November 22, 1995 - Wednesday - Smiles return with Nedda

     I finally had a good day after such a long time of emotional distress. I can't remember being this genuinely excited about life in quite some time. It's horrible to think that I wasted so much of one
of my last undergraduate semesters deserted by happiness.

I don't even know where to begin... so much has been happening but I haven't felt good enough about any of it until now to write about it.

     I've met this fabulous girl named Nedda Salehi, originally born here in St. Augustine, but has an Iranian ethnicity. Her family returned to Iran after her birth and didn't return until she was around nine.

 I had noticed her a few times before I ever met her during one of my morning classes. She had a mystical appeal to her. Her hair is extremely long down to at least the small in her back. She is
somewhat petite but carries herself very well... almost floats.

    And look at this new annoying habit... of pausing as I write... kind of like the infamous pause acting by Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise... I picked it up from Kristen's cousin Marcy,
whom is another story entirely...

     Nedda... There was an exam today in Eukaryotic Cell Structure which I basically had to ace to salvage my grade in that class. Parasitology was cancelled because of Turkey Day, which gave me an
extra hour. I headed to the library early with Shari and Kristen as they walked to their education classes on the far side of campus. Just as we passed the computer lab, Laura LaRussa walked out and I waved and said hi, but kept on. Moments later Kristen said that girl tried to walk up behind us like she was going to talk to me and was surprised when I said it was Laura. It's so strange to think back
about the decisions I made that summer and the consequences that resulted...

     It figured that some shit had beat me to the library, just minutes after it had opened, and checked out the sample test material I needed. I headed to class and studied until it was exam time. Something interesting happened during the test... it was proctered by three of the major microbiology professors! A lot of people were impressed to see them all together at once. Dr. Achey from last semester even came up and asked how I was doing... he then said that he sees a lot of familiar faces that look one year older. He then asked if he looks one year younger and I said of course. He thanked
me and went on...

     Many unhappy people were forced to remain on campus because Dr. Duggan refused to cancel his microbial genetics class. He cited that we have many important things to cover despite the fact that he spent two days talking about cancer which will never be on the exam. I have started making a point to sit by this group of girls in the Alpha Delta Phi sorority. I am in particular love with Molly McButter... no, Addison. One of the group, unfortunately the least appealing, is a scrawny blonde with a funny shaped face that tries to talk football with us guys in parasitology lab. Her name is Jennifer L. Anderson (although I do not know this). She has finally begun to accept me as someone to sit next to and has done so for the past few days. Today she even borrowed my pencil... WOW! (severe sarcasm). that's actually good because she accepts me as at least a normal person and not a
freak, hopefully.

     Only Jenn and Molly showed today, and then Nedda sat on their far side and we said hi to each other. Jenn wanted to suddenly move to the back so they could leave as soon as role was taken. I quickly (and to my own amazement) became happy that Molly left! I can't believe I felt that way. Nedda moved over to talk for a minute... We hadn't even said hello in a long time until last Friday for a brief minute. We started talking and she ended up getting her stuff and staying with me.

     When I told her I wasn't going home for Thanksgiving, she was all surprised and seemed to feel bad for me. I told her it is because I want to complete my medical applications. She said I could do so at home but I said my computer is up here. She then said that she would have invited me to HER house if she had known that!!! I WISH!!! She lives in Ocala, by the way. I felt quite a glow inside at that comment. When I told her that it's my birthday, too, she seemed even more surprised that I was going to be alone. We mentioned the UF-FSU game briefly, and talked about how she's never been to a game yet.

     She asked me at one point if I wanted to listen to Duggan and take notes, or talk... and guess what I opted for? He always yells at people and I was quite pleases that he didn't yell at us when we
ended up talking all period, especially since a third of the class was gone. She started telling me about volunteering in the surgical pathology department. I mentioned a four week old baby that had dies
of full cardiac arrest in the ER last week. I also mentioned the suspected anal abuse... very sad.

     She told me how she has seen and played with lymph nodes that were removed due to cancer, a kidney, and liver tissue, and quite a few stones. She told me how tumorous tissue looks pretty disgusting, and how human skin is really hard to cut with a scalpel and dulls the blade much more quickly than one would suspect. She was drawing little pictures of everything on her paper and it was getting quite detailed. I joked that he has to go back and label everything now, and we did it together.

     She thought I was laughing at her at one point about telling me all of this because of the way I was smiling at her. I told her I was definitely not, and she then explained how she likes talking to me about this because I am the only one who will listen to her about it and she wants to talk about it. I suddenly experienced a second ball of warmth... I've always loved hearing a girl say how much she likes talking to me because I'll actually listen. I later asked her if that was really such a good thing.. that we both like dead tissue?

     At one point he yelled at the people a few rows ahead of us to shut up so people around them can learn. She asked if he was talking to us on the paper and I asked her what? She then wrote asking if I
can read? Her grammar wasn't perfect so I said yes, I can read ENGLISH. She then wrote "English" in Arabic. I've always thought Arabic is a beautiful written language and asked her if she could
write her name, since I saw that she wasn't fluent. She did and then explained how words are written backwards, but numbers aren't. And the books are read from the "back to the front" of the book.

     I was trying to show interest and she seemed surprised and glad that I was. She started trying to remember the alphabet and write it down. I asked her about the letters in her name and she explained them to me, and then wrote the names of the letters above each one in her alphabet. At the end of class I asked her if I could have that page. She seemed surprised that I wanted it and said she would have written a nicer copy if she had known. I then said I had wanted the whole page with the drawings, too, so when she is famous I can say she drew this when... and we laughed.

      As class ended some dork came up and asked her how the test was. I refused to lose her again like the first time we walked together to biochemistry and was persistent. When he was done, he
asked if her name was Nedda and seemed proud that he remembered it... I almost felt embarrassed for him. We then started walking. I told her I wasn't going to biochem, and she scolded me. I said I was
hungry and was going home for lunch. Unfortunately, I only had an hour to eat and get ready before Kristen was driving me to Shands to volunteer as she headed home to Tampa. I never wished more that I didn't have to meet her to say goodbye, because I would have gone on one of my infamous walks like in the days of old.

     It's so hard to be nice with Nedda, though, because she will always try to walk as far as possible with me, while I am doing the same thing with her. She is too easy like that with me. She quickly
decided that he should go to her car and get her lunch and I smiled. If I didn't have to meet Kristen I would have gone with her... SHIT. She mentioned something about having to arrive an hour early to get a parking space, and then sits in her car and waits for class. It reminded me of how anal I am about being early and often used to sit in my Mustang once I got to work and all. But I didn't admit that because the similarity might only be in MY head.

     I asked her what she does for Thanksgiving if anything. Her mom cooks a big turkey dinner with all of the classic fixins like sweet potatoes (which she doesn't like because potatoes aren't supposed to
be sweet). I told her that if she has any leftovers that I'd be very happy if she brought me some... but I don't know if she thinks I was serious. I hope she does.

     We were talking about the body more. I brought up how amazing I thin it is that all of those organs are packed so neatly in such a tight little space as I looked at her tiny little chest. She agreed
and we were talking about where things are. I explained the trick about finding your stomach, and she said why you have to be careful performing CPR so the bottom of the sternum won't puncture your
liver! We were also talking about he orientation of your kidneys because she got that wrong when the doctor in pathology asked her if she knew...

     I was quite turned on by her when she was touching herself pointing out her organs. When she found her lower ribs to find her stomach, I especially liked it. She was wearing a very classy outfit
today and looked very nice. It was a long v-neck emerald sweater with a very sexy lacy undershirt... YUM!    

 I also brought up a conversation Kristen and I were having this morning. I told her it is domestic violence awareness week and asked her if she's hit anyone at home yet to celebrate. She laughed in
surprise, and I explained myself. People celebrate black history month in order to learn black history and put it to use. So violence week means you have to hit someone in order to appreciate not doing
so all the time. I asked how we should celebrate AIDS week, perhaps running around all week trying to get it by having sex. She suggested that we just have a sex week... and took her turn surprising me... I just didn't expect to hear something like that from her...

     We soon parted near the parking lot, unfortunately...