Changed Hirp

Two years ago yesterday KU was in the NCAA Tournament, and they were playing UCLA, the school I rooted for as a kid. KU-UCLA also hooked up my freshmen year at KU, when the Bruins were defending champs. They came to the Fieldhouse, and lead KU by 15 at the half. The Hawks came back to win by 15, and it was the best live sporting event I ever witnessed. I proudly sent my cousin, the UCLA grad who also showed me around the campus when I was 12, a “PHUCK UCLA” tee shirt. I still have mine, but I doubt he has his. Two years ago, that game is a distant memory, but that day changed my life.

Anyway, in the days leading up to the game I had been swapping emails with a girl I had met a week before. I invited her to meet up with some friends and I as we were going to watch the game at a bar and she even agreed. Then the plan was changed to watching the game at a friends’ house, and so our plan of watching the game together changed. Of course, the plan was changed again, and we were back at the bar. By this time she had other plans, and I wasn’t too upset by this. Not because I didn’t want to see her, but the more I thought about it, I imagined the day going one of two ways. Either I end up paying too much attention to the game, and she feels ignored and awkward (very bad) or I would ignore the game (at the time, I thought that mattered, but had I only known).

So I watched KU lose to UCLA, spent most of the game texting my cousin and then wondering if I had blown my chance with a great girl. That night I was relaxing at home (cover for “it was a Saturday

night and I was a giant loser”) and my phone went off. There was a text from this amazing girl, she sympathized with me over KU, and then invited me out to meet up with some of her friends at a bar. I declined at first, not wanting to make the drive, and even more so, afraid of having her friends grade me. She persisted, and I continued to decline, and we spoke of meeting the next day. A short time later I changed my mind, got my ass dressed and headed out. That was two years ago.

We weren’t there long, as it was nearing closing time, but the conversation came effortlessly. We made plans to meet for coffee at a little place on the Plaza (the location had nothing to do with its proximity to my apartment) and I had myself a date with a real catch. I knew, from the first time we talked, that I wasn’t in her league. Best of all, I know that to be the case today. We had coffee, talked for four hours. My follically challenged head was half burned, and my life was changed.