After Stephen and I became official he made it completely clear that just because we were a couple it did not mean that he had to see me every day. This makes me laugh now because it only lasted about 2 weeks, and then if he didn't see me everyday he thought something was wrong. Well anyways for about 2 weeks I saw him at work and maybe every other day after work we would have dinner. Stephen insisted we keep our relationship a secret, he did not want anyone at work to know. If you work at Quaid or are a Quaid please correct me if I'm wrong but it was never a secret!!! We went into work each day with HUGE smile on our faces and our plans constantly sounded the same. I remember Matt asking us both what our plans for the night were and we both answered too fast and just said hanging out with friends; i believe Matt figured it out at that point. We all laughed about it after the fact, but when i was trying to keep the secret i was so frustrated cause i just wanted to scream it from the roof tops!!! To set things straight Brandon and Elaine were the first to be officially told, then at some point he told Jose and we all know the secret was then blown!
Octobers open house at the shop i believe was the worst open house for Stephen and i ever!!! We had stayed up all night the night before and it was busy and we were cranky! oh man oh man! i thought we were going to kill each other that day, but we didn't! And after work he went home and slept for 12 hours and i went to the BI with my brother. That was the biggest obstacle for us to get past at first; Stephen had to have at least 8 hours of sleep or he could not function! and i would be fine on 3 or 4 hours of sleep. He would get mad cause i would go home and stay up for hours on end be fine.
The weekend of October 24 my amazing friend Bonnie and I had planned to take a trip up to Yosemite to see her now husband and my best friend Marc. Stephen and I had only been together for a few weeks and i was taking a 3 day trip, 6 hours away, to see another guy... He was amazing about it. I had offered over and over not to go but he insisted. So i went, and spent the entire time (that i had signal) on my cell phone texting Stephen. If i remember right Bonnie and Marc got soooo unbelievably frustrated with me because i wouldn't get off my phone! (sound about right?) BUT in my defense they did not know Stephen and i were officially a couple! Stephen was so sweet, while in Yosemite i did not have much signal so rather than waiting for me to reply to his messages he just kept sending texts telling me he missed me and couldn't wait to see me again! I could not wait to go to work that Tuesday!!! :D
OK so somewhere in this time everybody at the shop found out. And of coarse Stephen being who he is, he left it up to me to tell Glenn... his uncle! Everybody supported our relationship and just loved seeing us both soooo happy. So i believe October 30 (i could be wrong) was the night that i met Steph officially. I was so nervous going down to Killarnys! (Steph, he hyped you up so much!!! If you didn't approve, I swear he would have left me that night!) It ended up being an interesting night... my ears heard things i think i could have lived without. lol.
Now Halloween i know is the correct date that i met Jen and Darin. I had opted to work 10-7 at the shop that night and Kelly and I were just sitting there talking waiting to get off. Brandon walks up and acts like he is going to hit me (normal) and asks what we are talking about... my response was "oh just how good a kisser your brother is" I don't think i have ever seen B walk away so fast! hahaha Stephen laughed so hard when i told him that. After I got off work i went straight to Stephens house and was complaining cause i was so tired and didn't want to go to a party! He looked at me and said we had to go cause i had to meet these friends. Ended up being a fun night; we had a she devil, tweedle dee & tweedle dum, a ratard (Nick played the part perfectly!) we played ping pong and ended up at Denny's staring at the fans lol that is also the night that we took our first picture together, i felt bad for the poor dog! The other picture i snuck of him at the shop :) he was laughing at Sherri and I captured the smile!
