Skirv and Rosie

Around Christmas of 1997, Rosie was the first person in my life I ever referred to as "girlfriend", though only once, and even that was premature. But over the years, I have learned far more about how the whole thing impacted me... and it may well have been as much as my other, official relationships.

I think I'll still follow the standard formatting.

First Meeting and Courtship

I'm not really sure when I met Rosie. I know the general time - the beginning of my junior year, when I was really getting into the swing of things at Allen. She was another one of the new freshman girls, this one sortof a townie. She spoke with a lisp, due to being hard of hearing. She worked at Ned Kelly's, a local steakhouse. And as far as I could tell, she was dating an old high-school mate, Austin.

From what I've been told, she was interested in me from the start.

The Relationship

I don't know if you can really count the thing as dating, but there was at least a date - though I didn't recognize it at the time. We went with a group of people to go see A Clockwork Orange at the Savoy, and showed up too late to get seats; instead we sat in the aisle, her sitting in my lap and sharing my (free) popcorn. Afterwards, we went back to Allen and watched some more movies in her room, until the others left...

Nothing happened that night, though. Which was the problem. I have no doubts that Rosie wanted something to happen - at least for me to kiss her - but I wasn't ready for it yet. Not that fast. But still, we slept together (just slept!), and it was comfortable...

Then the semester ended.

Break-Up and Aftermath

Since we were never really dating, there also wasn't a break-up, per se. The semester break was really the end of things; of course, to me it was when I was considering things, and thinking "you know, maybe I should go for this. What could it hurt?". And so on 12/26/1997 I mentioned the word "girlfriend" to Jason Lindquist at Cheddar's, and he caught it... and the Universe decided to spite me in return.

When we got back to school the next semester...well, there wasn't anything there anymore. I couldn't work out why. I was somewhat upset - after all, I'd decided to go for it - but what was there to do? It wasn't that we weren't talking or anything, we just weren't together.

Mind you, we stayed friends. She even borrowed buttons from me once - nobody before or since has ever done that, but she was starting to work at Friday's and needed some flair. I had it. I never did get them back, but I didn't begrudge her that either...

Current Status

In short: I haven't seen from Rosie in years. I've occasionally heard of her; however, I'm not really sure how to separate fact from fiction. She may be Catholic and married, she may still be with Austin. I know that she went to Ireland for a while, because I talked with her after she got back (I guess that was after my senior year). And I know she still has a few dozen of my buttons, the only person to have that honor...

But her impact on my life has been greater than that. Every now and then, I find some new way that she influenced those around me back then. Like making Jenny just jealous enough to be interested in me. Or making pacts with Mel concerning them, me and Ray, and lesbianism. Or knowing Kevin and Sarah from sign language class. Or upsetting Julia indirectly because I wondered. Or...the list goes on.

I would like to hear from her. And I'm sure that, eventually, I will. For now, I'll just continue trying to work out what the future would have been like if I'd kissed her, if she'd never been there, if she and Mel had switched places, if...