When Rachael Met Brien

I'm not certain I've posted this before. If I have, I'm terribly sorry, feel free to skip this post.

Having written the "About Our Family" blurb the other day, I thought I would begin to flesh things out a bit. My sophomore year of high school was not the best year of my life. My grandmother's funeral was the first day of school. We had to leave my stepfather a few months later. My father's health continued to fail. Any one of these things would be enough to make for a crappy year, but no, I had them all combined.

To graduate and receive a diploma, you had to take at least one fine arts class and one vocational class. Fine arts I had in spades since I'd be taking every art class possible (I wound up taking five of them before I graduated). The vocational class posed a bit of a problem for me. I settled on taking a printing class as I thought it would be fun to learn about photography, print making, screen printing and more. (By the by, I wound up taking auto mechanics the following year, thereby completing yet another voc ed course. :oP)

I missed that first printing class due to Granny's funeral. This was not a grandmother you saw only once or twice a year and at holidays. Due to his poor health, Papa had to move in with Granny and Pawpaw when I was quite small, so I saw her every weekend, and oftentimes during the week as well. Losing Granny was very hard to say the least.

Well, I made it to printing the following day, and I wasn't the only "new" member of the class. Nope. There was Brien. Tall, skinny, Brien. I'm not sure how exactly it happened, but he became a really good friend. He was an excellent listener, and quite sympathetic. He was also quite knowledgeable about all the processes we did in class, so if I missed something, he was there to help me.

Before I knew it, I had a raging crush on him. I flirted with him shamelessly. He wore jeans with holes in the knee and I would draw smileys on his knee. I giggled, laughed, chatted, and was as obvious as I could be. He was still a wonderful friend, but I wanted more. Brien? Well, I decided he was oblivious man and gave up, deciding I could be his friend if nothing else.

My junior year (his senior year), I joined the flag corps (which was so awesome!). This meant I had to go to band camp that summer and saw Brien every day. He was still my buddy, I still had a crush on him, but I had given up. When school began, I would see him every day after school at band practice. Since he was a senior we had no classes together. :o(

Our first football game dawned bright and clear. The band played cheer jerkers whilst we flaggies cheered. I laughed and whooped it up with all my nerdy band buddies (oh, yes, I was a MEGA nerd!) and overall had a BLAST. After the halftime show, I desperately needed to use the restroom. As I stood to leave, I was informed I had to take a chaperone with me. What?!? I was sixteen (everybody now, "...going on seventeen"...) and could certainly get myself to and from the bathroom. But, being the good girl I was (I loathe getting in trouble more than anything in the entire world...except maybe conflict, but that could be why I don't like getting in trouble...but I digress), I found a friendly, likely looking grown-up and asked if she could please escort me to the restroom.

Those that know me can attest to the fact I can talk to anyone, and will talk their ears off if they let me. I began chatting with this nice lady and soon realized she was Brien's mom. She was so kind and friendly and before I knew it, we had a settled into a routine whereby she would escort me (and a group of friends) to the restroom after every halftime. I also came to know her better through her chaperonage at competitions and really really like her.

Homecoming came around and at home, Mrs. Davis was asking Brien if he was going to be going to the dance, and if so, who might he be taking. Now, I'm not too clear on everything that was said at that point, but apparently B indicated he would like to go but wasn't sure whom to ask. Mrs. D said something along the lines of, "Well, Rachael Noonkester is a nice girl, why don't you ask her." And, well, that was that. (Thank you ever so much, Nan, I can't begin to express how utterly grateful I am!)

The following day, I had marker duty (had to put the field markers out for band practice) and B was running late (hm, why am I not surprised?) and we discovered we were wearing the same shirt (Steppin' Out 1993, dancing cows on hunter green). We made some lame joke about it and ran our separate ways. Later that evening, he finally called me. Yes, I waited over a year for "That Boy" (Papa and Pawpaw's affectionate name for him) to call and it finally happened.

To be continued...

Be sure to tune in for tales of misunderstanding and shoes under bathroom stalls... ;oP

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Today's Sparklies:

1. The sun is the most wonderful bleaching agent. Those diapers come SO clean out there!
2. Oh can that Ellie jabber away. She is far more vocal than either Han or Lil were. Uh oh...;o)
3. Shortly I'm going to be working on some cards while watching more "Anne" (B had never actually watched them and was floored when Anne turned down Gil the other night, lol!) with Brien.
4. I have a wonderful husband who will watch "chick flicks" with me. :o)
5. Lil and the love affair with Play Doh continue.
6. Speaking of Lil, she did a beautiful job cleaning up the playroom--all by herself!
7. The school supplies are on sale at the 'Jay right now. Go go go!!! $.25 for Crayola 24 count, $.25 comp books, $.25 Elmer's. Go! Get thee to the 'Jay!! :o)

No milestones.
We're going to go hiking Monday. We're going to skip town and find a nice, cool-ish (yeah right!) spot and commune with the Monkey and nature. We're also going to make a donation to the Heritage Humane Society in memory of the Monk.