Move Over John Denver

Growing up I always wanted to learn how to play the guitar, but it never happened. When I went to college there were guitar classes that I could use towards my humanities requirements at BYU, so I decided to go for it! Of course, I didn't own a guitar. Enter the scene, Roger.

The night Roger let us play MAC counter with him.

Long hair, charming glasses, often in plaid button ups, Roger. I met Roger through Scott and he was so great.  We had such a fun times together and for awhile I had a little crush on him, but since he ended up falling for my roommate, I moved on.

Roger was someone who would sneak into my room while I was at work and leave me a six pack of TAB (yep.) and a gallon of my favorite Peter Pan peanut butter and chocolate fudge ice cream. He worked on the set of "Touched by an Angel" (which we always called "Touched by a Teacher"...but for the life of me I can't remember the joke to accompany the nickname), which I thought was so cool.

I was going to buy a cheap-o guitar bu Roger convinced me to spend more money and get a good one. Since i had no idea what hat meant, he helped me. He drove me to SLC one day and we went guitar shopping with the money I had saved working at the jewelry store.

The roommate he eventually dated

He copied tons of music for me, but most cherished were the John Denver songs. It was one of the main reasons i wanted to learn how to play. (It seemed much more exotic before i knew his entire collection of songs comprised about 5 chords). He helped me in my efforts to play and I I actually didn't totally suck at one point.

Thank. You roger for helping me stop talking and actually do something.

Thanks too, because this was all during our house obsession with the Carnie Wilson show. My mad skilz enabled me to compose a song about the Carnie Wilson show, which was so catchy I can remember the tune and one of the lines to this day. 

"...now you're takin' me to the Carnie Wilson show.
You're ruinin' my life in front of 10 million people."

My roommate and I serenading some meaningless boys-those girls were brave!

Me and the neck of the guitar

Notice the sticker on the front of the guitar. I was waiting to peel it off until the exact right moment. Then some doof just came over one night and pulled it off like a band-aid without my permission. I still have resentment about that moment.

 We were clearly some focused college students.