Today, I became obsessed with trying to find a note. It was the first note that my husband ever wrote to me. And, I know I have it here somewhere. I never found it. But, it was the note that he wrote to me asking me out on our first date. Yep. He wrote a NOTE to ask me out. Sounds lame huh? I tease him about it all the time. But, now that we’ve been married almost 11 years, and I know him. It totally makes sense.
One day when I find the note (because I am obsessed now), I will share it verbatim. But, if I’m remembering it went something like this,
Meredith,
Hey. It’s JD. It’s 2 am and I came by, but I guess you’re not home. There is a cool jazz concert coming up on Friday and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me. My number is …. Let me know. Later, JD.
PS- Do you know anything that will get red gatorade out?
Now, I have a HORRIBLE memory, so that’s probably not even close to verbatim, but I know that it said all of those things in one form or another. I remember getting that note the next morning (because I was fast asleep at 2 am. I had a job and was going to school full-time) and thinking…”What!? This guy is weird.”
Let me back up. We met one night at a little place called Fat’s. It’s a pool hall/bar. When people ask where we meet, I always like to tell them a bar. Throws them off a little bit considering we are mormon and neither one of us has ever had a drink in our lives. But, we kinda did meet in a bar. My roommate at the time asked me to come meet some of her friends to play pool. Her brother came, and brought JD. They weren’t trying to set us up, but I think the fact that we talked the whole time to each other and not really to anyone else gave them a clue that we really liked each other. His first question to me after learning I had moved out to UT from GA was if I like jalapeno jelly. WHAT? Maybe his randomness puzzled me, but I don’t know. I liked him. That night my roommate asked me about him and apparently her brother asked him if he liked me and the feeling was mutual. Except that I wouldn’t have guessed it because it took him 2 months to ask me out. He likes to say a month and a half. We met in October of 2001.
So, you see. It took him 2 months to ask me out, and he does it in a note. I knew that he had no job, was not in school, and lived at home with his parents. Sounds bad huh? But, he was 23. I guess, what more can you ask of a 23 year old, right? WRONG. I was only 6 months older and waiting tables, living on my own (very far away from any family), and going to school about to graduate in a mere 7 months. My plan was to get the heck out of Utah and go to graduate school. But, for some crazy reason, I called him. (Guys, don’t make a girl call you. Especially when you live at home.) Soon after were started dating, he started getting his act together. Job, school, etc. We were married about 8 months after we met.
Looking back, that note means a lot. I need to find it.
But, while rummaging through lots of crap, I realized something about myself. I’m a note hoarder. I don’t collect anything, and my Mom calls me a minimalist (although I am most definitely NOT. HELLO. I have 3 kids. How can anyone who has 3 kids fit that description?), but I am not the type to hang onto stuff. Except notes. I have notes from high school. I have an entire notebook full of letters from when I was a full-time missionary for my church and no phone calls were allowed. I have notes from every boyfriend I’ve ever had. I have notes from guys that were not even my boyfriend. I have lots of notes from my sister. I have notes from people I was having arguments with. I have notes from best friends. I have notes from people that I can’t even remember who they are. I have notes from people that I have never met in real life. There are lots of them. And, I opened a few.
Just one little box of letters and notes I found. So many memories in this little box.
Do you know how much power goes into a handwritten note? It brings a lot of personality. You can imagine that person when you see their handwriting. You can feel those feelings again. You FEEL something. I think it’s sad that nobody writes notes anymore.
One day, my kids will pull these out and undoubtedly get a good laugh. But, they might just ask me something like, “Why did you guys write everything down on paper?”
Then, hopefully I can pull out that first note that their Dad wrote to their Mom.
LOVE this! and love that you keep all of your notes. My friends and I used to write notes to each other all. day. long. through high school. We would find cool ways to fold them, funny questions to ask, compliments to give each other. Pretty much anything to keep us from actually paying attention to high school 😉 I also wrote my cousin weekly. She was my best friend and when I was about 7 or 8 her parents divorced and she had to move to Texas. It killed me, but I could not WAIT to get a letter from her. I have a few in a memory book, but wish I would have kept them all. My hubby would also write me notes, hey, we met in high school and it was the in thing back then 😉 I have most of those in my cedar chest.
Both my daughters make me hand written notes often and it makes me smile. LOVE it and will keep them always.
Good luck finding JDs note! And a fun time finding and reading all the other ones in the meantime!
.I have kept every piece of handwritten treasure from my husband. I love them! Especially the ones from when were first dating and bickering in post-it notes on the fridge when our schedules were still different. No lie. Passive aggressive gems from the days when the little stuff still got under our skin. It makes me smile every time I pull them out and show him.
“Thanks for remembering to flip the laundry. Now my shirt smells like wet dog. -Chris”
“Um…thanks for doing your own laundry since you are actually a grown man that is capable so if you don’t like it, do it yourself. -Me”
LOL. He still doesn’t do the laundry but now I have a very expensive dryer that steams out the wet dog smell. 😉
So funny! You should blog about it! Those are good.
I’m already waiting to write a post you beat me to (I swear I was thinking it, too! I just could dart off the Iphone one faster and I whined a lot already when Jp was sick lol) and I’m not going to be known as the blogger that copies you!
You just have the good ideas first! 😉
ha! Well, I’m sure you’ll blog about something I want to copy soon enough.
You could have lied and said I’m so awesomely original that you want to copy me all of the time… 😉
I’m totally kidding, by the way, as I truly don’t have a creative bone in my body and most days I rely solely on my little man for inspiration (come on buddy, do something funny, already!).
And Mormons can’t lie anyway, can you? 🙂
No. Mormons NEVER lie. 😉
Just came across this post randomly on my WordPress reader. Glad I did. I too love written letters and wish we had the time to get pen and paper out again. While I was growing up, I wrote regularly to several pen pals in South America, Finland and Poland (I’ve written to my Polish friend for thirty years and have kept every single postcard, letter and gift she’s ever sent – we now keep in touch on Facebook). I remember the joy of selecting the notepaper and illustrating my letters with my latest doodle or cartoon. Whiled away the school holidays and a good few weekends and probably could have done better at school as a result, but I wouldn’t have my passion for words on a page I don’t think, if I hadn’t. Also kept every letter from every boyfriend, except the first whose letters, it turned out, were written by his cousin, (my “best friend”) and her brother…! Yeah. Burned those. I have two boxes of letters my husband wrote to me while we were at Uni and random letters from grandparents which bring tears of joyous memories to my eyes. Long live pen and paper.
Oh my gosh! the letter written by his cousin and her brother…how awful! Glad you burned those. They would probably not bring back happy memories!
I am going to reply and not be sarcastic! Hooray for you! I write a handwritten letter to my daughter and son on their birthday and the first day of the school year for sure and sometimes when I’m feeling soft other times. G$ hasn’t started school but he’s gotten a note in his 1st birthday and a few pieces of what I’d call hate mail since. Lol.
That’s awesome! Make sure you save them even if your kids don’t!!
OH, I love this post:) I also keep a bin full of notes from my husband…..so fun to look through together:) Very sweet!
I miss writing letters. I miss the romance of it all. There is something about letters that is so exotic and beautiful – maybe because it happens so rarely.
I have legitimately tried to get my husband to start writing letters to me but he always looks at me like I’ve finally lost it so I move on to my next crazy idea.
I love that you’ve kept them, and I’m sure you’ll find that first one soon!!
oops. just caught up with your next post. see, i KNEW you’d find it!
That’s adorable! I hope you find it!!