skid row

When was the last time you lived up to someone’s expectations?

(That just popped into my head right before I started writing what will be the rest of this. I had to type it, so to remember it).

***

“Randy, do you remember the first time you saw me?”

Now here’s a question you don’t mind answering. If you’ve had time to think about it. And that’s kind of a sad thing.

I do remember the first time I saw Crystal. It was in the lockerroom at the local high school. She was still a student. I didn’t know that then, I figured she was a nurse or a trainer or something like that.

She was wrapping up players’ feet and ankles and arms and such.

I saw her and really thought she was cute.

She smiled and said hello in a very Southern accent.

I remember the first time I saw Rannette. The crush I had for six and a half years. From elementary school till high school.

She was the first girl that I liked that I thought I had a chance with. Even though I know that’s not the truth. Sort of.

My mom warned me a day or so before. “Randy, you’re going to have a girl in your class with the same name as you.”

“Her name is Randy?” I asked.

“Yes. And Jones.”

“Wow, that sucks. For her.” Much giggling in fifth grade kind of way.

She showed up for class, if I remember correctly, somewhere in the middle of the year. Guess she moved. I have no idea.

She had a dress on. And makeup. Something most girls weren’t wearing much of at this point in the history of the United States. She sat in the chair beside me, but just a little bit behind me.

“Class, this is Rannette,” the teacher said.

“Wow. Not really the same name. I guess she was warned there was already a Randy around!” I thought to myself as I stared at her. I would stare at her a lot over the next six years. Then she moved away. We’re Facebook “friends” now. I wished her a happy birthday. That’s about it.

Now, then there’s Sharon.

That was a funny one. One of my roommates went out on a date with her. Brought her back to the apartment. They were very awkward and not at all at ease with each other. He introduced her to me.

“This is Sharon,” Chris said.

“Hey,” I said. Yep. That’s all I said to the first girl who really broke my heart. The fifth girl I ever kissed. That was supposed to be the lucky number.

“Hi!” she said, perking up. We spent the next few minutes talking about women’s basketball. Since I had a huge crush on one of the UVA women’s players.

“We’re going to go see them play this weekend,” she said. “You should come.”

Bingo. She liked me. Not him. Ha. It would take HER almost exactly two years to ask me out. I never did.

Speaking of the crush. I went to a women’s basketball game on a lark with my first-year roommate.

I was watching the pre-game warmups and there she was. Dribbling a ball and wearing short shorts. It was crush at first sight. I spent the next two years going to basketball games, racking up debt to see them in the NCAA tournament (twice), including second trip to New Orleans. Which I think was Josh’s first trip.

I even played pick up hoops with her once. I was on the skins team. Took a charge from her. Only because it was her. Who takes charges in pick up games? Geez. She must have felt like Ben Stiller from “Along Came Polly” at least that’s what I thought then. Except for the whole movie reference part, since, it was almost two decades before it came out…

Let’s see…

Rebecca? The first time I saw her was at her cash register in the jewelry department at Roses. She just watched me walk by. I looked but didn’t say anything. Later in the break room, she said hello. And we just started talking.

Katie? The girl I lost my virginity to? Met her over a year earlier. At John and Josh’s apartment. I thought she was loud and boorish. Kind of pig faced too. Still, she could kiss. Ha.

Aydee? I have no idea what the first conversation we ever had was. It was most likely me being an asshole back in the weasel’s den. I do remember the first time I saw her, though. At the paper. Her wearing “interesting” clothes. Meaning, they were colorful and not anything I’d really seen before, in a good way. She laughed. I remember that.

Of course, this could just be the first time I noticed her. Which may or may not be the first time she noticed me.

And Emily. She was on the floor. Ha. Next to my desk. I actually made a remark about it. She laughed. And she was on the floor next to my desk each of the next two days. We talked those days too. I do think she’d been there for a few days before I noticed…

Have I left anyone out?

Katrina. She was just this hot thing at a party.

Lynn? That was in Paula’s dorm room at VCU, most likely.

Funny ain’t it? Memories that stick. One’s that don’t. And why they do or don’t. Time erases some quickly. Others not at all. Maybe for good. Maybe, just maybe the fuzzier, the happier. I tend to remember the bad more than the good. Sometimes.