Chapter 10

:: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 ::

I love God. He is so amazing to me. My strength, my rock, my redeemer. My Redeemer lives! Yay God. We sin so much, he loves us so much more. God loves you. Know that.

School is so boring, so very very boring. Do I learn much in there? No. I'm sorry. I just don't. Maybe I should pay more attention in school, but my head hurts too much right now to finish that sentence. Or any of them. Why does it hurt? I don't know. Major throbbing pain.

Why do people always say I'm depressed. Today I was told constantly that I was depressed. I'm not, I promise. To prove it I rolled, head over heels, to class. How did that prove my happiness? I don't know. How did it not? I should probably post about my date with Anne on here. Oh that could take awhile...

Last Friday, as in two Fridays ago, I told Anne that I would take her out on the 24th and that she needed to keep that day open. At that time, it was so we agreed that Friday we would go on a date. That next Tuesday, a week ago, she found out that she had a FISH club meeting on Friday at Mazzio's. So we decided that we would go on our date Saturday. Sounded like a plan. Well, on Wednesday we found out that there was a youth rally on Saturday. So we then decided that we would go on our date after her meeting at Mazzio's and I would pick her up. Okay, we were all set.

Friday rolls around and Anne calls me to tell me that our friend Tiffiny lead a friend of hers to Christ over the phone Thursday night. Yay for him! She wanted Anne to go with her to talk to him on Friday. Oy vey. Hey, its all for God. We'll just wait another week to go on our date. Well, we decided that we would go and hang out with Tiffiny for awhile then we would go on our date somewhere. So we meet at Mazzios and then we go to Tiffiny's. Well, when we get to Tiffiny's, at around 6:30, she tells us that hte friend that was coming over isn't anymore. Make sense? Okay. So at around 6:45 Anne and I decide that we would go to Carmike 6 and watch "Catch Me if You Can" at 7:00. So we leave Tiffiny's and drive across town and get to the mall at about 6:55, a few minutes to spare. Woo, barely made it.

So we're standing in line and I'm checking out the other movies and talking to Anne when I realize that our movie isn't on the price board. This is at about 7:00. The movie started at 7:00. We were at the wrong movie theatre. So I leaned over to Anne and tell her about my stupidity. She suggests that we go sit at a table and laugh at our stupidity. Once again, we agreed. After this, there isn't much agreeing, just a bunch of random ideas tossed out and we head off. We agreed to go, that's about it. Okay, moving on.

So while we are sitting there, laughing at our stupidity, Anne's cousin Miranda and her friend Morgan walk up. We chat for a bit, tell them our predicament, and then they leave. So we get up a little later to go talk to another one of Anne's friends walking by the food court. They're chatting and we have a seat at a table. A little later Miranda and Morgan walk back up and sit down and start talking to Anne. I'm totally lost in this conversation, so I get up and do something else. A little bit of background information, my parents got me a cell phone for my birthday. Yay. The only problem was when I called somebody I got to talk to an annoying little spanish woman instead of who I called. So while Anne was talking to her friends, I got up and went to the cell phone place to get my phone fixed.

I walked in and there are two women sitting talking. They greet me and I tell them my problem. Then I say, "As long as you don't speak Spanish, can you help me?" Alesha, the woman that helped me, just replied, "Hola." Well, crap. But she was just kidding. So she pushed some buttons, rattled some switches and had my phone working. Yay. So I walk back out to the food court and I see Anne, Miranda and Morgan sitting and talking with some strangely dressed fellow. So I walk up and Anne pulls me up a chair and I find out somehow that she was talking to Brian. After a few minutes, Miranda and Morgan leave and I listen in more on Anne and Brian's conversation. She's asking him about bible verses to read so she tells him quite a few. Well, I'm looking around and I see my friend Coleman in the distance, wiping down counters at the movie theatre. So I hop up and run over to talk to him. I tell him about my stupidity and he busts up in laughter. Thanks Coleman.

He tells me to bring Anne over and let him meet her. Sure, why not. So I meander back to Anne and Brian and now they're talking about how Anne and I went to the wrong movie theatre. Ironically, so did Brian. So they say their goodbyes and Anne starts telling me the story of how she met Brian. One time before church, Anne, Heather and Joe were all walking around Civitan park. They saw Brian and Joe told them to leave him alone and that he's not really a nice guy. That's all I heard because all this time we were walking to the movie theatre and we were finally there. So Coleman met Anne and we all found out that they knew each other anyway because Coleman used to hang out with Anne's sister, Liz. So we chat for a little and then we leave because Coleman needed to work. So we head out and try to figure out where we're going now. So I suggest to go and get smoothies because I was thirsty. So we start off towards the smoothie place. On the way I see my 2nd cousin, Brandon, and my friend Matt. I start talking to them and I introduce them to Anne and they start talking about this party at Jimbo Wiedel's. Sound fun? Nope.

So I let them finish telling me directions and then I tell them no. Oh they kept insisting, but I kept refusing. I turn to talk to Anne and I see that she has left. She just ran off. I glance around and see her talking to some girl a few feet away. Then Miranda and Morgan stroll by and start chatting with them. So I tell Brandon and Matt goodbye and walk towards Anne and them all. But Anne is frantically waving her hands past me. I can't figure out what in the world she's doing, so I just keep walking. But she really starts freaking out. Then I turn around and see her coat on the chair at Brandon and Matt's table. So I run back over and get it, once again telling Brandon and Matt no, then I head back. By now Miranda and Morgan have left and I hear Anne say something about commands and such. Then she hushes up really fast. Then Anne's friend says something about Anne commanding me and I'm really confused. Come to find out, Sarah, Anne's friend, said that has me commanded and then Anne said she doesn't have me commanded, yet. Oh joy.

So we chat with Sarah quite a lot while she was waiting for her mom to pick her up. Sarah's friend Jonah walked up after some time and starting talking to us also, but left to go find his girlfriend. While we were talking, I kept talking about those smoothies, that's what I would say to change the subject because I said something stupid. After about a half hour talking to Sarah she tells us to go and get our smoothies. So we head off to get our smoothies and we see our friend Eric working at Sbarro's, the pizza place next to the smoothie place. So we talk to him and then Jonah walked up and we met his girlfriend. So while we're talking to Eric and Jonah, I lean over and order our smoothies. Jonah leaves and Eric gets back to work. So Anne starts to finish her story about Brian, but before she can get just 5 words our, her friend Stormy walked up and started talking to us. Anne has computer class with Stormy so they were talking about class that day and how Anne got Stormy to say "your mom" to everything. Yeah, it was crazy. There were two other friends with Stormy we were talking to right in front of the smoothie place. So we get our smoothies and Stormy and her friends order some. So we decided to leave and walk around the mall for a little and talk to them later. So while we're walking, Anne runs up to some old guy sitting in the food court and starts talking to him. We sit down and I find out that his name is Mr. Essert and he is a teacher at Cherokee. Super. Nice guy I have to say. He's a very good artist and he drew my name in very big wavy lines and all. Sehr gut.

So we leave him and start walking around the very tiny mall. Up ahead we see Miranda and Morgan and we run up to them and start bugging them. This is around the end of the mall. Well, I see Brandon and Matt again and they ask about the party again. Once AGAIN, I said no. "See you at the party!" they said as they walked off. Sheesh. So we go to some benches at the end of the mall and sit to try and figure the rest of our date. This is around 9:00 or so. So I was thinking and she was thinking and I just figured bowling would be really fun. So I jump up, grab Anne, and we head off on our way. We make it all the way through the mall, just a few feet away from the door and we hear Miranda and Morgan run up to us. They needed a ride 3 blocks down the road to Miranda's grandparents house. Sure, I figured. Be a nice guy and help them out. So Anne, Miranda, Morgan and I all cram into the truck and head off down the road, about 3 or 4 blocks. Not far at all.

We get to the house and Anne and I start talking. Suddenly, Morgan throws the door open and sticks her head in. Too bad it hinged back and banged her in the head. Oops. Her and Miranda say that they can't stay there. So we all pile back in the truck, and drove another 2 blocks to Miranda's house. So they leave and Anne I just sit in their driveway trying to figure out what to do. Then I remembered bowling. So we head off again. Now, Friday night, 9:30 at night, do you think it would be easy for us to bowl? Probably not. Not a worry. I had another idea. I remembered that the miniture golf course by my old house opened up a few months ago. So I figured we could go there. Yeah, its late and freezing outside. It happens. So as we pass the bowling alley, we look over towards the parking lot to see if bowling can be a back up idea. Nope, it was packed full. Oh well.

So we get to the miniature golf course and notice that it was closed. Poo. So we keep driving on that road and it leads back towards downtown. So we're driving along and we pass the sanitation department. Suddenly Anne screams out, "My dad has my money!" I was a little startled, not by her yelling, but by her remembering her dad at the sanitation department. No worries, it just reminded her because he works for the city. So I get up to a major road and ask her where to go. She says that we need to go by the park that is by the church and has the swings. Okay? Then she says turn left, towards the west. So I turn and she says, "Maybe we should have gone right." Oy vey. So I pull into a parking lot and we talk about how to get to her dad's house. Doesn't sound too complicated, but it was. She says that we need to get back on the road we were just on and turn on the road we just crossed. After a few minutes of hand waving, pointing and such, we get on the right road. Okay, we're getting somewhere now.

So I'm driving and I notice that there is a blue car making the same few turns that we are, just a few seconds ahead. I'm thinking, "Anne, do you know them?" She says, "Hey Ben, I think I know him. I think that's my dad." So we keep going and I notice again that he is making all the same turns. Come to find out, it was her dad. So we get to his house, and we walk in so he could get her money. He gets the money, and she's about to say goodbye when he picks up the phone and calls someone. Suddenly he says, "Who is this? (pause) Who am I talking to? (long pause) Did you say something about my momma?" We cracked up laughing and left. So we get back in the truck and I'm trying to figure out where we are at. I notice we are on 24th street. I ask Anne, "Are we on North or South 2th?" See, both are pretty horrible parts of town, but south is worse. So I just start driving quite fast to get somewhere other than where we were at, and finally I notice that we are on south 24th.

So I'm speeding down the road and finally I know where we are at. And Anne found out that 24th street meets Peak Boulevard. This makes no sense if you don't live here. That street actually goes further, so I told her that I'll show her where it goes past that. So we go driving down the road and I'm noticing that the road doesn't look very familiar. But finally it shows up where its supposed to and I have her entirely confused. So I turn towards my high school to show her where we are at. Surprisingly, Richard lives over in that area so I drive to his house. Earlier that day I told him that I was taking Anne on a date. So we show up, he answers the door and says, "This is your date?" He laughed. So we sat down in his foyer thing and we told him about our date so far. Then he told us about his day driving around with Dayton and Anthony. It sounded fun. Ours was better. So we finish chatting and Anne and I leave again, not knowing where in the world we are going. Notice a pattern.

So she mentions getting a movie. Its about 10:00 and we have about enough time to squeeze in a little movie, I have to be home by 12:00. So we start off towards Hastings. Well, on the way, we realize that there is no place to watch a movie. Oops. We could have gone to Cheryl's, but we would have been alone and it wouldn't have seemed too right. Know what we mean? So decide against that but keep going to Hastings. We finally get there and just walk around the store.

Okay, earlier today, again, I had a picture of Anne at school and I was showing it to my friend Elliot during 5th hour. My friend Byers looks over and says, "Who is that, she is hot!" He says that very loudly mind you. I tell him that she's my girlfriend and he asks if he can have her when I'm done with her. I just laughed and said no. So we saw him at Hastings. As soon as he saw me he started blushing and barely talked to Anne before scooting off. I told Anne about our little conversation and she started laughing when she met him. Funny-ness-ed.

So we walked around Hastings and then we sat down in some chairs next to the magazines. As Anne is talking to me, she's looking past me and starts laughing. Then she starts blushing and asks if we can move because there are some very stupid books behind me. They were the harlequins. Much stupidness. So we move over one aisle and she starts looking at a Mustang book. She loves Mustangs. After a few minutes of that we leave Hastings and sit in the parking lot and try to figure out what to do next. Suddenly I have a great idea. I turn to Anne and say, "I have an awesome idea and you are just going to say, 'Ben, you're the best boyfriend ever!'" She replies, "Don't I say that already?" I say, "Yep, that's why I'm taking you to the gas station." I needed gas. So I pull up to the pump, get out, pull out the pump thing and stick it in the truck. Suddenly this woman comes over a speaker and mumbles a little. I didn't understand her so I just keep going. She comes on a second time, I don't understand her for the second time. The third time, she says, "YOU HAVE TO PREPAY!!! GIVE ME THE MONEY!!!" Oh. Okay.

So I get the gas in the truck and we head off again. So its around 10:30 right now and we don't know where we are going next. So I suggest that we go to every McDonalds in town and get mustard packets from each one. Anne just smiled and shook her head. So then I decided that we are going to Albertson's. Why? I don't know. I tell Anne my idea and she says she wants chocolate. So we go to Albertson's and buy M&M's, Reese's little cube things, chocolate milk and chocolate syrup. Then we see Tiff and tell her about our date up until now. So we get our candy and head out to the truck. Now, while we're deciding where to go and eat this chocolate, we see a little red Sedan speeding around the parking lot. Suddenly it comes screeching to a halt right in front of some guy trying to push a cart back to the store. We start laughing and keep going. Then as we are driving further we notice that the car does it again to the same guy and slowly pulls off. Anne looks at the car, looks at me and jerks her head back around and sees that her friend Kara is driving the car.

So Anne starts getting exciting and I stop and turn of the truck and Anne gets out and runs over to her friend. Then she just jumps in the window, hanging halfway out, and Kara starts to pull off. I'm cracking up laughing but I'm trying to imagine how much its going to hurt when she falls out. Thankfully she didn't. So Anne gets out of the window and Kara starts waving at me to get out. And so does Anne. So I get out and as I'm walking towards them I notice them doing this something with their hands. I found out later that they were agreeing that I was hot. It happens. So I'm asking them what they are up to and then I ask what they (Kara and her friends, Lorraine and Christina) would do on a Friday night with a lot of candy. Kara started freaking out when I mentioned candy and she told Anne to get in the car because they were going to go and rob the bank in Switzerland and rob the little pink stripped monkeys. So Anne jumped in and I got back in the truck to try and warm up. So Kara shot off and drove around the parking lot a few times. More like 15 or 20. Every now and then they would pass the truck and I would hear Anne screaming, "Help me!!!"

So finally they stopped and we gave them candy and Kara and all of them left. Sad to see them go, but I liked having Anne back. Well, we were about to leave Albertson's when Tiff pulled up and asked where we were going. Like we knew! So she said something, I don't remember and Anne and I headed off. We went to the Wal-mart parking lot to eat our candy. So we go there and popped open the candy and chowed down, talking about anything and everything. Finally, around 11:30 we left and I took Anne by Tiffiny's house because she was going to stay the night there. Well, when we showed up, Tiffiny was like, "Are you still on your date?" Charles didn't think I could be out that late. Well, Anne couldn't stay the night so I took her to Cheryl's and left her after a very confusing, fun, outrageously hilarious date. It was very interesting and I loved every minute of it. Quite a story to tell the grandkids someday.

But right now its almost midnight and I have school tomorrow so I'm going to leave. Just remember that God loves you all and you are his precious children.

God is good. All the time.
Peace

:: Ben 11:52 PM [+] ::
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