Tuesday, February 17, 2009

DAVIDED

Today is David's birthday. Happy birthday, Dave!
Where do I start with this one? David and I met our sophomore year on a spring break beach trip. Upon spying his then-curly fro, I screamed "Justin Guarini, is that you?" and asked for his autograph.

Fast forward two years to senior year. We were in SGA together so we were acquaintances, which is why someone recruited him to be one of my escorts* for homecoming week. As if we had to ask: if there was one person on campus who LOVED to be an escort, it was him. By Thursday night, he'd spent time with each of the nominees. He was stuck with me on the last shift on the last day of campaigns - least exciting shift ever. I was exhausted, so we definitely didn't get nutty. We went to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner and that was it.
At the restaurant, the other escorts and I gave him a hard time about being a campaign "slut" but he took it well. When we went to the salad bar, I told him by the time we left the restaurant I was going to convince him to vote for me, and only then could I consider my campaign officially over. It became kind of a running joke throughout the meal.

Later that night, right before I climbed into bed, I got the nicest e-mail from Dave (which I still have to this day), full of kind words and a promise that he was in fact voting for me. It was so nice to get some final encouragement during one of the most fun yet longest weeks of my life.

Dave graduated early and we kind of lost touch but eventually reconnected. That was 2006. Give or take a few blips on the radar, we still talk regularly. I've gone to visit him in Cincinnati and he's even been to Nashville twice.
David, you are one of the most determined people I've ever known and one of the most loyal friends I've ever had. There aren't many people I would follow an out-of-state baseball team for but somehow you made that happen. I am so glad that we are still friends. I hope your birthday is spectacular and that the next few months are immeasurably better than the last few. Miss you much!

*During major campaigns, the candidates ask friends to go places with them - fraternity houses, sorority chapter meetings, etc and call them escorts. I don't know why. That's just how it's done. It was fun though, I got to hang out with 4-5 friends at any given time all week long!

4 comments:

  1. You never asked me to be your escort.

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  2. Funny. Your (now) wife was in charge of that.

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  3. Coming from your roommate during your campaign...holy moly. God did not make me to be a campaigner. Those blisters you had- yikes. But I loved the singing. And the prettiest girl won!

    ps- Happy Bday, Bules. I think we are acquaintances at least. ;)

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  4. I thoroughly enjoyed escorting L-i-n-d-s-a-y, and possibly could still sing the campaign song...I think my favorite escorting venue was the cafeteria in the athlete's dorm.

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Oh goody!

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