Well 2 messages to be exact. You hear all those stories about online dating and the danger of it. Well we ignored it. I dm'ed Val on Facebook Dating of all places and she promptly ignored it and deleted her profile. She of course would remake it and since someone once said, "you miss every shot you don't take". I tried again and to my surprise she responded. We chatted for a bit before making the big jump to have our first date. On October 9, I convinced her to meet me at Kings Family Vineyard after thoroughly planning out an afternoon of things to do. The anxiety for both of us was at an all time high. Neither of us had been actively dating anyone for a while and the nerves were visible. Val showed up about 10 minutes late which left me wondering if I was going to get stood up but she made it. The date started off great, we got our wine, found a spot away from the polo match and spent the next 3 hours talking and getting a feel for each other. Neither one of us wanted the date to end so I suggested the next step in my date timeline to go to Blue Mountain Brewery for dinner. They were having their Oktoberfest menu and we ordered a delicious pizza with all the meats and some veggies. We sat outside and continued our conversation for a couple more hours. My ideas had run out at that point but we clearly still did not want the date to end. We talked it out and concluded we would go to a movie and chose to see Smile as it was recently released. Of course we're both horror movie lovers so it was an easy pick. We enjoyed (were creeped out by) the movie and sadly had to end our date there. However, someone once said carpe diem so I asked for a second date the very next day. Val was happy to accept and we met up at the River Burger Bar in Waynesboro for some craft burgers and another couple hours of conversation. Not wanting to wear out my welcome, I gave Val some breathing room as she prepared for a girls trip for her friend's birthday. Of course we continued to talk/text all day every day and when Val returned we set up another date. We cooked a meal together and settled in to watch a movie on Netflix. I realized how quickly she was becoming a significant part of my life and for awhile now, I'd lived my life by a certain saying, "Tomorrow is never promised." So I asked her to become my official girlfriend and the rest is continuing to be written at this moment.