The long hello

See that guy over there on the left? We met almost 15 years ago, but he doesn't remember. There were probably 20 of us watching a movie in Smugs' room in April of 1994. Smugs introduced "Gigs" to everyone. I never met a guy with that kind of nickname before so it stuck. I said, "Hi, Gigs," when I passed him on campus the next day. I could tell by his face that he didn't remember me. I also heard his friend say, "Who was that," and Scott replied, "I don't know." I didn't say hi again. I figured he didn't remember me. And I didn't see him much after that since our paths rarely crossed.

I had been selected to be an RA (Resident Assistant) for the next year, my junior year. We did our spring team building day and in the summer, I went back to school early for training. Two days into training, there was Gigs. Two guys had resigned as being RAs over the summer and he was asked to replace one of them. He told everyone his name was Scott, so that's what we called him. Apparently, only guys on the baseball team called him Gigs. We finished our training and the freshmen arrived on campus. I was pretty busy since I was an RA in the freshman girls' dorm. Scott was assigned to an upperclassman dorm, so he was around, but kind of peripherally. The college always had an ice cream social for the freshmen during orientation and all of the RAs went. I talked to him a little as we were leaving the social with our friends. As we parted, I said goodbye and gave him a hug, as all recovering theatre people do. There were sparks in that hug, but Scott wasn't my type. He's about 5'7" and played baseball. I liked guys taller than 6' and who were actors or poets. I just went back to my room and did my work and kind of forgot about it.

Shortly afterward, Scott and his colleagues up in Tucker Hall decided that they would throw a dance in the basement of the dorm. It used to be a seminary, so it was quite big. They called it Tucker Underground. And Scott was on duty that night. Oh, boy. What a terrible night he had! A lot of underage drinking and at one point, one of the Panamanian soccer players who lived there kicked a goal shot to the other end of the long hallway using a beer ball. He stopped down to the dance on rounds and I saw him and said hi and gave him a hug like I always do and there were the sparks again. A couple of us offered to go on rounds with him again so he wasn't alone. And we wound up hanging out for the rest of the time. I helped him and his fellow RAs clean up the mess. and then I stayed. The lounge where they had the dance was a 24 hour space, so we stayed there and watched TV and talked. All night.

I did try to kiss him at one point (forward much?) and you know what he said? He told me he didn't want to kiss me then. He said that he once kissed a girl the night that they met and that it didn't go anywhere right away and he didn't want that to happen with me. He wanted to give whatever we might have a chance before we kissed. I was shocked. No guy had ever said that to me before. I knew immediately that he was a good one, a guy I wanted to know better. So we stayed up until 7:00 in the morning just talking. He wasn't allowed to leave the building until then since he was on call. He drove me back to my building and he said he'd call me in the afternoon. The next night, we went out with his friends to play pool.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Of the 4 couples that we knew who got together at Tucker Underground, 2 of us are married. Scott and I were married 10 years ago on March 4. It's funny how 15 years can all at once feel like forever and yesterday.

So, Happy Anniversary, to my one, true love, to my college sweetheart, to the man whom God moved mountains to get into my life, to my Scotty. I love you.