April 5th, 2006 is the day Nate and I celebrate the fateful night we decided we would take our conversations from the U and Gold's Gym to a new level: Denny's! For posterity's sake, I first met Nate when we were about 17 (summer of 1998), at a wedding reception. It was really neither the time nor the place to be impressed with each other, but on comparing notes, we both were. :)
So years pass, he goes on a mission, I take my own path of learning...so around 2003, we saw each other at the U. To be honest, I saw, then tried to ignore; he saw and yelled, "Liz! Hey!" We continued to see each other alternately at the gym or the U, or both. Oftentimes, we would stop and chat, or at least say a quick "hello". There were times when I wanted to suggest we get lunch or some such, but it never felt like the thing to do, so it didn't happen. I've also compared this with Nate's notes, and he said the same. Months turned into years, and we followed this same pattern, more or less. Around General Conference time (April) of 2005, I felt lonely and prayed for help. I got it, but didn't recognize it for quite a while. Twice over that year, I had the impression to "contact Nate Higley". Awesome. I hadn't seen him much (if any) that year at our usual spots and figured he was gone/married, etc. So when I had this thought come to me, I had no natural way of contacting him, or even way to find his phone number. And then, again, it came to me. Email him from the U's directory! Awesome again. But I did it...and this is what it said:
To: "nathan higley" <oforkney@hotmail.com>
Subject: long time, no workout??
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 16:27:18 -0500
Hey Nate-
so so random, I know-but I ran across your email address and thought I'dsay hi. I never see you at the gym anymore... did we give up? I just
barely started my marathon training and need all the help I can get, so you
should stop by, eh?
Liz Harrison
GoGo Worldwide Vacations
Salt Lake City, Utah
ph. 801-619-0130
fx. 801-619-9641
harrisone@gogowwv.com
Yes, I kept the signature in for nostalgia's sake. I figured this was another one of those rare moments of bravery that would make a good story one day, but not because anything happened. Yet I got this back:
Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2006 3:19 AM
To: Harrison, ElizabethSubject: RE: long time, no workout??
Hi Liz,
Okay okay, not as MUCH. BUT still sometimes. I had a glorious vision of
being 'huge' in very little time. It's the diet part that I couldn't
stomach...literally. Plus the muscle has trouble showing through when
you have a thin....not-so-thin layer of fat covering all of it. So I bought
(scratch that - I received) some good books for Christmas. So I've been
showing up and sweating for the better part of an hour while I read a
few chapters. I've lost weight...still look tubby. Maybe I'll dye my hair
blond and start tanning and forget about working out. Heh heh.
Training for a marathon?? In that case, I really don't think I'd do much
good in helping. Except for boosting your self-esteem. I could be a
great cheerleader perhaps. I can't offer my service as a coach because 3 miles
is the limit for me. I wouldn't know what to tell you. "Keep those legs
moving, Harrison!" Truth is, I've had a look around when I've gone, and I
haven't seen you either. I go in the evening, like 7ish. You're probably a
morning person. Oh, man, the kind that inspire the rest of us....to extreme
envy.
Thanks for writing, though! If I don't run into you soon, write me, and
tell
me how you're doing, eh?
Nate
He wasn't married!! :) My favorite part of all this (because I love to read into things) was the amount of time it took for him to write back. Me: Friday @ 4:27pm. Nate: Saturday @ 3:19am. This writing back fun went on for a month or so and while I believe we were still half-heartedly dating other people, it became the highlight of my week to hear from him. After a heart to heart with Ruth on one of our Tuesday night Sister meetings...I felt further inspired to be a bit more bold. Her advice: "Liz, I think you should go for guys who are more than just shiny". Message received, and on a fortuitous Tuesday night we decided to cancel Sister night, I went to the gym instead. I was 45 minutes into my run, and there he was...not sweaty and out of breath like I was. I couldn't hide because I was already stuck on a machine, so it worked out perfectly, I think. :) He talked to me for the remainder of my run, after my stretching, and long after that. The gym was to close, so we walked out together and kept talking. Nate then asked me if I wanted "to go get waffles or something", and that we did...at the Denny's off of 106th south. We looked ridiculous in our gym clothes and such, but I couldn't have cared less. We had a great time and I found myself wondering why we hadn't done it before then. During our meal, we went back and forth guessing songs playing overhead. We made a bet on a song. The loser (Nate planned on this being me) would be subjected to a bad movie of the other's choosing. I was confident in my musical guessing skills, but I was also hoping for a date anyway. The next morning, I realized I was wrong, and sent him this:
From: "Harrison, Elizabeth" <HarrisonE@gogowwv.com>
To: "Nathan Higley (E-mail)" <oforkney@hotmail.com>Subject: Fine
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 12:12:57 -0400
Hi Nate-
So, you remember how I said I don't lie, yes? Still true, so I'll tell
you what happened...it's not Garbage (curses). This morning, after a
refreshing 4 hours of sleep, I was walking down the stairs, and it came to
me...Fatboy Slim. I just checked and it is, but there is no way for you to know if
I'm being honest other than my own word. Regardless, I lost, and I'm
admitting it...so mad though. :) So, do your worst, but be nice? Anyway, let me
know when said event will occur...you don't have my phone number right?
You may use.... Thanks again for dinner/breakfast last night, I
had too much fun.
Liz Harrison
From there, we made a date for that Saturday night. He picked me up, we went to Asian Star and had a lovely time. I figured any date when I could put make up on/fix my hair would be an improvement from my last showing, but it didn't matter either way. It was perfect to me. After dinner, we weighed our movie watching options, and ended up at the Higley home with the selection of "The Man Who Knew Too Little". It was silly and I was nervous, but it was fun all the same. After the movie, we ended up talking for hours, then snuggling, then kissing. I didn't get home until 6:00am, but it didn't matter...I was floating, I think. I was too wired to sleep, so I wrote in my journal:
"Sunday morning-although I truly wish I had more
sleep under my belt this second; I love mornings like this, so I’m enjoying it
despite my fatigue. I can’t stop
smiling. I went out with Nate last
night."
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| Our first photo together at Tom and Ruth's birthday party, May 2006. |
This April 5th, we celebrated by going to "Gordie Brown" (awful show we fortunately did not have to pay for) and went to Denny's on Fremont Street! It was very different from our first meeting, but fun to revisit how we started.
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The woman who took this picture asked us about three times if we didn't really want the picture in front of the tattoo parlor as opposed to Denny's...she'd just gotten some ink with her 3 young daughters...ya know, normal Friday night.... |
Here's to many more nights at Denny's! xo
