Datelines, Milestones, Anniversaries

Alright, readers, my new job starts tomorrow and I'm pretty much going insane. I'm at the 5400's library again, both because I needed to return Lord of War (great film) and because I needed to get the hell out of my apartment before I started chewing on furniture legs like a Border Collie left alone for three weeks.

Man. The English major in me just comes shining through sometimes, doesn't it?

Anyway, to get my mind off of tomorrow I thought I'd share my perspective on an important anniversary Kathryn and I shared a week ago or so. She beat me to the punch and was in fact the one who pointed it out – I'm not that great at remembering dates, but she and I share a way more important anniversary here in just under two weeks, so I'm not beating myself up for forgetting this other date.

Kathryn and I met two years ago last week. I'd spent that summer catching up on some required foreign language classes – "Necessito agua! Soy Cubano! Viva Che! Viva la revolucion!" – and working desk jobs at various halls on campus. My summer job dovetailed nicely with my Fall RA job; I worked my last shift of the summer job on a Sunday afternoon and started the RA job that Sunday night.

Various staffers had trickled in all that weekend. I don't remember too many first impressions except for two: first, a guy we'll call "Chris" dumped a large cup of water on a woman we'll call "Katie" as she walked up to the hall for the first time. The RA rooms were conveniently located directly above the entranceway, and that was certainly not the last time an RA pulled that little stunt.

The second impression I have is much clearer. Kathryn walked in sometime that Sunday afternoon and came to the desk, where I was handing out room assignments and other basic information. Our boss's office was tucked into a room attached to the lobby area, and you had to walk through the lobby desk to get to his office. This came in handy when you wanted to see him. It was problematic when you didn't.

I remember thinking to myself, "Whoa," as Kathryn and I made small talk.

Here's this woman who's clearly smarter than hell, and she's a brunette with glasses to boot. Easy, Trout. Easy. Let's not do or say anything stupid here. Let's just give the nice woman her room assignment and pretend not to listen as she has a conversation with our boss.

"Hey Kathryn! How are you!," B said. He's a genuinely great guy, B, and really the only time I wished his office was far away from the lobby desk was the morning after I orchestrated a midnight burying of his car in snow. I will deny this if asked.

"Just fine," she said. She and B chatted for a bit until the landmine went off.

"And how's J?" B asked.

"Oh, he's fine, he's blah blah blah blahdie blahdie blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah"

The rest is quite literally a blur of sound. It was one of those contextual moments where it was clear she was talking about her boyfriend and had, incidentally, just crushed the dreams of some doofus she'd barely met. To this day I have no idea how J was at that point, or how the rest of the conversation between Kathryn and B went.

We had our first staff meeting later that night, and I sat in a chair somewhat isolated from the group, scared as hell about my second go at college, not to mention my new career at the end of it. Kathryn sat in another chair to my right. I stole a few glances but that was it.

There were plenty of other moments from that year that bear telling, but we'll leave it here for now. Happy anniversary, baby!