I made dinner including some salads. Andy has always been a ranch guy. He uses ranch like many use ketchup, dipping anything and everything in it. So I put the amount of ranch I thought he'd like in his bowl. He walked up to the counter and looked at the salad.
"Oh, you put ranch on my salad" he said.
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It was move in day. This year instead of the dorms we were moving into a house. It was yellow with dark brown trim. We named it The Mustard Seed, but over the course of the year it got renamed by everyone else as The Vortex.
This house will always hold many memories for me. The raw meat on top of the fridge. The mice in my bedroom. The toilet on the front lawn. Finding out about 9/11. Dr. Mario and pizza. My roommate left behind on my 21st birthday (which happened to be the day after 9/11). The neighbors who parked in our drive way and me shouting out the window to them. Mattress rides down the stairs. Arguments about the thermostat. And more.
I was moving in with 3 other soccer teammates. Every year we had to move in weeks before the rest of the students to train for the upcoming season. We spent the days bonding over 2 or 3-a-day practices. Sweating. Eating. Rest and collapse. Repeat. I still wonder how we didn't argue over the 1 shower throughout the year when we all had places to go and things to do after practice. The yellow house had 4 bedrooms. One was significantly larger and K decided to pay more to have that large room. S didn't even have a closet and she was the fashionable one. L had the bedroom with the window that I threatened the poor parking neighbors through. I chose the one bedroom that was downstairs. It wasn't even a bedroom-it was an old dining room. There was no door on my closet but my mom had sewn me a curtain out of blue material that had stars on it. I liked my room (minus the mice). It was right next to the kitchen.
After my parents drove away, leaving me to be tortured by "Coach" I looked at all the boxes in my room. I had some unpacking to do. I had a cd playing and I was getting over a break up. I wasn't happy but I was ready to move on. I needed to. I bet my friends and family were happy I had the distraction of soccer to keep me healthy. The cd was "Five For Fighting" and I loved every song on that album. It echoed because the room wasn't lived in yet-nothing on the walls-no blanket on the bed. Deep breaths. A new year.
The year went on. We had another losing season as the Blue Devils. We ate a ton of spaghetti and argued over the dishes. I spent part of my winter break taking 2 classes for some extra credits. That meant I was with college friends to celebrate new years eve.
I had moved on, no longer waiting for the phone to ring. I had gone on a few dates. I didn't have 1 particular guy in mind. One guy, let's call him
A (not Andy) was pursuing me. I couldn't figure out if I really wanted to "date" him or not. He and his mom sewed me a purple blanket with a pocket for my feet. He accidentally peed on our couch one night when he fell asleep on it. Turn off. He lived with Andy and his 2 other roommates J and R. We knew each other since freshmen year because athletes all lived in the same dorm and we became fast friends. I will never forget confiding in Andy in the training room, how do I handle his friend who did that?
That New Years Eve was the beginning of the rest of my life. The party was fun and I remember a brown parchment paper on the wall with pens hanging to the side. Instructions were to write down your New Years resolution. You can only imagine all the dumb goals people jotted on there after they had a beer or 3. I am pretty sure it was close to midnight. In strolled
A. He brought along Andy and probably R and J. I didn't want
A to be next to me at midnight. I wasn't ready for that. So I hid downstairs, next to the keg-even though beer wasn't my thing. Down strolled Andy.
A never found me.
The next morning, probably hung over, I connected to AOL instant messenger to wish my mom and dad a happy new year.
rmustard10: guess who kissed me last night?
isobarb: Andy
Hmmm...that is strange. Her first guess? I know, for a fact, that I never, ever ever ever mentioned having a crush on Andy. My mom knew about
A, R, J and Andy because they were my friends. She must have had that intuition about her youngest daughter over the months. I can't even describe how WEIRD it is that my mom was able to guess that Andy was the one who kissed me, and she knew just how excited I was. It should have been my first sign. Andy and I started to hang out and hid our relationship a bit because MY roommate K always had a thing for Andy and well, there was his roommate
A who may not be cool with it either. Once I drove him home (in my roommates car, because I didn't have one yet and THAT story will be told another day) and dropped him off a block from his house-sneaky.
Andy liked to make hamburger helper after a night "out".
Once he made a stew in the crock pot and sliced cucumber (with the skin) in it, just for me. Have you ever eaten hot cucumber?
It all worked out, our friends weren't mad and they found "the one" too.
Happily ever after.
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"You put ranch on my salad".
"Yeah." I said.
"You did last week too" he informed me. "I'm into French dressing now".
Hmmm. Later that week I bought some Balsamic Vinaigrette for myself.
So.... Eli and Hugh (and any other future children)-this is just a glimpse of your dad and me, now and then. What I wouldn't give for a few "moments" from my mom and dad's past-when they met, and what life was like when they were raising me. I hope some day this makes your head tilt when you read it.
