Monday, October 06, 2008

Love Story


I've found a new project, my friends, and it's a good one. Well, it's good for me, but it may only be mildly interesting for you, so feel free to duck out the back now. I'll never know the difference.

As I was wending my way through my Google Reader (have I mentioned my deep and abiding love for the Reader? I really heart the Reader), I saw Jenni from One Thing mention a series that Mary from Owlhaven started this month. (Did I lose you yet? I hope not. And BTW, those two aforementioned blogs are good places to visit.)

It is Love Story Month, and it's not even February! Mary is chronicling her love story with her husband every Monday and Thursday, and she has invited us to do the same. Since I am an oldest child who feels responsible for taking on every task to which I have been invited, I'm in!

It's sort of like The Pioneer Woman's Black Heels to Tractor Wheels series, but with 10,000 less readers. And I don't even think I am exaggerating that number.

But it doesn't matter, because I'm mostly just writing it down for me. And Rob. And the kids. And the two of you who have not ducked out the back yet.

Part The First:

I was in the second semester of my freshman year of college, and I was finally starting to feel like I might make it through college with my mental health intact and, what's more, I might actually do well there.

After a pretty heinous random match-up with my scary first round roommate (another story for another time), I managed to finagle a room with a girl named Amy. (We did not confuse people who called our room AT ALL.) During the second semester, we found ourselves living in a wing with many common friends, including a Dance major named Marguerite. (This is what people in the business call foreshadowing. Dunh-dunh-DUHN!)

I had had a fairly sad dating record in high school (read: NONE. NO RECORD. NO ONE WANTED TO DATE ME. ARG.), and it would be accurate to say that I was not confident with the members of the opposite sex. I had guy friends, but that's because they were all dating my girl friends. I was a babe in the woods. Without the "babe" part.

In addition to my sad dating history, was the fact that my heart was holding on to a guy who was, how shall I put this, disinclined to date me? At one point he liked me, I know that much, but we weren't attending the same school and things all went quickly downhill. I was holding on to him through sporadic notes and pictures, but it wasn't enough to keep any kind of feelings alive. Well, except for mine, of course.

It was during this second semester that I dismantled my shrine took his picture down and decided to let it all go. You can only leave so many messages on a person's answering machine before they start to think of you as a stalker.

It was April, Spring was in the air, and everyone had things going on. My college was like a week long sleep-away camp for many students, so on Friday evenings the parking lots emptied out and the dorm halls were like a ghost town. I found myself alone, and I wandered down to Marguerite's room in search of company.

Little did I know that would end up meeting company enough for a lifetime.

To be continued . . . .

You can practically see the joy of work-study gleaming in my eyes.

11 comments:

  1. Ooooo! I can't wait to read more. I have a feeling this series is going to answer so many questions I've been dying to ask you but never mustered up the courage.

    And you do know that I was and still am extremely jealous of the fact that you didn't waste the high school years on some silly boy, right? Cause it is true. There were so many times that I wished I could have been in your shoes instead of tethered to a bad boyfriend.

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  2. Oh my goodness, look at you!
    :)
    I saw this series on Owlhaven, and was seriously tempted to jump in...

    We'll see.

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  3. Anonymous7:08 PM

    I feel so honored to be part of the story because it also chronicles my love of a certain over sized ice cream concotion at Friendly's

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  4. Anonymous8:09 PM

    I love "Love stories" can't wait to hear all of this one. PS--You still look just like you did in college.

    PSS--to Margurite--I loved that Friendly's ice cream too!

    -LisaL (my login stopped working)
    :(

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  5. You look a lot like Scarlett Johansson!

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  6. oooo, I can't wait to hear more. Everyone loves a good love story. I am desperately in need of some good blog material, so maybe I'll join in...eventually!

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  7. see how pretty Aimee is? Don't you feel sorry for all the boys who wanted to date her and were so imtimidated by her beauty that they stayed away? Don't you now know how self-confident and wonderful Rob is that he got himself together after beholding her and actually asked her out?

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  8. Oh how fun!! Can't wait to read more. Of course we all know the ending :)
    I didn't date in high school either. At least not much. It was sad but college opened things up to a smorgasbord of dating. Which dried up again after college... I'm lucky I'm married, I tell ya.

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  9. how fun!! Don't keep me waiting too long...I guess Thursday will come soon enough. I'd like to join in but my story involves a blogging friend of mine's husband - I'm not sure he wants to re-live our history via blog...maybe I'll figure out a way to leave him out. We'll see.

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  10. Aimee! I don't think I've heard this story before! But the "week long sleepover camp" line- PERFECT! I'm still chuckling. Everyone who doesn't know that college- she's sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo right on that!

    hey- were you around when we had the water gun fight in the res halls over columbus day weekend because EVERYONE (even the RA's it seemed) went home??

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  11. Hey Aimee, I went to AC too and graduated in '96 (with Kristi). Also found your blog via Kristi. I read on occassion but you have officially hooked me with this story. Thank you for contributing to my status as a blog junkie and also to my sleep deprivation ;) Can't wait to read more!!

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