Fun memories

I found myself talking a lot about Gessner yesterday. First at the cancer institute while I was there for chemo and the various appointments that are associated with that and then with a friend. She played a voice mail message that she had on her phone from him, trying to plan a belated birthday party for me. Unfortunately we never got to have that party, but he was sure excited about it. We both ended up in tears at that point, but the happy-sad type that aren't so bad.

Here are a couple of great stories (in my opinion at least) that I have about Gess from our early days together.

One weekend after we first started to flirt seriously I went out of town with my girlfriends and we took a long horseback ride that resulted in my getting pretty sunburned. When I got back to the dorms after our trip, I found several messages from Gess and called him back. We talked for awhile and I recounted the details of my trip, including my sunburn and he said that he had something that worked great on sunburns that he could bring to me. So we said that we would meet up in front of the chapel on campus. I went as I was--in plaid, Dr. Seuss boxer shorts and an old purple t-shirt from a campus event at my previous college. I probably didn't have any makeup on (I rarely wore it) and wore my hair down. I arrived at the chapel and waited and waited and waited for what seemed like an eternity. Finally I could see him walking down the sidewalk toward me. As he approached I noticed that he took much more care in getting ready for our meetup. His hair looked wet and freshly combed. I could smell a new application of cologne and see that his clothes were much less casual than mine--nice jeans with a polo shirt tucked into them and a leather jacket. Oops! I guess we had different ideas about what the meeting was for :) He gave me a bottle of solarcaine and we walked around campus a bit.

During one part of our walk he accidentally stepped right into the sprinkles (you see, I think that all of this proves just how smitten he was with me). I laughed, of course, and in retribution he picked me up and carried me into the sprinkles (I was much skinnier back then!). We laughed and he eventually walked me back to my dorm.

I ended up getting a cold and was sick the next day. When he found out he sent flowers to me. They were in a red M&M "vase" and had a pack stuck to them. The flowers were an assortment of reds and yellows and the card said "Get Well and Sorry for getting you sick last night"--though I am sure that getting me wet had nothing to do with the cold. But, suffice it to say, I was pretty smitten too.

A few weeks later we were "studying" in a small restaurant on campus with some other acquaintances. We were eating stuff like french fries and nachos and drinking soda and occasionally working on homework. Gess and I were sitting next to each other, of course--and at one point Gess says to me, "Hey Lisa, look." So I turned my head and to look at him as he takes an empty Pepsi can and attempts to smash it using his forehead. The can did not crush, however, and instead cuts him in two places! The entire table started laughing and he made some remark about how he had done it a thousand times before. I'm still not sure why he thought crushing a can on his forehead would impress me, but I am positive that the failed attempt had a better result than if he had succeeded. For some reason I thought that it was cute and to this day, 14 years later, I smile every time I think about that night.

I miss this guy so much, but am so grateful to have so many happy (and crazy memories)!