Courtney Coug

I was really wanting to wait until our first date 'anniversary' to tell this story but that is still half a year away. It is too good not to tell so here it goes: The story of how I came to be known as Courtney Coug:

About Four years ago I was a student at BYU, living with my brother at the Belmont Condos. I had just gotten out of a rocky year and a half long relationship and was pretty distraught over my situation. I really wanted to move, like that day, somewhere far far away. I was going to be a single woman, living with my best friend in a big city for years to come.

On this night of soaking in self pity my life was going to change forever. I had no clue. For crying out loud I was wearing my brother's sweatpants and a dirty tank top, I hadn't showered in 3 days (remember I was in mourning), and I was overall a complete mess. If I had known this night would seal my fate forever I would have made myself at least look presentable.

My genius brother (he really is a genius) put a full bottle of Martinelli's in the freezer, and yes it exploded. I couldn't count on him cleaning up the mess so I went to work. I'm down on my hands and knees when suddenly there is a knock at the door. I got up figuring it was one of my neighbors. When I open the door I see an image of the Greek God that is Josh standing in front of me (with Staley and Joe on each side of him).

This is what followed:

J: "Hi, my name is Josh and I am a student at the U. I am down for the night with some of my friends for our fraternity's annual 'Catch a Cougar' night, and I'd like to take you on a date."

C: In my head, "Huh? Fraternity...no thanks! Why the heck haven't I showered in the past 3 days??!!!! This guy is freaking hot!" Really I answered, "Oh thanks but no thanks, I haven't showered yet today." If that wasn't obvious as my hair grease was making a puddle on the floor beneath me.

J: "Oh that's ok, how quickly can you get ready?"

C: "I don't even know you. You could take me out in the middle of the desert, have your way with me, and leave me buried where my poor family will never find me."

J: "No I swear I'm a good guy. I am going to college and I served a mission."

C: "Sadly, I know too many returned missionaries to know that that doesn't mean anything. Thank you for the invite but I don't think so."

Just so you know, for 'Catch a Cougar' night the whole fraternity comes down to Provo and has to find random BYU girls to take on dates. They go to apartments and knock doors, go to the library, the mall etc. Mine happened to be the first door Josh knocked on.

We ended up talking for a few minutes and I found out my neighbor girls were going to be going with Joe and Staley. The plan was to go to Pizza Factory and then play games. I felt comfortable enough with that information that I agreed to go on the date as long as my family knew where I was going. He said he'd be back in 30 minutes to pick me up. I rush back to my room to quickly rinse off and get ready when my cousin comes to my house to tell me she is pregnant! This was really exciting news especially for her because she had been struggling to achieve this for some time. So what's a girls to do? Go on a date with a handsome stranger and possibly get murdered, or go celebrate the life growing in her cousin/best friend's womb?

I called Josh and bailed on him. Little did I know that could have been the end of it for me. I could have ended up with some freak because of my loyalty to my cousin. He pretended to be disappointed and told me to call him after we went to get dessert, maybe we could meet up then. In the mean time he found another girl to take on the date. I can not believe I did this in my fragile state, but when I got back from celebrating with Rachel I called Josh to let him know we were done. He had already left to go back to SLC. We talked for a few minutes and he said he would call me and take me out another time. I didn't believe him. Why would he need to call me? He lives in Salt Lake and he obviously doesn't have a hard time getting dates.

Sure enough, two weeks later I was in a movie with my other cousin Rebecca, and I get a voicemail from Joshua Ray. I listened to it after the movie and pretended it was too late to call him back. Really I was buying time. I wasn't sure if I was ready to go on a date. I hadn't been on a first date in almost two years. Did I even know how to flirt anymore? Oh gosh, what do I do?! So I called him the next day to tell him I could only go if my cousin could come with us. I pretended I had already promised my night to her. He said he would find a date for Rebecca and we'd make it a double. Crap, now I have to call Becca and beg her to come out with me and some guys I don't know at all. Luckily she was a good sport and supported her loser cousin. We knew we were going disco skating and hot tubing so off to DI we headed to get some tie die shirts and we headed to SL for our group date.

I had been stressing all day about what to wear, how to do my hair, etc. I don't think I ate more than a bite of food all day I was so nervous. When we met up with Josh he had just woken up from a nap, was wearing sweatpants with a button down collared shirt, and flip flops. Good thing I stressed all day huh?

We then met up with Dusty and a few other couples. Everyone gets changed, and what do Josh and Dustin put on? Daisy Dukes. Again, good thing I stressed so much.

We were on our way to Classic Skating and somehow kissing got brought up. Josh and Dustin found out I had only kissed 4 guys in my life. They laughed and said, "yeah we've only kissed 4 people too." Right then I was thinking, oh great I'm out with a sleaze ball! Disco skating was so much fun. I was surprised at how relaxed and natural things were for me and Josh. This was all going too well.

After Disco skating we went hot tubing and after that, we watched a movie. Our first date lasted ten hours. We talked and laughed, and played. We shared a bowl of cereal and enjoyed each other. We had our second date and first kiss three days later, and the rest is history.

After we had been dating I was in Josh's phone book for some reason. I noticed that all the girls had first names but instead of last names they had descriptions. A few examples might be: Katie Las Vegas, Megan Yellow Shirt Crimson Nights, Kelly Hot Dog Rush. He would have to put key words next to these girls to remember who they were and where he was when he met them. It was then confirmed to me that my husband did in fact like to kiss girls in his single days. So many in fact that he couldn't remember all their names, therefore they received a description. I saw my name, Courtney Coug. I was the BYU Cougar from his 'Catch a Cougar' night and that was my description for how we met so he could remember who I was. That is what I have been in his phone book since and what I am proud to always be.

Last week we found pictures from our first date, enjoy: