Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Blind Date

Rascal Flatts was rocking in the background as I stared at my reflection in the mirror and wondered what, exactly, I was thinking when I agreed to go on this blind date.

I hated blind dates. My middle sister had gotten married almost a year before, and ever since then, countless friends of my mom had tried to set me up with a revolving door of single Jewish boys. They felt sorry for me because my younger sister was married, and I was still single. The horror.

Forget about the fact that I was a 24 year old, second year law student living in Manhattan with my best friends. And that I had positively zero interest in getting married just then. I was a single Jewish girl living in New York City, and my younger sister was already married. It just disturbed the natural order.

I generally tried to avoid these painful outings, if at all possible. I had any number of excuses. I was overwhelmed with school work - I was a second year law student after all. I was tired. I already had plans. Maybe some other time (maybe never). And when none of these excuses worked, I lied, often and without a qualm. I was already dating someone. I just got out of a complicated relationship. And once, memorably, I don't want to get married. Ever.

But this was a blind date I couldn't avoid.

I had been hearing about this boy for the better part of a year. He was the older brother of my youngest sister's best friend. The girls were seventeen, and they and their friends decided it would be just so awesome if L's sister married A's brother. It was my sister, and I couldn't really say no.

Which was why, on a late April night, with my federal income tax final exam a mere week away, I was putting on makeup, when I really wanted to be in sweatpants memorizing facts about cost basis and depreciation. I had a real shot at Dean's List: High Honors that semester, and I wanted it more than anything.

I wanted it more than I wanted to be choosing between brown and light purple eye shadow. I wanted it more than I wanted to be deciding whether to wear light or dark jeans, and whether I needed a coat for the unpredictable April weather.

We were meeting for dessert, but were we sitting outside or inside? Would there be a walk afterwards? Should I wear comfortable shoes, or the far cuter heels I could barely walk ten feet in?

These were not the kinds of questions I wanted to be dealing with in late April.

For three years of my life late April was for dirty clothes, unwashed hair, and dark-circled eyes. For pens, highlighters and textbooks. For ungodly amounts of caffeine, and junk food when I remembered to eat at all. For cramming thousands of arcane facts and figures into my head and regurgitating the information on command in service of the law school gods.

No, late April was not for blind dates.

Yet here I was, dressed for the first time in a week, and fighting a losing battle with concealer on the aforementioned dark circles.

Screw it, I thought. I'm tired. He'll just have to deal with the circles.

Grabbing my coat and a bag I hoped contained all the necessities, I rushed downstairs to catch the bus that should have been pulling up to the curb outside my building in exactly a minute.

The bus was late. As I stood under a darkening sky, two minutes from being late myself, I mentally cursed my sister, and swore that this would be the last blind date I ever went on for the rest of my life.

It was.

That blind date?

Is now my husband.

23 comments:

  1. awwwww.... so it was definitely a date worth getting dressed for!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very sweet and dare I say it? Preordained.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I especially liked the paragraph that began "I wanted it more." Nice post!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ha! Great story with a nice twist! I like how you tied this in with the grinding law school experience, which I remember too well, unfortunately!

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a wonderful, totally unexpected ending! Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hope this is a true story! I know a few different couples who met on blind dates and later got married... it kinda restores faith in romance and happy endings and "meant to be", no? Yay!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a wonderful story and so very well written. This is my favorite post of yours so far!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Life is so funny at times. I'm glad you made yourself go on that blind date.

    ReplyDelete
  9. me too!!! I love LOVE and I love this story. I was so hoping he was your husband. And I love the perseveration before a date. And now you guys have a house in the burbs. Life is good.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I was hoping he was your husband too. I met mine at a party I realllly didn't want to go to. Funny how those things come about!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh how romantic! I was expecting a funny awful-blind-date story and what a delight to arrive at the ending. Well done -- I also love the paragraph about your yearning for the Dean's list. I bet everyone who reads this has a big smile on her face at the end; I did!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Lovely! I really want to hear how the date went!

    ReplyDelete
  13. When my husband and I started dating, he told me point blank, "If I could have chosen any other time to fall in love, I would have. This is the most inconvenient timing." I agreed. We were both in grad school, completely overwhelmed. He was finishing his PhD, I was just starting my first Master's. Oh yeah. I hear you.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Lovely, lovely, lovely! I adore this post and relate to the dread and the wish for something predictable and straightforward, like studying! What a happy story, well told. Yay, you!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hot damn, I love a happy ending! What a fantastic writer you are! I was totally with you and the "blah" feeling you had about the whole enterprise, and you got me with the ending. I wasn't expecting that!! Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I think the next story should be about the date - I'm curious!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love how they met stories! And I love that you didn't really want to go, but that it turned out to be a fateful day. Wonderful :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Awwwww! What a great, well told love story. <3

    ReplyDelete
  19. Yay! This one made me so happy -- for you and for me getting to read it!

    ReplyDelete
  20. "I wanted it more than I wanted to be choosing between brown and light purple eye shadow" this line cracked me up! But YIPPEE!!! Loved this story and I'm glad it was your last, too!

    ReplyDelete
  21. What a great story! So well told.

    I want to hear more about the guy who turned your head during such a stressful time in your academic life. He was obviously a keeper.

    ReplyDelete