Today is exactly 20 years ago.....

Craig asked me out for our first date, this day exactly 20 years ago. (Can you picture me as Senior college student and he was only sophomore college student?)

It was the BEST night I ever had.

Craig asked me if he could take me out for dinner and asked me if I had ever eaten in the "Golden Arch" restuarant before. I told him that I never heard of that restuarant. He teased me a lot and I could not trust him. I decided to check with my roommate and see if she knew about that resturant. She was stunned and said Craig must be rich. That resturant has FIVE stars food. I was puzzled and wondered why he would take me there. My roommate told me to go for it and get advantage of the fancy food. I went back to see him next day and accepted his offer. On that day of the date, I was a nervous wreck and didn't know what to wear. I asked my roommate to help me pick out which clothes I should wear. My roommate was so nasty as if she hates Craig and told me that I should wear blue jean and old t-shirt. I refused to listen to her but decided to wear casual clothes as I was not sure if it was proper attire. Craig told me that he would come and pick me up at 7 p.m. I waited and waited until 7:15 p.m. I decided to peek out from the room door across to his room door. (Yes, we lived on same floor of the residence hall) I saw him running inside of his room with his old jean. My heart sunk as I was so disappointed and disgusted with him. I thought it was rude of him. I asked myself that I should take advantage of him by going to a fancy resturant. Craig sent his roommate to let me know that he was running late and promised me that he would be here in 20 minutes. I was so nervous wreck and my roommate was no help. She teased and teased me to death! Finally, the light flicked (instead of doorbell - deaf people can not hear the doorbell but can see the light flicking) I opened the door and there was him standing in front of me with the long stem of rose. I was so stunned and overwhelmed. No one ever gave me the rose before. Craig asked my roommate to take the picture of us. (that's one I'm showing you!) I thought it was odd but I decided to show my best smile with him. Before we leave the campus, Craig asked me if he could blindfold me with the scarf. I asked him why. He begged and said he wants to surprise me. I could not believe that I cooperated with him. Believe me, it was no fun for a while. He communicated with me through hand signing. It was difficult but I managed to understand him. While he drove around, I had a great sense of direction. Me and my big mouth, I told him that I knew where we were. Craig was surprised and didn't realized that I know where we were. He decided to confuse me by driving through alleys and through the mazes around the city till I was totally lost and had no ideas where we were. We stopped the place and I could feel his sweating hand. He told me to stay and wait till he opened the door. He opened the door and got me out of the car. I could smell something fried and greasy. I could not figure out what was it. Craig removed the scarf and said to me "Please cooperate and tell him the truth!" as he looked like a ghost. I looked up and it was the big yellow arch which is McDonalds!!! I laughed so hard and looked at Craig. He was not laughing and told me to look at the person behind me. I looked around and saw the man standing out of his car screaming at us. Naturally, I was confused and wondered why the man screamed at us. Craig told me that the man is undercover police and thought that Craig kidnapped me. Craig said that man followed us around the city for 10 minutes. I looked back to the man and told him that we are deaf and could not hear anything. The impatient man asked me if I'm alright. I was so tempted to scare Craig by telling the man that he tried to kidnap me. Geez, that man had the GUN ready to point at Craig. Poor Craig, he stood up quietly and shaky. I told the detective that Craig didn't hurt me at all and he wanted to surprise me by taking me to McDonald's. The detective gave Craig the lecture that it is illegal to blindfold someone in D.C. I laughed and laughed and scolded him along with the detective. Poor Craig, he thought that he ruined my night. After the detective leaves, he asked me where we could go out for dinner. I told him that we could eat McDonalds. He told me that the plan was all joke and my roommate knew about this and decided to play along with me. Oh boy, I was gullible. Craig insisted to take me to different place to eat. Now, let's talk about big revenge!!! I told him no and screamed at him that I want to see Ronald McDonald!!! Now, I had a lot of fun embrassing him all night. Craig gave up and we went inside McDonalds. I jumped up and down as I was 5 years old screaming that I want hamburger and french fries. Oh boy, it was so much fun watching his face turned beet. The people sitting there looked at me thought I was so NUTS!!! I laughed so hard all night. It was best night for me and thought that Craig would never ask me again but I was wrong. We went out a lot over next 4 years before we got married on July 1, 1989.

Craig, can we go out to eat McDonalds tonight? *blushing*