The Courtship of Parthenia and Primo Ellingsgard.

Part One: Housemates Hook Up

I don't think the husband ever reads this, so I sometimes bitch about him. But not today. This is one of my favorite stories to tell: how the husband and I lived together longer than we've actually been a couple. Th husband once asked me not to post photos of him, or reveal his name. So I call him the husband. It sounds a little cold, and I worry that when I write about him, a mild complaint will sound much bigger than it actually is.
Since this is meant to be a happy fest about the husband, let's warm it up and give him a name. We'll call him Primo. [Tengetical anecdote about the name Primo: When we were thinking of baby names for Bea, the husband--Primo--said he wanted to call our baby "Primo" if it was a boy. It became a joke between us, and perhaps there was a little poke at some of the kooky (to him) names I was thinking up. Like Jedediah. Only thing is, I was serious. Or maybe he was, too. I never could tell.]

Anyhow, Primo and I met in 1995. I was living in a house with 3 other roommates, and my roomate Frank went to Amsterdam for a semester, and needed to sublet his room. We placed an ad in a few papers, and got a few calls. One was from a UMASS student named Primo Ellingsgard. He sounded nice enough on the phone, so we invited him over. The very first time I laid eyes on Primo, I sat on our porch and watched him walk from the corner up to our house. He had shoulder length curly blond hair that bounced with each step of his very distinct walk. Primo has beautiful, touchable, soft hair with these big curls. It almost breaks my heart when he cuts it. As he got closer I saw that he was really cute. If I remember correctly, he wore black Converse hightops. I don't know what else he wore.
Needless to say we picked him, and he moved in at the end of August. First we hung out as friends. All the time. I think around December, I admitted to myself that I has a crush on my housemate. By New Year's Day, it was clear to me that there was something there. Several near kisses, extended snuggle sessions, and tickle fights later, on January 13, I asked him if he wanted to make out, and we did.

Stay tuned for more Primo Ellingsgard happy fests...