The Eternal Question: Where are we going to park?

So I went on a horribly awkward date yesterday - I got asked by some guy in my ward to go to the Christmas devotional in Salt lake. I had never been to Salt Lake - never seen the conference center, the temple, the lights, none of it. I knew it would be terrible, but I said yes anyway.

Mistake #1: He said that T.V. was a time drainer - I then had to tell this guy that I wanted to go into Media Arts and become a screenwriter or television director. He said something about me being able to make quality family programming, to which I responded," yeah, something like that..." and then he enacted a scene about someone named "Joanie" and how she held true to the standards she had been taught in her youth. Fact I did not mention: quality family programming about people named Joanie is not quality - it is dull and predictable.

Mistake#3: His personality and the fact that we have nothing in common (except for the fact that we have both read the Oz series by Lyman Frank Baum, and really there's only so far that you can stretch that subject).

Mistake#8: As we were looking for our seats in the conference center (we were late, and I had been forced to run a bit) I saw a button on the floor and I didn't pick it up even though I wanted to. All I thought about on the ride home was how much I regretted not picking up that button, and I had another button I had found already in my pocket, so it was a constant reminder that I hadn't picked up that button when I wanted to. Dangit.

Mistake#17: We left church early to get to Salt Lake in time, and yesterday was fast Sunday. Normally on fast Sundays I get home at 4:37 and I'm able to eat, but this date didn't end until 9:08. Is he insane? I was starving. And it didn't help that on the car ride home, because we had absolutely nothing to talk about, I was peppered with questions about what's your favorite this or that - the last question being "what's your favorite thing to cook?" Talk of food and empty stomach= not good. Assuming I can cook, also not good, and I gladly told him that I don't cook a whole lot because there's only about 17 foods I actually like to eat, which he had me list.

In-between 8 and 17 I watched the devotional while he snoozed a bit. We saw the lights and I froze a little. I met 3 of his sisters and his mother, who also happened to be seeing the lights. I missed out on eating, going to ward prayer, and my weekly phone call to H, whose 18th birthday it was. I meant to make cookies for a friend and work on my short story for my writing class. I don't know if it was worth it.