*Awwwwwwwwwwwwww* (now with pictures!)

To continue the mushy theme...

I met Carl at a party in the apartment I would shortly move into. My soon-to-be roommate, Emily, worked on the school newspaper, and she invited a bunch of the kids from The Record. There was this one guy, leaning back against the stove with the hood light back-lighting his long blond hair. He had clear blue eyes that matched the blue t-shirt from his summer archaeological dig in Corinth. His voice fascinated me as he told stories from his summer in Greece. He was teaching us a drinking game he learned on his trip. I won.

I didn't see him again for a while. I had gone to that party with my boyfriend at the time, who was always drunk and usually embarrassing. I do remember seeingCarl twice more around campus before Emily and I ran into him again and she reminded me of his name. We were inviting him and his friends to come play Charlie's Angels with us in one of the academic buildings (you ran around with your fingers like guns and jumped around corners and kicked over tables and stuff). I went to volunteer on the paper the next week.

One day, Emily and I made Carl come see a band that had been big when we were sophomores (we were seniors by then, the band had graduated, and Carl was a wee sophomore). We were playing pool in the pub, waiting for the band to start. I can still so clearly see Carl walk around the table after a particularly bad shot on his part and I thought, "I have such a crush on this guy."

Eventually I cut the old boyfriend loose, something I should have done much, much earlier. One week later (exactly) I was hanging out with Carl and his friends. Somehow Carl and I were the only ones who went to dinner in the cafeteria that night. On our way back to his dorm, conversation drifted to what his friends were saying about us. I said, "Well, I have to admit, I have a terrible crush on you." And he said, "Yup, me too." Then he hugged me. We decided to talk some more (on the balcony on his floor- that was when I still smoked) and we decided we should wait a bit, since I'd just gotten rid of the deadbeat ex. And right after we agreed to wait a while to start "seeing" each other, but still spend plenty of time together (I don't know, either, but I was a bit giddy and it sounded great at the time), he kissed me. And that was it.

That was ten years ago tonight.