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2016 Erma Bombeck Essay Contest Entry
“I Married It”
Being from the Midwest and having strawberry blonde hair,
blue eyes, and the last name Pimenidis, I often get the question, “Where’d you
get a name like that?” That’s a great story. It’s a modern day I Love Lucy except he is all Greek with olive skin, dark hair, deep
brown eyes, and a loud passionate personality.
I transferred from a big university to a small college to
pursue a degree in education. One night desperate to finish a paper before it
finished me I went into the computer lab.
After spending an hour trying to figure out how to use the computer and
another two hours trying to type it with two fingers I was nearly
finished. When suddenly this, this,
Greek comes busting through the door of the computer lab. A relatively quiet
computer lab, except for all the buzzing, clicking, whirring, and humming of
90’s computer machinery.
He yells from the door, “Hey everybody! How’s it going?!” I
was speechless. Oh, but it didn’t stop there. He proceeded to go around the
room and talk – loudly – to everyone.
Totally miffed I huffed and puffed and sent my paper to the printer. Then I stormed out of there bewildered. Who
did that man think he was anyway!
He was the kicker for the football team and I was the
“transfer” student from the big university.
He was the Big “Greek” on Campus and I was the uptight, off campus
education student just trying to graduate.
It was a small school which meant our paths often crossed and soon I
called him the Geek and he called me
the Bitter.
Well, several months later after I had returned from a visit
to my former University to see sorority sisters and catch up with friends there,
I was sitting in the lobby of our small college classroom building. I had a newly acquired button on my school
bag that simply read “GO GREEK"
He immediately came over to where I was sitting and said,
“You gotta give me that button!” I was in a pretty good mood so I said “No way,
I don’t even like you” smiling and hugging my backpack playfully. To which my future husband replied, “I’m the
Greek, everybody likes me. You have a beautiful smile you know that? I see you
around, but I don’t see you smile much, you should do that more often.”
I’m not sure how, but those few words, that simple
compliment was enough to sway me from hater to dater. It was the first of many Humphrey Bogart
moments. That’s why whenever someone
asks where I got that name, I just smile and say – “I married it.”
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