THE DATE: by Jeri Thompson
Jeri Thompson went on her second date with Ryan for his night out on the town:
Ryan was supposed to come at 5:30 p.m. but um, he didn’t show up until 6 p.m. I suppose I could have been upset at his tardiness, but honestly, how could I be upset? Ryan is a great guy and after all, for our first date I was the one who showed up half hour late. Besides, his excuse was a confrontation with a slick newspaper staff.
Apparently, Ryan is a star. His good looks, fun loving ways and connections with members on The Daily Universe staff provided him the opportunity to be transformed from a recently returned missionary, a.k.a social alien, into a more down-to-earth, dateable guy.
In order to provide the most fortunate readers of The Daily Universe an opportunity to see a completely transformed Ryan, our date was carefully monitored.
Despite the invasion of cameras and tag-a-longs, our date was fun and definitely unique. We conversed, laughed and ate. My confidence in returned missionaries was finally restored. I now know for certain that the transformation back into normal, date-worthy men can and will take place for returned missionaries if they will put forth the effort.
RYAN’S REACTION
After the experience, Ryan bore his honest emotion of the whole thing:
Easing back into life after my mission was kind of hard, of course, with all of the normal stuff, like listening to music again.
I mean it was kind of hard to find purpose and meaning in life and the stuff that you’re doing because the whole college life is focused on yourself.
I couldn’t even get this darn part out of my hair.
No, seriously though, I went to my cousin’s house a couple of weeks ago; she fed us dinner and I was totally doing the missionary head nod. I totally wanted to give a spiritual thought afterward, and I even felt weird not doing it.
As for girls, sometimes it is interesting sitting next to them. Like I remember one time when every movement felt like a big deal—in slow motion with over-exaggerated movements.
I also have another great story related to girls, but uh, I plead the 5th on that one.
So, when I was asked to do this, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but I went with it.
Since the whole experience, I tried some new hair stuff; it’s some kind of fiber or something and it seems to be working really well.
So, Aileen was trying to teach me how to cross my legs, and she kept telling me to relax and point my foot upwards, but that was NOT relaxing! I seriously will never be able to master crossing my legs the way she said was “natural.”
I really liked the outfit with the Diesel jeans and the polo shirt (though I’m kind of iffy on the whole double polo thing.) But it was seriously EXPENSIVE!
As for the massage, it was uh… very… relaxing. And weird, I guess would be the word. And I really don’t think that pumpkin belongs on a guy’s face, regardless of what it de-foliates. But, I’m not saying it’s not okay for anyone… just a bit femme for me. After that experience, I swore I smelled like pumpkin for the next three days.
The date was way fun. Jeri is a cool girl and she was really understanding about all the camera stuff and the etiquette lesson (though I might have failed on my part of the test). Pizza with a fork is a fun game, but don’t try it without adult supervision.
Overall, I think this was very helpful to me in learning again about the way our society functions.
Denver may not be a foreign country, but the world I came back from sure felt like it might as well have been.
