The Real Story: What Art's Been Avoiding on this Blog

It would seem by the suddenly-active comments section of my blog that I have recently acquired some self-professed (though anonymous) fan(s). By their clever question asking, my comments were led to hint at what is likely the more truthful answer to the question "what has kept you so busy that you haven't posted lately?" And therein lies this tale: (names may or may not have been changed to protect those involved)

Our story begins on a seemingly innocuous Thursday night in October or November. On this evening, our reluctant protagonist was attending Intervarsity Christian's weekly meeting, at which small groups were being formed. Our reluctant protagonist (let's call him... Art... that's an uncommon name) was drawn to the assortment of grad students and signed himself on to be a part of that group. The fearless leader of this group (let's call her... Sue) worked out a meeting time, and weekly Bible studies began.

The tale proceeds relatively quietly for the next few months. It should (must) be mentioned that Sue added Art to her MSN list somewhere in the middle of this less-enthralling portion of the story, a bold move which was largely overlooked by our reluctant protagonist. In an unfortunate turn of events, Art's schedule became very busy with admissions videos and stage performances and many other excuses already on this blog, causing him to miss many small group sessions. However, all hope was not yet lost for Art.

It should be noted at this point that although Art thought Sue was a really cool girl, a great Bible study leader and kinda cute, he was simultaneously unsure of her feelings as well as generally... let's say... "unbold" in these matters. But just when it would seem all hope was lost, fate stepped into this matter, using several degrees of separation.

Sue was frustrated by Art's "unobservant maleness," and unsure how to proceed. Just then, a remarkable turn of events was set in motion. It would seem that two people who both attended the University of Waterloo for their undergraduate degrees (as had Sue and Art) would have some common acquaintances. And when this certainty was revealed in the form of a friend of Sue's (let's call her Mary) Sue lamented to her: "Art's an inobservant male, what am I to do?" Not to fear, fate intervened yet again when Mary told a good friend of Art's (let's call him Jonathan) about the entire episode. Now Jonathan - knowing the ways of Art's mind and realizing his chickenish nature - immediately passed this knowledge on to Art, to do with it what he would.

At this point, our reluctant protagonist, newly bolstered by this information, made some bold moves. The aforementioned (and woefully underused) MSN channel was reinitiated, and at an oppurtune moment after a small group, some of the group went out for a bite to eat after
their meeting at Art's request. At this point, Art had his senses attuned, his radar set to monitor Sue's every word for indications of this newfound truth. Despite his best efforts, Art still appeared to be an inobservant male - although subsequent investigation reveals that Sue was broadcasting on all available channels, Art was still receiving mostly static. Undaunted, he suggested a theoretical date of a Settlers game. Some clever work on Art's part turned that Settlers game into an afternoon together, which was greatly enjoyed by both parties.

At this point, I'll stop the pompous 3rd person telling of the story (as fun as it is) and mention how after that first date, I've spent as much time with Sue as schedules and distance will allow, and enjoyed every minute of it. Timing being my strong suit, we started dating just as Sue was leaving on a clinical placement in St. Catharines, but as a wise man once said to me, "phhh... watcha gonna do." But before she left, we had four consecutive dates (a new personal best), and I had a wonderful time throughout. Since then we've met up for a weekend in Waterloo and worked the long distance thing. Mostly, I'm really excited about her and the whole thing, so life's been lots of fun lately. I think that's the end of the story as it stands right now. It's been a whirlwind three and a half weeks since our first date, and hopefully I'll have many more things to say in this blog in the future.