time

does time really heal all wounds?

see for yourself:

as all good college girls do, i was at the Hall of Shame Fame on a thursday night. and i met this bug-eyed guy that my friends insisted was cute.

over the next week i saw Buggy a time or two and one of my friends asked him to be my date for the Cattleman's Ball that weekend. (how sweet)

generally speaking i am all for toting a sweet looking date to a party, but not this guy, and not this party.

after the party (and after a locking keys in pickup experience...remember that??), which seemed to be a painstaking lesson in why not to date guys with no friends, he dropped me off. in the rain. i stood huddled under the little awning of my door and he begged to come in. finally, he understood no meant no. he went home.

the next weekend my parents were in town for my sister's graduation and The Bugs was fortunately moving far away for a summer internship.

problem solved? think again.

he calls for me to come say goodbye and i oblige. when i pull up, he is in the parking lot and asks me to help him move all his things out of his apartment and load his pickup. i looked at him and said "really? that's why you asked me over? No. i will not help."

fast forward through awkward pause...he ends up pulling this letter out of his shirt pocket, in which he professes his love for me and tells how i have changed his life in these short two weeks

...um...my parents are in town, i've gotta jet.

after a few strange phone calls, where i repeatedly called it quits and he kept on insisting, we finally parted ways that summer. i saw him once or twice (Hello, GRE Prep!) over the next few years but we never spoke.

...Until...

fast forward to spring 2009, Memphis, TN. i'm with a friend (a guy, but not my boyfriend) at a Texas Country concert (Boland in TN...i'm there!!). my eagle eyes spot an A&M cap as we are waiting in line...this girl is intrigued.

later i pass Aggie Cap Man i think to myself...those dang bug eyes look so familiar, but i can't place him. he walks up to me and says "Brandenberger??" Dear God, i know Brandenberger is the 2nd most common name in the US...please let him be thinking of my long lost cousin??

i flash back to the awkward letter exchange, try to remember his name and decide that its been a good 5 years so surely he has grown out of that stage.

so when Aggie Cap Man/Bugs-a-million comes back over and asks me to have lunch with him the next day I say sure, and calmly add that i have a boyfriend (per my friend's advice)

Switch. Flipped.

the conversation that ensues contained a lot of arm flailing and accusatory comments about how i've just drawn this "boyfriend" from thin air and on. and on. and on. i think back on the 'growing out of that stage' thought i had earlier and realize that i was severely mistaken.

Dating Lesson: Some boys write love letters. Some boys write love letters in stone.