I met Gordie on Friday night of President’s weekend in 1996.  I knew that night that I had met my soulmate.

After college, I lived in San Francisco with my best friend from high school, Jane.  We were out on the town that night with other friends from high school.

“Hey, let’s go to the Dessert Moon” one of my friends said about half way through the night.

A bunch of us made the short walk from the bar we were at to the Dessert Moon.  We scored a table and ordered beers.  After a while I noticed that a guy I knew from high school, but had not seen in years, was across the bar.  I went over to say hi to Mark and we chatted for a few minutes.

I then turned to his friend and said “Hi, my name is Staci, I went to high school with Mark”.

Mark’s friend said “So, did I”.

Gordie swore for years that my reply was a haughty “Really?  I did not know you, who are you?”

To this day I still can’t deny with 100% confidence that I said that or that I  did not come across like a stuck up bitch.  It’s not completely unlike me.  What I do remember is when he told me his name was Gordie Ball, I remembered his name from high school.  Gordie and I spent the rest of the night talking.  We quickly realized that we had a common interest in hiking.   We talked about going for a hike together.  At the end of the night I gave him my phone number.

My roommate and my other close friend, Brenda, went back to my apartment.  Brenda was like another roommate to me because she stayed at our apartment nearly every weekend.  After we got home, Brenda and Jane gave me a hard time that when they had tried to talk to Gordie and I at the bar, I gave them a look like Get the hell out of here.  I laughed.  I probably did.

I went to bed that night and could not sleep.  I had butterflies in my stomach and thought about Gordie all night long.  I had never experienced something like this after meeting a guy for the first time.  I just had a feeling about him.

Brenda, Jane, and I went to Sacramento the next day for the rest of the weekend.  I continued to think about Gordie all weekend.

Would he call me?