How We Met

Phil and I first met at Bethel College where we were both going to school. We met in the Dining Commons which was the one and only dining hall at Bethel at the time. If you ate on campus then you ate there! I walked to dinner with a few of my girlfriends and in the dorm before we left we met up with Sam and a few of his friends. My friend Jenni and Sam were just starting to date at the time.

After going through the line and getting our food we all sat down together at one of the super long tables. I ended up sitting at the end of our group with a few empty chairs between me and the next group of people. I was still fairly new to school and it was the Monday after Thanksgiving Break. The other group that was next to me stood up and left after a while leaving a lone guy sitting there still eating. I noticed that he was eating all alone (not uncommon in the dining hall especially if you were in a hurry) and I told him to slide down and sit with us. I was finished eating but our group was sticking around while we were talking and having a good time. There was not anything better to do!

I had gotten into the habit of playing with my food after I was done eating it. I would mix up weird food combinations with my orange rinds, pizza crusts, and ketchup and then my friend Amanda would then dare someone to eat my creations. The very quiet boy that had slid down next to me (Phil) was probably horrified by my loudness, boldness, and weird behavior. He walked back to the dorm with our large group. I remember him talking to Lindsey and I as we walked back. I also remember not knowing what his name was. I had never seen him before this night which is kind of odd with such a small campus.

The next afternoon one of my friends that was on the JV basketball team invited my to come to his game that night. I said that I would and I ended up going with one of my friends. I don't remember much of the game but I do remember seeing that boy (Phil) again with his roommate in the front row. It was only the second time that I had seen him on campus. They were acting normal but had a small hand held tape recorder that they were talking into. I was thinking that was kind of odd. Why were they doing that? I didn't think that much of it except that I remembered them as the "tape recorder" people.

So then later that week I realized that one of the "tape recorder" people (Phil's roommate Tim) was in my Spanish class. After class that day, Phil and Tim were walking back to the dorm after class and they caught up to me and talked to me the whole way home. We all lived in the same dorm. Guys on one side and girls on the other. When I got back to the dorm I stopped by Lauren and Jenni's room to see what time they were going to dinner. They lived on the second floor and could see everyone as they used the front door of the dorm. They asked me who I was walking with and I said that "I didn't know, but I think that they had a tape recorder at the game."

Sunday after church, I was using the microwave at the Dining Commons and Phil actually came over to me while I was waiting and asked me where I had to to church that day. I told him and he said that I should try going to the church that he went to. Okay, so why do I keep seeing this random guy? I even think that he walked me back to the dorm that day. Later that day I was talking to my mom on the phone and I happened to see Phil and Tim walking outside again. They were throwing rocks into the flower beds. Again kind of odd but then again I am kind of odd!

Monday it was raining and as I was leaving the Dining Commons after lunch that guy was suddenly leaving at the same time as me. He said "hi" to me and we started to walk in the rain and he said to me "Fishbaugh, is that German?" What a funny way to start a conversation!?

So all of these random things kept happening with this mystery guy that I knew nothing about and had never seen until after Thanksgiving. Each event was isolated in my mind. I didn't think about them in between times. Then my friends would started saying things to me like "I love that guy's scruff! He is really cute." My friend Lauren said that about Phil. I remember thinking "you do?" I had never thought that and I couldn't believe that she was randomly saying that after all of the run-ins that I was having with him and I hadn't told anyone about them.

Then Friday at the basketball game, it was the Huntington vs. Bethel game and it was packed. The student section was all full when we got there so we sat in the side seats and we could see the student section. During the game Amanda randomly said "Do you know who I think is really cute? That guy over there." Now I was really wondering what was going on! I told her that "I keep running into him." We didn't talk about it again. After the game we (Amanda and I) went to dinner, of course where? The dining commons yes! We sat down together after getting our food and all of a sudden Phil came up and sat next to me and all of his friends were sitting with us! I froze and looked at Amanda and she started laughing and smiling. It was like she saw the connection even though I had not told her about any of the previous incidents.

The next day was the Christmas Choir Concert. During the intermission Jenni and I went upstairs to mingle around. We were standing in the foyer and talking to a few people and then Sam came over, who was quickly becoming Jenni's boyfriend, and Phil was with him. We were all talking and standing around. Phil showed me that he had a deep scratch on his hand from an intramural basketball game. He held up his hand to show me and I touched it. I suddenly felt warm and happy inside and I looked at him and he was attractive to me! Right after that happened we had to back downstairs and get ready for the rest of the concert. I didn't want to go! After the concert I kept thinking that I wanted to see him again. I tried to distract myself and I hung out with my friends. I kept hoping that he would show up but he didn't.

The next evening was Sunday and we had a choir party to go to after the afternoon concert. I went to the concert with Jenni and I told her for the first time that I was kind of interested in Phil. When I got back to my room after the party my roommate told me that two guys had stopped by looking for me. I asked her who they were and she had no idea. Then my friend from down the hall came to me and said that two guys had come looking for me to go to a movie. I only knew Phil's first name so I looked through the phone directory for a Phil and luckily there were only two and only one of them lived in our dorm. (Again, small college!) I called him hoping that they hadn't left yet but nobody was there. Bummer they had already left. I was so sad!

Now I knew that I was interested in him. It seemed that he was interested in me too because I kept running into him all the next week. On Wednesday night I had rehearsal for a dance production that I was involved in at a local church and I had to skip my evening ceramics class. It was snowing that night and Phil walked me to my class to tell them I would be gone and then he walked me back to the dorm. The snowflakes were so big and they were falling so softly. We walked through the snow back to the dorm and he stopped to pick up a big stick and I looked back at him standing there in the snow with his red hat and I JUST KNEW that there was something there. The next night at dinner he volunteered to ride with me over to the church where I had left my hat because he said he knew where it was and I didn't. It turned out that he didn't really know the way. He just had an idea of where it was. We drove around looking for the church and talking all of the way. When we got back to the school as we were walking to the dorm he asked me if I wanted to go to dinner with him the next night? I said yes right away but that it would have to be really early because of my dance performance. We decided on 4:30!! That is so early for a Friday night!

I didn't tell anyone that we had a date set up. I guess I just thought it was so speacial and exciting that I wanted to keep it to myself. I told my friend Amanda the next day about our date because she was going to be curling my hair for the performance and we would have to meet EXTRA early now because of the date! She was excited too. She helped me get ready and curled my hair. She really curled it too in tight ringlet curls because I was an angel in the dance performance and we were supposed to have curly hair! So I went to my date with ring tight curls!! So funny! Later that night we all went sledding with our friends which was a fun extension of our date.

The next day I had another dance performance in the afternoon and when I got back to my room I had a voice mail from Phil inviting me to go with him to his cousins highschool basketball game. I canceled my plans with my friends so that I could go. Little did I know that I would be meeting practically his whole extended family! I also didn't know that we were going to his parents house before the game until we were practically there. We parked in his driveway and I saw a little girl open the door and squeal with delight and then slam the door. Right before we went into Phil's house he told me that he had never brought a girl home before!!!!! Suddenly I was so nervous. At the game I met his grandparents, cousins, aunt and uncle, and I even met the pastor of his church who was the youth pastor at the time and he just happened to graduate from my high school! Small world.

So here we are 8 years later!!!!!!!