D - Don Raphael

Being the homeschooled part-time student that I was, and not being involved in any high school teams, it always throws me off when someone from OHS recognizes me.  For example, a while back I was sitting in the freshman academy center being introduced to *Don Raphael. During the introduction I was silently thinking to myself how I knew him, and he did not know it, which gave me creeper status. And when he said "You went (1) to Orem, right?" I was officially thrown off. Don Raphael was the sociable sort who did outgoing things like run for student council and actually make friends in high school, and I was surprised that his type knew my type.

Little did I know that that (2) conversation with Don would be the first of many. Shortly after participating in a musical rendition (3) of the book Seed Folks, Don and I discovered that we were both working at Legends, and we later discovered that our Tuesday and Friday schedules are the same. Not long after that, we realized we were in the same psychology class, and a study group was formed.

It did not take many conversations with Don to realize that he is a genuinely hilarious person. This fact was validated (4) the day he sent me a text that said (5): "I was filling my water bottle and so was the person next to me. We started about the same time, and when I was done I yelled 'beat you!' He looked confused, but I walked away feeling awesome."

Now, after I have written that down, I feel that maybe you might have had to be there for full-frontal hilarity. Take my word for it.

A while back I updated my facebook status to say "Has anyone else realized that OK is a sideways person?" I got many comments, (6) all saying "wow!" or "never noticed that before!" By far, hands down, the best comment was the one left by Don :

Because I enjoyed seeing that so much, I have spent the past 5 minutes trying to be as cool as you. All I have gotten were

man with better arms: OE<

and man with long neck: O-K

or rocking horse man? OK)

yeah, definitely not as cool.

There was also the time he told Johnny "Yeah, that took you forever" after Johnny typed a random row of letters. Again, with the "you had to be there" aspect. Maybe Don's humor is based on comedic timing, which is hard to express via blog post. Despite the context in which you need to hear the humor, I am glad to have someone to keep me entertained at work. Also, it is always nice to have someone to assist you in stalking the football team, and to remind you that starting an "I stalk the football team" club is probably not the best idea. So thank you, Don Raphael, for keeping life interesting.

*Name has been changed... sorta
1- I just spelled that word like wen't
2- I love it when I can use the same word twice in a row and have it make sense
3- There was actually no music involved, it just sounded cooler that way
4- You should watch that if you have not already. It is well worth the sixteen minutes of your time.
5- This is not a direct quote. I spent so long trying to find the text, I looked through all 2163 texts in my inbox, but I could not find it :(
6- 16, to be exact. Quite possibly more than on any other status update

<3