First, a daily update type paragraph. In addition to having had surgery, I am now sick, so I’m very upset. Oye. The good news is, though, that I should be recovered enough in time for recruitment on Saturday and potentially Friday when Steph and I may go to our Rockies game.
Alright, so here’s the story I promised yesterday. I want to point out, first, that any and all negative opinions that may be expressed throughout the story are not mine and belong only to the specific people mentioned. So if there’s anything you find disagreeable, I apologize ahead of time. It’s just the way the story goes. There’s a few things in particular that I can think of, so I’m just apologizing in advance for future installments. The good news is, I guess, that not many people are reading this blog right now and so not that many people could be offended, so yay?
Anyway, this is a story from my sophomore year of college. I’d normally give the background information, but instead, I’ve decided to just let you all enjoy the story, so here we go! I was originally going to post it all in one go, but it’s kind of a long story, so I’ll just post the first third. And look, now I have content for the next two days, hooray! Anyway, the story…
I remember very vividly the day I met him. I was picking up cans for Greek Week. Every year there is a can drive in order to support local charities, and the team that had the most cans received the most points for Greek Week (so it’s not entirely selfless). It had been a cold and rainy day on the Wednesday I decided to buy cans. I reached the Safeway via Hop and decided I would do some more shopping while I was there.
I had engrossed myself in some pink blush when a man further down the aisle caught my eye. I busied myself with the blush so he wouldn’t notice I was staring at him.
That was when he let out a cough and his torso faced me slightly.
Pi… Kappa… Phi…
We were on the same Greek Week team, so clearly I had to say hello!
I sprinted over and burst out “Hi! I know you!” The only problem… I absolutely did not know his name. I had seen him before at Songfest practice, so I felt like I knew him at least a bit.
Despite that, he responded somewhat cheerfully with “Hey, what are you up to?”
I lifted my basket slightly; “Buying cans.” At that time, my basket contained pink blush, crackers, and orange vitamin water.
He chuckled slightly, “You sure are buying cans.”
I blushed. “I haven’t gotten there yet… Are you buying cans?”
“Medicine… I got sick over the weekend.”
“Standing out in the cold at Frat Football? I totally get it.”
“We were out of medicine, so… I came to get some.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” I frowned a little.
“It happens.”
“Well, I should actually buy cans,” I gave him a small smile. “See you at Songfest tonight?”
“It’s kind of rainy. Do you need a ride back to the house?”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that.”
“Don’t even worry about it.” He grabbed my basket and held it for me. “Unless you drove or something…”
“No, I didn’t… Thank you… Hey, are you coming to our dinner exchange?”
Also, I bought six cans of green beans.
Later that night, I was sitting next to Kristin at Trivia Bowl. He hadn’t shown up to the dinner exchange and I was pretty noticeably disappointed. Kristin had tried to cheer me up on our way to Trivia Bowl, so I was at least trying to curb my sour face.
I saw two of our seniors Becky (short for her last name, Beckerson; her first name is actually Jaclyn) and Morsy (short for her last name, Morison; her first name is actually Caitlin). I waved to them excitedly, “Becky, Morsy! Good luck!”
Morsy returned my smile as she headed to the farthest row of seats in Hale 270.
That was when I noticed Becky talking to him. A smile spread on my face and I shouted out “Hi!” only to realize that I still did not actually know his name. I lowered my raised arm slowly as a look crossed my face that can only be described as a smile mixed with a grimace. I sunk into my seat.
Becky noticed my torment as a sly smile crossed her face. “Hey, Evan, we’re all going to sit up there.” She motioned to the back row of seats where Morsy was now sitting. “You coming?”
So his name was Evan….
Evan put his hands in his pockets and gave a small shrug, “I’m not on the trivia team. Why would I go up there?”
“Okay, whatever. Stay here then.” Becky started heading toward Morsy, but gave me a short smile and a nod as she did.
Evan and another Pi Kapp brother headed into our row to sit next to Kristin and I. I whispered quickly to Kristin, “Let’s switch seats! Pleeeasse!!!”
“No.” It was a vehement whisper.
As Evan sat down, he leaned forward into the conversation I was having with Kristin. “Oh, hey, Deidree.” He had such a warm smile.
I couldn’t help but smile back. “Hi, Evan.” Plus, he knew my name.
A few weeks later, Evan recounted the part of this Songfest romance where he learned my name. I was probably in class that Wednesday afternoon. So, I am recounting this quip as a third-party to the actual conversation. However, I am assured that this is exactly how it happened.
As it turned out, Evan was actually roommates with Becky, though he called her Jaclyn, and another one of our seniors, Cindy. So after he took me back to the house after our serendipitous can meeting, he returned home and found Becky eating a fajita while sitting on their living room couch.
“Hey, Jaclyn, question for you.”
She set her fajita down. “Sure, what’s up?”
“There’s a girl in your house that I met today… And I need to know her name.”
“Oh really?” While recounting this to me, Evan had said ‘You know that look Jaclyn sometimes gets when she knows she might be holding something over you for the next ten years?’ I nodded and laughed. ‘Yeah, she gave me that look.’
“Yeah, that’s what I said.” Evan sat down in the chair next to the couch.
“Well, what does she look like?”
“She has brown hair.”
I wanted to take the time to point out that this is clearly a good descriptor when trying to differentiate women. Clearly.
Becky agreed; “Evan, I’m going to need a little more help than that… Is she doing Songfest?”
“Yeah… She usually wears one of your shirts.”
Becky shook her head, “So?”
“With pants… Sometimes shorts… Sometimes both?”
This is the part where I interrupted the story with an ‘Evan!’ ‘What?’ ‘I did not wear shorts and dance pants at the same time. They were tights.’ ‘Whatever, they were something that you wore with shorts. I don’t know the difference.’ ‘I’m sure, because you were looking at my legs so often…’ ‘Hey!’ I gave him a smile and he shook his head and continued his story.
At this point in the story, Becky responded with “Oh that’s Deidree. Why?”
Evan rose from his chair and shouted “Thanks!” Then, he booked it back to his room.
Or so the story went… Though I’m sure once she saw my face, Becky figured out the exact answer to ‘why.’
Help! I'm Post-Grad... 