)  It was a great first kiss!