weblog the second: in which she tells you about the boy

**200th blog post, WHOOP WHOOP!

So now we get to the big things, the blog-worthy things.

FIRST: Casey.

Y’all, he deserves his own book. We’ve been officially dating for three months and already God has used that guy’s heart to change me so much and it’s been so beautiful. For those of you that don’t know the back story, let me lay it out for you, all sweet-like.

            In December, this freshman kid started occasionally tweeting at me. We’d met in October (he doesn’t remember meeting me. HE DOESN’T REMEMBER MEETING ME. How’s that for a self-confidence booster? Hehe) but it didn’t go beyond adding each other on the various forms of social media. 

Then December happened. 

I didn’t notice anything at first, then he started chatting me on QuizUp. 

Yes, the trivia app. Yes, it has a chat function. Yes, that is how Casey tried to talk to me. 

Hilarious, I know! He volunteered to get coffee with me and listen to me cry and blubber about my life (seriously, his words were “I volunteer as tribute!” when I mentioned the fact that every time I started talking about my life, I turned into a puddle of indiscernible tears). 

He asked me for my number, I turned him away. 

He asked me to go get frozen yogurt, I turned him away. 

He tried to flirt with me, I told him to stop (literally happened). 

Guys, I was AWFUL to him at first. Granted, he wasn’t like asking me out, they were all just pure-hearted attempts at friendship, but I continued giving him the cold shoulder. And as it turned out, the boy was/IS tenacious. One day he sent me a message saying “Tomorrow. Cups. 7:30.” And WOW WHAT DO YOU KNOW, I WAS SUPPOSED TO WORK LATE THAT NIGHT BUT MY BOSS HAD MIRACULOUSLY RESCHEDULED THAT CLASS AND I GOT OFF WORK AT 7. Not kidding. I had no excuses, no reasons to say no. 

So with a sigh, I responded that I would be there. Mostly in the hopes of making him realize what a loser I am so he would go away (it didn’t work). We coffee’d and talked and laughed and God put his little pinky in my heart and stirred. I drove away thinking, “Huh. Weird. That wasn’t too bad. I think I might actually like being that kid’s friend.” HA! 

Shortly thereafter, I gave him my number and we started texting- or, as my twin calls it, BATTLE TEXTING (meaning it’s basically nonstop and you’re trying to be the fastest responder). That obviously went well and about a month and a half later, after movie nights and evenings spent in the practice room playing piano and walks through the brick streets and SO MANY DOLLARS spent at Taco Bell, we sat in my car after making clover crowns at Taco Bell and I finally spewed the question, “Is it ok if I like you?” into the silence. I thought I was going to die or throw up or die throwing up, because just a few days earlier when I had confronted Casey, he had sworn up and down that he had no feelings for me (then proceeded to tell me things would be different if we were closer in age [we’re really less than two years apart, but he was a freshman and I was a first-time senior at the time, so it seemed like a huge age gap] which contradicted everything he had said and left me absolutely perplexed). Luckily, that night in my car, his response was, “Yeah. Same question.” And everything that had confused me didn’t really matter any more. HE LIKED ME, which was kind of a first for me. So after lots of “what are we?” discussions, and boundaries talks, and me freaking out over every little thing, we decided to officially start dating. And now, Casey is my very best guy friend, one of my overall favorite people, and a person God is constantly using to challenge and convict and grow me. and it sometimes stinks but that moment flees and I realize how AWESOME it is.

Guys, I wish you knew all the other little things that led up to that that I can’t fit in this blog post and find too sacred to be flung into the WWW for anyone to find. All the other words that were and weren’t spoken. All the conversations I had with my best friends catching them up on my latest Casey story. All the laughter. All the perfect (but WEIRD) timing that God so evidently worked out to bring us together. It’s crazy, and lovely, and one of my favorite seasons of life so far. Now, Casey is at camp being all counselor-ey and lifeguard-ey and we get about 24 hours once a week to talk (10 of which we spend asleep) and it’s far from ideal, but it is perfectly imperfect. It’s obviously God’s exact plan, and I love that, and it makes it all so very worth the wait. 

Neither Casey nor I know what God has planned for our futures. We're both in the "maybe this will last, maybe it won't" phase right now (which I think is actually a stellar phase to be in), but I will say that I am so pumped about doing life with Casey for as long as God lets me. Whether that's only a few more weeks, or it's years, or whatever... It's gonna be good. Up to this point, God has hand His hands ALL up in this mess, and I know He will continue to do so. And as my spirit always tells me, "Wherever He is working is where I want to be." So, since right now God is working to share heaps of truth and love with me through Casey, that's where I want to be. 

(click to continue to weblog the third)