The 100th Date!

I am reprinting for you the contents of the Story of Shannah and Matt. The booklet these words belong in was at each guest's place at their wedding (which I shall be blogging about later!). Enjoy!

ACT I (Early Last Summer)

After first meeting at a local bookstore, exchanging telephone numbers, and long phone conversations into the night, Matt began driving all the way to West County to meet Shannah on the porch after her kids were asleep. These were not dates by anybody's definition. Hoping for more than marathon drives that ended in on-the-sly encounters, they managed to eek out several real dates. Things progressed. Conversation deepened. Love blossomed.
Not wanting to confuse, alarm or excite the kids, Shan made sure she had a plan for exactly when to introduce even the idea of dating someone. Or so she thought.

One evening, Grayson stretched out across the bed watching Shan brush her hair.

"Where ya going?" he asked.

"Well, Gray", she said turning to face him, "I have a date tonight."

"Matt?" he probed.

"Um, yeah" how did you know?"

"I hear things", he quipped.

"Well, yes, I have a date with a guy named Matt."

"Is this your first date?"

"No. I think it*s about our third or fourth." Gray sat up on the bed, and began calculating his next round of questions.
"So, how many dates do you have to go on before you get married?" he asked slyly.

"A lot!" Shan answered quickly.

"I know, but like how many?"

"I don*t know, like a lot!"

"Come on, I need a number."

"Like a lot! Like a hundred, I don't know."

"A hundred? Really?! Wow. So when do we get to meet him?"
Having already asked herself this question, and not having a clue what the magic number was that would be most considerate of their little hearts, she answered confidently, "Um, I don*t know."

"Well, I think we should meet him on date 20, cause that*s when you start getting all attached, and people like you really get attached."

"Really," she smirked as she slipped on her shoes. "Well, I guess that sounds about right, then. "Date twenty it is."

ACT II Matt's Story

(A Man of Few Words Who Knows What He Wants)

"I had just about resigned myself to being alone for the rest of my life. And then I met Shan. I remember I use to sit on the front porch waiting for the kids to go to bed, and sometimes we'd sneak back onto her screened-in porch she calls her tree house. We kissed on the third date, and I remember I was impressed that she loved to cook, she would actually watch a football game, she would drink a beer, and camping was her favorite thing. I asked her why she wasn't already taken. We instantly bonded when she said her dream was to take her kids to a different National Park every year. But when she told me she went to Woodstock and didn't shower for five days... I knew she was the girl for me."

ACT III Shannah's Story

(This is How I Knew Matt Loved Me)

"Grayson wanted to meet Matt after date 20, but I wasn't convinced either the kids or Matt were really ready for all that could mean. As the days went by, I was reminded the dates were indeed being counted and we were well past number 20. So we decided on date 27 we would all go camping. We were leaving on Thursday afternoon for St. Francis State Park, and I was touched when Matt showed up with a new inner tube for the flat tire on Berkley's bike. Major points.
I was in my car with the kids and the dog, and Matt was ahead of us in his truck which was loaded down with all the camping gear. When we finally got there, it was raining and already dark. Matt got out my three-room tent complete with broken poles and proceeded to put it up in the dark, in the rain, aided only by my headlights, a hyper, three month-old Golden Retriever, and two kids he never met running around yelling every two seconds, "Can we get in? Can we get in?" There was no dinner, no grass (only mud), and Matt silently and saintly setting up the tent, never saying a word.
We ate PB & J sandwiches off the dashboard, blew up the air mattresses and decided we had enough fun for one night. We put the dog in his cage in one room, girls in one room, boys in the other, and settled in for the night. The next morning Matt and Grayson took Beau for a walk by the river, while Berkley and I slept in. When we got up, I piled the kids back in the car and took off for the kids' soccer games, leaving poor Matt behind to take down the whole campsite with the dog. Two worlds collided."

EPILOGUE(This Brings Us to Tonight)
Last night, the dress rehearsal was our 100th date. Welcome to our wedding!