Lost: Soul mate. Reward: A collection of silly bands?

Fasten your seatbelts. You have a first class ticket to a glimpse of what my life has come to.

This evening, around 5 pm, as I was having an enthralling phone conversation with Alyse, I made my usual journey to the shuttle stop in front of the music building. On the bench, sat one young man whom I had never before seen - let's call him Chandler. Equipped with a grey backpack (a sign of intellect), and sporting a brown hoodie, black track pants, and white athletic sneakers, he glanced in my direction as I approached the stop and sat down on his side of the bench. I would be lying if I said I didn't consciously notice him between every "yeah" and "really?" of my phone call. The shuttle soon came, but not before Alyse and I talked about going to the temple sometime this week, debating which one to choose, and what time they each closed. I couldn't help but notice Chandler's sideways glances when I started to use the Mormon lingo. Yes, he was definitely Mormon as well. (Check mark #1) As Alyse and I hung up, the shuttle pulled up to the curb.

We climbed the shuttle steps, (In the brief "after you" moment before getting on, I desperately searched for a visual on the coveted left ring finger. The mission was a failure. Potential check mark #2) and I headed to the back where there were several open seats. After sitting down, I looked back towards the front. Unfortunately Chandler hadn't followed me, and chose the one open seat I had passed. Between text messages to Blythe, I continued to glance in Chandler's direction - mostly trying to make the final judgement call. Was he cute or not? In what seemed like the same moment that I decided he was, our eyes met. Thus began the awkward eye contact (Check mark #3) across the shuttle.

Approaching the institute, I shot a text message to Blythe: "There's a cute boy on the shuttle. We keep looking at each other. If he gets off at the institute, I'm getting off."

He didn't get off.

At the stop right before the Heritage Center, a large group of people got off. I had my fingers crossed that he would stay...and he did. But then I notice him grab an item from the floor, leaving his backpack behind, and bolts off the shuttle. I quickly look out the window from my terrible angle, and I get a visual of him handing a girl this item that she has apparently left behind. (Check mark #4) Chandler gets back on the shuttle, makes eye contact with me again, and the bus driver takes us on to the Heritage Center.

It's time to exit the bus, and at first I thought Chandler had crossed in front of the bus in direction to Officer's Circle (where I reside). He had gone out the front door, and I the back. Once I got my bearings, I saw him walking towards the HC, and opted to go follow him there for any potential interactions or introductions - rather than go home as planned. I needed to check my mail anyway. To make a long story short, we lost contact as he went upstairs to grab a meal. I wasn't hungry and figured I'd pursued it far enough, so I just checked my mail (Good thing! I got my order of silly bands!!) and headed home.

Which brings me to this: If you run into a clean cut, intelligent-looking, tall and slender Mormon between the shuttle stop in front of Kingsbury Hall and the dorms....I'm offering a reward. One of every kind of silly band that I own. If you know me, you know that's awesome.

I suppose that if this was BYU, our eye contact alone would have been a marriage proposal. Alas, this is what my life has come to. I'm blogging about a boy that makes ambiguous eye contact with me on a moving bus. Obviously, I'm stable.