Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Cleveland; Just What the Doctor Ordered

This past week-end I went to visit Suzanne and Joe in Cleveland and
met their daughter, Maya, for the first time.  Being in Ohio was
great. So nice to see a place where the seasons change! Our weekend
consisted of doing a bit of shopping, exploring, lots of talking,
lounging and cookie eating. Oh, and teaching Maya how to say "Al Gore"
while catching the end of The Inconvenient Truth one morning.

It could not have been better.

I arrived on Saturday, and in the late afternoon we were joined by
another friend from Ohio University, Aaron, along with his wife, Rita,
and their little one, Kylie.

As I watched them all interact with their daughters, I couldn't help
but NOT be surprised at how good they all are as parents. It was fun
to watch.

It's like we're grown-ups or something.

I met them all (with exception to Rita who I met through Aaron years
later) sophomore year, twelve years ago, in Gamertsfelder Hall, where
we all lived.

I spent time in Aaron's dorm room staring at a Magic Eye poster,
trying so hard to see the damn hidden image within it. Aaron kept
saying, "Let me tell you what's in it!". But I wouldn't let him.
Finally, he just told me, "Cyd, it's a joke, there's nothing in the
picture". His normally fairly sardonic sense of humor gave way a bit
to sympathy for my naivety that day, I think.

This past week-end, I was reminded of the quick humor I'd always
appreciated and it was nice to be around it again, if only for a few
hours. Cool to see, also, that he met his equal in Rita.

Joe also lived down the hall from me sophomore year. One of my
earliest memories of him was him going to the OU Halloween bash as
"Sporkman", some kind of super hero inspired by a utensil often found
at Taco Bell. That along with a large coat-of-arms that decorated his
dorm room wall popping off its nail and popping me on the head. As a
small trickle of blood went down the middle of my face, there was such
excitement when about six of us piled into someone's car to go to the
hospital to have it looked at.

It was a scratch, but everyone had some new entertainment for the
evening with that excursion. Any opportunity to get out of the dorm!

Thinking back on Suzanne, I didn't like her much. When we had become
friends later, she told me the feeling had been mutual. She was in my
English class (and also in the dorm) and I thought she was a snot.

She thought I was too.

But, I guess snots make for good friends because we lived together for
the next two years; our junior year in a house with six others
(including Joe), and senior year with a third.

She is now one of my nearest and dearest.

Our junior year she returned from a trip to Cincinnati with Joe (they
were just friends at the time) when she asked me to run an errand with
her in the most excited tone I'd ever heard from someone merely
needing to put gas in their car, "I am COMPLETELY in-love with Joe!"

And the rest is history.

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