Chaperones in White Jackets

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Did you read this yet?

What about this?

NO?  Then go there NOW!  And in that order!


There I am, like a damsel in distress in an old black-and-white melodrama.  I began to gain a sort of semi-consciousness as he lifted me into the car.  It was so strange.  I literally felt like I was floating.  I could not feel him at all.

He shot around to the driver's side and took off like a...well, a guy who thought his date might be dying.  I don't remember much of the start of the drive, but by the time we reached the emergency room, I was fully recovered.  

We checked in, though it really felt quite silly to walk in looking perfectly normal and saying I needed to see a doctor. 

Now, these were the days where not everyone had a cell phone.  To own one was something, at least in my mind at the time, only the rich or the business man/woman owned.  I certainly didn't own one and if Travis did, it was his work phone and he was absolutely forbidden to use it for personal calls.  After I checked in at the window, Travis went to find a pay phone.

Travis called my mother.  

"Linda, this is Travis.  I'm here with Rachael in the emergency room.  She passed out."

"Travis," my mother said, "You're just kidding me."

Travis did have a thing for practical jokes.  He was widely known for them.  Some of them were pretty...I wouldn't call them good, but they make great stories (one of which you will get to hear later...).  

"Linda, I'm not joking.  I wouldn't joke about something like this."

It took a bit more persuasion on Travis' part, but he finally did convince my mother of the truth.  I was indeed in the emergency room and I had actually passed out.

Well, the time between my mom arriving at the hospital with my brother and the next morning are not all that exciting, other than Travis taking my brother out in the dark and giving him a rose, but Travis wants you in suspense on that one.  

Why did I pass out?  After waiting for HOURS, drawing blood, running tests, and going through a CAT scan, the final diagnosis...?

Stress.

It was a very busy time for me.  I was the All Student Body President that year, so I was privileged to be able to do a speech at graduation.  I totally loved it, I was totally honored to do it, but it was pretty nerve-wracking, as you can well imagine.  I was also part of the committee that was planning the Senior Trip to Disneyland.  Again, I totally loved it, I was totally honored to do it, but it was also pretty nerve-wracking.  

Mind you, I am about to step off into a whole new arena in life.  Perhaps not so much as others since I was going to live at home, but one without my childhood friends and one in which I would be expected to foot a little more of the bill.  (Thank you, Mom!)

And to top it off, I decided to start that new adventure in life a little early.  I barely pulled a C in Precalculus and, at the time, I thought I wanted to go to Medical School.  If that were the case, I would likely have to take Calculus in college and I knew I wasn't prepared for that. 

I decided to take Precalculus again at the local junior college during the summer, but their summer started before my last day of high school.  I was going to high school in the morning and college in the afternoon.  Finals and fast-paced, college-sized homework at the same time.  And I wasn't doing much better at Precalculus in college than I was in high school.  No, I was actually doing worse.  I was getting D's and F's and that was not something I was used to.  It crushed me.

And when I had to make the decision to drop that class, I felt like a failure.  Here I was, my first step into the new arena of life, and I was already falling flat on my face.  WHY couldn't I get it??  This should be review!  My answer was that I just wasn't smart enough.  Not good enough.  Born defective.  I was letting everyone down.  My teachers, my parents, my friends...they would all finally see me for who I was.  (As if that were a bad thing!)

Yeah, wasn't a very confident person at age 17.

I dropped the class that week and was going out with Travis...THE Travis...on that weekend.  It was really more than I could handle.  I suppose the kiss was the final straw and once we got to his car, my mind and body needed to check out.  

The emergency room is certainly not where I planned to end our first date and my mother certainly didn't plan on having to pick me up there.  I suppose the doctors in white jackets were great chaperones, though.  They prevented, at least for a night, another electrifying encounter with...

Thunderlips.


Looking Through Travis' Eyes...

Thunderlips

That's the engraving on the garter I wore on my wedding day.

Scratch that - the garter my husband kept that looked just like the garter I wore on my wedding day.

I'm not the one who gave Travis that name.  A friend of ours did and it had something to do with another girl, but after our first date I claimed it for my own.

This same friend told Travis the Monday after our first date, "Travis, you have to marry her!  This will be a great story to tell your grandkids!"

I was 17 and had just graduated from high school.  There was this boy- scratch that - GUY at church.  He was 23 so in my mind, that didn't qualify him as a "boy", me being 17 and all.  I'd had my eye on him since I was 15...sort of.  I mean, when I was 15 he was 21 and it wasn't like I thought I would ever really go out with him.  He was like...a grown-up!  And I can't say that I sat dreamy-eyed in my room, scribbling his name on all my binders, but every time he talked to me I blushed.  Every time he invited me to join the church youth group on an outing and offered to drive me, I got all flittery inside.  And whenever he let me ride in the front seat, I couldn't do anything except stare out the window and hope that I didn't look or say anything stupid.  And when he tried to strike up a conversation with me, everything I said came out silly or snobby as I tried to look like I was cool, calm, and had composure.  What was it about this guy?

He was also the standard I measured every other guy by.  Is he friendly like him?  Is he considerate like him?  Is he as faithful to God and to church as Travis is?  I totally liked that in a guy.

And those questions were safe to ask.  I was 15.  He was 21.  And as if that weren't enough to settle the question of whether or not he'd ever be interested in me or vice versa, he was engaged.

Totally safe.

So again, here I am 17 and fresh out of high school and here is this guy, now aged 23, now no longer engaged...and talking to me...wow!  Wait-actually flirting with me...well, I think.  I mean, he is a friendly guy.

And when he said to me one summer evening, leaning over talking to me through the window of my car, "Would you like to do something sometime, like dinner or something?" I figured he was just wanting to hang out...as friends.  Like, maybe now that I graduated high school I was cool enough to hang out with this guy and not just with all the other teenagers around.

My mother was wiser.

"But Mom, he hangs out with Davia and Tiffany all the time!  That's just how he is!"

Nonetheless, Mom thought I should be prepared and go ahead and dress nice....but go ahead and take some money to pay for my dinner, just in case he really was just being friendly.

The night came.  July 24.  (I TOLD you I was fresh out of high school!)  He picked me up at my mother's house, which is where I was still living, being 17 and all, and let my mother know that we were going to Chevy's on the river.  I'd never been to the place, but anything on the river is kind of romantic.

The car ride was...quiet.  I was so shy and so nervous.  He did his very best to make conversation and I tried my best, too, but I know it had to be hard for him.  I warmed up a bit over dinner, but still I was so incredibly shy and incredibly worried that I would wind up with my dinner sticking out of my face or some of it spilling onto my white shirt, or that I would gleek on him or something.  I do not miss my shy days!

Dinner went well and we headed off to play a game of miniature golf.  On our way, we passed by the street that my elementary school was on.  I hadn't been there in such a long time and rarely did I ever drive past it because it was not near my home.

I mentioned to Travis that my elementary school was down that road and he said, "You wanna go see it?"  To which I replied, "Sure!"

Travis got out of the straight lane and into the turn lane.  We turned left and quickly found ourselves in the school parking lot.  I showed him where my 1st grade class was and where the Special Ed. building was that I helped in when I was there.  We talked about the playground and I mentioned how there was this tree we planted and I wondered how big it must be by now.

"You wanna go see it?"  To which I replied, "Sure!"

So we parked, got out of the car, and walked to the tree.  There it was.  It was much bigger than when my class and I planted it.  So big in fact that Travis and I could stand under it.

I must back up at this point and tell you about the conversation we had on our way to the school.

Travis asked if I thought a couple should kiss on a first date.  Me, being absolutely as naive as they come, began to debate with him without getting a clue of where he was going with this.  I told him no, that I didn't think a couple should kiss on their first date.  That it was a special, intimate thing and one should get to know the other a bit more before heading in that direction.  Shoot!  What if you didn't even care for the guy or girl but they were expecting a kiss at the end of the night?

Travis, being the logical thinker he is and, well...being a guy, naturally took the position that it was just fine for a couple to kiss on the first date.  After all, it was just a kiss.  He said some other things that I couldn't argue against.  It's pretty much always been that way.  He states logical conclusions and I am defenseless to defend my position.  The systematic thinker meets the intuitive one.  How opposites do attract!

In the end, I conceded that it was ok for a couple to do a "peck", but no open-mouthed kissing, although I still didn't think it was the best thing.

So here we are under the tree.  It's dark by now.  This time I have more to say than he does, talking about my childhood teachers and friends and reminiscing.  I'm guessing he had no idea what I was saying because once I was finally quiet, he looked into my eyes, put his arms around me, and kissed me.

A peck.

Ok.  Now I'm back to nervous!

We walked back to his car and my heart must have been going a million beats per second, or something close to that at least.  We stopped by the car door and just stood there talking.  Eventually he slipped his hands around my waist and my freak-out factor hit the roof!

He was talking about something when suddenly his voice started sounding further and further away.  Then there was this tingling sound in my ears and everything was going fuzzy.  And then...

I passed out.  Right there in his arms.  Out cold.

More later...

Looking Through Travis' Eyes

The Poor Wife...or The Unimpressed Girlfriend

Yes, Travis has had a few of his own blunders.

We had quite a storm yesterday!  Thankfully, it was a warm one, but boy, did the wind blow and boy, was there a lot of rain!  So much so in fact that school got cancelled (nice) and my classroom got flooded (not nice).  I'll be travelling from class to class to teach Music tomorrow.  It will be like old times!

Driving home yesterday was a bit like driving through a car wash, only without the big metal things that crush your car.  Very wet, had to drive slow (well, you're not SUPPOSED to actually drive in a drive-through car wash, but we all know that story...), water splashing on the windows from all four sides of the car...you get the picture.  As I was driving through the third largest puddle I was reminded of a story...

*Dream sequence*

*That's an overused phrase, btw.  Have I written about those yet?*

Travis and I were dating.  I was quite young and he was, well, while 5 years older than I, he was still a guy who was living in his age of invincibility.  We had a terrible storm that lasted for days.  There was so much rain and wind and, unlike the storm we just had, it was cold.    Even the  main streets had parts that you couldn't drive through because of the flooding.

Unless you're Travis.

After some sort of young adult function (young adults are kids who are out of high school and don't think they are still kids, but aren't ready to grow up and hang out with "real" adults), Travis and one other guy thought it would be fun to go for a drive...

in the rain...

around signs that read, "flooded..."

and straight through puddles...psh!  more like PONDS!

And we're not talking about an Expedition or big 'ol monster truck.  Oh, no.  This was his beloved Honda Accord!  The first nice car he ever owned.  Apparently he thought that Honda Accords doubled as submarines.

Well, away he and his friend went to check out all the mess the storm had made and make a few big splashes while they were at it.  The road dipped down a bit, but had you been driving on this road when it was dry, you likely wouldn't have even noticed it.  But had you been driving it this night, you probably wouldn't have noticed it at all because the road was nice and level...

well, only level if you are looking at WATER!

Oh, yes.  They drove on down the road ever so slow, watching the joyous fountain of water spray up on their windows.  I can only imagine their delight.

They drove on.  Despite the fact that they were the ONLY ones driving through this part of the road, they continued their adventure.

Eventually the water became deep enough that the fountains of water stopped spraying.  It must have gotten quiet, or so I imagine, as the boys no longer had that bit of amusement.  But then...I can only imagine how much noise they made when...

the water began to spill under the doors and into the car!  And oh, I have to wonder...did it get quiet when the car stalled?  How about when the car wouldn't start?  At what point did they start laughing again?  When the people driving by began to point or shake their heads?  When the tow truck came?  Or perhaps Travis laughed when the car did finally start but was not fully operational?  I'll bet the sound of the car running all night for 2-3 days with the heat on full blast made him giddy.  I'll bet the blow dryers running had him ROFLOL.

Alas, the car did finally dry out and although he was told that it was an impossibility, the car was fully operational within a few days.

I was indeed an unimpressed girlfriend.  Unimpressed with his submarine skills, but still totally and completely in love with him...

and that has not changed.  I am continually impressed with his dedication to God and his unending love and commitment to his family.  I married well.  I have one of the rare ones that many women are hoping to find...

unless they are looking for someone who drives a submarine.

p.s.  Travis, I love you with all my heart.  Thank you for marrying me and loving me through all my own blunders.  *insert kiss*