Homecoming (Where Do I Begin...)

Mood: Death Cab for Cutie

Quote: "Every time you date someone with an issue you have to ignore, you're settling." -Anonymous

Dating Tips (Drake Frost)
*I haven't found any websites that say exactly what I want them to about the etiquette of dating. Mostly it is just one end of the spectrum or another. So here it goes.

1. Remember that a date is not hanging out. You are with your date
2. No matter how good of a friend is on the same date with you, you are still with your date and as such, you should remember to get to know your date and not the latest gossip.
3. Do not try to get into another person's car because your friend is in there.
4. Let the young man be a gentleman.
5. Dance, have a good time, not matter how bad your experiences as a six-year-old were.
6. Do not text at dinner, or any other time during your date. Because your date has his cell phone to coordinate with the rather large group he is in, does not mean that you should use your phone to text your friends and family members.

Blog: Homecoming, where do I begin. I guess I should probably begin at the beginning, that way the reader(s) will be able to decide if it is just me, or in fact, my date, or the Date that was the problem.

Planning the Homecoming date was incredibly stressful for me because most of the young men, being young men, in my group are horrible communicators. I had to get everyone together, make everyone plan, and of course, solve the myriad of problems that would come our way. One of these came at ten o'clock in the morning on the day of our date. We were supposed to have four video cameras for our video scavenger hunt. One guy was supposed to bring two video cameras, however, he woke up to find that one was missing (his dad had taken it unknowingly). I had one hour until I was supposed to be picking up my date. I called everyone I knew and eventually had to settle for just having three video cameras. That was ok, not a big deal.

Keep in mind, my group was comprised of nine couples, eighteen people in total. This meant, seven individual cars, three separate groups for our video scavenger hunt, three dinner groups, and an incredibly difficult time communicating to everyone what to do. So, of course, it was absolutely neccessary for me to have my cell phone with me. I made sure only to use it when I had to call someone in our group to coordinate or answer a question.

I made my way to the door, rang the doorbell, where I was greeted by my date, Lisa. I was then taken inside to meet her family, and then we left to meet at the park. Upon arriving at the park, we found the pavillion was taken, so we relocated to a grassy area. Two of the couples, one of whom was in charge of buns didn't show up until an hour later, which was scary, but ended up being ok because the burgers weren't ready yet.

My date has a friend that was also in our group. Her name is Ashley. I think I greatly underestimated their "friendship" if you want to call it that.

Once we were done setting up and the food was underway, my date ran off, and hung out with Ashley, at this point I decided that not going out to dinner with Ashley and her date was a good idea. After lunch, we split off into groups for the video scavenger hunt (which was way fun). Of course, Ashley was in our group with her date, and one more couple was going to go into my car. Ashley and her date were going to go in her date's car. Simple, we would meet at the nearby mall, and our entire Homecoming group would meet back at the park in a couple of hours swap stories, give our camera's to the camera master, and then drop our dates off to get ready. Easy. However, my date didn't really understand what a date was.

"I'm going to go in the car with Ashley," She announced to me.

"WHAT?" I had never heard of such an obscene idea, going into a car without your date. What in the world?

"Yeah, I have to make sure she doesn't do anything bad with her date," She said matter-of-factly.

"No, just get into the car, lets go."

"But I want to go with Ashley." I couldn't believe it, I was getting into an argument about whether or not my date should be in the car with me. Did hell freeze over? Fortunately, the couple in the back intervened, and she begrudgingly sat down in my car.

We met up at the mall, and had a lot of fun getting followed by mall security and videotaping ourselves doing crazy things. I dropped my date off, edited most of the videos, fought through post-BYU Homecoming traffic, and forgot to pick up her corsage. My parents, being the wonderful people they are, picked it up for me because I was already running late.

I picked up my date, and somehow, it managed to get worse. She texted the rest of the night. TEXTED! What was going on? Was her brother, or her sister, or Ashley buying her dinner? No. It was me, and all I ask for is some interraction. Ashley didn't even have her phone with her ( I know this because my date told me, don't you think she could pick up on that hint?), of course, Lisa still texted her phone.

We then went to the Homecoming dance where my date refused to dance. This was probably the most painless part of all of it because I was kind of able to ignore her, not dancing, and mess around with friends, who were dancing.

We then made our trek to the house of a kid in my group named Eric. Once we got there, all she did was talk to his sisters, text, and talk to his parents. Everyone was talking with their dates and eachother except myself. I then brought her home (to rid myself of the torment), and listened to music.

It was unbelievable. I should have handed her 60 dollars and she could have gone by herself, with me driving. At least then I would have been able to do something more worthwhile.