Tuesday, January 8, 2008

The Road That Led Me To My Man - Part 2

Okay, here is my second installment of my love story. You know this is stretching into a longer story than I thought. I promise though that I will finish it this week, really, pinkie swear!
I was so happy. I was so excited to have finally "found" my place. Since the semester was winding down the Catholic Student Association planned a picnic at the Recreation field on campus. As I put on my jean shorts, the ones with the Dirty Dancing inspired rolled up cuffs, I thought about all the new friendships I had made since the retreat. I looked forward to seeing my new friends and meeting even more as I drove to campus. I scanned the field looking for someone I knew and instantly spotted Lisa. She was tall and lanky with long curly hair and the sweetest Texas twang. She was the daughter of a cotton farmer and had grown up near Tech. Her cousin, Russell, (well, actually they were second cousins or something like that) I had also met on the retreat and he and I had become fast friends. Laughing, we gathered up food on our paper plates and found a place to sit. It always amazed me how you can meet some people and just instantly be able to talk about anything. It's just comfortable and easy. I was so thankful that Lisa and Russell were that way, I believed God was smiling down on me. And probably saying something like "it's about time you wayward child!"

After we stuffed our faces with hot dogs and potato chips I wandered out onto the playground to visit with some other people I recognized. A group of girls were standing around chatting and there in the middle of the fray was Wrangler boy, but he was wearing shorts and tennis shoes that day. Even though I still found him attractive I knew his type and therefore felt no pressure to impress him in any way. The conversation veered off toward military planes. Really, I have no idea how. One minute we were talking about our favorite flavor of potato chips and the next minute we were discussing the cruising altitude of the B-1 bomber. Thanks to my Dad and his love of military air shows, I was well versed on the abilities and names of various fighter jets and helicopters. I had even believed when I was young that I would one day fly an F-15 . I totally overlooked the fact that at that time women were not allowed to fly these aircraft and that because of bad ears my equilibrium was shot and I would probably spend my entire time in the air sicker than a dog. This of course never registered on my pre-pubescent mind. But it came in handy in this conversation. Slowly, the others drifted off and Wrangler boy and I were alone discussing the advantages of the Apache helicopter.
As we talked I couldn't help but notice his big, brown eyes. I shook my head and squinted, trying to blur his face out of focus so I wouldn't become distracted. I am a sucker for big, brown eyes. Like those you find on the face of a Jersey cow. Not that he resembled a cow, it's just those eyes. Let's just say they are a distraction for me. I'm sure by the end of our conversation he thought I either had a tick or needed glasses with all the squinting I was doing. But as I left he followed me to my car and asked if I would be going to the local hangout that night and I said yes and he said he'd see me there. My heart did a little flutter, which I accounted to my long walk to the car and not to Wrangler boy and his big brown eyes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aha! Brown eyes do run in that family, don't they?

Anonymous said...

I don't have cow eyes >:(