the second date.

the other day lincoln and i were reminiscing about our second date.

mostly we were laughing about how risky that date was...
meaning it really could've been the end of us dating if we really had let it.




he came up to Logan and we decided to attend the 80s dance party on campus before hiking the windcaves we had planned for later.

before he arrived, my friend, erin, and i went to the store to purchase 80s attire.
i bought a bright pink shirt that read, "I'M DAH BOMB!" and of course, had a graphic of a bomb with a burning fuse plastered on it. i also decided to buy these skinny purple capris that hit at about the knee. big mistake! they were NOT attractive, people. the whole outfit was hideous. some girls can pull off wearing costumes and being cute at the same time.


i, however, cannot.

lincoln arrived without any 80s attire which made me feel even more awkward. there he was in his normal street clothes looking handsome and there i was, in my hideous outfit sporting a side ponytail. i'll tell you right now that i despise the first picture lincoln and i ever took together. i will not post it for you. so sorry.

we arrived at the party and walked around trying to find something to do. we were two people that barely knew each other... still not quite sure how the other person felt about the relationship... already a vulnerable situation.

we entered the dancing mosh of dressed up college students. we tried to dance but every time i would release my arms from the confines of my body, they would brush against some dude's sweaty naked arms. and that was not pleasant. second dates should be about talking and getting to know the other person. this was hard to do since everyone around us was screaming along with ACDC's "All Night Long!"
dancing was awkward. being pushed into sweaty people was awkward. my outfit was awkward. i don't even remember how long we stayed. it felt like forever, but was probably only around 45 minutes.

we left. i changed out of the hideous outfit.

we got two other couples together to hike the wind caves. you remember the wind caves? so pleasant during the day. hiking them at 11:00 p.m. was another adventure. i didn't quite remember that this hike is about 45 minutes up and another 45 minutes down during daylight hours, and obviously longer when it's pitch black. we heard of other students hiking this in the middle of the night. it seemed like some unwritten tradition that we needed to complete before graduation. we grabbed our flashlights and headed up the mountain. i lead the way because i was the only one who volunteered.

the first part of the hike was fine. my friend kevin serenaded us with some songs. we talked and laughed.

we were climbing steadily up the mountain and suddenly, a very large something ran through the brush on the side of the path. i could tell by the speed it moved and how loud it was that is was something very large. i was totally freaked out. but we figured it ran off. i spent the remainder of the hike yelling every so often, "GO AWAY, COUGAR!... WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE, MOUNTAIN LION!... LA LA LA LA I'M BEING LOUD!!!" we tried to remember what we were supposed to do if a bear attacked us. good thing it didn't attack us, because we couldn't remember.

we finally reached the wind caves. explored a bit and then lincoln and i plopped ourselves down against a ridge and watched the stars in the sky. (watching stars seems to be a common theme for our dates.) we sat there for a while and then Lindsey and Tyler emerged from the caves telling us they just saw a bat! needless to say, we made our way down the mountain shortly after. again, i yelled to the beast in the brush to stay far away.

we arrived at the bottom unscathed and decided that we should make shirts that read, "i hiked the windcaves at midnight... and SURVIVED!!"
we still haven't made the shirts, but i think we should.


later that night, my friend, lindsey, told me that they LOVED lincoln! and that i should marry him.



i wasn't quite sure he would be up for that after the awkward 80s dance and me dragging him up a mountain in the middle of the night.
















but it all worked out in the end, right? :)