"Um. That's MY arm" or "Hey, remember me?"

A couple of weeks ago, one of my roommates had a date with a girl to go cross-country skiing, and he asked me to double with him. I wanted to go--really, I did!--but after being rejected by three girls, I decided I had struck out.

Rejection #1 was pretty interesting. Here's how I recorded it in my journal (25 Jan 2009):

{Open Quote}

At ward prayer tonight, I approached Anne, exchanged greetings, and said, "This Saturday, Jason and I are going cross-country skiing, and I was wondering if you'd like to come."

"This Saturday?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Oh," she said, looking distraught, "I don't think I can."

"Oh~" I said, the tilde being indicative of my inflection.

"And--" she said.

Here it comes, Jepson; here it comes!

"--and I'm dating someone right now," she said.

I had worried about this--not emotionally, but the thought had crossed my mind. Just the way she talked that Monday night when she was bemoaning her dating confusion, I figured there had to be a guy somewhere who was confusing her.

She apologized.

"No, that's alright," I said. "I kinda figured, and I thought this was a sure-fire way to find out."

She laughed and rubbed my arm.

"Yeah..." she said. "So, I've never been skiing before."

"Yeah, me neither," I said.

"It looks hard, though," she said. "That's a really athletic date."

"Well," I said, "it's cross-country skiing, though, so you just kind of glide on top of the snow. Jason did it yesterday and said it was really fun."

"Where do you guys go to do it?"

"I dunno," I said: "I've never been. Jason went somewhere north of here."

"Huh," she said. "Well. Sorry, but--thanks for inviting me!"

"Hey, no prob'm," I said. "And--ya know--if you find yourself single again, if I'm still single, I'll be around."

She laughed and rubbed my arm.

"That's a very nice--date in--advance," she said, grasping for words.

I smiled and shrugged.

"Well, have a good week," I said. "I'll see ya around."

She smiled and rubbed my arm--dramatic pause.

"Two weeks ago I would've said yes," she finally said, and then she left.

{Close quote}

That is without a doubt the most reluctant rejection I've ever received--but at least she gave it to me! My senior year in high school, a girl asked me out to Sadie Hawkins, like, a couple months in advance. I said yes, but she got herself a boyfriend (not me) between then and the time of the dance; when I asked her about it, she said we were still going together. When the (un)eventful night came, she and I went together and I found myself the victim of a sneaky date swap--meaning I spent the night sitting next to some girl I didn't know (my date's boyfriend's date), unable to get to know her because of the deafening music.

So. Yeah. Any rejection's better than that!

Rejection #2 for skiing was the girl I went on the temple-tour date with, but we went on that date the Tuesday before the night Jason was going skiing, and she already had weekend plans, so that didn't work.

Rejection #3 came that Wednesday night when I called up a girl I had a class with last semester. We had been on one date, and I wasn't opposed to another--even if it had been a few months. I called her up, and we had a conversation something like this:

"Hey, Erica, this is Kyle. Howzitgoin'?"

"Um. Good. Kyle?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry. Kyle whom?"

"Kyle me! Kyle who was in your grammar class last semester! We went on that one really random date with my roommate."

"Oh, Kyle! I'm so sorry! I must have deleted you out of my phone or something. But--I--you're cool, so I don't know why I would have done that. Maybe you were never in my phone...."

"Oh. Well. Remember Jason we doubled with? He's asked a girl to go cross-country skiing this weekend, and I was wondering if you'd like to come along--'cuz, ya know, I never see you anymore."

"I know! It's sad! But--sorry, I've got plans all weekend long."

"Oh. Alright. Well, it was nice talking to you anyway."

"Yeah.... Thanks for calling!"