Lauren Kaiser

Lauren Kaiser is a beautiful woman.  She's tall, has great skin, a pretty smile...just lovely. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been envious of my MSU roommate sophomore year, Theo’s, relationship with Lauren.  Don’t tell her I told you this, but she’s actually one of the first people I remember having a dirty dream about *gasp.   Who the hell knows why it was her, perhaps it was just all that times I saw and thought she was super hot, but one night I went to sleep and amongst the hundreds of people I’ve met in my life, it was her that I saw.

Freshman year (I think) at state I took this university biology class that I was required to take, and Lauren was in it.  We had this big Indian guy who was our professor and he would always tell us wild stories like about how when he was in grad school him and his buddies would take the 200 proof liquor in their lab, put it in punch for parties, and just get hammered.  I remember talking to her about that class one time at a party at the end of the semester I think and talking about how it was quite possibly the biggest blow off of a course imaginable.  This memory is kind of lame I guess, but I remember it because when Lauren was talking about it she was just so excited, she had so much energy and that compared with her smile always leave a lasting impression.

The most recent time that I’ve seen Lauren is actually the night that I started writing this.  She looked lovely as always, she even had a beautiful friend who I should have introduced myself to, but didn’t because I’m an occasional idiot.  Regardless; seeing her that night just reminded me that she has infinite possibilities in life, possibilities that could only come to people who demonstrate such natural charisma as a woman like Lauren.  Maybe one day I'll be reading through a Forbes magazine and she'll be in there amongst the most powerful women in the world or something and I'll get to teach her to a group of kids.  For a girl like her to do something like that, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.

Cheers,

Andrew

Jenna Pearson

I met Jenna in middle school and almost immediately developed a bit of a crush on her.  That in itself isn’t much to write home about, I honestly can’t remember what the criteria was for me to swoon over a girl in my early stages of puberty, it could have simply been the existence of breasts, but Jenna stands out for a couple reasons.  The first being that she was that she was always a nice enough person to acknowledge my existence, which is a plus.  That may sound like a lame thing to say, but I think it is severely underrated how much the impact of even a fraction of the attention of the “popular group” can have on a teenager’s self-esteem.  The second is that I came up with a name for her, a name which is the basis of this memory.

A memory that always comes to my mind when I think of Jenna is a day when me, Theo, and her were at Gabrielle’s house which is like a block away from mine.  It was that day in her pool that I came up with this nickname with which I would describe Jenna with for months to come:  Delicious Abs.  It’s ridiculous, I know this, but it just felt like the perfect way to describe her that day.  I remember her being in her bikini and me just thinking, “Damn, those are some of the most delicious abs I’ve ever seen.”   Theo and I would joke about that for a while.

I actually saw Jenna the night that I’m writing this in my not quite sober state, she looked lovely.  I didn’t get to catch up with her, but she seemed happy, so I hope everything is going swell for her.

To an ab-mazing lady,

Andrew

Ellen Daniels

Ellen was my piano teacher for a semester during my junior year at MSU.  She was a California girl, and everything from her 60’s hairstyle and West Coast style of dress to the way she talked with words like “groovy” affirmed that.  She moved to Michigan that summer because she was a graduate student at MSU, going into music, obviously, and was doing piano lessons on the side for some extra cash, I found her ad on craigslist and thought it would be the perfect chance to learn how to play some music.  Ellen was an awesome teacher.  Incredibly talented, but unlike many talented people, Ellen also had the ability to actual teach people.  She was incredibly easy to work with: kind, encouraging, funny, and, wouldn’t you guess?  Beautiful.  Unfortunately for me and my adoration of women who live near the ocean, especially those who love music, she’s also married.  Drag, right?  Despite the heartbreak of her unavailability, the months that I went to her for lessons were pretty great.  I may have gone independent, but I hope she’s still playing beautifully, doing well, and living life to the fullest.

Cheers,

Andrew

Annie Melcher

Annie is this really cool girl who I met through my roommate Brett.  There are countless things which make her cool, but the thing that anyone who knows her could probably tell you is that she’s really easy to talk to.  She’s got a great sense of humor, she’s kind, likes to laugh, and all those things make you feel comfortable around her.  A good memory I have of Annie is actual the last time I saw her.  She came over our apartment and we were all just hanging out, shooting the shit, having some drinks, when somehow Parks and Recreation came up.  Parks and Rec is one of my favorite shows, and it just so happened Annie loves it too.  It may sound simple, but the memory of she and I talking about that show and how underappreciated it is was the perfect example of that girl’s coolness.  

It’s been a while since we’ve hung out, but I’d like to again soon because she always a lot of fun and I could always use some more people who appreciate some top notch comedy.

Cheers,

Andrew

Shayna Dwojakowski

I’m gonna be honest with you, it took a minute for me to warm up to Shayna, but once I did, she quickly became one of those people who I would always look forward to seeing again.  I’m sharing this because it was actually that “warming up period” on a trip we took that is my fondest memory of her.

The Fasse family and mine have been close my entire life, and for several years when I was younger our families would go on annual ski trips.  They were always a blast, and one year Ericka brought her friend Shayna with her.  It’s been so long that I can’t give exact details of the trip, but gosh do I remember having a lot of fun, with much of that fun being a product of Shayna.  The things she would say…they would crack me up!  She was just a funny, fun girl to be around.  I have a couple blurred memories of her on that trip, the main one being that I’m like 65% sure that there was a time when we were trying to fit three people on a small ski lift and she pushed me off of it.  All I remember for certain is that I got pushed off a chairlift right as it was lifting off and that there was a roar of laughter from the girl who was on the chairlift with me.  Between you and me, I think after the whole day taking in the glorious view of me on a snowboard, she was just too intimidated to share a chair lift with me.  What a great trip… 

It’s been a while since I’ve seen Shayna, but the last time we saw each other, she looked fantastic.  She was at a graduation party I was attending and I almost didn’t recognize her, I would feel bad about that if it wasn’t for the fact that my lack of recognition resulted from her becoming a freaking bombshell.  It was fun seeing her again, chatting a little bit, catching up and what not.  I haven’t seen her again since then which is a bummer because although I didn’t see her all that often before college and everything, she always seemed around enough to just be herself and bring a smile to my face…I miss that.

Cheers,

Andrew

Andrea Blohm

I met Andrea my junior year when she lived in co-op that was across the street from my apartment.  She was friends with my roommate Steve, so we would see her pretty regularly and as the year went on we started seeing her more often and even partied with her every now and then.  Andrea is quite hippie.  That year she was growing her long, blonde, dreads, she often wore the kind of longer, light dresses that one will often see girls wear at music festivals, and just the whole way she carried herself gave her a "free."  I remember one time she came over to our apartment having just gotten a tattoo of the outline of Michigan on her torso because she "loves Michigan."  You gotta love that, right?  I let her borrow the lotion I got when I got my own tattoo.

A fun memory I have with Andrea is one in which we went to see a little show together at Mac's Bar in Lansing.  I can't remember the name of the band, but it was a lot of fun.  We danced, played some pool, she ordered us a pair of Hairy Nipple shots...those were interesting, and all in all it was just a fun time.  We ended the night at Theios, which is a shitty 24/7 diner where we got some grub until one of my buddies came to pick us up and give us a ride back.  It was a good night.

Since I essentially moved to the other kind of campus last year, it has been a while since I've seen Andrea.  We've tried to meet up a few times this past year but conflicting schedules have made it a little difficult.  I hope she's doing well though, living her life like only she can.

Cheers,

Andrew

Jon Klein

Jon is a kid that I took driver's training with and because of that, I can't even tell you much class time I probably missed laughing.  Gosh, it's been probably six or seven years since I was in that class, but I still remember being at the table with him, Bryant, Ryan, and Jonathan and laughing so damn hard that a few times I was literally crying.  I couldn't tell you one conversation I remember having there, it was probably something really stupid that only a few fifteen-year-old dudes would find amusing, but just the sheer amount of laughter that took place there is enough to make me remember it even now.

I don't know what Jon is doing now, but where ever he is I wouldn't be surprised to hear people laughing with him just as I did.

Cheers,

Andrew

Tom Thornburg

Tom, another one of the TE crew that I hung out with on Thursday nights, is yet guy who was always a good time to hang out with.  A particularly great memory I have with Tom is a night when we went to the Pub and a few of his friends were there along with most of the regular crew, they were a couple who he worked with at Kroger I think.  It was the end of the year and we were all getting pretty trashed at the bar already, but when people started heading home for the night Tom, his friends, and I decided that we weren't quite ready to let this night come to a close, so they invited us over to their place which was almost right above The Riv (if you've been to East Lansing, you know it) to have a few more drinks.  We ended up going over to their place, already quite tipsy, and proceeded to drink tequila for like an hour and a half while chatting and listening to music.  It was a pretty damn good time.

Tom, like most of my teacher brethren, starts up his internship this fall so I probably won't be seeing all that much of him any more.  Hopefully we can organize a big Pub reunion with the TE crew at some point though because it's always a blast hanging out with Mr. Thornburg.  And if there's a jukebox I'll put on Rod Stewart and Primus for old time's sake.

Cheers,

Andrew

Chris Foldesi

Chris is one of the many awesome people that I met in my TE class senior year at MSU.  We became pretty good buds the second semester of that when a small group of people from the class would go out to the Roadhouse Pub just about every Thursday night for half-off drinks and some darts.  We've had a lot of good nights at the Pub, most of them admittedly a little hazy so I don't so much remember all of them minute by minute, but when I think of Chris I definitely think of the way he talks.  He's one of those people who can be really smart and philosophical about something then see a hot chick and the next sentence be like "I'd go fuckin' crazy on her, baaaaaaam!"  The whole "baaam" thing is from this show he and a few other guys from our class got really into called Trailer Park boys, and while I've seen the show a few times and know where they got it from, it's way funnier when Chris does it with a hand motion that devolved until it eventually just became him fingering the air.

Chris went out of state to work on a farm for summer for a while, so unfortunately we haven't hung out in a while.  But when he gets back to Michigan we'll have to arrange a night for a group of us to get together and have a couple beers because he's a great guy to hang out it.

Cheers,

Andrew

Tyler Bisel

In sixth grade, Tyler was listening to his CD player at the end of the day, which our teacher was not having.  So our teacher, Mr. M., came over and took away the CD player but made the mistake of leaving the headphones with Tyler.  Instead of putting the headphones away, Tyler proceeded to keep them on and bump his head.  He said he was listening to "The Bustin' Mimes."  It was freakin' hilarious, and pretty damn clever for a sixth grader I'd say.

The last time I saw Tyler was a couple years ago when I was at a gas station in Shelby Twp. and he came over to say hello, I barely recognized him and I don't know how he recognized me because it'd been so long since the last time I had seen him and we were never really all that great of friends or anything, but that was pretty cool of him.  I don't really know, but judging on that alone, I'd say Tyler is a pretty good guy.

-Andrew