One of the things I enjoy about carpooling is yes, I only drive once every three weeks and yes, I save money on gas that is being spent on other necessities like food...(and yes, even though gas prices are continuing to fall - I will continue to carpool)...but I enjoy the conversations that are had. It's better than talking to myself out loud, you know. ;)
The other week we had a conversation about first crushes, first boyfriends, etc. and while my first celebrity crush was John Taylor from Duran Duran ...my first 'boy-I-actually-knew' crush was Brandon Smith. I've known Brandon since Kindergarten and pretty much crushed on him on/off from like 1st grade - all through my freshman year of college. Oh was he cute!
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In sixth grade, I met Brandon's cousin, Joel. Joel and Brandon were rather tight - hung out a lot and so my 11 year old mind thought - "Well, if I go out with Joel then I'll get closer to Brandon." Good theory and it may have worked had I not moved away the summer between sixth and seventh grades. My first boyfriend...hee hee...now the extent of 'going out' at age 11 was holding hands in the hall, him walking me to class, passing notes (and honestly, I wish I still had those folded squares of college ruled notebook paper. I'd be curious as to what we wrote about.), and talking to each other on the phone after school - everyday.
Brandon and I grew up in the same neighborhood and so when Joel would come to visit him, sometimes they would ride their bikes to my house. I'm sure Joel was all like 'yeah, I'm going to see my girl' and I was like 'yay...I get to see Brandon.' Shame on me, I suppose. Obviously we broke up because I moved away. I didn't know at the time that I would be moving back to my old neighborhood 21 months later...
I didn't get to tell any of my friends, other than Joel, that I was moving - I didn't get to say goodbye. My mother took me to see him the day before leaving. [Sidenote: Upon moving back, my first day back to my junior high was interesting to say the least. It was April and I remember showing up in a Jordan Knight t-shirt with my NKOTB Hangin' Tough tour jacket and jeans...and walking into my first class as a 'new kid' - I surprised many of my friends by actually being an 'old kid'. ]
Once word spread that I had returned, there was the return of the Brandon-Joel situation; however, it didn't last very long...at least not the Joel part of the situation. Joel had started calling me the summer between eighth and ninth grades and I remember one phone call and the word-for-word proposition he offered. I probably hadn't thought about that conversation since high school and it just came flooding back during this particular carpool ride...I couldn't stop laughing to actually get the words out.....my face becoming more and more red as I laughed harder and harder... After some deep breaths, the words finally - and successfully - passed my lips.
At the edge of my grandmother's backyard was a war trench and beyond that was nothing but woods. This particular call led Joel, who would have been 14 years old, to propose to come over, go into the woods and ask to 'do it with me.' But it was the how he asked...if he could "put tab A into slot B." Think about that for a second...now, you're probably at least giggling...I turned him down and he pretty much didn't talk to me after that. Seriously?! Where would a 14 year old have come up with that?!
As for Brandon: He and I ended up becoming pretty good friends. We spent a lot of time hanging out senior year of high school and worked countless hours on Yearbook, but our lives went their separate ways. He went off to BYU, where he met his wife and to become Indiana Jones (well, maybe more like Ross on Friends??!) and I went off to Campbell and well...
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[Endnote: I just figured since my blog is entitled "My Future Novel" maybe I should start including entries that could actually end up in my future novel - should I ever get around to writing it...]
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