Seeing my other ex–in healed friendship–College Memoirs: Life At Roanoke–March 1995, Part 3

by Nyssa McCanmore
Posted on February 8, 2015April 26, 2022

One of the people online, Gypsy, probably named after the Gypsy robot on Mystery Science Theater: 3000, invited people to a TCB user party for Saturday, March 4.

Krafter and Stimpy wanted Sharon and me to come to it with them. This was a popular, invitation-only party, probably held every once in a while.

Gypsy and his wife Nympho didn’t know us, so they didn’t invite us. Krafter and Stimpy petitioned them. Gypsy and Nympho sent us amused e-mails saying we could come.

Late one night, I went to Country Kitchen with Krafter and Stimpy. I sat next to Stimpy and laughed as he said, “For once, we’re bringing chicks to Gypsy’s party.” He moved his hands like he was setting baby chicks on the table, and said, “Peep! Peep!”

Sharon and I walked into the party not knowing what to expect. We recognized almost no one, of course, except for the ones I saw on Krafter’s video of the BBS party. Stubby was there at one point. Nympho gave us plastic drinking cups for our pop, and wrote ZIGGY and NYSSA on them. I saved that cup for years.

I found out which person was Flezter. He sat watching someone else play on the computer. He was cute–a redhead–but only seventeen, so jailbait.

After I gave him love advice online (he had a crush on a girl at work and wondered if he should send her flowers from a secret admirer), we had become fast friends. When we found each other in tele, he wrote “Freak!” and I wrote “Psycho!” Now, to introduce myself to him, I went up to him and said, “Psycho!” He turned to me and said, “Freak!”

“Flezter” was hard for me to say–I have a dyslexic tongue at times–so I often said it “Fletzer,” and originally thought it was spelled that way. I don’t know where he got the name.

We were led to a bedroom to put our coats away, and when I came out, lo and behold, who should be standing before me but Peter!

He said, “Sh–, I wasn’t expecting to see you here! How are you doing?”

After chatting a bit, he said, “You’ve changed so much. You look so different, much more confident.”

Ish was at the party. Sharon and I were charged to get a good look at him and report to Pearl. (According to Turtle, he was the sexiest and nicest guy on the board. We told Pearl he was both nice and cute, not ugly or anything, so don’t worry.)

Gypsy and Nympho had their computer all set up for logging in. All night there was a steady stream of people to and from it. Sharon said, “That’s so sad. They come here to meet people in person, and what do they do? They turn around and go online at the party!”

Stimpy and I sat on the floor across from Peter and his date, a pretty girl with long, brown hair like mine. I don’t remember if it was curly or not. We talked and laughed and had a good time.

Peter and his girlfriend left early. Somebody quipped, “They’re off to go have sex.” I didn’t need that image.

Later, Sharon said to me, “You two have the perfect ex-relationship: You can both be in the same place with dates, and not even care.”

Which was ironic, given all the troubles we had with each other after the breakup. But those troubles and enmities had been left behind, and we could finally be friends again. Each could move on to other people without it hurting the other the least bit.

Though I was shy, I did smile and laugh a lot.

Nobody and his brother were there; they were two short, skinny teenagers, who looked no older than fifteen. They didn’t act mean at all, but tossed around a balloon with Sharon.

Sharon later said how much she enjoyed herself, that she felt more at ease than she expected. She did seem to be more talkative than I was.

Avenger and Lima were there, however. I finally got to see what they looked like. When I heard the young girl with the short, blonde, maybe reddish-blonde hair was her, I felt uneasy, remembering how mean she was to people online, and the way I muttered “Avenger” with distaste whenever she came online.

She said and did nothing to me. Though I sat near her for part of the night, I don’t remember speaking to her. I generally avoided her.

Later on, people began to leave, leaving our group, Ish, Stubby and maybe a few others. I felt more relaxed now, and it was easier to talk. I cuddled with Stimpy on the couch. Gypsy and Nympho sat on chairs nearby.

Gypsy was a dark-haired man with a mustache; Nympho was a blonde, both of them probably in their 30s. They lived in a small rented house, a duplex I believe, and another couple lived above them. They joked that they could hear whenever that enthusiastic couple had sex.

****

While I was at the party, Catherine played Dungeons and Dragons. The next day or on Monday, she told me about her first D&D game with Cugan as the Dungeon Master.

She said, “He looked up hopefully when I walked in the door, then looked so depressed when he saw you weren’t with me.”

She told me about the other players, and said, “Do not look at J.J. He’s cute, but do not look at him.” She wanted me to have eyes only for Cugan. She didn’t want me to end up with Stimpy, either.

She rolled up her character that day, Iliana, a fighter/mage elf. (All the characters in the campaign at that time were elves.)

On Sunday, March 5, Catherine and I planned to go to the SCA meeting, and I was to be brought back to the campus by Cugan. That day, however, there was a bad snowstorm, so Catherine called me and said we weren’t going.

Apparently she didn’t call Cugan, however, because he, panicked, called her from the meeting to see if we were okay. He feared we’d driven into a ditch somewhere.

Index
Cast of Characters (Work in Progress)

Table of Contents

Freshman Year

September 1991:

October 1991:

November 1991:

December 1991: Ride the Greyhound
January 1992: Dealing with a Breakup with Probable NVLD
February 1992:

March 1992: Shawn: Just Friends or Dating?

April 1992: Pledging, Prayer Group–and Peter’s Smear Campaign

May 1992:

Sophomore Year

Summer 1992: