Read Online A Year to Remember by Shelly Bell - Free Book Online Page A

not, something had changed in our relationship tonight.
     
    I stayed in bed on Saturday morning, refusing to face the day. The angel on my shoulder demanded I get out of bed, eat a healthy breakfast, and use my free time to exercise. The devil on my other shoulder whispered I should stay in bed for another few hours.
    The devil won.
    By the afternoon, I made it to the shower. I threw on a robe and started my coffee maker, checking my email as I waited for my caffeine fix.
    Not surprisingly, I had no messages from anyone on JDate. I checked my spam box and prepared to erase all the messages with the click of a single button, but the title of an email caught my eye. Clicking on the message “Metro-Detroit Speed Dating,” I read about an upcoming singles event.
     
Tired of spending your nights alone?
Ready to meet “the one” but not sure how?
Come to the Metro-Detroit Speed Dating Event.
Open to anyone aged 25-40.
Saturday, March 31st @ 7pm.
The Underground, Royal Oak, Michigan.
$20 plus cash bar
Register at www.meetajewnow.com
Sponsored by Jewish Federation
     
    For the next hour, I researched speed dating, since I really didn’t know anything about it other than what I saw on television. I went to the website to read more about it and learned the organizers of the event would match me with ten men for six-minute mini-dates. If one of my dates and I both indicated we’d like to get to know each other better, the organizers would release our personal contact information to one another.
    Originally, the Jews came up with the idea of speed dating and then everyone else jumped on the bandwagon. According to the Internet, Rabbi Deyo of Aish HaTorah had created the concept in order to get Jewish singles to connect and marry. I myself have always had a strict policy of only dating Jewish men.
    In high school, Missy and I had actively participated in a Jewish youth group. Her cousins recruited us in eighth grade, and we joined before knowing anything about it.
    Then in December of our freshman year of high school, with nothing planned over winter break, we decided to go to a convention held at our local Jewish Community Center. The local chapters competed in sports and games, talents, arts and crafts, and various other categories. We met boys and girls from all over the Metro-area schools.
    I grew up in a wealthy area of Metro-Detroit, and I never felt completely comfortable around the kids in my neighborhood. From the youth group, I met the boys from “the other side of the tracks” and for the first time, I felt as though I fit in. They didn’t care about designer clothes or what kind of car I drove. They didn’t get an allowance from their parents. They all had jobs to earn the money they needed to see a movie with their friends or take a date out to dinner.
    On New Year’s Eve, Missy and I found ourselves at her mother’s house alone for the evening, with no plans. On a whim, we called a boy we met at the convention earlier that week. After flirting with him on the phone for a bit, Missy convinced him and his friend to come over to watch a movie with us. We paired up with our respective crushes and at midnight, I experienced my very first kiss.
    Brett Jonas, a senior and four years older than me, had no idea of my inexperience. Before the night ended, I had not only kissed a boy, but had his tongue rolling around in my mouth and his hand up my shirt. I remember asking Missy if I was a slut. She said yes, then threw a pillow at my head.
    We went on only one date after that night. A pity date. He took me to dinner and then to an underage dance club, where we sat for an hour, neither one of us dancing. I got the hint we wouldn’t be kissing again, when he ordered a chili dog with onions at dinner.
    From my youth group in high school to Hillel in college, I’d always had a social network to meet Jewish men. Then, over the last five years, the herd of available single Jewish men shrank and the opportunities to meet them