A story about getting Levi to date me.

I feel like there are a good number of you who would like to hear the story of how Levi and I got engaged (Oh, that's right! Some of you might not know that we're engaged! We totes magoats are!). Anyway, I'm sure you'd like to hear that story, but first I feel like I should write a post about how Levi and I got to this stage of being engaged. And so I'm going to write that post first. As in I'm going to write it right now.  And hopefully it won't be too much of a novel.

Levi and I were in the same ward (congregation) last school year, so we're going back to about August of 2012 right now. During Fall semester, Levi remembers me and Danielle being a bit wild and he really liked how I would talk to lots of different people and wouldn't just talk to Danielle all the time. Something about not being clique-y or something. His roommate and I had similar jobs in the ward, so sometimes I would come and talk to his roommate during church and he remembers that as well.

I of course have no recollection of ever seeing him at all during Fall semester.

I think that I thought there was a guy who was maybe black in the ward? But that was about the extent of my knowledge of his existence that semester.  Which is sad.

Then when Winter semester started, his apartment and my apartment were put in an FHE group together where we met and hung out every Monday night. I remember going to the first FHE and I remember seeing one of his other roommates and I think I remember that the dark guy (who apparently wasn't black now that I was seeing him up close) was sitting on the couch with him. We didn't talk.

A couple weeks later at FHE we played some dancing game and I remember that he volunteered to be the DJ, which to me was code for "I don't want to dance because I have no good dance moves" and so I judged him for it. Turns out he was actually terribly sick and had been for weeks and hadn't left the house for anything except school, work, and rugby until that very day. Apparently Danielle had talked to him after the activity and found out about his sickness and offered to make him soup or something. I had no idea; I was probably still dancing.

A couple weeks after that I was talking to some other guys in the ward on a Sunday night when Levi walked past. I yelled out to him, "Hey! You better come to FHE tomorrow because we're writing Valentine's Day poems. You and me should write our poems together. Are you going to be there? You better be there! I'm counting on you!" He agreed that we would write our poems together and then he left. And I returned to talking to the other boys.

The next day we went to FHE and I was actually pretty excited because this Levi guy wasn't all that bad. I had learned that he was pretty funny and everyone liked him and popularity and hilarity are my two favorite qualities in a guy, so DUH. (okay, jokes, but still.) I was excited to write poems with him because I knew it would be funny and we would get to hang out a little more. I just wanted to be his friend, really; I still wasn't sure if I had a crush on him or anything.

BUT GUESS WHO DIDN'T SHOW UP TO FHE?!?! Yep, Levi. I was a little upset. He had promised he would come! How rude to make promises like that with me only to break them! How very inconsiderate! I decided to just write some poetic genius on my own without him because who needs boys anyway, am I right ladies?! So after I had written two terribly mediocre poems on my own, I turned around and there he was! A half hour late, but still! I quickly forgot that I had been slightly upset by the fact that he wasn't there and we proceeded to write a most magnificent poem together and I remember it was just so funny and he was so funny and how do I get him to date me?!

The problem was, we only ever saw each other on Sunday at church and then Monday at FHE and that just wasn't enough for me! How could I get to better friends with him before all the other girls got to him? I remember one time I saw him walking between classes and so every day after that I would strategically be walking at that same spot at the same time hoping that somehow I might by chance see him. It never worked.

I remember the ward had a talent show one Monday and Levi's roommate had convinced him to play that "In the jungle, the mighty jungle" song, but when they got up there, they decided that they needed some "weemawop" background dancers/singers and I remember that he picked me! I was stoked. Clearly it meant he liked me.

We kept going to FHE and I would even go so far as to sit next to him. I would make every effort to talk to him at church and on Sunday evenings and at FHE and I was starting to feel a little foolish. Why won't he even ask for my number or ask to hang out sometime or hey, even ask me out on a date?! Ugh, he was frustrating.

And then, one night Danielle was sick and couldn't come to FHE. This proved to be the best thing for our almost relationship, so thanks Danielle. The thing is, normally me and Danielle would go to FHE together and when one of us was ready to leave, we both left.  Normally after the activity and stuff was over, we would leave, but since Danielle wasn't there, I decided to stay and talk. And then stay a little longer and talk. And a little longer and a little longer. And he wasn't leaving either. I was intrigued. It got down to just us and one other girl and I was CONVINCED that he was only there because I was there. Levi somehow convinced me and my twitterpated heart to climb through this dumb hole in the wall. Seriously, the fact that there was potential true love involved was the only reason I did it. And he took a picture.

I was totally crushing after that day and I just wanted to hang out with him all the time! But I just didn't know how to do it and he wasn't doing anything about it so I was confused and also brave because I decided to take matters into my own hands. I mean, I was pretty sure he liked me, too. He was always coming up and talking to me at activities, right? Or was it just me going up to him? Dang it, I couldn't tell. But he was so funny and cute and those eyes! And that smile! It was so silly, but I got that stomach flip thing every time I saw him, so I just really wanted to hang out with him!

Yes, it was a little pathetic, but the next night I decided to get his number out of the ward directory and text him asking for him to send me that picture he had taken so that I could write a blog post about it. He had been begging me for weeks to blog about him but I had refused because I didn't even really know him. So I decided to text him and ask for the picture, claiming that I was going to blog about him (but we all know I couldn't actually do that because it would be way too obvious that I liked him and then my huge blog following would know about it as well, and that just couldn't happen.) So I texted him. But if you just take a look at how long my blog posts always end up being, you can probably guess how long that first text was. So embarrassing. He said when his phone got the text, it buzzed like five times because the message was so long. But he also admitted that he got really happy when he saw who the text was from because he really did like me and now he was pretty sure I liked him, too.

That's the silly thing about Levi; he refuses to make a move with a girl until he is quite confident they like him, too. He's so opposed to all the little "games" girls play or something like that, so he didn't want to make a move until he was sure I like him. Which I think was very rude because I had to do all the scary stuff like get his number and send the first text and make it very obvious that I liked him while he just sat back and waited. It was very stressful for me.

So to make a long story even longer, we started texting. I finally got the picture from him. I blogged about him (but used a code name so that I wasn't actually blogging about him. I don't know, I think it was supposed to be flirty or something. You know, to get him to keep texting me.) Over the next couple days, we would text about all the weirdest things. I would get to work in the morning and hope that he would text me first before I gave in and texted him first. And let me tell you, that was a struggle. Because I liked the kid. And I wanted him to be texting me always. And I actually didn't want to be texting because I just wanted to be with him. All the time!

I think it was only actually Wednesday when we were talking about how I was going to go take my bowling test for the bowling class that I was in. He claimed that he could beat me in bowling. I told him I didn't believe him. He asked me if that was a challenge. I said it would be a challenge for me at all. He asked me to bowl with him. I love bowling (but seriously). I casually agreed to a bowling duel but in my head I was screaming "YES! YES! YES!" because I had finally figured out a way to get Levi to take me on a date.

And man, I was so excited.