Our first date

I was going to write about our trip to the aquarium this past Friday, but then I noticed the date July 8th and remembered this date has significant meaning to me. 9 years ago today, Brian and I had our very first date. We had briefly met back in 1999 when he served me and my sisters lunch. No he wasn't our waiter, per se, he had a job working at The William Morris Agency here in Nashville. He was an assistant at the time and the agency had us in for a lunch to talk with us about signing on as our booking agents (my sisters and I were in Christian Music for 6 years). I remembered Brian walking in with some food and thinking to myself, oh he's pretty cute. That was really it. I think I told one of my sisters afterward, but then forgot about it after that. My family was getting ready to move from California, where I grew up, to Nashville because our first album was getting ready to be released. So that year was a busy one for us. We were on the road constantly and didn't have time for much of anything, let alone dating. One day I was walking into Schlotzsky's Deli with a friend when I saw a guy walking out and he stopped me. He said, "Excuse me are you one of The Darins?" I said, "Yes I am. I am Krista". I'm thinking, ok how does this dude know me? I had only been in Nashville about 6 months at the time so I didn't know how I would have known him. He said, "My name is Brian Lord and I used to work at The William Morris Agency". Oh now I remembered who he was. I said, "Oh good to see you". He said we should get together sometime and he gave me his business card. He had just gotten a new job and was proud to hand me one of his new cards. I really didn't think anything of it and filed the card away somewhere in my room. Well about 3 months past and I was cleaning and ran across his card. I took it out and thought, I should email him. I think I was desperate to make some friends and I thought to my self if nothing else I could have a new friend. We emailed each other back and forth and decided to set up a group date to go hang out. He said he would get some guys and I would get some girls. Ok that's fine, but I really didn't know anyone in town. What was I thinking? We plan a date and to our surprise no one shows up. So it's just the 2 of us. Something even more crazy is that we learned that we lived in the same apt. complex and had never ran into one another. I lived with my roommate Jennifer, but my sisters all lived together in the building right next to his and they never saw him either.

So here we are, Saturday July 8, 2000 and we are on our way to our first date. Now remember it was supposed to be a group date so it was definitely more fun in nature, than romantic. We headed to OpryMills where we dined on some yummy Cajun food from the food court. :) Then we walked to Jillian's (which is now Dave & Buster's) and we decided to play a game of bowling. Here's where it gets interesting. We are both very competitive by nature. I certainly didn't want him taking it "easy" on me. I will say now that bowling is not my game, but I put up a good fight. About half way through the game, I bowled a strike. I was so excited. As I was walking back we decided to high five each other, which was fine, except for when Brian's hand was coming back down he smacked me across the butt. I was embarrassed, he was too. I knew it was an accident. Brian is a perfect gentlemen and would have never done it on purpose. I pretended like it was no big deal. We still laugh about it to this day. After bowling we went to play Laser Tag. Did I mention this was a fun date? By this time it's late but we're both having fun and enjoying each other's company that I didn't really care. He beat me at Laser Tag too. No surprise there. I had never played before. I always tell him, let me get you on the soccer field and it's game on. I will destroy him.

So that is how we met and the happenings of our first date. We were engaged the day before Thanksgiving that year. If you are doing the calculations, I will save you the headache. We dated for 4 months before we got engaged and were married 4 1/2 months later on April 7, 2001. It's one of the best decisions I have ever made and I am so glad I married my amazing husband. I love you babe more than anything. You are my rock and I am proud to be your wife.