First Impressions

Joe and I met at an ice cream social. It was the second day Joe was in Michigan. He said he saw me amongst the crowd and thought, "Now there's an attractive soul." My first impression of him was that he was an incoming reckless freshman (his arm was in a sling and thought maybe he'd done something immature to warrant it). Turns out the long thoracic nerve in his shoulder was dead and needed to regrow; in the meantime nothing was holding his shoulder blade down if he raised his arm. He gets the A+ for accurate first impressions... I flunked that one.

We both went home for Thanksgiving and met some of each others' family and the same was planned for Christmas. My family was having a family reunion, however, which meant he would get to meet all 7 of my siblings, 5 of which are brothers. No pressure.

Although my brothers were certainly going to size Joe up and make sure he treated me right and deserved me, I think they also wanted to make a good first impression. Apparently, there was a discussion that certain things were to be kept in line (i.e., manners) so Joe thought I belonged to a good, intelligent family. And I do. My brothers have always been great examples of educated, hard working, righteous men. However, boys will be boys. And there are 5 of them. It turned out Joe's introduction to my brothers skipped the formalities.

Travel plans ended up being that Joe and I arrived later than most at the cabin where the family reunion was at. We were with my oldest brother Mark. Upon arriving, my brother John came out of the cabin to greet us and help bring in luggage.
His first words were, "We've got a gas problem."
I immediately said emphatically, "Not yet!" with furtive glances towards Joe and the possibility of dashing all of my dreams with the wrong first impression. Both brothers were smirking.
Turns out, there was an actual gas leak in the cabin's furnaces. Ahem.

Joe told me he loved me during that reunion. So first impressions aside, it all worked out for the best.