A momentous day

I met Justin on August 23rd, 2007. Justin disagrees with me. He says that we actually met in July a few weeks earlier at the Allen County Fair. The sad truth, however, is that I don't remember meeting him at all. I remember being at the fair that day. I was with a group of friends. He says that he was there with his family. He tells me our friend Cody introduced us. He says that he thought that I was dating one of the boys in the group. (This isn't terribly surprising to hear. I knew that one of the boys liked me. And that he had a girlfriend. And that he would be perfectly willing to cheat on her. With me. Believe me once I found out that last part I told him to get lost. But I didn't know that yet. All I knew was that Cody was standing around talking to some person for forever and that I was getting antsy.)

That, Justin says, is the first time we met. I believe him. Because, to be honest, I have a terrible memory. And he's always right about these types of things. Except for the rare once a year occasion where I'm actually right about something. But seriously, saying that he's wrong once a year? That's an exaggeration. It's probably more like once a decade. Except I haven't known him for a decade. I haven't even known him for three years yet. I've known him just long enough to be sure of the fact that he's hardly ever wrong. And that's a fact. Sadly though, this story of mine must start in August of 2007 because that's where I remember things from.

Anyway, August 23rd, 2007. It was the start of a new semester of school. I was only taking on class this semester and it was choir. I had had an internship over the summer in my field of interest and had left it badly disillusioned. I promptly dropped out of all my classes and swore off school until I could decide on a new degree. Except that I couldn't bear the idea of quitting choir. Choir that I loved passionately. Never mind that I don't have a good enough voice to ever be a professional musician. Choir was my passion. Standing in a crowd, surrounded my sopranos, singing four, five or at times up to eight part harmony. Realizing I couldn't stand the idea of not attempting to hit high notes multiple times a week I quickly reenrolled.

As for August 23rd, however, I was doing nothing. I wasn't working that day nor did I have any classes. So I did what any normal 20 year old girl would do. I got dressed and hung out at school all afternoon with my friends. One of the christian groups, InterVarsity on campus was having a party in the science mall and some of my friends were helping. Little did I know that this christian group would soon sucker me in and absorb my life. They had gotten some of those blow up games and set them up. One of them was a game where two people stood on platforms, hit each other with padded sticks, and tried to knock each other off. It was on this game that I first saw Justin.

He was fighting the staff worker for IV, Nick Johnson. I don't remember who won. I think it was probably Justin because, well, it's Justin. The festivities continued throughout the afternoon and there was a meeting in the evening that I attended as a matter of course. We had an icecream eating contest among other things. When the meeting was over everyone went out to eat. Except me. There was leftover icecream and I was bound and determined to get that stuff into my freezer. Luckily, I succeeded.

That my friends, was when I met Justin. I don't think I spoke a single word to him the entire day. But you better believe that I remembered him. That time.