My infatuation with Marcus Duff began in the fifth grade. He was in the sixth. It was the beginning of middle school, and we had to pick an instrument for band. I chose the saxophone. We were sitting in the gym of Smith Middle School, and there was a trumpet player wearing argyle (sp?) socks. It was love at first sight. I don't know why I remember the socks. Mrs. Sherman was the band director at Smith, and the assistant director at the high school, Butler. She quickly became aware of my obsession. I remember calling him from Kristen Keebaugh's house pretending to be someone else. I told Marcus to get out the yearbook and look me up. It was my sixth grade picture. He was not impressed.

In the eighth grade, a small group of students were chosen to start a new math program. For the first time we could test out of pre Algebra, and move straight to Algebra. However, we had to be bussed to the high school for first period to take the class, since no one at the middle school taught it. Which kind of sucked, because we had to get up early to go to h.s., but got out at the regular time at Smith. After Algebra, we were shipped back to the middle school where we had about 20 minutes of free time. Kristen and Kat Zeller and I would hang out with Mrs. Sherman to hear all about Marcus. He had continued to play trumpet in high school, so Mrs. Sherman saw him every day. Eventually Kristen, Kat, and I figured out Marcus' home room and first class. So we would walk the opposite route up the stairs and around the building, just to I could see him. Sometimes if it was really crowded, Kat and Kristen liked to play "Stop and Shove". This consisted of Kat walking up the stairs with me behind her and Kristen behind me. Just as Marcus was walking down the stairs, Kat would stop, and Kristen would shove me in to him. I don't think he ever realized it was on purpose. Then, one glorious morning, Marcus said hi to me. I didn't even know he knew who I was. We, of course, ran to Mrs. Sherman as soon as we got back to Smith and told her the details. She replied with, "Finally!" It turns out that she had told him about my crush (read: stalker-like tendencies), and that if he said hi to me it would make my day. Well, even though I was incredibly embarrassed and we stopped following him to class, it did. That year he dated Ruby Fleenor. She was voted homecoming queen one year.

My freshman year I actually got to interact with him. I was in band. Kristen decided that four years of playing the clarinet was enough, and quit. Kat continued with the flute. We roomed together at band camp. No, she did not do anything from a movie with the flute. Instead, she dated Marcus. I don't think I've ever really forgiven her for that one. I introduced the two of them at camp, and he liked her immediately. Damn her. Damn her to hell. We stole his pirates baseball cap and ate m&ms out of it. Marcus and I became good friends.

My sophomore year he dated Kyra Paff. Couldn't he see that these girls were wrong for him and I was perfect? Nope.

During my junior year, there were a few times when the flirting became more than friendly, and I thought I actually had a chance. But we never dated. He graduated and I was heartbroken. That was a seven year crush. Yes, I dated other guys. I even managed to fall in love for the first time with a boy from Chicago. Jeeze, people, I wasn't completely psychotic. But from time to time since 1995, I've wondered what Marcus was doing, or where he was. I thought he'd get married and work in a church. (He was very religious) Once I saw him when I was at a stoplight, but we just waved and went about our business.

My mom called the other day. Marcus Duff is a minister at a church, and is engaged to be married.

It was fun to remember my insane infatuation.

Last weekend Paul and I went to San Diego to visit my cousin, Eric. I posted some pictures, but I'm going to put in links for those of you who are lazy. Hey, I'm not judging. I'm in the lazy group. We got there in 5 hours, and went out to a bar that night. There's this pizza joint next to the bar, and at 1 in the morning when you are drunk, it's the best pizza in the whole wide world. The next day we went to a picnic thrown by Eric's company. There was free food and beer. Very good. A dunking booth, ping pong, and we played touch football. Actually, they played, I just got in the way. I don't know the rules or, actually, anything about football. But at the very end, Paul threw a long pass, and I managed to catch it and run for a touchdown. So I wasn't a complete waste of space. The best part of the picnic was this huge air jumping thing for kids. It fell down. Don't worry, no one was hurt. Then we went to the beach. Paul and I surfed for the first time, and actually stood up for a while. We went out to eat that night, then to a bar that served beer in yard-long glasses. That's a lot of beers. A little more than four, I think. Anyway, we went to Coranado the next day and walked around for a while. Paul and I were home by 8 that evening. Back to the gas crisis. (In case you haven't heard, a pipeline broke, and Phoenix was without gas for a few days. Prices spiked to $4/gallon + and almost all gas stations ran out of gas. It's better, but not fixed. The cheapest price now is around $2/gallon.) So, we had a great time.

In other news, I got a printer/scanner/fax/copier from Office Max. I also went to Target and Best Buy, but liked the price (on sale for $79.99) and the features. When the guy rang it up, it said ($59.99). He looked at the add, then looked at me and said, "Well, good for you." Yeah, we need to hit the casinos. And there are a ton out here b/c of the indian reservations. Well, I think I'm going to cook dinner now. I made pork chops last week for the first time, and Paul said they were good. I like to cook, but I don't really like a lot of different things. So he had the pork chops, and I ate chicken. Oh well. You all should try surfing at least once. It's so much fun!

I put up some pictures of the show. Soon San Diego pictures will follow. Paul and I surfed for the first time--and actually got up!

It's been tough here lately. Last night I left in the middle of notes because I needed to be up before 6, and it's a 30 min drive home. I have a smaller part and asked if I could get my notes the next day (turns out I didn't have any--so it would have been pointless for me to stay). Candy called today and said everything finally ended around midnight. Act 2 still falls apart. We're starting early tonight to run A2 before we run the whole show. We need about one more week, but we have two more days. Paul is coming opening night, so it'll be interesting to hear what he thinks of it. I'm frustrated because some of the actors just aren't doing their job. They aren't reviewing lines or blocking. I'm glad the show only runs one weekend. Then Paul and I are driving to San Diego to visit my cousin. I can't wait for that. Sort of a mini-vacation. So that's why I haven't posted in a while and why I probably won't post again until after the show.