Young Love Letters – Part 3

In case you missed the previous installments…
Part 1
Part 2

July 19-23, 1993 proved to be an exciting week. My family and four of my friends from our church clown troupe headed to the conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Sidenote- one of the four that attended with us was a very sweet guy whom I had dated off and on over the past couple years – we were “on” at the conference.) The midwest had just endured a deluge of rain and the town was still suffering from the flooding. We all bought t-shirts that said, “I survived the flood of 1993.”

I made good on my promise to attempt to juggle clubs with Ked. We practiced in a park with the other jugglers nearly every day, and I definitely felt out of my element. I was much better at dropping  the clubs than keeping them in the air. Of course, the confident, handsome face opposite me did not help my nerves. One day while we were juggling in the park, a news reporter came by and took our picture. Actually, he took my picture and got Ked’s shoulder. He caught us in a rare moment while I was actually keeping the clubs in the air. Everyone teased us about the photo and thought it hilarious that only Ked’s shoulder was featured.

In all of my pictures from that conference, Ked is nearby or in the background. He hung out with me and my friends all week, getting to know us all. Our friendship had started to blossom. But that was all it was. A good friendship. My boyfriend apparently feared I had a crush on Ked. I kept reiterating that we were just friends, and besides he lives 4 hours away! In another state!

As we entered our junior year of high school, we started to write more frequently.

9-9-93

Dear Amy,
Hey what’s up? How’s life? School’s cool! I guess! My favorite class is Art III.

I finally got my license yesterday. Finally! I was going to get it the 3rd, but we, or my parents were too busy. But I did get it. I haven’t even driven yet. Well I guess that’s my fault. I don’t like to drive.

Yes, I’m going to go to the Indianapolis convention. Cool!

How did you end up with 2 study halls? How many credits do you have to have to graduate? We have to have like 21 credits and the most we can get is 6 a year, so I don’t even have a study hall. Next year, I hope to have release time.

Hey, whaddya know, I’ve been doing good on writing letters. I’ve written tons, well, since the Iowa convention. Cool, huh? Because I LOVE to check the mail! So, most of the time I write back the same day I get the letter.

So, is your dad up and around? I hope!

Hey, you’re going to have to start asking more questions or I’ll write about stuff you don’t even want to hear.

Well, I won’t be able to practice juggling for awhile, because one of the team got here to start helping add on to our house. I think the others will be here soon. I’ll be helping, and for the next month I’ll be very busy!

Oh yeah, and if you want I can send you some stuff for labels like fonts and pcx and junk. And if you want, I can get dad to print some labels on the laser printer. There’s like 30 on a sheet. It’s no problem because I can probably get them for free. Shhh! I can only get one sheet, but Dad won’t care.

I could talk (write) forever, but I’m sure you’re bored!

Love,
Ked

Bored. As if! My heart stopped. Love, Ked. Not sincerely, or just Ked. Love. It’s just a common letter closing, just a common letter closing. I repeated to myself over and over. Still, my finger couldn’t help tracing the words. Ack! I was falling for him!

I suddenly had the desire to practice juggling. I actually didn’t like to juggle. It made me realize how clumsy I was. I only juggled because I had made a deal with my Dad a few years back. I’d been his magician’s assistant since the time I was five. When I hit junior high, we’d made a deal that if I learned how to juggle, he’d become a clown and we’d do the shows together as clowns. He loved clowning way more than I liked to juggle. I lost out on that deal. Until Ked started to juggle with me. I suddenly needed to get better!