Wanda Mann

I hope you're in good humour, because today's chapter must be read that way. It always makes me smile when I recall my 1st date with my husband. (or something like that :)

"Today I met the boy I'm going to marry"... 
Well, that might have been someone else's song, but it did become mine too... eventually.  I remember the first time I saw him.  I can still see him there scrawled sideways on the armchair.  I remember the way his hair went and the colour of his clothing.  We were at our youth leader's house and he was the new guy.  That's all I can recall though of that first time and there was definitely nothing about marriage being sung.  Anyway, I must have shifted my focus; probably because I was dating someone else!

A few months went by.  I was no longer going out with the guy I had been seeing, and Bruce was also 'available'.  I wasn't the only one in our small group of friends to notice his availability though so, the pursuit began.  (Oh come on, don't tell me you've never pursued anyone before! :)  You know what I mean; you just randomly make sure that you're around to be able to comment, help out in a time of need, laugh at one of their jokes, or just look pretty.  Oh, I know this sounds crazy but something in me just wanted to get to know this guy... and he didn't seem to mind either.

The 1st time he came to our house was after a mud-soccer game that a bunch of us were playing.  His family lived about a 1/2 hour away so I offered our house to get showered and cleaned up for something we were all going to later that day.  I do remember one of the other girls offering the same convenience to him as well... Anyway, there really wasn't anything more to it than that, except for my parents starting to ask questions.

OK.  So here's the fun part!  Bruce's sister was getting married ...

... & I was asked to sing at their wedding.  There was nothing unusual about that as I was frequently asked to sing at many other events.

I bought a new dress and some high-heeled shoes to go with it.  Now that doesn't sound like anything out of the ordinary, but you must understand that I was used to being somewhat of a 'tom-boy'.  I had never worn heels like this before!  I got my brother to stand back to back with me to measure and see if I would be taller than Bruce if I wore them.  Ha! 

So, off I went.  The wedding went well (except for the part where Bruce's grandfather prayed for an old boyfriend of his sister's instead of the groom).  It was after the wedding that things started to formulate...  Bruce was an usher and one of his roles (to my understanding) was to make sure that the bridesmaids had rides to the reception hall.  Well, he didn't do that.  Instead he asked me (the musician) if I needed a ride.  And, guess what... I did! (don't laugh!)  It was then, that I could feel my heart starting to get excited, and nervous.

Their wedding was on a Friday night and by the time the reception was over, it was very late.  Bruce was taking me home, but the catch was that he & his sister were switching cars.  They were using Bruce's for their honeymoon and he was taking theirs in exchange.  Nobody else knew of this arrangement, so when we went to go home, we hopped into a car plastered with wedding 'well-wishes'.  To add to everything, the back of the car was fully loaded with all of their gifts.  So, when we got in, Bruce in his tux and I with my heels & corsage... Well, you can just imagine how it looked!  As we drove away, the classic thing actually happened; the car was on empty!  Ha!  The reception was out in the country and nothing was open at this time of night so we had to drive back into the city to find an open gas station before he took me home.  People waved & honked as we drove by.  Finally we found a station open and when Bruce went in to pay, the guy at the counter congratulated him!  It was so terribly funny and yet we were still so nervous with each other that we could only slightly laugh about it!

Anyway, you now know the long & short of it... When Bruce dropped me off, he thought it 'convenient' to ask if I'd like to go out on a real date.