Lola B's

I met Bryan when i was singing in the church choir and he was sitting in the first row looking

up at me because i had the most beautiful voice….and when i sang an acapella solo…he gazed up

at me and fell completely smitten and head over heels in love.

So not true.

I was really skinny back then. I also had a killer push up bra…even before there was such

a thing as Victoria Secrets. Actually…i think i had on my bikini on under that tank top…

and had used not just one….but two pads in each of the sides.

We really met in a smoky bar called Garfinkel’s…..in Vail, Colorado.

I might have smoked back then.

I had a fake i.d. ….and as a matter of fact….my name was Anna Eriksson…and i was from Sweden…

working as an au pair. You see….my best friend was indeed from Sweden…her name was Kaisa..

and she was in fact an Au Pair.

The real deal.

Kaisa and i had gone to the library…photocopied her passport…then erased a few numbers…

inserted our photos….and then re-coppied the papers.

Voila.

New passports.

Now…let me tell you that there is no way you could do this now…and there is no way you could

walk into a bar with a photo copy of a passport ..but we were living in a resort town…

where there were ooodles of Au Pairs. I do believe we even had a local bus pass with our alter ego name

and photo should someone ask for a different type of identification.

The only reason i tell you this is because the night i met bryan…i was sitting in a smoky bar..

and i was 19 years old.

{with a very padded bra}

I was hanging with my group of Swedish nanny friends…when a group of boys walked in and

sat next to us at the bar. Bryan sat right next to me…and it wasn’t long till he asked me my name.

For some reason….i didn’t lie…like i normally did…and told him my real name.

My friends and i normally would make up names and stories to tell the guys we would meet

because they all tended to be tourists…and only in town for the weekend.

I mean…i was already going by two names….Anna..and Kasey…so most of the time…i was Anna..

and i was a nanny.

That night though….i told him my name was Kasey.

He told me his name was Bryan and that he had just graduated from FSU.

I told him i had gone to USC.

I told him i was a professional volleyball player.

I told him i was 23.

He believed me.

He told me he had just gotten into town…that very day…and was spending the winter in Vail.

We had fun chatting the rest of the night…and then he and his friends left.

Before he left…he handed me his phone number and told me to call him sometime.

I tucked it into my back pocket and continued on with my night.

A few weeks had gone by when my friend Kaisa called me…and told me that she

had given some boys a ride home last night from a party and one of them was named Ryan.

Ryan had asked her if she knew who Kasey was…because he had remembered that i was

hanging with a bunch of Swedish nannies.

Ryan told Kaisa to tell me to call him.

I pulled out the piece of paper that i had kept…..and called the number.

I called and asked for Ryan.

The boy on the other end said wrong number.

I looked at the piece of paper again…and took a chance…then called back.

I then asked for Bryan.

The boy said….hold on…let me get him.

Bryan got on the phone….and we made a date to go out.

We dated on and off for four months…till the ski season ended and Bryan was going to

road trip with his friends to San Francisco…then head to Cape Cod where he would live for the summer

as he did for the last 4 summers and wait tables at a restaurant.

He left….but would send me postcards now and then.

The summer passed…then came the fall…and one day i got a letter from him saying he was coming

back to Vail to live for another season.

We’ve been together ever since…..and got married in a chapel on Beaver Creek Mountain.

He almost left me when one Thanksgiving…my whole family was sitting around the table….

and he started talking to my dad about my volleyball scholarship to USC.

I might have spit turkey all over the table.

He might have spit turkey all over the table as well…i don’t remember…

but all turned out just swell in the end.

Not that there is an end….because we just keep going.

Life….it’s so much fun.

p.s. It is still a joke in my family that i said i was a professional volleyball player at USC.

p.s.s. I tried playing volleyball once…and it looked like a scene out of “Meet the Parents”…

where the volleyball hit me in the face and my nose still has not recovered.

p.p.s. One day i will go to Sweden and find my long lost friend Kaisa Hjelm.

p.p.s.s. I could really use that padded bra today.

p.p.p.s. Winner of the camera coming soon…