Our Story - Part 1

This is the first post of the story of how Denise and I got engaged. There's now way I can tell the whole story in one sitting, so I'll get started now, and finish it soon enough. The disclaimer to this post is the same as every other post. You can't argue with the story, because this is how I remember it. If you remember it differently, then you can write it in your own blog (or make a comment to this one).

Denise and I lived in the same ward for 2 years at the Colony (Yes, the same Colony from the now infamous "Rumble in the Colony"). The Colony was located on both sides of 750 E. from approximately 3ooN to 500N. There were two wards in the Colony. One ward was made up of apartments on the west side of 750E (our ward), and the other ward was made up of the apartments from the Other Side of the Street (OSS for short).

Our side of the street had the pool and the manager's apartment. The men's apartments were all south of the pool. The women't apartments were all north of the pool. Denise lived in the first women's apartment on the other side of the pool, so they (obviously) got the most foot traffic. That, combined with the fact that Denise and her roommates were really cool and fun to hang out with, and there were always guys in Denise's apartment.

For the second year I was there, I lived in the last guy's apartment before the pool, so we were closest to the women's apartments. Unfortunately for us, this did not, however, translate into our apartment always being full of girls. Maybe it had something to do with our apartment's reputation as being full of guys who "never quite got off their missions". Yes, we were the guys apartment who agreed at the beginning of the year to keep the rules, including kicking girls out at midnight (much to their dismay at times).

What I remember about Denise most is that I would see her on my way to campus (walking up 700N towards the McDonald Health Center), and I would turn around and walk her back to the Colony so I could talk to her. Denise was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed talking to her, and never minded being a little late.

What Denise remembers about me (one of the things at least) is the nickname her apartment had for me. I wasn't the only one. Her apartment had nicknames for most of the regulars. Some of the other nicknames: Desperado, Oswald, Touchy Darrin, and she will have to tell you the others. My nickname: "Little Ronny". The other story I know from their apartment is that one night they were all having some sort of discussion, and it was decided that I would someday make a great husband and father to some lucky girl. Apparently none of them took the decision too personally (as will be demonstrated in future posts).

I got to know Denise because I hometaught her roommate and because we were in the same Family Home Evening group one year- although I rarely came because I worked custodial 5 days a week from 5-9pm. I was a diligent home teacher and took advantage of getting my foot into the door of the apartment of 6 very cool women, and I got to be good friends with almost all of Denise's roommates. (This came in handy later on).

Next post: the week before Finals.

Other memories from BYU:
- tape games for custodians
- being a semi-professional chess player
- stuck in the trunk outside the Bean Museum
- watching videos outside the Bean Museum
- Phontaine and Jenny Dean go to the movies