How I Met Craig

Just when I was thinking I had nothing to write about, my friend Nancy challenged anyone who read her blog to write the story of how they met their spouse. And since (a) I love talking about Craig and (b) I've been watching How I Met Your Mother obsessively these days, this is a challenge I am eager to accept. And besides, it's about time I wrote this all down. For those of you who know the story or were there when it happened, I give you a free Skip This Post pass. Just because I'm nice like that. And I will also warn you that I get excessively sappy by the end here. Sorry. But there are some things that I can't take too lightly because it would be ungrateful of me. And Craig is one of those things.


Craig and I met at the beginning of BYU's fall semester in 2004 when his roommate-- who was my friend-- set us up. The rest is history.

The end.




HA! Just kidding. Like I could ever tell a story that quickly! No, sorry, my friend. You're in for the long haul with this one. Get some popcorn and sit tight!



That first part is true, though. But there's a little bit of background info that I have to explain. Basically, I had just come back to BYU after having my heart broken by some evil guy. (How evil, you ask? The kind of guy who breaks up with you over email after you tell him you were disappointed that all he did was email you for your 25th birthday. The kind of guy who refuses to hold your hand and when it sort of hurts your feelings, tells you you're insecure. The kind of guy who you later find out was addicted to porn. The kind of guy who, after you're engaged to someone else, begs you to be a part of his life again, as friends. That kind of evil guy.) And, being heartbroken, I was determined to make the most of a new semester and the opportunity it presents to meet new guys. And see if there was any potential with any other guys in my life.

Which was why I found myself sitting on Jason's couch with his arm around me. Jason had started out as a study-buddy (one of those great kinds who comes to study sessions so well prepared that everyone else spends a few seconds feeling like a complete slacker and then vows to make sure they ALWAYS get him in their study group) and then progressed to being a genuinely good friend. When things were rocky with evil boy, he would give me a hug or even take me out on dates (yup, evil boy didn't mind that). And he was just touchy-feely enough for it to not mean much of anything when he had his arm around me.

Craig walked into the apartment and, being my charming self, I said to him, "Who are you?" I thought I had already met all the roommates, so I actually said it in a pretty rude tone of voice, especially considering that I was the one sitting in his apartment. Maybe it was the New Jersey in Craig, but he didn't seem to mind. He just introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Craig. I live here." And I think I apologized for being rude, but I'm not sure. I did at least tell him my name then.

At this point Jason, who had been trying to organize a group date for all his roommates, piped in with, "Who wants to take Alanna out this Friday?"

And Craig said, "I will."

I thought he was cute. So I was stoked. I was also impressed that he was willing to volunteer to take me out when some other guy had his arm around me. The boy had guts!

He asked for my number and programmed it into his phone (which was brand new, so I was the first number he put in it). I corrected his pronunciation of my name (something I have to do every time I meet someone for the first time). And we picked a place to eat dinner. My Dad had taught me that it was rude to make someone pay too much for you, and since this was practically a blind date, I chose my favorite cheap restaurant in Provo: Burgers Supreme. Craig had never eaten there, so I assured him that the fry sauce and the milkshakes were to die for. Everything was set!


The date was perfect. Except that Craig-- despite my insistence-- didn't order a milkshake for himself. Turns out he's allergic to milk. Oh, well. And if I'm going to be totally honest, some of the other girls involved in this group date were downright annoying. Two girls in particular made it a point to scream 2 seconds before anything exciting happened during the movie we watched (The Bourne Identity). That pretty much ruined the movie for Craig, who hadn't seen it before. But they didn't join us for the dinner part of the date, which was perfect. Craig and I got along splendidly the entire time. We just talked and laughed and talked and laughed.

The thing I remember most was when he was telling me about his experiences as an EFY counselor the previous summer. I asked if he'd had any tough kids to work with, and he admitted that one of his boys had been cutting himself. To this day I don't know why I did this, but I burst out laughing. And fortunately for me, so did Craig. And we've been laughing about this very serious, heart-breaking psychological problem ever since. Because we're terrible people like that. Even at the time I think I asked why we were laughing and we admitted that we probably shouldn't be, but that just made us laugh harder. (For all you Arrested Development fans out there, doesn't it make you think, "We had a lot of great laughs about some really sad things..."?)

We had such a great time together that we agreed that we should do something again some time. I already mentioned that I was in "search for a guy" mode. Lucky for me, Craig was in "new semester, try to be friendly to people" mode also. So we were both trying our best to get out and be social.

Unfortunately, before our second date, evil boy decided to pop back into the picture. He suddenly announced that perhaps he had been wrong to break up with me and maybe we should just get married. I ended up telling Craig this. I think my exact words were, "I might be getting engaged this weekend." To which he very kindly replied, "Maybe you should pray about that." and wished me well. I told him I'd give him a call if things didn't work out. Well, needless to say, they didn't. And suddenly I had a big mess on my hands. One date with a really great guy and I had done everything wrong: been rude, laughed at stuff that wasn't funny, and then proven that I was on the rebound. So I vowed to make up for it.

I was not someone who liked to chase a boy. Oh, sure-- I might stalk him and obsess over him, but I tried my best to not let him realize those facts. I even perfected a technique I called "reverse stalking" where I would plant myself in a place I knew the guy I liked would walk by, and then accuse him of stalking me. Brilliant! But in Craig's case, I made it pretty obvious that I liked him. I brought him sweet rolls when he was working on a project once (that was embarrassing. And it earned me the nickname "Honeybun Girl" from the guys in his major). I would call him up and say, "Here are five things I want to do this week. Which ones would you like to do with me?" And I shamelessly offered to make good use of the free tickets he got to all on-campus shows, thanks to the fact that he worked for the theater department.

I don't recommend throwing yourself at a guy. In most situations I would tell the girl to have more self-respect. But in Craig's case, it was actually perfect. Craig is not the type of guy to assume that a girl is in love with him. I once ran into a friend and we figured out that she had taken Craig to Preference when they were both freshmen. Despite the fact that she was married by this time, she told me all about how asking Craig had been a fiasco because the wrong Craig in the ward had been given her note asking him out and she'd had fix that to get the Craig she'd wanted and how she always thought of Craig as being her "secret treasure" because he was so quiet, but if you really listened to him, he was so funny and great. When I asked Craig about all this, he said, "Oh, yeah... I'm pretty sure she only asked me as a pity date." Sure, Craig. Girls always refer to pity dates as their secret treasures!

Knowing Craig the way I do now, I realize that playing hard-to-get was the kiss of death to any relationship with Craig. So it's lucky that wasn't my strategy.

Despite my best efforts, I continued to mess things up. One time all my plans got complicated and I ended up sitting at a football game with Carla (my best friend), Craig, and evil ex-boyfriend.

That was awkward.

But mostly for the ex. Craig, Carla and I had a great time. And I never let anything that ridiculous happen again. (It did make for a great picture, though.)

Craig, knowing I was on the rebound (and slightly suspicious of my motives when the football game incident occurred), took things very slowly. And even though I tease him about that now, it was probably for the best. It gave us time to really get to know each other and to gradually build up the emotional side of our relationship as well as the fun side. When he finally did kiss me (nearly four months after our first date), I was ecstatic. And things kept progressing from there until we both agreed that our relationship was just getting better and better and we should probably get married.

I hate those people who act like their marriage is a fairy tale romance. And so I don't like to brag about how happy Craig makes me all the time. But the fact of the matter is that Craig does make me happy all the time. My worst days are always the ones that he isn't a part of. And Craig has the remarkable ability to make me happy while simultaneously helping me be my best self. Shortly after evil boy broke my heart, I visited my mission president and his wife and had a good cry (with their very sympathetic dalmatian resting his head on my knee the entire time). Near the end of the visit, President Grames gave me a priesthood blessing. The thing I remember the most from it was when he said, "There is a young man who will bring you happiness that will exceed all your expectations." At the time, it sounded too good to hope for. But that man turned out to be Craig.

I am constantly amazed at the joy and happiness we have together.

At the Hill Cumorah Pageant when we were engaged

One of our engagement shots, photoshopped by Craig

Another engagement picture, but we didn't end up using this one.
It was a little too cheesy, although I still kind of like it!

Another engagement picture reject: my smile is way too big in this picture. Which is why I actually really like it...

So now I'm going to repeat Nancy's question: What's your story? I want to hear it! Please blog about it for me!