September

Sommer and I met on August 27th.  Doing simple math, or calendar reading, this means our first full month getting to know each other was the grand month of September.

September was.....interesting.

On Sommer's side, her brother, Walker, who is a U.S. Ranger (Rangers Lead the Way), shipped off to Aphgan....Afgahn....Afghanisto...far away.

Lt. Walker Bauer: Far Right.
Not Pictured: Bad Guys who don't stand a chance

Also, Sommer's awesome grandfather, Andy Bauer, who I sadly will not get to meet on this earth, passed away.

Sommer (in her announcement that her Grandfather had passed): "Heaven gained an extraordinary man on Saturday [9/22/12]"

As for me, I went on the Stupendous Ben-Ezra-Gardner-Worent Camping Trip of 2012

Can Gabrielle and Jonathan W. stop kissing?  Ever?  Seth's Funny Face is rather judgmental.....Also, I am so friggin' tan!!

I also went to Lambeau Field to watch the super amazing 49ers defeat the Packers for the first of two times this season and post-season.

Me at Lambeau with my $5 shades....such a stud...even straight men hit on me sometimes...

Not to sound incredibly arrogant, but if Sommer hadn't met me, her September would have been pretty darn sucky.

Mine was pretty sweet though.

Since there was so much going on, we never had a chance to make grandiose plans, and instead had to content ourselves with going on more walks, sometimes with Cooper, sometimes without.

Cooper not barking

This actually turned out to be a good thing, I think all of our time spent just talking and walking laid a fantastic foundation for the relationship that would follow.  A couple stories from September:

***Jonathan Proves He is Not Suave***

So I told Sommer that I am not a suave person, then proceeded to do my best to prove this to her.  We went for a walk at the riverfront and I really wanted to *gasp* hold her hand.  Pretty exotic and out there right?!

So instead of suavely just grabbing her hand and being all cool I went for the "other" method of asking her if I could hold her hand like an 8-year old on a play date.  This could be taken as gentlemanly....hopefully, but I did set the standard of letting her know that I would be talking to her before I did anything new.  I think she appreciated this when.....well......that is later in the story........

***First Movie (alternate title: Sommer Almost Loses Her Hand)***

First movie, I let Sommer pick.  She picks a safe movie, The Odd Life of Timothy Green.  It was cute.

This was the night that I learned a very important fact about Sommer, she doesn't mind being late. Previews are overrated anyway. I also learned that we can have incredibly awkward moments just as if we were still in junior high.

As we sat and watched the movie I kept wanting to hold her hand.  She had it resting on her leg.  It seemed like she was offering it to me, but maybe she just sat and watched movies with her hand resting on her leg like that?

Side note:  Every time I type out the word "just", I type "jsut" and have to fix it.....EVERY TIME!!!!!  LEARN TO TYPE JONATHAN!!!!

I eventually reached out towards her hand and was gratified that she reached back immediately, as if she had been waiting for me.  It was very sweet.  Unfortunately we ended up with my hand on top of hers and her hand being pressed (or crushed) into the hard plastic edge of the cup holder.

Now, if you had been dating a while it is a simple matter for Sommer to whisper, "ha ha, I need to adjust (doggone it! I just typed adjsut!) my hand" or for me to whisper "hey, do you need to fix your hand so you aren't cutting off circulation?"

Instead we had an awkward time as I wondered how Sommer's hand was doing and she wondered how long she could handle the pain.

She was a trooper and made it a decent while before whispering that she needed her hand back, which I totes understood, yo.  Totes...

As we left the theatre (how fancy!  theatre!) she quickly grabbed my hand, kinda to let me know that she didn't pull her hand back for any reason except out of fear of losing it due to blood loss.

***The Pumpkin Fest***

I ran my first official 10k in September.  September 15th to be precise, just about one week after the 49ers defeated the Packers in their opening game.

The Running Team.  I swear I meant to smile, Ross just snapped the picture when I wasn't ready.  Also, Bock didn't run, using his kids as an excuse.  Lame.  Also, I didn't get a cool shirt cause I was late to the the team, it is pure luck that my blue shirt is the same shade as the ones Amy had made

Sommer had said she would try to meet me at the finish line.  Bear in mind that this is the 4th-ish time seeing her and I would be rather sweaty from running 6.3 miles.

Sidenote:  For my first 10k, I was very proud of my time.

The meeting was as awkward (I've used that word a ton in this post, seriously, I'm so not suave) as you might think it was.  Beth and Sarah were there as well (I know Beth from New Life) and since Beth is almost as much an extrovert as Gabrielle we were able to push through the moment and Sommer and I agreed to meet up later.

Sommer and I had a delightful time wandering the rather boring Pumpkin Fest later that afternoon.  Not super delightful really, but it was ok.

The fun would be later that night when we met up at Sarah's house to sit around a fire and chat.

Merely a generic campfire picture I added for flavor....but check out the tool who isn't wearing a shirt.  He is all like "I'm at a campfire and I'm not wearing a shirt!"  I hope he burned his nipples off.  Nipple-less tool........This is the type of writing that you can't find anywhere else...except every other blog on the internet

It was that night, sitting around the fire, talking about embarrassing moments (I told my butt surgery story...for realz), when I first thought to myself that there might just be something here with this Sommer chick.....

Also, she was (and still is) freakin' hot....

Up Next: "October" or "When Jonathan and Sommer Get Serious While Getting Piggy Back Rides from New Life Youth"