Josh's Perspective: The Beginning, Part II

Yup- more gushy love stuff on the blog today :)

I thought I would let Josh explain the second part of our story from his perspective... and trust. It's like, a million times better than my version, or maybe it's just so sweet to hear him tell it. I might have him tell the rest, actually. You up for it, babe? ;)

(One of our songs from back in the day- describes these moments perfectly!)

I had been back from my mission a few months and I received a letter from Kristen. I remember getting it and feeling this overwhelming joy (and a bit of disbelief ). I read through the letter a few times and kept looking back at the picture that she included. I remember being at odds with the situation...

On one hand there is this beautiful girl that no matter how I try and explain it, every time I saw her, or I got a chance to lock eyes, there was always this "something" that was very strong between us. On the other hand there is this age difference, and at the time the gap was enough to deem an inappropriate relationship. I think my judgement got the better of me, so I tucked the picture and letter away and did nothing about it.

Life went on as usual. I worked and I dated. I basically was getting myself adjusted back to a normal routine since the mission. I started dating a girl that I had known and grew up with for a long while. We had actually talked about marriage on a couple of occasions. As time went on I just felt there was something lacking in the relationship I was in, and broke it off with her. 

For the next eight months or so I kept myself away from the opposite sex, focused on work, and just enjoyed some time with my buddies that I was living with. That was until I got a phone call one night as I was getting home from work.

My phone rang as I was pulling up to my house from work. I looked down and didn't recognize the number. I remember almost letting it go to voice mail... but I picked up. On the other line was a voice from what seemed was so far in the past, but I recognized it immediately when I heard it. 

"It can't be...?" I wondered.

My heart felt like it was going to explode, my pulse started to race, and I began to sweat just from sheer nerves of the situation. We talked for what seemed like an eternity. I told her about my baseball game and was pretty excited I was going to see her. Glad I did, because we ended up talking for so long that my battery died.

The line went dead and my mind started racing a million miles an hour with the same thought coming back, "Is this really happening?" I finally went into the house, into my room, and attempted to get some sort of sleep that night. 

The next day was almost worse. The anxiety was building up and I was doing my best to keep as cool as possible. When I went into work my boss instantly knew something was up. I was unusually quiet for most of the morning with so much on my mind. He finally prodded a bit and wanted to know what was up with me. 

I'm pretty sure he decided that was a bad idea as I went into a day long conversation about this girl Kristen. By the time I got done, or by the time he finally told me to shut up, he looked at me dead in the face and said, "Josh my man, you're in trouble."

I got ready for my game trying to focus on only just that.....yeah right. 

I play catcher and of the advantages of being a catcher is that you have your back to the crowd. The game started out great. I wasn't really looking into the crowd for anything and I was finally in game mode. The innings went fairly quick, the pace of the game was great, and I was still keyed in. 

Then I got up to bat. 

As I walked to the plate gripping my bat and sizing up the pitcher, my head went towards the plate, back to the pitcher, and back towards the plate. Just before I was ready to step in the batter's box and get into my ready stance, I glanced to the crowd. 

What I saw was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She was sitting there, long black hair, amazing eyes looking enthusiastic, and that smile that can just stop time... I was done. 

The remainder of the game as I played catcher I was just fine, but the times I had to go bat... not... so... good. If you know anything about baseball, I did finally get a piece of the ball and hit a pretty weak grounder into a gap on my final at bat... that was the good news. The bad news is I committed one of the cardinal sins of baseball as a batter (Don't step on home plate until you have rounded third... yeah that's an instant OUT).  Yup, so I hit the ball but stepped on home plate as I was taking off for first base. "OUT" yelled the umpire, and the game was over.

While packing up all my gear into my bag I instantly realized that I had just played out in the dirt, in the hot sun, and while wearing full catchers gear (cue the eeeew sweaty/dirty man).  I grabbed my bag and walked to the field exit. I saw Kristen on the other side and I couldn't find the exit fast enough... so I jumped the fence. I couldn't help myself, it was the first time I was actually allowed to hug her, and sweaty/dirty or not, I was going to take advantage. I was just extremely glad that she didn't mind either. 

It was every feeling that I had felt before and so much better.

I'm totally swooning over here! Mostly over remembering how crazy in love we were, but also that this is his first time posting on here! I've asked him like a million times before but he never budged, then out of the blue I get this sweet story sent to my email yesterday, and just couldn't hold off publishing it :)

So, there's one last part of the story remaining... I think I'll hold off for a little bit before you get lovesick and nauseous!! ;)