Let me tell you, that is not how it happens.
I always imagined myself marrying a tall, thin, brown haired, brown eyed guy. He would have a college degree, maybe even a master's, and be at least two years older. He would be calm (people who know Jon, please quit laughing), in charge, and just automatically know everything.
I'm not sure why I thought I would marry a calm person. Throughout my life, my closest friends were always loud and obnoxious (you know who you are). Even my brother Conrad was devious and made life interesting. These people flocked to me. Here I was, a calm person, expecting that another calm person would find me attractive? I'm not sure what I was thinking. Maybe I had milked too many cows.
I was 23 years old by early October 2002, just two months away from 24. I often wondered, how old will I be when will I meet "him"? Do I already know him and we just don't know our destiny yet? And now that life had thrown me for a loop.... did I move to Yakima for a higher purpose? Or was this place just a stepping stone to something later? When we meet, will we get married right away or develop our relationship over time? How many kids would we have???
Believe me, men, if we women could turn of our brains we would. I swear it's not our fault.
Sauntering through the Yakima Sundome at the fairgrounds, I was not prepared to meet "the one" right then. Can you ever be prepared? I suppose not. But I was tired, had just come off a week of traveling, had just started a new job, and was hanging around with girls I didn't even know. Heck, I didn't even have a place to live yet!
I was only half paying attention when the name "Jon" crossed my new friend's lips. I turned and saw a man who was nothing like what I had pictured as the love of my life. He was not tall (exactly my height in fact), blonde, blue-eyed, a little round around the belly, no college degree (yet) and two years younger. Basically, the exact opposite of what I considered my ideal mate.
As you can imagine, the thought didn't even cross my mind that this person would one day be the father of my children. Fortunately, the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what type of person we need to make our life extraordinary. Life is amazing. And love is even more amazing.
I vaguely remember my new friend telling me Jon had gotten off his mission recently and worked at the local radio station. Being a media person myself, I thought that was cool. I smiled and after they chatted for a minute, we all parted ways.
It was a rather uneventful meeting at the time. But it would come to be one of the most important events of my life. Looking back, I can't deny that fate brought us together that day.
The next day, the task of finding a place to live haunted me. If you ever fall into the graces of moving to Yakima, just pray you don't have the same experience that I did trying to find a place to rent. Once I figured out my price range, and my new boss told me "don't live here or here, cause that's where transients go" I figured I'd find something quite splendid and simply love it. I was wrong. Ohhh so wrong.
The morning after my time at the Yakima Fair, I would see a few apartments, which ranged from slightly scary to gross to "wouldn't touch with a 10-foot-pole." One such place was in a small area on the outskirts of town, about 15 minutes from my new office. It was my last apartment of the day.
I pulled up to an odd building, by the looks of it an old Bed and Breakfast almost literally run into the ground. I half wanted to run away screaming but I figured I should at least get a look-see. I found the front door (not as easy as you think) and walked around inside, as the woman on the phone had directed. To my surprise, I toured the communal kitchen area and the odd bedrooms for rent with shag carpeting and hideous furniture. Oh, and a communal BATHROOM. Yikes. Scary scary gross nasty. I shuddered. Just then, an odd person appeared out of nowhere, closed the door of their rented bedroom and asked if I was moving in. At this point I think I DID run away screaming.
I remembered calling my mom, telling her of the frightful experience. "Maybe this was a bad idea! Why did I move here?" If these places were what I had to choose from, how would I survive? I drove the rented car back to my hometown for the weekend and turned it in, then collected the rest of my things and drove my car back to Yakima, though hesitantly this time. I had been so sure of moving here at first, but doubt started to creep in. Why WAS I moving here?
It would be over a year and another meeting at the fair before I would be able to answer that question. >>Continue to Part 6
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