true story

Everywhere I go, people ask me the story of how Kirk and I met.

However, through the years, we have noticed that my version of how we met tends to be a little on the snarky side while Kirk's is a little more sweet.

Obviously he doesn't remember it correctly.

Anyway, I always have to give the abbreviated story because it really is quite the novel. (We used to live at the same apartment complex.) And since blogs really don't have any sort of restrictions on length, I shall proceed with the story to the best of my recollection.

Almost exactly 4 years ago, I moved to Utah on a whim. I really had no reason to move there other than my sister was living in Utah and I just did not want to go back to Rexburg. Who can blame me?

My sister had dated this guy named Nick Killpack a few months before I moved to the beehive state. For those of you who might think to yourself, "My, that name sounds vaguely familiar..."

That might be because he served a mission in Washington, more specifically, the Redmond Stake. Ringing bells? Anyway, that didn't really work out and they parted their separate ways... So I thought.

My sister told him about the new apartment complex we were moving into and he informed her that one of his old mission companions was helping to manage it... and maybe we should all get together and do something fun.

Ani told me about this but, we kind of didn't really care or remember...

Ok moving forward. We moved into our fresh, new apartment at the end of August. Since they were so fresh and new, they had people going around to make sure everyone had their furniture, washer/dryer etc. Kirk came to the door one glorious morning when I had just gotten out of the shower, dressed like a hoodlum and wearing absolutely ZERO makeup.

He went through the checklist and then asked for my name.

Me: "Alix, A-L-I-X."

Kirk: "Van Buskirk?"

Me: "...yeah... how did you know that?"

Kirk: "Oh, no reason..."

Awkward pause... Seriously, it was awkward.

Me: (Remembering how Nick told me his friend worked there...) "Wait, do you know Nick Killpack?"

Kirk: (Looking VERY surprised) "Yes. What? How do you know him?"

Me: (Now, I'm really confused because I thought that the reason he knew my last name was because he knew Nick, but when I mentioned Nick's name, Kirk was shocked.) "My sister, Ani dated him."

Kirk: (Looking more awkward than before.) "Ohhhhh yeahhhhhhh."

Me: (I just laughed uncomfortably)

And that's pretty much how the first encounter went down.

Can you say awkward?

About a week later, Ani's dear ex came over with Kirk and invited us to get some ice cream with them.

At that point, I kind of forgot about the whole awkward fiasco.

I asked Kirk what his name was.

Kirk: "My name is Kirk Ouimet." (sounds like WE MET)

Me: "No, we haven't met."

Kirk: "No, Kirk Ouimet."

Me: (getting quite annoyed because I KNOW we haven't met) "No, we have not met."

Then something clicked. I remembered him.

Me: "We HAVE met! Remember, you came to my apartment and you did the checklist... remember? It was really awkward because I asked you if you knew Nick!?"

Kirk: "Ummm... I don't remember that."

Now this part of the story has two different versions. Kirk CLAIMS he remembers meeting me in my apartment but I definitely remember having this conversation about how he didn't remember me. I mean, I wasn't wearing any makeup. He was basically seeing me in my rawest version. It wasn't pretty and not many people get to see this side of me... and live to tell about it.

However, Kirk also claims that the reason for his so-called awkardness was because of how things ended with Ani and Nick. (I'm sorry, I have to share.)'

Basically, Ani was dating Nick and someone else at the time and there was a crossroads where she needed to pick one guy to stick with. She liked both but decided that she was going to have to break it off with Nick. Since Nick was on a trip to Boston with his family, this happened via text message. Or lack thereof. Mid texting conversation,
Nick said something to the affect of, "Boston is great, but it would be a whole lot greater if I had a beautiful girl named Ani to share it with."

To which Ani responded with: " "

Nothing. She didn't respond at all.

Poor Nick, "Ummm. Sorry, was that too much?"

"Any response is a good response."

And that is the way the cookie crumbled.

How they maintained an ok relationship after that, is beyond me.

As time went on, I started to develop a little crush on Kirky-poo. We would sit next to each other at church, I would make special trips to the management office to pay rent or make any unnecessary complaints...

One day, I went to the management office to pay my rent and Kirk was there to take my check.
I was just about to walk out of the door when Kirk said, "Hey tell Ani, we need to get together and watch the office or something."

Blow to MY ego! He liked Ani and usually there was no coming back from that. Plus, Ani and I had the same guy as our first kisses... We don't share very well.

I made an executive decision not to pass the message along.

Decision made.
This part of the story also has some discrepancies between Kirk and I. Kirk CLAIMS the reason why he told me to relay that message was because Ani had stopped him in the parking garage the night before and told him they needed to hang out and gave Kirk her number. When Kirk was telling me to relay the message to hang out with Ani, he was only following through. Kirk ALSO claims that our dear friend Nick was trying to set Ani and Kirk up. To this day, Ani doesn't remember ever talking to Kirk in the parking garage or giving him her number... interesting.

A few weeks later, Ani and I were hanging in the heated pool. One of Kirk's friends, Ryan approached us and asked if we would like to go to a Jazz game with him and Kirk.

We agreed to go but I was unsure who's date was who's. The comment Kirk made about wanting to get together with Ani was still haunting me and I was SURE that Kirk was intending to take her out. To this day, I still give Kirk a hard time about this. I was annoyed that he didn't ask me out, but instead made his friend ask BOTH Ani and I out... making it unclear who we were supposed to be with. Kirk claims he told Ryan to make sure we knew who we were going out with but Ryan DEFINITELY did not.

As the date went on, I slowly started to realize that I was, in fact, Kirk's date. That little stinker.

We ended up riding home together and singing rap songs all the way back from Salt Lake. Kirk says that's when he knew I was the coolest person he ever met... when shared my skillz of singing all of the words to "Thuggish Ruggish Bone" by Bone Thugs N Harmony. I was hardcore.

And that, my friends, is MY version of how Kirk and I met.