Our Story

On February 14th Chari and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. On April 10th, we celebrated another special anniversary…that of our first date. For 16 years I’ve been blessed to have Chari in my life. Our first few months dating is quite the little soap opera. Since I’ve had the opportunity to explain it some lately, and since I have some extra time on my hands, I thought I’d share some more detail with those of you who know us ….just probably not our beginnings. As I mentioned, this story has quite a bit of detail. I’ll give it to you over a few days. This first posting will be a little lengthy, just need to get the background out of the way. I hope you enjoy our story. So, without further delay, welcome to our beginning from my perspective. Chari may disagree with some of the details.

Our Story Chapter One – Pre 1st Date
This won’t be an exciting section, but necessary to set the background for the rest. Chari and I both ran track at rival high schools. She attended Skyline and I attended Brighton. My first memory of Chari comes from our sophomore year. We were at a sophomore region meet. I had become acquainted with a hurdler from Olympus named, ummm…..let’s call him… “Roger”. Roger plays an interesting role in the story. Since he won’t be available to represent his side of the story, I’ll just change the name to protect identity. Anyways, Roger and I were talking when he first saw Chari across the infield and asked “who is that?!” He had spotted Chari and pointed her out. I didn’t know who she was. No doubt, I found Chari to be a HOTTIE from the very beginning. Roger was bolder than I and went to talk to her. I didn’t know what happened after that. The meet ended and track was over for the year. I went back to my life not to meet this group again until the next track season. What I didn’t know is that over the next year Roger and Chari would begin dating off and on.

Junior year comes and goes. I develop a competitive friendship with Roger. He’s always been better than I am at the 110 high hurdles. I’m beginning to catch up in the 300m intermediate hurdles. We’ve become pretty good friends throughout the season. I don’t talk much about Chari with him but I know they are dating. For a few weeks I see this girl from Alta named Jessica, also a hurdler. The big joke is Roger vs me, and Chari vs Jessica. Jessica wins Region over Chari. Roger doesn’t win region but does beat me in both races. In all this, Chari and I are acquaintances at best. I can’t remember anything more than a hello in passing. Chari is like a beautiful spring flower. For a few months of the year I see her once every few weeks. Then the season ends and just like a spring flower, she is gone and I have to wait 9 months before the flower blooms again. I always just admire the flower from a far. (Now how’s that for cheesy!)

Senior year – the fun begins. I am bowling one night with friends when Chari shows up with Roger after a school dance they have been attending. Before I say hello to him, I have the unfortunate experience to watch Roger and Chari in a little lip lock session. Not pretty.

Indoor track season begins in January. This is a turning point for me. I have pretty much put extra curricular activities (such as dating) on hold to concentrate on track. However, a feeling within me starts pushing a desire to get to know Chari. I guess I’m tired of looking at the flower from far off. I become observant to the fact that she and Roger seem to be distanced some. Throughout the indoor track season I try to take advantage of opportunities to create small talk.

Outdoor meets begin and Chari is starting to throw interest my way. She is cheering for me, creating conversations, holding my hand while we talk, just generally showing interest. I do have one encounter with Roger. I’m walking past Chari at one of our meets and I stop to talk for a moment. She’s a little more reserved from what she’s been like recently (not flirty) and I’m not sure why. At that moment, Roger comes up from behind me (she must have seen him coming) and says “Hey Swens…you moving in on my territory?” No, no, no…not me. I wanted to make a comment about no livestock around or something but he is my friend and since the conversation is going nowhere with him there I mosey on my way. She’s probably uncomfortable with us both around. At our first big meet (an invitational) I over hear Chari speaking to a friend about me and pointing my direction. Something about “that’s the guy right there”. Perhaps she was talking about how I was stalking her….but I read it as a good sign and decide it is time to ask her out. And where is Roger in all this? Well….here’s where the story gets good. You’ve made it through the background mumbo jumbo, let’s get down to business.

Our Story Chapter Two – Asking her out

I missed my opportunity at our first invitational so I decide to take advantage of the next one. It’s at Weber State University the next weekend. The problem is the girls compete on Friday and the boys compete on Saturday. So, I decide to drive up to Ogden for the girls meet and ask her out there. I’m too scared to go alone so I drag my best friend, Jory Kimball along (Dr. Kimball for those who may seem him as an optometrist now). We arrive in Ogden and take a seat at the top of the bleachers. Jory knows me too well and realizes that if given the chance, I’ll chicken out of this completely. Jory starts pushing me to go take care of business. I make my way to the other side of the stadium where the people are. I run into a fellow hurdler from Kearns so I of course stop and talk to him. Any excuse to delay…I’m nervous. Jory eventually joins me. We just hang for awhile. I try to go say hi to Chari but she’s half asleep and I get a faint hello. Strike one. We decide to go to lunch. After lunch, we just hang with the Kearns crew. What I’m not aware of is that during this time Chari is talking to Jessica, the girl I was seeing from Alta the year before. Chari is asking questions about me and what I am like. Jessica has nothing but good things to say about me and says that if she had the chance to go out with me again she would. WHEWWW…I wouldn’t have seen that coming. I should mention that Jessica ended our brief relationship so when I found out about this conversation later in life I was somewhat surprised. Eventually, Jory starts pushing me again. What a good friend…and I’m sure he didn’t want to go home knowing he wasted a Friday because his best friend is a chicken. I see my moment. Chari has just completed running the 300m Hurdle finals and will be going back over to the starting area to put on her warm-ups…which just happens to be the quickest way back to my car in the parking lot as well. That’s where I will intervene. It couldn’t have been more perfect. Chari finishes talking to another girl and is standing alone as I walk up. We speak for a moment and she asks if I am leaving and I say yes. She says “do you have a hot date tonight or something?”

Uhhhhmmmmm…..no. “Actually I was wondering if you would like to go out sometime….unless you have a boyfriend or something.” Now, I don’t know what your personal style is…perhaps you think I’m somewhat of an idiot for giving her a way out like that. You’re probably right. I will admit I’m not very good at this sort of thing. But I want to hear from her exactly what the story is with Roger and this is how I believe I can do it. Chari responds by saying “Well just Roger, but he and I are just good friends so I would love to go out with you.” SUCCESS – I’m ecstatic! They’re just good friends! Good friends! He won’t mind if I take her out if they’re just good friends right? We set a date for the next night. I had brought a pen and paper but the pen didn’t work so Chari carved her number into the card. I say good-bye and Jory and I head out. I have no life…atleast not until my date with Chari the next night so I decide I’m going to find her house. Never can be too prepared, right? I find the phone number in the white pages, record the address, and Jory and I drive over to Skyline and find her house. Then I’m home and into bed. I’ve got races tomorrow.

Chapter 3 – Race Day…Date Day

I’ve made up my mind that I’m going to keep away from Roger today. I’m sure he doesn’t know I have a date with Chari, but I would think avoiding casual conversation about anything is best. Don’t want any “whatcha doing this weekend” questions to arise. Luckily Roger is in his own world during warm-ups for the 110 hurdles. I stay away from him. I run an awesome trial race…2nd fastest time out of everyone there. Easily qualify for finals. Not even my best event and I’m 2nd fastest on the day. Life is looking pretty sweet! I keep my distance for the next hour or two and then we hit warm-ups for the 300 hurdles. Roger keeps his distance again. I run my trial for the 300 hurdles and I do awesome. After all trials are done, I’m 2nd fastest overall again! What a day. Shortly after this, I find out that Roger has not qualified for the finals in either race! My mom tells me he has been up in the bleachers slamming his fists into a stadium section sign like a boxer does to a bag. Then I find out he’s left for the day since he hasn’t made finals in anything. Can this day get any better!!!!!

No, it can’t…(not until my date anyway)…but it can certainly get alittle worse and a little more interesting. And here’s how:

….to be continued