Part 3

No, I did NOT forget that I so rudely left you hanging for much longer than was reasonable! I suppose a year and a half is quite long enough so today I present the third part of the "love story," as it's been called. Part four is in the works, as well, kids.

Now where did I leave off... oh yes, the part where a lovestruck Jason had just begun pursuing the woman of his dreams. (You are advised to re-read parts one and two if your memory needs refreshing.)

So onward.

Not surprisingly, Jason started showing up everywhere. Mostly wherever Jess was.

He was invited to celebrate a birthday with Matt's family on April 1st, and ironically posed for a picture with Matt and his future in-laws.

Matt later enjoyed ruining a picture with Jess and Becca (his wife). We really don't know.

Later that month Rebecca managed to snag discounted tickets to the International Festival, and the group made plans to attend together. It was a hot Saturday afternoon when the six of them (Rebecca and April and their husbands, plus Jessica and Jason) squeezed into a pickup truck and made their way downtown.

On the way they stopped at a gas station to fill up. The Jasons went into the convenience store for some snacks and April began a silly conversation inside the truck. Something about Jessica and Jason ending up together.

Jess laughed at the teasing but thought nothing of it until April began to pray:

"Dear God, please let Jason and Jessica get married."

Jess retaliated: "Dear God, please let April have triplets."

After finding parking downtown, nobody had a clue where to find the festival. Jess, however, knew to call her mother, who always knew where everything was. And at last they stumbled upon it, sprawled out in the middle of Houston in all its hot, sticky, crowded glory. It smelled like all the glorious foods one generally finds at a carnival and then some: funnel cake, roasted corn, hot dogs, some Asian-style meat on a stick (!) with peanut sauce, and so on. It was a jumble of colorful costumes and commercialized booths with something to sell and performers and spectators. They passed a karaoke booth and April was almost persuaded to show the current performer how it was done. They entered a drawing at another booth and were given red piggy key chains with some cryptic Chinese symbol in the middle.

The six-some soaked all of this up and then sat beside the wading pool with their fried and roasted treats to watch the ninja show. Yes, a ninja show.

Jason 2 made sure to sit next to Jessica. He threatened to push her into the pool, but as warm as Jessica was she preferred to stay dry and warned him that there would be consequences for such an action.

Some drunk guy didn't mind though, and decided to go splashing around in the pool before security managed to convince him to behave himself.

After the ninja show, everyone was ready to leave (but not before the girls could redeem their last food coupons for some pickles). It was still fairly early and someone suggested ice cream. And so that is the happy thing they pursued by driving to Piccomolo.

Then after a long day of international and local adventures, it was time to part ways.

Jess later discovered that the day at the international festival had been one of Jason's favorite times spent with her, and had only convinced him more that she was something special.

(But she already knew that.)

Part 1

Hellooooo all my friends out there in the blogging world!

I hang my head in shame every time I think about my blogs... really I do. Ok sometimes it's more a lowering of the eyes. And sometimes I just kick the thought out of my head so I don't have to deal with the guilt.

Well in all honestly I have missed blogging. But what I miss even more is keeping up with everybody and getting to hear what's going on in your lives.

But I haven't posted anything since the beginning of the school year 10 weeks ago, and I have some pretty big news to share! A lot of you have heard it already and inquired incredulously as to why I had not given any indication before that this sort of news was in the making. The short answer is that I never imagined things would happen the way they did (just like I never imagined my blog would fester in a puddle of antiquity for months on end). So here at last is the beginning of the story, long overdue. It's quite long and I'll have to post it in segments.

But first the news:
I'm engaged!
And now the story from the beginning.

'Twas a spring break night... the sort of spring break night a good girl would have. Jessica and her friend Rebecca were engaged in a lively game of Scrabble at the living room coffee table in Rebecca's apartment. This was just the sort of entertainment they dreamed of.

The game kept them occupied until after 10 o'clock, when Rebecca's husband Matt got off work and paraded into the house with a troop of friends for a few rounds of some good old-fashioned Halo. The boys were intent on taking over the living room, so Rebecca and Jessica moved their Scrabble game into the dining room. Which was pretty much a different side of the same room. You know how apartments are.

Resuming their game, the girls didn't pay much attention to the brief introductions that were made around the room. Too many unfamiliar faces for one night, so they concentrated on their competitive wordplay and left the boys alone.

One boy, however, was not content to remain on his side of the room. Jessica noticed a lurking presence as she surveyed the Scrabble board, and a voice said "Hey, Scrabble! That's awesome."

Jessica was quite taken by her game, however, and barely looked up enough to reply "Yeah. It's fun." The interloper lingered for a few moments longer, watching the board and attempting to make conversation, before finally giving up on the strange, cool characters at the Scrabble board.

It was a few days later when Jessica, Rebecca, and their friend April were seated in Rebecca's living room and suddenly, the matchmaking began.

"What's the oldest a guy could be that you would consider dating?" April prodded. She and Becca, the two married women of the group, exchanged a glance. Jess replied that she really didn't know... maybe 24 or 25. WHY?
"Oh," Becca said. "Never mind I guess."
"Wellcausetheresthisguyjasonandhesreallycoolandyouguyshavealotincommon," April explained.
"Ha ha. How old is he?"
"I think he's 26," said Becca.
"No, I think he said he's 27."

Jessica's eyes opened wide and she shook her head. It was only March - he would probably be turning 28 later this year. She was just turning 19. No. WAY.

"We told him about you, too."
(Jessica marveled at the genius of her friends.)
"Well you guys can at least meet. Who knows? You might hate each other," Becca went on.
"Yeah whatever!"
And that was that. For then.

The spring semester resumed and it was back to life as usual, which included church night on Tuesday for a Spurgeon sermon. Jess and Becca, members of the same church, attended regularly, and on this particular Tuesday night Rebecca divulged a tidbit of news to Jessica.

"Jason might be here tonight."

Jessica tried not to think about it. Darn matchmakers forever and ever. She hoped fiercely that someone with children would show up so that she could spend the evening in the nursery (as the resident "nursery lady" at church) instead of sitting in the same room with a man almost ten years older than her who probably already wanted to marry her for all she knew.

She was waiting anxiously in the foyer with Rebecca, just a few minutes before the service was scheduled to start, when a motorcycle rumbled into the church parking lot.

Rebecca smiled. Big. Too big. "There's Jason!"

But to Jessica's relief, a young family arrived and she was granted her stay in the nursery. She managed to avoid meeting Jason completely, occupying herself with her young charge as he entered the church building and ignoring Rebecca when she poked her head in and motioned for her to come say hello to the stranger. The service finally started and Jessica had avoided an awkward introduction. Yessss!

Of course, it was only put off until the service ended. No way to avoid it now. So Jess cleaned up the nursery and entered the sanctuary, where Rebecca and Jason were conversing with Becca's in-laws. She waited until they finished and took the plunge.

"Hi, I'm Jessica, but you probably knew that." She extended her hand and he took it.

"Oh yeah... I think we met the other night. You were playing Scrabble, right?"

Ah, the irony. She hadn't recognized her Scrabble lurker, but apparently here he was. Eeep.

Jason was drawn into another conversation with someone else so Becca and Jess headed outside to discuss plans for the rest of the evening.

"Ok, be honest. Would you mind if I invited Jason to come with us to Starbucks, since April and Jason will be there too?"

Jess told her it would be fine. Ok, she was quite happy Becca suggested it. She definitely wanted to leave Jason with a better impression of her than he'd gathered at their first meeting.

So the three of them, each driving (or riding on) separate vehicles, traipsed to Starbucks where April and Jason met them.

I must end part 1 here... I was planning to post the whole thing at once but I'm quite the sluggard when it comes to getting this thing written (obviously) and I wouldn't want to serve you some lukewarm concoction when I can dish out the whole story with all the delicious details!

And so I leave you here in suspense. Mwahahaha.