Although I had forgiven Dan the Ugg Man about his unprovoked attack on my footwear, little did I know that he wouldn’t stop just at my shoes but rather strike me at my inner character.

Dan came back over Christmas break, and we made plans to see each other again. While driving back from dinner, we ended up talking about an ex-girlfriend of his who is now married, and who I remember to be a quite stunning girl.

“You broke up with her? Gosh Dan, she was beautiful.”

“Well it’s not all about looks, Jenny. If marriage was based on looks, you would have been married a long time ago.”

And just like hearing the “oh-no-you’re-wearing-Uggs” line all over again, I was stopped dead in my tracks and struck dumb. Dan tried to backpedal, “waaait…that didn’t sound right” but in an effort to avoid any more of this awkward moment (and fearing to find out what he really meant), I ignored the comment and quickly changed the subject. We didn’t acknowledge it for the rest of the night.

But the comment continued to puzzle me the next day as I tried to decipher its meaning. It sounded like a compliment, a backasswards compliment if nothing else, but I think he said I am pretty. But the rest of the comment, however, implied that because I am pretty and not married, then there must be something wrong with my personality! So was it really a compliment? Is my personality the reason I’m not married? Do I need to make myself ugly in order to develop a decent enough personality to merit the heart of a man?

I wanted answers. So when Dan and I made plans to hang out one last time before he went home, I decided to call him on it and have him explain.

“So Dan, last time we hung out you said…” and he stopped me before I could finish another word.

“Oh great, I hoped you hadn’t caught that.” He then explained that he should have finished his thought, but because I changed the subject, he thought (and hoped) I might have missed it and went along with the new direction of the conversation.

“What I really meant was that the reason you didn’t get married early is because you chose not to. You decided marriage wasn’t a number one priority and did other things. You made skiing a priority. ”

And Dan was right. He knew me back in college when I was hiding from the youth-killing suction of BYU culture in the snow-covered Wasatch mountains (where I continue to find refuge).

I’m sad that I don’t know when I’ll see Dan again (he lives far far away)—and not just because he provides me with great blog material, but I truly enjoy his company, his justification for watching Seth Rogen movies, and his many unfinished thoughts.

**So if you’re dating Jenny, please note you have the right to remain silent, for anything you say can and will be used against you in a blog of Jenny’s.