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glauconmy first college crush was a young woman whom I met at new student orientation a month before school even started. she had black hair and blue eyes and looked a little like suzanne vega. we were seated next to each other for an hour or two at the "welcome to the university of delaware, let us tell you how great it is" sessions and had a great time making smart-ass remarks to each other during the various speeches. there was a guy named ian seated to her other side who obviously really dug her as well and she divided her attention pretty well between the two of us. I ran into her again later that afternoon on the way to the placement testing sessions and got a look at her father: he was a tweed-wearing, balding, bearded, professorial-looking guy. that pretty much confirmed the crush for me.
a month later, school started and I found she was 1. in my western civ class 2. one of the six smartest people in the class of '9_ (not only in my subjective opinion; she was one of six dupont scholars, the super elite of the honors program) and 3. dating that annoying ian guy. I chatted with her from time to time but was usually too shy or tongue-tied to say more than a few inarticulate, idiotic words. but we were casual acquaintances for years and had a number of mutual friends.
various things kept happening to confirm my crush. at some point during our sophomore year, she applied and was approved to become a dean's scholar. this was a challenging course of study that required excellent grades as well as an undergraduate research project and a senior thesis. it also allowed her to create her own interdisciplinary major, which she did. you want to know what she came up with? here was her major: Time. she was a Time major. she pursued extensive coursework in every department that dealt with Time: history, physics, psychology and philosophy primarily. as a guy for whom Dr. Who was a major formative influence, this just about gave me convulsions. I had thought I was cool for being a classics major, but there was no way I could outweird Time.
two years later, during the year I was crazy, I went to a halloween party at the spanish house. having turned 21 three days previously and being crazy, I ended up super-drunk, but it was a delirious, divine madness sort of drunk. so as I was pressing through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd in the hallway trying to get to the door, I found myself pressed up against my crush. she was sweaty and wild-eyed and clad in a long, flowing white robe and what looked for all the world like a crown of thorns.
"dear god!" I said, unconsciously punning, "are you wearing a jesus costume?"
"no, silly," she said, as I noticed that the thorns were actually grape leaves, "I'm dionysus!"
the rest of the evening, and in fact most of the next year, all blurs together in my memory.
two years later, I found myself living in pittsburgh where, it turned out, she was going to graduate school. we exchanged two or three friendly emails but never ran into each other during the two years we both lived there.
three years after I moved to seattle, I looked her up during one of my annual "where are they now" web searches for old friends. she was (is?) a professor of philosophy at a college in the northwest. we exchanged a quick email greeting but I was still too tongue-tied and shy to say anything more than "hi. hope to see you around one of these days."
I'd feel like I was stalking her if we communicated more than once every three or four years, or if I'd seen her since college, but I haven't. I wonder what she looks like now. I wonder if she's still the fiery, passionate, brilliant mind that she was in her (our) youth. and I wonder if she married fucking ian.
a month later, school started and I found she was 1. in my western civ class 2. one of the six smartest people in the class of '9_ (not only in my subjective opinion; she was one of six dupont scholars, the super elite of the honors program) and 3. dating that annoying ian guy. I chatted with her from time to time but was usually too shy or tongue-tied to say more than a few inarticulate, idiotic words. but we were casual acquaintances for years and had a number of mutual friends.
various things kept happening to confirm my crush. at some point during our sophomore year, she applied and was approved to become a dean's scholar. this was a challenging course of study that required excellent grades as well as an undergraduate research project and a senior thesis. it also allowed her to create her own interdisciplinary major, which she did. you want to know what she came up with? here was her major: Time. she was a Time major. she pursued extensive coursework in every department that dealt with Time: history, physics, psychology and philosophy primarily. as a guy for whom Dr. Who was a major formative influence, this just about gave me convulsions. I had thought I was cool for being a classics major, but there was no way I could outweird Time.
two years later, during the year I was crazy, I went to a halloween party at the spanish house. having turned 21 three days previously and being crazy, I ended up super-drunk, but it was a delirious, divine madness sort of drunk. so as I was pressing through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd in the hallway trying to get to the door, I found myself pressed up against my crush. she was sweaty and wild-eyed and clad in a long, flowing white robe and what looked for all the world like a crown of thorns.
"dear god!" I said, unconsciously punning, "are you wearing a jesus costume?"
"no, silly," she said, as I noticed that the thorns were actually grape leaves, "I'm dionysus!"
the rest of the evening, and in fact most of the next year, all blurs together in my memory.
two years later, I found myself living in pittsburgh where, it turned out, she was going to graduate school. we exchanged two or three friendly emails but never ran into each other during the two years we both lived there.
three years after I moved to seattle, I looked her up during one of my annual "where are they now" web searches for old friends. she was (is?) a professor of philosophy at a college in the northwest. we exchanged a quick email greeting but I was still too tongue-tied and shy to say anything more than "hi. hope to see you around one of these days."
I'd feel like I was stalking her if we communicated more than once every three or four years, or if I'd seen her since college, but I haven't. I wonder what she looks like now. I wonder if she's still the fiery, passionate, brilliant mind that she was in her (our) youth. and I wonder if she married fucking ian.
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Date: 2002-12-16 01:12 pm (UTC)I've been 'verbing the noun' a lot lately, too. "Whisking the chocolate" is my best so far.
Merry Christmas by the way. Miss seeing your mug.
dac wacking
Date: 2002-12-16 02:48 pm (UTC)doesn't everyone?
I've been told not to whack it so hard otherwise I might hurt him and he wouldn't realize it.
you're still talking about the cat, right?
Miss seeing your mug.
you may be seeing my mug, and maybe even my saucer and my gravy boat, again fairly soon. stay tuned.