Part 4

I am feeling pangs of "homesickness" this morning as I watch the CU versus Nebraska game at "home" in Boulder. Seeing the snow fall and the students cheering has taken me back. I hesitate to call it "homesickness", because this is my home and I have lived outside of Colorado as an adult longer than I lived in Colorado. But there is something about seeing your old stomping ground, and the current generation of students living this time in their lives.

AB feels it too. He asked me a few minutes ago if we moved back to Colorado, would we live in Boulder or somewhere on the outskirts? I said I didn't know, probably the outskirts, we probably couldn't afford to live in Boulder, plus we have been there done that. He paused a little and said he thought he could do Boulder again. This shocked me coming from my conservative husband. "Boulder has a lot to offer," he said.

I look at my family. AB cheering "Touchdown CU!" (every few minutes because evidently both defenses suck rocks). Seeing Leif play with my Christmas village (that we set up this morning - he is putting all the animals and people to sleep and waking them up "get your blankey off" - oh wait that one is going to sleep some more...), and seeing Skadi in AB's arms. Things are so different now, but so much better in many ways. Still my time at CU, meeting my husband, was a great time of my life.

So back to my story...

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So we had left the Dark Horse and walked back to his dorm room to get my stuff and he kissed me.

I liked him, he kissed me, we were on our way! Or so I thought.

He told me later that he didn't want a relationship, was not ready for one and was just plain too busy for a relationship. Plus, it was just a really bad idea as lab partners to date each other.

Darn it, he had his head on straight and knew what he wanted. This was somewhat unusual to me with a guy I liked. I was disappointed, but vowed we could be just friends. I knew in my heart I could change him. He had kissed me after all. I knew there was something there.

Halloween and the big football game was coming up. Nebraska versus CU... at home. It was huge. Still is huge. This was before the game was moved to the day after Thanksgiving. It used to be Halloween weekend... in Boulder... combine that with the then recent backlash from killing the Mall Crawl and you had a weekend of craziness in Boulder.

AB not only made sure I was attending, but knowing the parking situation, walked down to meet me and walk back up to the game. It was a great game and afterwards we went to the bar where AB and I did some walloping up ourselves in the form of foosball.

We were a great team and obviously destined to be together (again I thought).

That night he kissed me again.

Had I won him over this time? Oh and I can't even remember if the Buffs stomped the Cornhuskers or not. See where my mind was?

A couple days later after working on lab reports he asked me if I was interested in going to see Miss Saigon with him? A date! A real date! Not a football game! I said I would love to. Then wondered a little about this guy who was proposing to take me to a musical. Guy... musical... guy... musical... oh no, I thought. Was I setting myself up for hurt? Was this guy really... umm... gay?

My mom was excited I would get to see Miss Saigon, I was excited to be with this Alaska Boy on a real date.

I worried about what to wear. I was upset with myself that the nicest coat I had (since wearing my ski coat to a musical wasn't going to work) was a green fleece thing. (I laugh now at how I neurosed about this knowing that my husband is so not clothing concerned.) I thought back to the "other" ChemE major from Alaska and his regular comments to me on what I should select to wear to certain events.

The date wasn't exactly what I was expecting being that my husband was taking his residents in the dorm hall to the musical. So there were plenty of fellow students around and we rode a bus to the theater. But still, I was thrilled. It was our first real date in mid-November 1993.

Miss Siagon was great. I am dying to see it again still. I was so surprised that this Alaska Boy enjoyed the musical so much as well.

He told me afterwards that he decided that we could now date as the semester's close was near and we would no longer be lab partners.

I had a boyfriend! I had a boyfriend that didn't mind going to musicals (in fact he liked them), he was kind and considerate and knew what he wanted. What could go wrong now?

Nothing, I thought. I didn't have visions of us marrying each other. I was living in the moment. Who knew what would happen when we graduated? I didn't have any idea what *I* wanted to do when I graduated, how could I even think about this relationship?

I had a boyfriend.