Embarrassing teenage journal entry #1, and why I've still never been to the Prom

"March 21, 1992
Boys to hang out with this semester:
1. Rob,
2. Jean-Marc,
3. Lee,
4. Bruce (home teacher),
5. Klaus,
6. Adam

New ones I met washing my car last Saturday, at the beginning of Spring Break:
Kevin and his friend Jake and also this guy from across the street named Bill.

I have to go pick up Stacey from the airport. I'll finish later."

(This is my first mention of Jake in my journal. I was a freshman at the University of Arizona. Liz and Stacey were my roommates. Liz and I treated boy-meeting as a team sport. Apparently, this was quite a good list. Liz and #2 are now married and have four children.)

Obviously, it was love at first sight in that soapy driveway on that warm March Saturday.

You can tell by the way I wrote "and his friend Jake," that I could see eternity in his eyes. Maybe.

This is how it went:
Mi hermanita Jen and I were washing my car in the driveway of 1946 E. Lockwood the first morning I was home for Spring Break. I loved my car, a white 91 Acura Integra. When I drove around in it with my big 90s hot-rollered hair, the boys would turn and stare. Anyway, just as we finished drying, two 18 year old boys, Jake and Kevin, pulled in to the driveway, and asked if we would put a scrubbin on Kevin's Civic, tambien. I had already started to re-fill the bucket when I heard Jen telling them :

"we don't know you and we won't wash your car."

"Oh, yeah", I thought, "maybe I shouldn't seem so eager. Play it cool. Play it cool." Jen was only 15, but she seemed to know instinctively that teenage boys only want one thing from pretty girls:

free car washes and movie treats.

Wait, that's two. Anyway, once you do chores for boys, they don't respect you any more. I learned that in Mia Maids, I think.

So I turned off the hose and we chatted a bit, and I tried to resist, but then I gave in and washed the car anyway. (I can't believe I was so easy, washing cars even before the first date). I think Jake helped, while Kevin and Jen stood by supervising. It seemed the boys had driven all the way from Glendale to visit Sarah, the girl across the street, who had promised to wash the car. Since she wasn't available, they went to the next nearest bikini car wash (only with no bikinis, just shorts that would surely violate the BYU honor code. At the UofA they were very nearly prudy, however.) After the cars were shiny, we all went to the movies to see Fried Green Tomatoes. I sat by Kevin, who tried to get me to buy him popcorn by telling me he lived in his car and didn't have any money. I think Jake was chatting up Jen while mentally calculating how long it would be until she turned 16, so he could put some moves on her, officially. (He denies it now, but I was there. I got eyeballs.)

It occurred to me perhaps one month later that Jake was smart and cute and funny. It also occurred to me that since he was technically still in high school, he or Kevin could invite me to the prom (I had never been to a prom, and it was my secret dream). So I tried to flirt with them. Too bad I'm a horrible flirter, because no Prom materialized. By the fall, though, Jake and I were fast friends, and I might have let him kiss me if he'd tried. Alas, he did not. But that's a story for another day.

Here we are at Disneyland, January 1, 1993. You'll notice Jake is wearing his Mickey ears.

What does all this mean? It means Happy Belated Anniversary, Jake! You pulled into my driveway 16 years ago last Friday. March 14, 1992. I'm so glad you did.

I'll wash your car anytime.
I'm just a girl who can't say no.