Trisha Delisha

As I mentioned in an earlier post, when it comes to girlfriends, I have what I consider to be the three greatest loves of my life; Tami, Traci, and Trisha. It's important that I introduce you to all three, because they come up in my stories a lot. This post is about Trisha.

The first time I saw Trisha was outside of the entry way to our high school. There was this huge building maintenance mechanical metal thing, which to this day I have no idea what the hell it was, but it sat in our presence, on a huge block of cement, watching over us like a griffin. Trisha was sitting there by herself, one leg crossed over the other, observing the chaos around her.

I can still see her like it was yesterday; she was wearing a light blue t-shirt with little cap sleeves, bell bottom jeans that were a little on the long side, and brown suede shoes. She had long curly hair, which she kept in a tight ponytail behind her ears, in an attempt to tame what was one of her greatest assets. Trisha is unusually beautiful, and when she was young, she worked at downplaying that beauty. Her eyes were always so blue, sometimes I thought they were violet, and it was the depth of her soul that created that illusion.

Trisha is the oldest of three children, and always had a ton of responsibility. Her mother raised them by herself, and worked really hard. A lot of the day-to-day stuff, like driving kids to school, making sure everybody was accounted for after school, grocery shopping, etc., fell to Trisha. She never complained not once, to this day. But I noticed, and it made her very serious at a very young age.

Have I mentioned how brilliant Trisha is? I'm talking card carrying Mensa member. She always tried to get me to take the Mensa test because she always assumed I was as smart as her. This is not the case. It was another shining part of Trisha that got downplayed. To this day, I would bet their are people who know her well that have no idea that she was the Valedictorian of her graduating class.

Someone who did recognize her brilliance was our school principle. He always had all these Trisha schemes, and I was always first in line behind her because I was her number one believer. This school principle, who is an entire post all in himself, had Trisha spear-heading all kinds of political endeavors.

One scheme involved Trisha's leadership in protesting the discrimination of students in Clifton because store owners wouldn't let us in more than two at a time. Off the class went, to testify at a full city council meeting, media and all. Jerry Springer was the mayor of Cincinnati at the time, and the whole thing was very official. The entire class freaked at the last moment, and no one would get up to testify. So there I was, not even part of the class, just there hanging out with Trish, and she volunteers me. Considering that I would jump off a cliff if Trish asked me (mostly because I know she never would, unless there was a crazed mob behind us) this seemed like a reasonable request. So, I walk up to the podium with all my 15 years of life experience behind me, nod my head in greeting to all the officials and say "Congressman". The whole room starts laughing and Jerry says "Yeah, we wish".

My second favorite is when the school principal convinced Trisha to run for the Cincinnati Public School Board, thereby making her the first actual student to ever sit on the board. In theory, a great concept. She went to be interviewed at the Enquirer newspaper, had a photo taken, I know this because, as usual, I was hanging around. It really was a big deal. Unfortunately, the school principal, after the initial hoopla, kinda disappeared and didn't help like he should have. The worst part of running for office is the damn signatures, you have to have a gazillion of them to even get on the ballet. We spent hours and hours collecting signatures at grocery stores and in the end, it was just too much. We just didn't have the grown up support. Trisha always blamed herself, while I always blamed the school principle, whom I've disliked ever since.

That was always an ongoing theme with Trisha: getting grownup responsibilities dumped on her when she just should of got to be a kid. I knew she was really sad because her compassion and intellect were so overwhelming. Maybe I was the only one who knew it. I always wanted to be the doberman to her angel, and support and protect her, because she deserved me.

Trisha and I have had many adventures together, and will remain close forever. Her sense of what is right and her generosity have much to do with the person I am today. Today, she is living out west, and married to a wonderful man, and so deserves every ounce of happiness that ever comes her way. I know she still worries deeply about the state of humanity, and hope she never let's it take away from what she has in the moment.

God bless my Trisha, keep her well, keep her happy, and, most of all, let her feel the optimism that should accompany a life so well lived. When I grow up, I want to be just like her.