About a week or so ago (maybe longer) I started telling the story of how Ben and I met. In a nut shell…we were set up by a whole slew of people who knew both of us.
So on the Saturday before Christmas 2006 when I was leaving Fresh Market I received a phone call from a number I didn’t know and because I was feeling Christmasy I actually answered. What I heard after I said hello was a slow, deep southern voice respond with “Hello Paige this is Ben Colson”
I can remember getting a chill. There is something about my husband’s voice that always makes me weak…then and now….but I digress. So our first conversation only lasted about 10 minutes but it was long enough to set plans to meet the following Tuesday at Backyard BBQ in Newberry. Over the days in between I was excited, nervous, terrified, and anxious all at the same time. I was excited because I had a date. I was nervous because I had a blind date. I was terrified because I had a blind date with someone I had never met and had only talked to on the phone once. I was anxious because I had a blind date with someone I had never met and had only talked to on the phone once and what if he had no personality, what if we had nothing to talk about, what if he just sat there and stared, what if he looked weird or smacked when he chewed or had less than stellar personal hygiene. At last Tuesday was here. I carefully picked out a casual yet nice outfit in a color that complimented my skin tone (I am such a girl) and that I felt sent a positive message about my personality. I was running a little late to lunch because I got held up at school helping watching some nice volunteers put up fence at NHS. So I was running late and was soooo excited when I got a primo parking spot toward the front of the lot across from Backyard. I crossed the road and sat on the bench because this mystery man (looking back how did I know it was him) had also not arrived yet.
A couple of minutes later a blond haired blue eyed guy in his late twenties wearing a red and white polo shirt and khaki pants strolled across the road and toward me. My first thought…Oh my word he looks like my cousin. Now I don't know about you but my cousin is like my brother and I do not find him attractive at all…I mean he is nice looking…but not to me because he is my cousin and that is weird and gross and wrong (sorry Jes). So my first reaction to this guy that walked up in his red and white polo shirt was like well he is cute but he looks like my cousin so is it weird that I think he is cute.
Anyway, we shook hands and said hello and established that we were in fact Paige and Ben and then went to have lunch. I just remember being so relieved throughout lunch because this guy was soooo easy to talk to. We talked about football and the Gators going to the National Championship and our Christmas plans and my teaching Ag and his cattle and it was so easy and natural and I silently thanked the Lord that he wasn’t a bump on a log!
Leaving lunch that day I remember calling my mom and my best friends and telling them how great this guy was and how I hope he called me but I wasn’t going to call him (old fashioned girl that I am) and just being so excited about this new adventure.
Oh and that primo parking spot…later I learned that Ben had arrived earlier than me and had passed by that parking spot in the hopes that I would get it…and knowing that now makes me all the more certain that we are meant to be!
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