January 11, 2003

Ten years ago today was my first official date with Taylor.  Ten years!!  We had met about a month earlier, after I spotted him at an acapella concert and subsequently stalked him via a series of yearbooks, databases, and misunderstandings which luckily culminated in our first-ever interaction around December 20, 2002.  That day, I brought Taylor lunch in his freshman dorm room while he recovered from appendicitis (which he had a few days after we first laid eyes on each other...apparently his appendix sensed what was coming - late nights and the stress of dating a 19-year-old girl - and decided to split).  The "meeting" essentially happened because I straight up told him that I thought he was attractive and wanted to get to know him better.  It went well.  What I remember most was Taylor's black jeans which he paired with all-white sneakers (this was 2003, mind you, not 1993!) and the fact that he asked lots of questions and seemed genuinely to want to get to know me.  These two facts offset each other, but given the aforementioned attractiveness, I was still interested :)

We went out separate ways for the holidays, not really knowing if we would see each other again.  I had my first-ever trans-Atlantic experience that year, traveling to Italy over the New Years holiday with my friends Kim and Jessica.  Kim* also happens to be the same friend  that I visited in Australia this New Years!  Ten years of friendship (more, actually)...wow.  Anyway, I sent Taylor a postcard from Italy and, as he puts it, he knew I was "in the bag." Nice.

So we returned from the holiday break in early January and wouldn't you know it, apparently my cafeteria lunch (or maybe my amazing personality) had left an impression because Taylor contacted me almost immediately (I think it was via AIM, remember those days?) to ask if I wanted to go out.  We arranged to have our first date the first Saturday after we returned to school, January 11.  Taylor was (and still is) a huge sports fan, so we decided to meet up for the Vanderbilt basketball game that night and follow it with ice skating at nearby Centennial Sportsplex.

Saturday arrived and I had to go to my usual job at the school cafeteria, which was fine because I had the date that night to look forward to and, with any luck, Taylor would be coming in for lunch and we could see each other before our date, which would help take the edge off.

So I was obviously in a good mood and a little distracted all day at work.  So much so, apparently, that I attracted the interests of one of my co-workers (Josh, maybe?) and did not notice.  So when he asked me, literally, out of the blue if I wanted to go our sometime, I agreed (?) and suggested that we have dinner that night (?!).  I told him we could get dinner about an hour after work, but that I had to be done by 7:30 to meet friends (well, kinda) at the basketball game.

So, you know, that happened.  And I still look back and laugh when I realize that in my whole life, I have only gone on 2 real "first dates" in my life and they happened on the same night!   So Josh and I had dinner at a little Indian place near campus.  I remember it being pleasant but not particularly memorable.  I had him drop me off at the Baptist student center near the basketball arena, where I was a member, so that I could change my clothes.  Ironically, I had to dress down for my date with Taylor, into a Vandy T-Shirt and jeans.

We met outside the stadium and headed to the student section.  We had a good time at the game, which was actually a great spot for the first half of a date, because you don't have to talk the whole time.  I guess it is a little weird, though, that many of our friends were around also watching the game and we basically just sat off by ourselves.  I remember 2 things about the game: 1) Vanderbilt was unranked and beat Alabama, who were ranked #4 in the country at that time (recap here) and 2) the last few minutes of the game took FOREVER and almost caused us to not be able to go ice skating, and apparently I complained at length about this (oops). Taylor still tells me what if Vanderbilt hadn't won (#1) he may not have gone out with me on account of the complaining (#2), but he's somewhat superstitious so he decided to give it a chance.

So after the game we did go ice skating, and I remember 3 things: 1) making fun of Taylor for not taking his coat off and 2) finding out that he was allergic to the cold (oops) and 3) he was a lot better ice skater than I expected becuase it turned out he played hockey in high school (I know, I didn't get it either given #2.

At the end of ice skating, I guess Taylor hadn't gotten sick of my complaining and making fun of him so we decided to grab a drink at a nearby restaurant call Tin Angel.  And by drink I mean 2 cokes in the bar because we weren't 21 people!  Ha.  We had our cokes and got to talking about (movies (I guess) because before I knew it we were making plans to go back to my dorm and watch The Wedding Singer, which we discovered was a shared favorite (incidentally, we watched another movie, Tommy Boy, on our second date and from then until now have never found another move we both really love).

By the time all of this was over, I think it was about 3 or 4am before I took Taylor back to his dorm.  I think I was late for church the next day :)  We followed up the next weekend with an even longer second date that included things like swing dancing, fondue, frat parties and the aforementioned movie, Tommy Boy, and I guess you can say the rest is history.  Ten years of it, at least.

*Kim also started dating her now husband of 5+ years the same day, January 11, 2003!  We had all been friends for more then a year when will worked up the courage to tell Kim that night that he was interested in her.  Such beautiful symmetry :)

Miscellaneous adventure complete! Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef

Well it's 2013 and it's high time I get cracking on the rest of this 30 before 30 list, you reckon?  What's that, does my use of the word reckon seem odd?  I bet it does and that's because it's usually reserved for use by individuals of an extremely southern or, it turns out, Australian, persuasion.  That's right, I am in Australia!  Well, actually, I'm technically in Border Protection purgatory waiting on my return flight to L.A. after 10 days in Australia.  I traveled here over the Christmas holiday with 6 friends, two of whom live in Melbourne and the rest of whom came from the US for 2 weeks.   Kim, Will, Jessi, Peter, Jill and Aaron and I spent the last 9 days getting a full dose of Australia's beautiful summer weather and experiences.  One of those, I have decided to count as my 30 Before 30 item that I left blank for a miscellaneous adventure: Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef!

I arrived almost a week after everyone else on the trip due to work and family obligations, and met up with the crew in Sydney.  We began out adventures with a 3-night trip to the Hunter Valley wine region just northwest of Sydney and had a great time taking in Australia's wines and the beautiful views of the Hunter Valley.  Aside from a major fall where I skinned my knee and the top of my foot, it was very relaxing. 

On my 4th day in Australia, we headed back to Sydney and boarded a flight to Cairns, one of the jumping off points for the Great Barrier Reef and its many wonders.  We checked in to our AMAZING accommodation in Port Douglas, Queensland on New Years Eve and cooked up yummy apps while drinking all the wine we had gotten as we rang in the new year.

On New Years Day, we were up with the sun to go out on our snorkeling trip with Poseidon Adventures.  The trip took us 1.5 hours and about 14 miles off the coast of Queensland to the Agincourt Reef, where we dove in 3 different spots.   When we boarded the boat, they offered motion sickness medicine for $3, but I declined because I didn't have a history of motion sickness and because I didn't want it to make me tired.  Wrong choice.  I will explain.

The trip began with extensive safety and technique overviews from the staff.  We were given masks, snorkels, fins and a lycra suit to protect us from any jellyfish or coral we may come in contact with.  The first dive was relatively murky and not ideal.  The sun wasn't shining so it was hard to see much.   I did rent an underwater camera, though, and managed to get some decent shots:

Near the end of the first dive, I started to suddenly feel nauseous, so I returned to the boat in a hurry only to find out that I was not alone.  A few of our group had come back with a case of the upset stomach.

I felt pretty sick throughout the boat ride between the first and second dive site, but seeing as I had paid good money and was on the Great Barrier Reef, I went back out for dive number two.  As soon as I got in the water, I felt a lot better, and got some great photos of the beautiful coral at the second site:

A giant clam!

After about 20 minutes of feeling fine, though, I suddenly got really nauseated and decided to separate from the group.  It's a good thing because within about a minute, I threw up.  In the water. On the Great Barrier Reef.  Awesome.  Luckily, I felt better after being sick, but I still returned to the boat where I managed to choke down lunch.

For the third dive, my friends used the camera.  Here's a pretty cool shot they got:

On our third dive, we saw a giant sea turtle and a sting ray and I'm so bummed that I didn't get pictures.  On the way back to shore, I got sick on the boat again.  It was not fun!

We spent another 2 days after our diving adventure up in the Port Douglas area.  We toured the Daintree Rainforest with a crazy tour guide who really just wanted to teach us how to live off of the land, whereas we just wanted to see pretty views.  We returned to Sydney and spend another day and a half exploring Sydney, which was really fun.  We went to Paddington Market, which had great clothes and jewelry for sale and then went to Manly beach, which I hadn't done last time I was in Sydney.  It's a really cool little beach area with a boardwalk and all kinds of beachy sores and restaurants.  We also had great beers in Sydney and went to a restaurant that we really loved when we went there a couple of years ago.

And now I'm on the way home and back to the grind of the real world (and the rest of my 30 Before 30!!)