All for a Kiss

Winston Churchill once said: "There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you."

I can see his point. It would be hard to kiss someone who is leaning away from you. It is even harder to kiss someone who is running away from you, diving into a fetal position, and burying their head in the ground.

Have you ever tried to kiss someone under these circumstances? Have you ever done any of these things in an effort to avoid being kissed? (And I'm not talking metaphorically.) Have you ever worked so hard for a kiss that you actually got a bruise? Or a bloody lip? Or two kinda black eyes? Have you ever been tackled to the ground by a boy trying to kiss you? Have you ever been kissed by a complete stranger and not even felt mad about it?

Because I could answer yes to all of those questions, all thanks to my lovely friend Jeremy.

And I'm not talking about the same kind of kiss that Lady Antebellum made up a song about.

  

Imagine, if you will, that you have spent three days straight, doing nothing but packing and cleaning. You have scrubbed and swept, and in your mind, your apartment is spotless. And then a horrible lady who is in charge of the apartments comes along, and she is a beast, and she tears apart all your work. So you start cleaning again, resigned to the fact that you will be spending your last night in Provo (for a month at least) just cleaning and re-cleaning.

And then there is a knock on the door. And a boy with a nice smile is standing there, and he invites you to come play kissing rugby, and tells you that you are already wearing the perfect shorts for such a game.

When this happened to me, my immediate response was, "I have to clean my tub again" with a sad little sigh.

To which he responded, "No you don't. Come!"

Would you not have been persuaded by such an eloquent argument? I threw down my magic eraser and left with him right then.

Here is how kissing rugby is played: Every girl gets a letter. Every boy gets a number. Someone sits in the middle and calls out a letter and a number. If the person in the middle is a girl, the boy she called has to kiss her before the girl she called can kiss the boy she called. So the girl who was called has to try to kiss the boy while he tries to kiss the girl in the middle, and she tries not to get kissed. If there is a boy in the middle, the girl he called has to try to kiss him (with his help) while the boy he called tries to kiss the girl. Whoever loses then becomes the person in the middle. And when I say "lose," I just mean that they technically lose. Because let's be honest, even the losers can kind of win, don't you think?

Here's a video that I found online of some people at institute playing kissing rugby:

  

Doesn't that look so fun?? We played for 2 hours. Apparently they play every Wednesday, so you know I'm going to be joining in again as soon as I am back in Provo. We took some videos before it got dark, so hopefully I will have some to put up here soon!

Warning: My mom said that I look like a battered woman now. I have counted 12 bruises, but I'm pretty proud of them. I feel like it was worth it!