maybe it's maybelline

(maaaybeee/maybe it was them/or maybe it was me/or maybe it's maybelline/or maybe it's maybelline)

If you know from what song those lyrics are, you get bonus cool points!

If you haven't been reading about the epic love story that IS Shawn and Jen, allow me to recap:

1. Shawn and Jen and are none too impressed with one another.

2. Shawn and Jen started hanging out because we were both RAs and Shawn had a thing for a friend of mine.

3. Shawn and Jen started to look past the sarcasm and goofiness and realize they respected one another.

4. Chris Tomlin intervened and saved a friendship that would've been lost due to lack of convenience.

There, now you're all caught up. With Easter approaching, Shawn and I decided to each challenge our sections with giving up something for lent. Shawn decided to give up music with words for the approximate thirty days, and I decided to give up make up. Being the college girl that I was, make up was a big part of my morning routine, and I felt like giving it up would be quite the sacrifice.

During this "fast" of mine, I visited my - by then very serious boyfriend- Kevin, who was living off campus. Even though Kevin and I had been friends for two years prior to dating, we'd kind of taken turns liking each other. As such, our friendship was one of those that mandated I put on makeup, fix my hair, and make sure I smelled delicious before hanging out with him. He knew what my lent sacrifice was, so when I saw him I asked, "So...what do you think?"

Being without make up - in front of the guy you hope to one day marry - asking him what he thinks - is a pretty vulnerable spot in which to find yourself. His response?

(long pause) "Well...." (another long pause)

"It's okay, you can be honest," I replied (a relationship's last words), "Do you think I look better with makeup?"

I remember this moment exactly. I was standing in his living room, and I was wearing a black, knee-length skirt, and a red turtleneck sweater, an outfit chosen painstakingly just for him. He looked me in the eye, shrugged his shoulder a little bit, and held up his pointer finger and thumb.

"Maybe just a little bit," he responded.

I don't feel like I need to belabor this point, but FYI guys - if you're thinking about marrying the girl you're dating, you know that means waking up every morning next to her, right? You know that means that at some point she's going to stop putting on makeup before bed, or waking up before you to "freshen up," before you see her, right? You might want to kind of like what she looks like without makeup. ...just sayin'.

I brushed it off as no big deal at the time, but I was pretty hurt that my vulnerable and makeup-less face was "just a little bit" not enough.

Meanwhile, Shawn and I were still hanging out and had started to talk fairly regularly on the phone. We talked about everything - things we were studying, doubts, classes, food, and even future plans. I remember telling Shawn that I wanted to wear daisies in my hair on my wedding day, and I remember him telling me that he imagined me to be the kind of girl who wore overalls a lot when I was pregnant. Of course, I never imagined I'd be looking at him with those daisies in my hair, and I'm sure he never imagined it would be his child my overall-ed self would be carrying.

Oh my. Can you handle the irony?

So one evening, Shawn and I chatted on the phone for a particularly long time. One of us ended the conversation with, "Well, we both have to wake up for church in the morning, so I should probably go." After lunch the next day, we saw each other in the library, and after a minute, realized that neither of us had actually made it to church that morning. As we continued to talk, we realized we both planned on going to the same church that evening.

"Why don't we just go together?" Shawn asked, "Meet me at my car at 6:15."

So at 6:15 promptly ('cause that's how I roll), we met to go to church together. Shortly after this, Shawn traded in his SUV for an Alero, a choice he complains about even today. He's all like, "I really miss that SUV. You know, if I still had that car, we wouldn't have a problem with getting all Jude's junk packed when we visit home." And I'm like, "Yeah, but honey, it guzzled gas, remember? That's why you got rid of it." And he's all, "(sigh)You wouldn't understand. You never saw that SUV. Oh man, I loved that SUV." And I'm like, "YES I DID! Remember? We went to Gregoryville together that night you fell in love with me, and you didn't open your car door for me, and I had to climb up like ten feet to get inside, and we showed up late to church, and then you fell in love with me? Remember?" And every time, just like we've never had this conversation before, he responds, "Oh. Yeah, I forgot."

We did indeed show up late - we thought church started at 6:30, but it was apparently 6:00 instead. So we snuck in the back and grabbed a hymnal. We'd been singing for a few minutes, when Shawn whispered, "JP!" (a college nickname)

"Yeess?" I responded, most likely agitated because I hate when people talk during church, the movies, or my favorite television shows.

"You're wearing makeup!" he accused.

"No I'm not," I responded. Then Shawn got a funny look on his face, which I thought was doubt about my honesty, so I whispered, "Well, I am wearing chapstick, but I don't think that counts. It's not like there's any tint or even flavoring to the chapstick. My lips were just dry. No, that doesn't count. At least I don't think it does. It's just chapstick. No way chapstick counts as makeup"

For someone who hates when people talk during church, yes, I was doing a lot of talking.

It turns out Shawn didn't hear my ever so eloquent diatribe on chapstick. Do you want to know why? Listen closely, because this is my favorite part of our entire story. Shawn didn't hear me because he was thinking, "Wow. So she really looks like that without makeup? Wow. She's beautiful."

In all the time that Shawn and I had talked about girls in whom he was interested, he never referred to any of them as beautiful. For whatever reason, that word was sacred to him, and the fact that the word just ran through his mind in reference to JP -his good old buddy JP -most likely caused his brain to internally explode.

Meanwhile I was babbling on about chapstick, completely unaware that yes - my friends - Shawn had finally noticed these sky blue eyes of mine.