My New Roommate

I've lived with my roommates for a week now. I like them a lot. It's as though the Lord said, "Hey Leslie, you've had some pretty crappy roommates over the past two years. Instead of giving you one good roommate like I did previously, I'm going to give you three." And BOOM. My apartment is filled with people I like. It's a great change. My apartment feels like a home and I feel like my roommates are my family. 

I have one roommate who has decided that her mission is to get one of us married. The first day she moved in she wanted to know my dating history and my type of guy. She was listing off guys she wants to set me up with. I have to say, I'm a little flustered! It's been a long time since someone has said they wanted to set me up with someone and then they actually do. She's got a plan. I'm not opposed. My time here in Provo is dedicated to dating around and getting to know people. 

Let's face it, at this point I'm pretty much open to anything. Well, anything within reason. Though I'm slightly tempted to make out with this guy I've been talking to on Tinder. I LIKE MAKING OUT, OKAY?

I promise to write about it if I do make out with him... :)

Sunday Gems: A YSA Classic

Today was the first week after all the new people moved into the ward. First Sunday school lesson? Temple Marriage. Of course.

How is it that every time there's a new ward the lesson always ends up being on marriage or eternal families? Oh, I know! It's a conspiracy to get us all marriage and making babies.

But in reality, the lesson today was phenomenal. Instead of talking about dating and marriage and why we need to date more and get married, we talked about sealings and why it's such an important thing to do. It was a different approach to the temple marriage subject than I've ever experienced before and I feel like it was much more informative and interesting. 

Aside from Sunday school, it was a great first day with all the new people in the ward. I've already scoped out a couple of the guys I want to keep my eye on. This is going to be good. 

p.s. I've become "dating allies" with the guys behind the blog Dominating LDS Dating. Check them out! http://mormondatingguru.blogspot.com/

K.I.S.S.I.N.G.

Let's clarify this whole kissing vs making out thing I sort of alluded to in my last post.

KISSING

How do I define the simple act of kissing? It's when a boy and a girl kiss each other on the cheek, lips, or head for a brief amount of time. It is a demonstration of admiration and affection. Typically when you're sincerely interested in a person you end up spending a few moments here and there just kissing. This can happen when you greet each other, when you're at the store, out with friends, or on a date. You're not sucking face, you're merely showing the other person that you care for them.

Do I like kissing? I love it. When I share a real connection with a guy, the affection is important to me. When I took the love languages test, physical touch came in second, only to quality time (followed by 3 words of affirmation, 4 acts of service, and 5 receiving gifts). If a guy wants to be with me, he needs to be willing to share those precious little moments with me. Ideally he would want the same from me in return. Yeah, it got pretty obnoxious seeing couples on BYUI campus embracing each other and sharing a kiss before parting to their separate classes, but I think I was mostly jealous because I didn't have anyone to do that with. Kissing is romance. I like kissing.

Is kissing ever boring? Hells yeah! If a guy wants to make out, but all he's doing is giving you closed mouth kisses that last a few seconds? YAWN. I like kissing, I like affection, I like romance. But c'mon! When we're laying on the couch together, I want a lip smackin' mack sesh. None of that cutesy kissing stuff.

MAKING OUT

How do I define making out? This could become a pretty complicated answer, but I'm going to try and keep it concise and clear: Making out is when a boy and girl engage in lingering kissing, often laying down, -gasp- I know! That's so against the FTSOY! But guess what? I'm an adult, not a youth. I engage in passionate kissing with guys while laying down, with the lights off, without my roommates home. I'm so promiscuous.

What makes me an aggressive kisser? Honestly, I'm still a little confused on why James called me aggressive. I don't know what other girls do during making out, so I don't really have anything to compare my style of kissing to. Here's what I tend to do: I'm not a passive partner during a make out. I like to initiate deeper kisses every so often. Sometimes I'll run my tongue along his lip. I'll bite his lip or his ear lobe, I'll even occasionally move my tongue up his jaw line. I'm not the kind of girl to just kiss with my lips closed-I like tongue action! It's the strongest muscle of the body, so why not get a little exercise?

How do you make out and not go too far? Straight up determination. I know what I'll do, I know what I won't do, but the older I get, the harder it becomes to stop at the line I've told myself I won't cross. I'm a twenty four year old virgin. I'm a freaking unicorn! My secret? Clinging to my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing more powerful than the knowledge I possess and that is what gives me the ability to engage in hot, heavy make outs with guys and still not cross that line. That is how to have fun, be a little promiscuous, and still maintain my temple covenants. It's possible, people.

Do I have a most memorable make out? Yes. Despite all the crap I put up with with Kirk, he was a dang good kisser. My top three make outs were all with him. One in the back of my car, one in the back of his, one in the basement of the house I lived in last summer. It was hot. Had we gotten married, we would have been having sex 24/7. Hot, steamy sex. There, I said it.


ALRIGHT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
Now I've dished my definitions and thoughts on kissing and making out, I want to hear yours. Take some of the questions I've answered and answer them in the comments! It's always nice to get a variety of opinions.

PVT=Provo Virgin Lips

Every time I move, the kiss counter resets. New town, new VL. Basically, for the first time in a looooong time, I've got virgin lips again. Provo virgin lips.

When I first moved to Rexburg and the kiss counter reset for the first time, I took my time letting that VL go. I didn't run off and make out with the first guy that came along. Provo? Yeah, that's a different story. It wasn't my intention to do this, but my first weekend here I met a guy. His name is James. He's a friend of some of the girls that were in my new ward when I first moved in. They hosted a movie night, I stopped by for a bit, James and I chatted briefly, he asked for my number. I didn't hear from him, so I kind of let it just slide by and slip from my mind.

Then he asked to hang out and snuggle.

"You want to snuggle? That's pretty forward."
"Yeah! We can watch a movie or something."

He came over and almost immediately he got awkwardly snuggly. It wasn't the cute kind of snuggle-and-watch-a-movie type snuggle, it was a let-me-hold-your-hand-and-touch-your-face type of a thing. At first I was really put off. Like, seriously dude? His conversation was weak. He was sort of answering my questions, but it was clear that he wanted to hook up, not just snuggle. And honestly? I was pretty bummed. I was looking forward to maybe getting to know James.

He started kissing my cheek, pulling me awkwardly closer to him. After a moment I pulled back and said, "Hey James, this is going way too fast. I mean, I hardly know you. This isn't really my style." I know, I know. I've been known to just make out with a few guys after just meeting them. I kind of like to skank it up on occasion. However, I wasn't really planning on doing that here. James changed that. He was being mega persistent, despite his claims that "Don't worry, I'm not going to kiss you!" In the end, we kissed.

We made out for a while on my couch and practically all conversation stopped. He's not all that interesting. He's a decent kisser, but it was a little boring after a while. And he accused me of being too aggressive! I'm sorry, what? James came over to my apartment looking to make out with me, yet he gets uncomfortable when I think, "Ah, what the heck. Let's make out" and start kissing him like I'm into it?

Hey guys! Apparently other girls aren't as into kissing as I am! He said that other girls aren't as aggressive. Other girls don't tease during a make out. Other girls don't put passion in it. I beg this question of you: Ladies! What are you even doing while you make out with a guy? Don't make him do all the work, show him you're enjoying it! Y'all be crazy. Live a little. Don't get crazy, but live a little!

James ended up leaving with the parting words of, "Well, I'm going home tomorrow for a week. I'll see you when I get back" -wink and grin-  Sorry, James. That was a one time thing for me. But thanks for taking away my PVL! It's like being a new woman.

Hey, Provo boys. Get at me. ;)

Sunday Gems: A Day Late

My bishop made us sit boy-girl-boy-girl in Sunday school. Yeah, really. He's determined to marry off the entire ward. I'm starting to understand the reason why the place I live has the nickname it does.

Tonight at ward prayer I made a note to either a) avoid Mark, or b) tell Mark that I don't want to date him. Plan A is what went down. I avoided him almost completely...which means I still have yet to tell him that I don't want to date him.

Dating is hard.

Chatterbox

Remember the guy from last Sunday who announced he was single and looking? He has decided that he and I are going to be the best of friends. His name is Mark. He's pretty cute. But you know what? Looks aren't everything.

Mark is a LOT to handle. Last Sunday we both went to ward prayer (which is interesting because, as it turns out, he isn't in my ward, he's just adopting it as his ward because he's bored and wants a change...uhhhh...okay?) and he was glued to my side. I admit that before that event I was a little bit excited to see him. That quickly changed when I realized that he's kind of odd. Don't get me wrong, I like odd people and I'm a little odd myself, but Mark is something else. He is CHATTY. He is a dude who likes to talk about himself nonstop. Not even interesting stuff, but tangents about stuff that is completely boring. Or personal. We just met, dude. Don't tell me all about your ex fiance and all your family baggage. Not diggin' it!

I gave him my phone number anyway. I was being nice and making new friends. Bad idea. That night he texted me six times when I was trying to go to bed. The next day he texted me immediately after I got off work. And he's been texting me novels ever since then. DUDE. STOP.

So yeah, totes not diggin' on this guy. He's a weirdo. A cute weirdo, but a weirdo all the same. I went on a walk with him this evening, despite being dead tired after work and being on my feet all day. During this walk he told me that on his free days he sits in his room and reads the Book of Mormon. His favorite music artists are John Schmidt, Michael Mclean, and Enya. He does impressions of Smeagol, Kermit the Frog, and Jim Carrey. He gave me a guilt trip for listening to music that has a few swear words or suggestive themes.  Same with movies. I felt kind of terrible...but mostly put off. It's not a bad thing to love the Gospel or to have standards about music and movies, but it seems a little fanatical to live like that. I guess it's to each his own!

Mark, you come on too strong. You talk too much about yourself and pay little to no interest in getting to know me. Ain't my type.

Provo: 1   Leslie: 0

Sunday Gem

BYU Singles wards, they crack me up!

My first week in this ward I attended the last installment of the summer dating class. This week a new guy in the ward sat next to me in sacrament meeting, looked around briefly, leaned over and said, "There are so many gorgeous girls in this ward! I wonder which ones are single..." Then he looked at me, smiled and said, "Because I'm single and I'm looking!" And in that moment I knew I had something gold to write about.

Seriously, dude? I was a little bit speechless. I mean, what do you say to that? It wasn't like he was telling me that he was interested in me, but he certainly wasn't hiding his general intentions. And then during sacrament meeting he kept leaning over and making short comments to me, like telling me I have a lovely singing voice, or that before church he had told the girl who was speaking that he thought she was gorgeous and now he felt awkward. Uuuuhhh...what? If you're going to flirt with me, flirt with me! Don't tell me about other girls you flirt with!

After sacrament ended he told me he hoped to see me at ward prayer because I seem like a pretty cool girl. Ohhh boy.

And there you have it, the beginning of Sunday gems. I'm sure this is going to end up being a weekly thing.... :)

Plan of Attack

Now that I'm in Provo and I'm employed (hooray! That didn't take long at all! It's nice to have work) I have to start thinking about how exactly I'm going to navigate this new dating world in Provo. To be honest, I've been so focused on finding and and starting a new job that I haven't given much thought to flirting and dating.

Do I use the ward as a dating pool? Coworkers? Rely on friends of friends? Boys I meet at the pool? Tinder?

I'm over thinking this. There's absolutely no reason I need to be on the prowl for someone to date when I have so much going on already. So instead of trying to figure out what the next step is, I'm going to just going to let life happen for a while. No more of this living in anticipation for the next thing. I've finally graduated, I'm finally living in Provo. Life is just about to begin!

I'm going to keep blogging. I'll try and be entertaining and interesting! Thanks for being great, readers.

Side note: Have you ever been on Tinder in Utah? These dudes are thiiiirsty. I've been asked to cuddle and make out more times than ever before. Have I gone? No. Tinder is for the kicks and giggles, but never for hook ups or relationships. Them boys be craaazy.

Sunday School in Provo

Now that I'm pretty much settled into my new apartment, it's time to get serious about this blogging thing again. Granted, the break was pretty nice, but it's pretty fun writing this blog, so getting back into it will be great. Let the games begin.

Sunday school in Provo is no joke. Everyone talks about how BYU-Idaho is really "BYU-I do" and how everything up there is centered around getting the students married ASAP. While it's true that I heard a lot of  lessons about dating and marriage, I had nothing that compares to the experience I had today in my new BYU ward.

When it came time for Sunday school a girl I know told me, "There's normal Sunday school classes,but I go to the dating class they've been offering this summer." I'm sorry, what? Dating class for Sunday school? What kind of marriage factory are they running here? Guess what everyone! We've been lied to! BYU-Idaho isn't the BYU-I do school, it's BYU Provo!

This class consisted of people asking basic questions about dating and the bishop responding. Seriously? I couldn't believe it. I was surrounded by people saying things like, "How do you let someone down nicely?" and "How do you get back into the dating game after being on a mission?" and, my favorite, "Can you men call me and tell me after one date if you don't think it's going anywhere?"  WHAT IN THE WORLD?! It was a riot.

The bishop concluded the lesson with a thought that I thought was pretty sound advice. He told us that we should be with someone who makes us feel like we need to be better to be with them. He said that marriage is something in which you are constantly lifting your partner when they are in their hard times and they lift you in your hard times. You have to constantly be striving to be better and so does your partner. Without this, it will be so hard to have a successful marriage, or even just a relationship. 

So while the bulk of the class was a giant laugh and I had a hard time taking it seriously, it ended on a really good note. It was the last week of that summer class, but maybe they will offer another rotation of it this fall, which is bound to be entertaining and informative. 

Also, they asked me to say the closing prayer. They wrote my name on the board followed by "New Girl"  Thanks, guys. 

Welcome to P-Town

It's official: I live in Provo.

Not gonna lie, I feel a little bit nervous about this move. I haven't moved into my apartment yet, that happens this weekend. I'm moving to a place where I know absolutely no one and I've never done that before. This is terrifying. Yet at the same time it's really exciting. I can't wait.

I feel as though I'm coming to Provo as a new person. I'm graduated and I'm endowed. There's been a big shift that's happened in my head, largely due to going to the temple. Things are going to be different from here on out. I mean, I'm still the same person and I have a lot of the same thoughts and attitudes, but there's something deep within me that I can't really explain. Maybe it's the adult in me starting to come to the surface? I don't know...it's different, though.

I'm excited for this new beginning. Nervous, but excited. I got a phone call just a few minutes ago from a guy I went to seminary with, but haven't really talked to since then (that was six years ago. SIX YEARS.) yet he called me up and talked about how I'm now in Provo and he's in Provo and "we should definitely chill" and I should hit him up. He's kind of a goof in the sense that he's all about swagger and rapping, yet he's suuuuper white. He's a nice guy, that Matt. I don't really think there's any hope for romance with him, but at least he's a friend I can spend time with!

Hooray for Provo living!