8.14.2007

Man With the Oyster Plan

Remember the story about the guy with the oyster sandwiches I eluded to a few posts back? Well Royce's Daughter touched on "the spark" after watching "Love Actually." Stace loves this movie and it's okay to me. Cute enough. Makes you smile. But let's talk about the spark.

It was summer 2002, just a few months after I crossed. I was home for the summer. It just so happened a fraternity (we'll call them the Cs) was holding their conclave in my hometown. (It's become the hot spot for national conferences lately). We knew that meant PARTIES!! I studied hard and partied hard in college. It's important to have balance. So the first night we headed downtown to the host hotel to find out where the best parties were. Well the police ended up shutting down the whole block for an impromptu block party. Charlotte, what?!?! Now you know they usually shoo black people on at the end of the night. Some high-ranking policeman must be a member of that frat! Lol.

Now I did meet some raunchy people. Me and my sorors were posing for pictures and some man LICKED MY FACE!! Vomit marries unacceptable and has a child. IT'S YOU!! Too through. But this convention taught me something. A national convention is one of the best ways to get a read on the organization. For every out of control C, there were 2 more acting like gentlemen. You cannot judge an organization based on the individual or chapter you are most familiar with. I happen to like the C's at Hampton, but the clave opened my eyes a bit more. And trust and believe I know that people are one way in some situations and normal in others. Another great story is the NPHC convention. BLAST!!

Enough with the digressions. The night of the block party, me and my crew are making our rounds. I see this guy and we lock eyes. TALK ABOUT A SPARK!! Wow. I had never felt anything like that before and haven't since. I said to myself, "If he doesn't come talk to me, I'm going to speak to him." That is not how your girl does it. If you don't have the cojones to come speak to me then it's not meant to be. You are not the man for me. You need to man up. He did.

We started talking... and couldn't stop. He was from New Orleans and I LOVED his crazy accent. Have you ever heard someone from New Orleans speak? It has a lilt to it almost with a Caribbean vibe. To my untrained Southern ear, that's what it sounded like. I couldn't stop giggling. It turns out we crossed the same day, March 23, 2002. Me and one or more of my girls went back every night for the rest of the convention. I let him read my writing and he loved it. He just liked to hear me talk which HELLO I love! He liked that I'd been to Europe and we swapped college stories. I found out he liked oyster sandwiches which I was appalled by. It just sounded so disgusting to me but it's a very New Orleans food. Like po boys. I'm not the groupie girl so there was no typical convention behavior. I figured that meant the end of his time in Charlotte would mean the end of our conversations.

He called me the night he left which I thought was nice. We talked for a few hours. (Royce will hate this) I thought that would be the end of it. Then he called the next night. And the next. And the next. And the next. We ended up talking for 3 or more hours every night for the next month until he went to visit his mom in Puerto Rico (she was in the service). He sent me a post card and some sand since that's what I'd asked for and put his picture with it. One night we talked for 8 hours. Our phone batteries kept dying so both of us had to keep letting a phone charge then switch again, but we kept talking anyway. When both of us got back to school, the conversations died down a lot because we were busy. Then they pretty much stopped.

But we would email each other on our shared frat/sorority birthday and reconnect for a minute. Then one time my sister went to a dance conference at his school. By this time he was in grad school. She recognized him and we started up again. Then it fizzled out. Regardless, that spark was FIYAH and for that I will never forget him.

16 comments:

Charreah said...

dang girl, that is a serious spark! And hooray for the moment where you were actually willing to go talk to him! I'm still not there:( And I say swap a story for a story. I'll tell you about chocolate beauty at party (so NOT a juicy story) and you tell me about why it fizzled . . .

Adei von K said...

that is sooooo cute! i didn't know you guys crossed on the same day! extra presh!

Liz Dwyer said...

Aww, that's so dang romantic! I think every woman has a story of that spark thing going on. And like you, with mine, it just did not work out. It was crazy attraction, like lightening-bolt ridiculous, but then once the hormones calmed down, we were not so compatible.

And LOL, I remember there were some crazy "C's" at my undergrad but they were good guys underneath all the antics.

By the way, I tagged you. Come by to find out what for. :)

1969 said...

Well, you know I am married to a "c". LOL

I am surrounded by them and they are always at my house. They are rowdy on occasion but true gentlemen for the most part. I think they mature quite nicely.

You sound like you need to reconnect....Hmmm....holla, my hubby can find him for you.

Southerner in Suomi said...

I'm gonna say yes, there was a high ranking official on that police force.

And the NO accent rocks. Those men make me weak still. Love that boot state!!

dreamyj said...

very cute story...that spark might be enough to rekindle in the future, what do you think?

Jameil said...

girls are such romantics. y'all have me crackin up over here.

queen... mostly the distance. we were too busy to really keep it up and neither of us had a cell phone at the time so we had to rely on phone cards and other people's cells, etc etc. i'm rarely the girl to do that. not b/c i'm scared. i just think if i give you the look you should come runnin.

stace... yeah :)

liz... i think we were compatible but we were just so far away. he was in LA and I was in VA. Neither of us had the money to be flying back and forth. ummm... does everyone know who i'm talkin about or what?!!? lmao.

1969... too funny. i still remember his email addy so i could contact him if i so choose. some mature quite nicely, just like all men, tho. some men never mature.

v... hahahaha. some of them are scary tho!

dreamy... eh... maybe maybe not. we'd talked about children before. he has a daughter and doesn't want more children b/c he can't imagine loving anyone as much as he loves her. i definitely want at least 2 kids, maybe 3. he said he would have one more for me. but kids aren't really something you compromise on.

So...Wise...Sista said...

Ohh I LOVE Boomerang Dudes. They serve a great service...not necessarily a permanent one, but they have a tendency of popping up every now and then RIGHT when you need them. :)

Chris said...

As I'm maturing in my outlook on love and dating (if that shocks you, imagine how I feel, LOL), this spark you speak of sounds like a baller-ass feeling to have, almost like you can physically feel the connection taking place, I'd definitely like to experience that some day.

Anonymous said...

I felt that spark recently. It hasn't amounted to much yet, but I have a strong feeling it will. Cute story. I enjoy your blogs.

From,
A New Reader

Ms.Honey said...

WOW

I wonder where he is now and if he thinks of you..I wonder his side of the story...what do you think would have come of this if you had continued to talk to him..I know you dont know for sure but take a guess :)

Sherlon Christie said...

there nothing like good conversation to pass the time...that's my No. 1 priority when checking out a woman. Can she hold a conversation?

Jarrod said...

Yo killa, what's good with that continued recap of Wynel's wedding weekend??

Sha Boogie said...

WOw..that story was AWESOME...Sounds like a 'love jones'!

Jameil said...

wise... i know right?! he can feel free to pop up right now! lol.

chris... its faaaaaaaantastic!

real... thanks! the spark is fab. and welcome!

honey... i wonder, too. i'm not ready to find out yet, tho. i don't know what would've come out of it. maybe something would've developed if we lived closer but his daughter's in Louisiana so he doesn't want to leave... and I really can't see myself living there.

sp... word.

jarrod.. its up! you just want to see your name in print. vanity.

sha.. i didn't even think of that! it does! very cute!

yet another black guy said...

now THAT sounds like a movie!