Mistop #1: Niz

With this post, I introduce the concept of the "Mistop," as in I missed an opportunity to have a girlfriend. In order for this condition to exist, the girl in question had to appear to have liked me and I needed to have had nothing else going on that would have prevented me from pursuing a relationship (as in, maybe I was involved with someone else at the time).

I had made reference to Niz in a previous post, in which I complained about not having a girlfriend my senior year. I had already written my blog entry for #2 under the assumption that she was #1. But I recalled that Niz would have actually been #1. At first, I wasn't going to write about her and just start with #2. This is because I'm trying to write things in chronological order and trying not to have to backtrack. However, I remembered that there was an interesting development that explains why I didn't really try to pursue Niz any further.

Niz was two years younger than me. I met her toward the end of my junior year when we were in the Artesia Arts Council's community theatre production of "Annie Get Your Gun." She played one of Annie Oakley's siblings. She was a year older than my brother, so she was very familiar with him and his antics.

Niz was also a cheerleader at Park Junior High School, although she did not continue this when she started high school. She had a lot of spunk and spark and the whitest, straightest teeth I have ever seen.

We hung out a lot during the rehearsals and talked. I didn't think about the possibility of dating her, because she appeared to be a little too "wowie" for me, so it looked like we were going to be friends. However, I brought my camera to one of the rehearsals. She asked me if I wanted to take photos of her in her cheerleading uniform. This caused my brain to lock up. What did this mean? Was she was trying to seduce me? I stopped seeing her as a friend and started looking at her as a potential girlfriend.

I did not take her up on her offer to take photos. It just seemed wrong to do that. I figured I'd find the right opportunity to ask her out on a real date, something we could do after the production ended, but there was an obstacle that I did not expect. My friend Led also started talking to her more frequently backstage. It was obvious that we both liked her. However, Led was not one to wait for a date. Backstage during one of the performances, he was alone with her and quickly stole a kiss. He said her reaction was not very good, and it looked like he wasn't going to get any further with her.

I kind of got mad at him because, in my mind, this had messed up my chances with her. She knew that he and I were good friends and I was afraid that if she didn't like him that way, then she probably didn't like me that way, either. Any attempt I made to get closer to her would probably have resulted in a similar reaction.

So I thought I would just have to wait until we started school after the summer to see if we might be able to make a connection. I was going to have to wait anyway, because she spent the summer touring and performing with the Young Americans, a slightly artier version of Up with People.

School started and she just didn't show the same type of interest in me. I wasn't surprised. She likely met far more interesting people than me when she was with the Young Americans and I didn't carry the same level of thrill. As I mentioned before, she wound up dating one of the Alpha males.

I ran into her from time to time during the periods I was home from college. We were just friends, that's all.

I was able to find her on Facebook. She had gotten married and had a couple of kids. She looks very much like she did in high school, with the same white, shiny teeth. Apparently, she went to school in Omaha, NE and studied Finance. She also got her jurisdoctorate degree. Wow! I'm impressed. Maybe it's better that we didn't start something up. I would have dragged her down to my level of being a loser.

That just was not her destiny.