Mastering Memphis, step four

Shortly after I arrived in Memphis, I (along with Biff, McFly and several others) was invited to a dinner at the apartment of HUGSR secretary/student, Amy Hagedorn.  As the first person one saw when walking through the doors of the main building on campus, Amy was the hub of most HUGSR activities.  She had taken it upon herself to host a dinner for the new and returning students who lived on campus.  Since HUGSR is more masculine than The Situation's abs, it makes sense that she would invite at least one other female student.  Said other female arrived late, in a t-shirt and jeans.  She mistook Biff's name (the real one) as Bruce.  I thought this was funny - he kinda looked like a Bruce.  Said other female was funny and cute.  Incredibly, she was in the minority of people in the apartment that night who actively watched and liked sports.  Said female happened to be my teammate for the inevitable game of Trivial Pursuit and as far as anyone knows, we won (I'm pretty sure that the night ended before the game did).  We won even though one of us knew that the start of every Kentucky Derby is heralded by "My Old Kentucky Home" but deferred to the other's insistent guess of the William Tell Overture.  Said female was single.

Now, lest you, dear reader, decide that fate had provided but one choice, I should admit (to my shame) that said female was not the only female attracting my attention at that time.  That may be too vague.  It would have been much easier if said male was single.  Clearer?  Regardless, I wasn't, so this chance encounter began with the timeless and always ill-conceived manly attempt to be honorable during the overlapping end and beginning of relationships.  It would be the first of many times where the present would seem much less shameful than time would show it to be.  I bring this up for a reason: it gives me an opportunity to point out that said female has been gracious and forgiving to me from the beginning.  Grace and forgiveness are things often required by me, being a man.

Too many details for this post took place over those early months.  Auburn games, runs together, ironed t-shirts, Red Sox games, TiVo, rocking chairs, hoodies, city maps, who chased whom, Sunday morning dog walks... this is starting to look like a junior high yearbook, pages-long note.  It didn't take long for said female to become the female.  I like to say that said female was the first normal person I met in Memphis.  In truth, that couldn't be farther from it.  I'd never met (and still haven't) another human like her and I really liked her.  So much so, that she's going to need at least two steps in this process of mastering Memphis... stay tuned.