Melissa is a dating machine!!!

After Melissa and my first date together, I had to move back to Oregon. My summer spent in California was shorter than expected, but all good things come to an end. (well, let's hope not. (= ha, get it?) It was a very long drive back to Portland, and I ended up crashing on the couch at my Mom's house when I got in at 2am. I had intended on taking it pretty easy that week and showing up at church on Sunday without previously telling anyone I was back, but all that got foiled with a phone call from a guy I haven't talked to in about 2 years. He used to be a customer of mine when I worked at Guitar Center, and he had tracked me down to ask me if I could run sound for him and his band on a month long tour they were going on. I thought, "Yeah, sure! I'd be into that." I hadn't gotten anything lined up yet for work because I'd only been in town for a day. I figured I'd have a week or two to take care of a few things, but then he told me they were leaving the next day..... Luckily I hadn't gotten unpacked yet, so I agreed to go. Funny how things work sometimes, huh?

Well, the tour was delayed for a week or two, so I ended up having some time to take care of a few things after all. One of those was to show up at this YSA (that's young single adult for all you non-mormons that read this) dance on the Portland Spirit that Friday. I had a decent time, but I generally always get bored at those things. Funny enough, there were a couple of girls that were apparently as bored as I was because they had disappeared to the lower deck away from all the people and loud music. I'd met these girls earlier in the evening. One of them had moved in to my Singles ward about a week after I moved out, and the other was a friend of hers that had moved up from utah about the same time she did. I seized the opportunity to hit on two girls at once and joined them at their table. It was an interesting conversation to say the least, mostly due to the girl that had passed out from heat stroke or something being resuscitated on the table next to us, but also because of what a miraculously small world this must be.

At some point in the conversation, the girl from my ward asked why she'd never met me before? What's my story?... that kind of stuff. So I told them about my job down in California and about how I'm back for a week or so before heading out on tour. Then we talked about how I'm a musician, and the whole time we were talking, her friend didn't say a whole lot until finally she had some epiphany and said something along the lines of, "Wait! You just got back from California?" I said yes. "...And you're a musician?" Again, yes. "Did you just go on a date with a girl named Melissa Graham?" ....That was a jaw dropper. "What was it like? Was it weird? Did you know that she used to be like a dating machine?" As it turns out, this girl used to be Melissa's college roommate, and Melissa had liked me so much that after I left for Oregon, she called this girl and told her she should try to go out with me since she no longer could. I always laugh at this: The girl that my friend fixed me up with was now trying to fix me up with her friend because she was bummed that she couldn't date me. (girls are so confusing sometimes!) As weird it was, I'm glad that it happened because it inspired me to get back in touch with Melissa, if only to ask her what she'd said about me.

The next day, I got a phone call from my dear friend Doree. It went a little like this: "Hello, Matty! How are you? What have you been up to? Um... so I heard you had a hot date the other day! What was it like going out with a fresh RM? Was it weird?" Dang-o-rang!! This girl was telling everyone about me! (That's not actually the case, but it was definately a good ego boost. I was feeling pretty good about myself, that's for sure.) So when I finally got a chance to talk to Melissa and tell her that her friends kept asking about us, here was her reply:

"How embarrassing about all those questions. Let it be known yours was the first date I've had since I've been back. So the first date in over two years. And as a girl I talk about dates with my friends, it just so happens that two of my really close friends happen to know you and happen to be a little nosy and needless to say they aren't on my good list these days.
I'm sure glad I haven't run into any of your friends in Fairfield because I don't think I could handle their crazy questions.Whew... Luckily I live in Napa.
Anyway so onto other subjects Can you believe the price of rice in China Wow it sure has skyrocketed!!!"

At that point I realized that this girl liked me when I didn't think I'd made a very good impression on her. But more importantly, I realized that I liked her too. So we kept in touch. I told her that she should call me at weird hours of the night, which she actually did once and I missed the call. We wrote back and forth in messages online, and I was able to talk with her a lot from the road when I finally left for that tour. I was having some really wonderful experiences on that trip, and to top it off, I was getting to know a wonderful woman. The people I was with on this tour kept asking me about this msterious woman. Finally, the tour ended in southern California, and the rout back to Oregon would take us right by the bay. I had an errand or two that I had to take care of down in Fairfield anyway, so I thought it would be a good idea to drop in and visit. Maybe I'd get a chance to see Melissa again for a second date? So I had the guys drop me off at my old apartment building in Fairfield. I had no idea what was about to happen.