May 23rd

I wear red Soffe shorts, a Relay for Life t-shirt and my running shoes. Not your typical ‘first-date attire’. I do my best to make a pony-tale flirty. 10:50 a.m. on a Sunday. My phone buzzes twice. A text reads, “I’m going to be a little late but I’m more than prepared for our date today, so I think that makes up for it.” I can’t help but smile.

We’re going hiking at some mysterious place near Natural Bridge, forty minutes from where I live in Salem. After many hints at a date, two reschedules and a lot of flirting, I cannot wait to go on this hike.

If only I had known. It starts raining on the way, but not enough to convince us to turn around. The ride is quiet but comfortable. All I can think is “Goodness this boy is cute; why on earth did he ask ME out?” And a few times, “I really hope I don’t trip and fall down this mountain.”

It seems like a pretty easy hike. Not too steep, and the path is clearly marked. But after an hour, I realize we’ve barely started. We come to a giant mound of fallen and broken marble which is the hike. I then see we are not just hiking after all; Devil’s Marbleyard requires rock climbing.

Here, I need to explain: I am 5’3”; my date, 6’2”. He is also a hurdler. I picture him bounding up the rocks, while I struggle, slip and eventually fall to my death.

None of that really happens, but he does seem to have a much easier time than I do. I try to follow his steps but cannot possibly reach my legs as far as he does and get stuck several times. He’s patient, helpful and laughs at my clumsiness along with me (points for him).

It starts to drizzle, so we stop to eat lunch. He made PB&J sandwiches (more points!) and has water. We attempt to keep climbing in the rain but it gets slippery and we decide to head back down. Big mistake. Climbing down wet rocks is even harder than climbing up them. I slip a few times, my heart stopping with each stagger and I really become scared I might really be injured on this date. What a great start to a relationship. But I don’t fall and we do survive without a scratch. We get only slightly lost the way back but soon we’re in the car. A quick hug good-bye confirms my suspicion that I was not exciting enough and probably complained a too much about the difficult hike. Thankfully, I am wrong again, because two days later he takes me to the zoo and we get lost (it becomes a regular thing) looking for a place to eat.

Fourteen months later, we haven’t had a dull date yet. Sometimes we settle for a movie instead of dangerous hikes and animals but it’s always exciting. And I continue to tease him about our near-fatal first date.