Five Question Friday - April 29

My sweet baby boy is turning FIVE this weekend! *sniff*  Tyler bring such joy and silliness to our family...I just don't know what we'd do without him.  I'll try to do a regular blog post with pics from his bowling party last weekend, if I can figure out how to download pics without the USB cord (which has disappeared).  Also, random side note...I'm teaching Sunday School this week on the book "Heaven is For Real".  If you haven't read this book, it's amazing...a very quick read, and it will change the way you think about God and Jesus and heaven.

OK, onto the Five Questions!

1) If you could buy any car, money not an object, what would it be?
That's a really hard question to answer...I mean, when clearly money IS an object in real life, you don't even LOOK at or KNOW about those cars that the ultra-wealthy (and wannabe ultra-wealthy) people drive.  It would definitely be an SUV...I don't see myself going back to a sedan any time before the kids are grown.  Maybe a Lexus?  You know me...I'd have to do some MAJOR research before I could answer a question like this! :-)

2)  What was your worst first date ever?
Okay, this is a funny story, and now it's been so long ago, I'm not even sure I can remember all the ridiculous details.  I do remember thinking at several points "this has GOT to be a bad dream."  I was 17, and the guy was 20, I think?  It was a blind date, and he was a friend of some waitress I worked with at Ruby Tuesday's.  Normally I wouldn't have even considered a date with someone so random, but this was the summer after we graduated high school, and my friend Carrie was dating people left and right that she met while working at Blockbuster, so I decided to give it a try.

 As soon as I opened the front door, my stomach sank.  He was wearing a gold chain (yes, I know, a lot of guys did in the early 90s) and a gold NUGGET earring.  My dad gave him the third degree, and then we went to the Bartlett Malco to see a movie.  We got there kind of early, so we were walking along the (closed) shops in the shopping center, and he said "you know, I could push you off the curb in front of an oncoming car, and no one would even know!"  He thought this was funny.  I did not.  When we got in the movie, I made him buy me a drink, and then proceeded to hold it in the hand closest to him for the ENTIRE movie, so that he couldn't try to hold my hand.  Then, after the movie, his big suggestion for what to do afterwards was go "roll" one of my friends' houses.  I'm thinking "dude, you're twenty years old...seriously?"  He pushed and pushed, but I refused to tell him where any of my friends lived, so then he gets the brilliant idea that we're going to go down to Mud Island because his boss has a boat docked down there.  Now, at this point I'm really getting nervous and uncomfortable about what this total stranger might do to me alone on a boat, but he wasn't taking no for an answer.  Thank GOD there was a security guard blocking the way to the marina...I'm not kidding, I seriously debated about trying to mouth "help me" to him as this loser is trying to talk his way into the marina.  So then we're driving through a deserted area of downtown, and again, "you know, I could just stop the car and push you out in the middle of nowhere...what would you do?"  How did we ever live without cell phones????  At this point, I really wasn't interested in trying to be polite or not hurt his feelings any more...he tried to drag me around The Peabody and did manage to hold my hand (ick) but I made it pretty clear that I wasn't having a good time and didn't really want to continue this.  He took me home, complaining the whole way about how early it was and how much more he wanted to do, and when we pulled in that driveway, I BOLTED from the car and ran in the house so he wouldn't get any ideas about kissing me goodnight.  I seriously think I got down on the floor and "hugged" it, I was so relieved to be home and alive!!!  I plan to share this story with Ashley some day as part of my explanation of why she's not allowed to date until she's 40.

3) How old were you when you fell in love for the first time?
Another weird question.  Falling in "love" can mean such different things at different points in your life.  I certainly THOUGHT I was in love with boys when I was in junior high and high school, but I'd say those were really more like crushes since they were rarely reciprocated (and never with the intensity of feeling that I had!).  I suppose I'd have to say 17, since that marked my first real relationship (beginning of my freshman year of college).  And though my heart was truly broken by him, thank you God, for NOT letting that work out!  Just thinking about him now makes me feel nauseated.

4) When was the last time you reconciled your checkbook?
Well, I ALWAYS keep a running tally in my checkbook so I know how much I have to work with, but I've never really gotten into the whole "online banking" thing.  I reconcile it once a month when the paper statement comes in the mail (old fashioned, I know!).  But that's just my personal checking account...Mallory handles the family account, and he IS the type to check the transactions online every night, so I don't worry a bit about that account!

5) If you were going to fashion a "Wanted" ad for a best friend, how would you word it?
I don't even know where to begin!  Maybe I'm just thinking too deeply today about these questions, but I don't think any one person can meet all the needs of another person.  I have several close friends, all of whom meet the qualifications for that role in completely different ways!  I guess if I had to list some characteristics...honest, kind, empathetic, able to overlook my "know-it-all" tendencies, persistent in maintaining the relationship (because sometimes that's not my strong suit), talkative (because I am NOT good at being the more talkative one in a relationship!), and a rejector of drama (I am too old to still be acting like I'm in junior high, and so is everyone else!).

Hope everyone has a beautiful, dry weekend!