Your first date?

I want to applaude you on the Alice books because I’ve read all of them and they are fantastic! My favorite is “Now I’ll Tell You Everything” but I also loved “Alice in Rapture…Sort of”. I thought it was very funny about what Alice worried about on her first date with Patrick because I had the exact same worries. Did your first date go exactly like Alice’s? Did you go to a Country club like she did?

Not quite.  In 7th grade, I was invited to have dinner at Donald Miller’s home, and I was almost sick at my stomach.  It would be worry enough to go to a movie or have a soda together, without having his whole family looking on.  I was just so uncomfortable and embarrassed, I could only eat  few bites . Everybody kept looking at me, asking me questions, trying to make me comfortable, and it only made things worse,  My second date was in 8th grade with another boy who took me to a movie.  After he walked me home, he kissed me on the porch, then left immediately  (that was the way things went then.  You kissed, then separated quickly to hide your embarrassment.)  But as soon as I got inside the house, I announced joyfully that I had just been kissed.  My parents did not seem pleased.  And for several years after that, the porch light was always on when I went out on a date.  (We simply kissed somewhere else).