As I’ve stated before I’m reading the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants trilogy. As soon as I finished the first one I tried to pick up the Second Summer at Target, but they were out. So I came home that night and ordered it from Amazon. It was the longest week ever waiting for the second book. Thankfully I ordered the second book with the third book so I won’t have to wait for that one.

And yes, I realize I am a freak. I am obsessing about a teenage book. But read them. They are good. They are bringing back a lot of memories from my past. Mostly good, but some bad. It’s fun to reminisce. And it’s weird to look back on past experiences with a whole new grown up perspective.

If you don’t know the books they are about four girls, all born in September. Their mothers were in the same pregnancy yoga class or something. The books are about three summers in Lena, Carmen, Tibby and Bridget’s lives.

In the first book Lena and her sister went to Greece to spend the summer with their grandparents. While they were there Lena ended up falling in love with a Greek boy. After many, many flubs, Lena finally got up the courage to tell Kostos that she liked him. And the scene was hilarious. It brought back memories of me in ninth grade where I also fumbled through telling a guy I liked him.

At some point in my freshman year I fell crazy head over heels for a senior. Not just any senior, but a very popular senior. As if I ever had a chance in hell. Aside from the fact that I was a freshman and he was a senior (which is a huge, huge age difference at that age), I was also a geeky freshman. I had yet to blossom in to the beautiful woman I am today — you better be agreeing me with there . I had big thick glasses. Very frizzy, curly (due to a sad perm that I thought looked good at the time) hair. And, of course, my freckles and clumsiness. Both of which I hated then, but have grown to love since. Needless to say, my parents never needed to worry that something might actually come about with this relationship. Well, I’m not sure if relationship is really the word. Unless you call following him around the halls of school like a lost puppy dog, a relationship.

Now, don’t get me wrong. We did share some words. I even got up the nerve to ask him for his senior picture. And he gave it to me. Not only did he give me his senior picture, but he also wrote on the back of it. As you can imagine I was in heaven with that. I think I still have that picture around here somewhere.

At the end of the year he had a gradutation party with a bunch of his friends. And he actually invited me. Granted he invited everybody, but still. Work with me here people. I was ecstatic.

The party was at one of the colleges in town. In the cafeteria. They had catered food and a DJ. It was quite a shing ding. And my friend Rachel and I were there. And I was so happy. A little too happy, because I allowed myself to let down my guard. I decided that I was going to tell him I was hot for him.

So after some serious discussions with Rachel, I decided to take the plunge. It was either now or never because this was probably the last time I would ever see him again. It’s funny how courageous us girls get when it’s the last time we’ll ever see the boy. In the book, Lena waited until her last day in Greece to tell Kostos she loved him. And I waited until the graduation party to tell my senior I was crazy about him.

So I worked up the nerve to ask him if I could talk to him. He said sure. I said something like “would you like to go out sometime?” It was a long time ago, so I don’t remember the conversation verbatim. He actually said “sure.” But I knew he didn’t really mean it. But he did ask me to dance. He really was a gentleman. He knew this little geeky freshman girl had the biggest crush on him, but he didn’t swat me away. He actually danced with me and was really very nice.

I’ve moved on from the senior boy. I think he’s a dentist or something now. I think I may have seen him at the mall a few times after that party, but I haven’t seen him since that summer. So it’s been more than fifteen years. I don’t remember this story because I’m still holding some old feelings for him. But rather, I remember this story because I was so proud of myself for getting up the nerve to ask him out.

If you knew me in elementary school you would be shocked to find out that I asked a boy out. I was just telling Necole the other day that I peed my pants in the fourth grade because I was too shy to raise my hand and ask the teacher if I could go to the bathroom. That’s how painstakingly shy I was. So I am so proud of myself for taking that step to ask a boy out. And not just any boy, but a popular senior boy.

Now look what the sisterhood has done to me. It made me remember back to an extremely geeky point in my life and it made me admit I peed my pants in the fourth grade. To God and everyone. On the internet. But I still love it anyway.