Planning. It's what survivors do.

Let’s talk about the importance of one of the great 3 P’s mention on May 1, 2005, Elder Dallin H Oaks. Talk, “Dating versus Hanging Out”

PLAN AHEAD.

100% True Example #2: One of the most wacked out dates I went on involved another couple. I can’t exactly say I knew who my date was supposed to be. (A lesson I learned and a story I’ll tell at another time, I’m sure.) It started off an adventure. We drove around for an hour looking unsuccessfully for ice blocks, lamps, and a picnic basket. The KFC bucket we bought was cold by the time we reached the closed playground which wasn’t made better by sitting in the darkness on a windy hill where our drinks would not stand up, forcing us to hold them or balance them against our legs. The other girl and I watched amused as our dates violently bust open with their teeth glowsticks and pour its liquid onto their Hello Kitty kites and jog back and forth trying to make any kind of headway between low-hanging park trees. This date ended at a movie theater an hour early where we had bought tickets for the wrong film, and we ended up in the wrong theater and wrong screening room. Were these guys insane? Or just new to thinking about things BEFORE it happens?

Now, a girl must always have a sense of humor about these things. I thought it was hilarious when, as we were packing up the sorry picnic, I discovered the playground they were looking for was open- just a few yards beyond out field of immediate vision. If you can’t laugh about silly mistakes, no one will want to laugh with you at all.

Turns out they were decent enough guys. The keyword here being ‘enough’. But even a little forethought on their part might have salvaged the date and saved me the trouble of constantly trying to help their disaster march onward.

Not planning shows distain and a lack of respect for the person you are taking out. I felt rather slighted by the idea that these gentlemen hadn’t put any effort into wanting to make in an enjoyable evening for me or the other poor girl I was with. A sensible date can forgive the little things that will inevitably happen, a restaurant will close early, the movie will be sold out, a shoe will break during a long walk. But a sensible date can also identify the difference between accidents and careless indifference.

The next time I climb into a guy’s car and he asks me where I want to go for dinner, I’m getting out.

Happy Rendezvous!

~Miss Casey

Identifying a Goomba

Gombas and
The Miracle of Forgiveness-

You are an idiot, I am an idiot. Oh, let us never forget the miracle of forgiveness! Without forgiveness, there would be no happy marriages. Good marriages are full of forgiveness and single people should never think joy comes without years of practice and patience. No sir! Arguably, courting today may require even more forgiveness, because honestly, who really knows what they’re doing here? (Nobody, that’s who!) From the very beginning when a boy walks up to a girl, opens his mouth, and proceeds to say something truly idiotic, the miracle of forgiveness must be implemented.

And the real challenge begins with determining wither you are currently out with a person requiring forgiveness or what I have affectionately dubbed a “Goomba”.
A goobma is a creature first introduced to the 1985 NES video game Super Mario Bros. It is a fat short round creature shaped like a shiitake mushroom (above) most commonly seen walking around aimlessly. It has no idea where it’s going, where it’s from, who the enemy is, or any instinct that it’s perpetually waddling around with a sour look on its face. They exist in our world. I’ve seen them. I’ve dated them. I have not run fast enough from them.


100% True Example #1: My date as they say, was looking to buy, not rent. After waiting for me to return home by sitting outside my door, he took me to an ice cream parlor where he used coupons he had found during his weekly trip to the local pool hall. Midway through the date he took the opportunity to take my hand to admire my fingernails. The part where he asked how I kept them so long, I was used to. The part where he refused to let go of my hand whilst telling me about his native country of India and how I should really meet his mother there next month, I was not prepared for. He plowed through this speech at top speed (not unlike a goomba) without taking into consideration any of the vehement “NO” signals I was so happy to give out. This was not a guy who made a little date faux pas that required benevolence on my part. Please identify and avoid goombas. Wisely.

Dating is hard enough as it is. Do yourself a favor and exercise a little judgment and forgiveness. It’s OK if your date has not yet been trained on the fine art of the telephone conversation and instead asks you out over Facebook chat. This might just turn out to be a wheat and not a tare with a little help.

I love when I come home from a bad date and someone says, “Hey, you never know!” I get to respond, “Sometimes, you do.”

Lesson: Avoid goombas, practice forgiveness: you’ll be a much happier date.

Happy Rendezvous!
~Miss Casey