meet the alumni director

(currently listening to badly drawn boy's "magic in the air")

the early morning, the productive meeting, the sunshine, the morning of tiebreaker and over the rhine, the lunch with kate, and the icing on the cake - my favorite alum, kris, stopped by yet again.

this time, he brought in his girlfriend of one month, kira. she flew into chicago last night for a four day trip, and he stopped in this afternoon to introduce us.

"i've heard so much about you, " she said with this shy, welcoming smile.

she's wonderful. and my heart feels like it could explode with happiness. i know they're young, and no one knows where this will go, but i almost wanted to hug her, i was so happy.

and there kris stands, beaming between the two of us.

after they left, my boss commented on how weird it was that a guy would bring in his new girlfriend to meet his alumni director. i don't care. i know kris and i are friends in an unexplainable way. besides, we share the same birthday so we're naturally drawn to each other.
and my boss tried to say that if a girl flies in to see her boyfriend, it's serious. and it's only serious if they're fooling around. i plugged my ears and told him i wasn't listening to him.

no, i don't want to think about anything like that happening between the two of them. even if it is, i think i love kris so much and i have no hesitancy in really liking kira since he obviously thinks so much of her. and honestly, any relationship has more to do with the two individuals than sex. so whether they are or whether they aren't, my heart is bubbling over.

i'm so lucky to know kris. i'm so lucky to be part of his life, to learn about his girlfriend, to wait as he searches for things to say just to stick around my office a little while longer, to be invited to meet this girl who makes his whole face light up, to hear the stories his old teachers don't get to hear. if god was responsible for letting me meet kris, well, then, thanks. thanks, god. it means a lot to me.