Strat Approves of Steve and My...Marriage??

I called Steve on Wednesday, the day after I met Strat. I was kind of nervous but I thought "Do it! For the sake of the blog!" and pressed call!
Steve was really nice on the phone! We talked for exactly 17 minutes. He was really happy and excited I called. He said "Well I don't know if I can visit Strat tonight, but maybe tomorrow." I was thinking like within the next week, but hey the sooner the better right?
Steve said "What are you doing at 2 tomorrow?"
I said "Well I have a mentoring thing"
"Oh what's that?"
I started. "Well I really like mentoring, like I was an EFY Counselor this summer"
He said "Wait! You were an EFY Counselor?! SO WAS I!!!"
Of course I knew that after my thorough facebook stalkage and that is why I slipped that statement in in the first place, but I said "NO WAY!! That's CRAZY!" Haha! I'm so clever ;)
So we talked about that for a while. But the reason he asked me what I was doing is because he wanted to ask me out to lunch for the next day (Friday) before even knowing what I looked like! I guess the EFY comment did it!!

OUR LUNCH DATE

So the next day we went out to lunch! I was kind of nervous to meet him but I reminded myself that I'm awesome and went for it! I think it's funny I'm so opposed to blind dates and yet I set MYSELF up on one...sort of.
Anyways we met at the MOA and the first thing he did when he saw me is run up to me and hug me! Brave man!
We had such a delightful lunch. He truly is the squeaky clean mormon boy facebook implied- my favorite kind of boy! He loved his mission, and he told me about how much his testimony grew at EFY. It was fun to talk to him! So fun, in fact, that he ended up being late for class! I felt kind of bad but also awesome that he preferred me to Chemistry.
He suggested we visited Strat that very night! So we did.

WE VISIT STRAT

We went to visit Strat on that Friday night. He is SO FUNNY! He couldn't wait for us to come! He ran around the house tidying up attached to that oxygen tank.
He said "Now did you two meet because of me?!"
We looked at each other and laughed and said "Yeah"
Strat said "Well I formed a little friendship for the two of you didn't I?"
We found out basically everything about Strat. The man loves to talk and he can barely hear us anyways. His wife died a few years ago of cancer, and his son died when he was younger while doing service in Mexico. So sad. He told us story after story after story.
He loved talking about his wife and how much he loves her. He pulled out a box and said "Now I have some advice for the two of you if things progress as they should and when you get married"
MARRIED?! I didn't notice until then but Steve was sitting pretty close to me and practically lept away from me when he said "the m word!" Hallelujah! He is not a marriage-obsessed-BEN!
Noticing our alarm, Strat said "Well it has the potential to go there. Doesn't it Steve? Doesn't it?"
Steve stuttered and I was laughing.
Strat said "DOES IT? Yes or no??"
Steve stammered "Um we just met today!"
HAHA!
Strat said "Well. In these box are our love letters. When you two get hitched you need to read these love letters to each other on every anniversary! That will keep your relationship strong!"
We both agreed that that was good advice.
Strat proceeded to slowly read us a sappy 7 page love letter he had written his wife before they got married.
The designer in my almost wept over those beautiful love letters! They were from the 50's, written in beautiful cursive with dark black ink on gorgeous customized paper with the most beautiful stamps I've ever seen. What a treasure! Not only for their beauty but for the sweet messages in them. I don't know if I've heard anything so romantic in my life! I haven't even thought to dream of corresponding to someone with that kind of passion. It made me realize that we have completely lost touch of romance in our society. Everything is so over-saturated with sex, sex, sex and more sexual undertones that we have completely lost the sensuality of commitment and true love. Even the BYU environment is so full of options everywhere you turn you hardly have a hope of getting stuck on one boy. The simplicity of a love letter is lost in the rush to meet more and more options.
I had mentioned to Strat that I sang and he demanded I sing before I leave. He even started singing some of his requests in his gravelly monotoned voice. I almost died laughing! I sang him a couple of songs and he literally started crying. I was so touched! He requested love songs. He was still thinking about his "Georgia peach."
It was ridiculously hard to get away. Every time we said we had to go, he would launch into another story to stop us from leaving. I could tell Steve was dying. It was frustrating sometimes, but I love Strat and I can sense how much he enjoyed having us there.
We finally left mid-story after saying we had to leave about 9 times and spending about 3.5 hours listening to stories.
I absolutely loved our visit with Strat, but I was worried Steve was really freaked out after the marriage comment from Strat and/or anxious to leave after listening for that long.
I figure whatever happens I'm really happy I made friends with Strat and I'm excited to visit him in the future (he already invited us to a Les Mis watching party he is planning) and what happened with Steve made for a really good story.
But when I text Steve: "Thanks for coming with me! You are awesome!"
He text back: "Of course! I figured if we were going to get married next week, we ought to visit him together ;)"
So he did take our potential marriage in stride. What a relief! I don't know what's going to happen, but I do know it was an awesome weekend with Me, Steve and Strat Wendleboe.