FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER!

Brenda was a grad student at Tufts in Boston. She was tired of dating and was thinking of getting her doctorate in nutrition after she got her Master’s degree.
Brenda’s two roommates, who were also a couple, told Brenda she needed a night out to go dancing. Brenda got ready and then waited for them to come home from wherever. By 10:00 p.m. they hadn’t shown up, so she got undressed and went to bed.
Five minutes later, her roomies showed up and insisted that she get up, put her clothes back on, and go out with them. By then Brenda was in a bad mood, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer.
The trio went to a disco place over the famous Cheers bar. Brenda was still grumpy, so as guys came up and asked her to dance, she said no, over and over.
Then a big guy with a thick gold chain came over.
“I’ve been watching you all night,” he said to tiny Brenda. “Who do you think you are, turning down all these guys? You’re going to dance with me right now.”
The man tried to pull Brenda up out of her seat, and she shoved him. He kept grabbing at her, and she shoved him again and broke his gold chain.
The guy stormed off, but he’d made his point. Had she really been a brat by not dancing with anyone? Was she coming across as a you-know-what? Brenda told herself she would dance with the next guy who came up and asked.
He was a long-haired guy — cute, with no gold chain, and he didn’t grab her.
On the dance floor, she asked him, “What are you doing in Boston?”
“I’m in school,” he said.
“I’m in GRAD school,” she said to him.
It turned out he went to Harvard. It turned out that she liked him. A lot. So much in fact that three months later they got married over spring break. Brenda’s parents met him the day before the wedding in her home state of Indiana.

Couldda Wouldda Didda
Brenda and Barry have been married for almost forty-five years. She owes it all to the big lout with the gold chain. And to her roommates, who dragged her out that night (and also married each other).