Andy and I met on January 17, 2004. My sister Katie and her then boyfriend (now husband), named Phil, were over at my house that Saturday. Phil had gotten the idea about setting me up with his good friend named Andy a few weeks earlier. (Phil and Katie had actually placed several calls to my house late into the night on December 27, 2003 from Andy’s place in St. Cloud but I was working out on my elliptical with the TV cranked up so I never heard the phone ring. Their messages said stuff like, “Jess, how are we supposed to set you up if you’re not at home?” I talked to Katie the next day about Andy and she said to not worry about it. She said that Andy was, “a really nice guy who would treat [me] well, but probably not [my] type.” Anyway, so while Phil was at my house, he decided to call Andy’s cell phone. I protested a little because I didn’t like the idea of getting set up. I was waiting on God to introduce me to the man He had chosen for me and I thought that getting set up probably wouldn’t be part of God’s plan. But Phil ignored my protest and called Andy. Andy was in the cities somewhere with a good friend and that friend’s wife. Phil told Andy that he should stop by my place. It sounded like Andy wouldn’t come until Phil said, “If you don’t want to hang out with cute girls [i.e., me and my sis] that’s up to you.” Suddenly Andy’s tune changed and he said he’d come by at about 5 p.m. Prior to 5 p.m., I had re-done my make-up probably twice and brushed my hair a few times. Andy didn’t show up at 5 p.m. Apparently his good friend’s parents had stopped by and they were holding Andy up. I found out later that Andy was quite annoyed by this. I think Andy and his good friend and his friend’s wife showed up at my house around 7 p.m. I was actually expecting Andy to look wild or weird (maybe he would smell like he hadn’t showered for a few days, maybe he’d be wearing baggy olive-colored corduroy pants and a ratty t-shirt that covered some tattoo that he had gotten in his youth) since I knew that Phil had some crazy friends. When they came in, I couldn’t tell which of the guys was Andy. Both of them looked normal, so that was good. So, I shook hands with the first guy in the door, who happened to be Andy. It wasn’t love at first sight for me (or him, as far as I know). But, I didn’t totally rule him out either. I showed them around my house, which Andy guessed that I must have just moved into (actually it was two months earlier), but I still didn’t have much furniture yet. My most memorable moments of the night were when Andy described my couch as something like a worm that was cut in half (I didn’t have his imagination so that was weird), when he talked about his acid-reflux problem, watching him eat the ice cream and rock hard fudge topping that Katie and I had whipped up and turning down his offer for me to join him and his friend and friend’s wife in going to a local comedy club.
Posted: Sunday, June 13, 2004