Hairy Men

Yes, I'm fully aware that it is 5:58 am right now. I've been awake for about an hour. I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. I could have either continued to toss and turn, gotten up to start working on the never ending laundry, OR write a blog post. I'll let you guess which way I went.

Last night we were watching a football game (LSU vs. Florida, for those of you who really want to know) and one of those Geico cavemen commercials came on. I've never cared for them in the least, but I tolerated it since it was only 30 seconds long. I'd never seen this one before and when it was finished, I commented that I just didn't get it. Ted explained it to me. I swear...sometimes I'm so dense when it comes to commercials.

Actually I wasn't paying full attention to it, so I really do have an excuse this time. The caveman had on short sleeves and once I saw how hairy he was, I thought about another hairy person I knew years ago.

When I was a junior in college I lived in an apartment with two friends. Our apartment complex had quite a few buildings (like maybe 30-40?) and each building had 9 apartments, with three on each floor. We lived on the bottom floor. Two floors above us was a group of four guys, all from a town in northeast Ohio (Ashtabula for those of you who know Ohio).

We got along really well with these guys. Two of them were grad students and two were undergrads. The undergrads were both italians. Mario and Al were the undergrads and had a little more free time than Tommy and Frank. My roommate Beth was very active in the theater department (she was majoring in secondary education, English and drama). She had to participate in all kinds of extra stuff and was rarely in the apartment, except to sleep. Barb and I, on the other hand, were elementary ed majors and didn't have to commit so much time to extra things.

A few evenings a week Al, Mario, Barb, and I would get together and play cards or Monopoly. There was never anything "going on" between any of us, as the guys both had girlfriends back in Ashtabula and I was seriously dating Ted. Barb was sort of waiting for the perfect man to just drop into her life, so she wasn't "looking" for anyone at that time.

Mario had this thick, naturally curly, dark hair, and was extremely handsome. We would often drop in on each other, and the guys were typical guys, not too worried about what they wore or how they looked.

One Wednesday afternoon Mario and Al stopped by. Mario had just finished a run and was relaxing a few minutes before climbing the steps to the third floor. Al had just come back from a class.

It was late October and this was the first time I'd seen Mario without a shirt on (and he had on really short shorts too...remember this was a very LONG time ago when short shorts were in style for men, yikes!).

He was so darn HAIRY! I don't like tons of hair on men and he got more than his share, that's for sure. Not only did he have a head full of hair, but he had the hairiest arms and legs I've ever seen. Not to mention that the hair on his chest and his back was so thick and curly that if you ran your fingers through it, they would get caught in the tangles.

This was a Wednesday (for some reason I've never forgotten that fact) and I hadn't seen Mario since Sunday night. I'd seen Al on Monday and Tuesday, but that's irrelevant here.

Mario had a thick beard. It was so thick that you could not see any skin through it at all. I made a comment about it and Al said that Mario grew a beard every winter because it kept his face warm. Mario said that he hadn't shaved since Sunday morning. I had seen him Sunday evening and he had a thick five o'clock shadow, but I had no idea it could fill in that fast.

After they left, Barb and I were talking about how hairy Mario was. I couldn't get over seeing all that HAIR! I was certain that there were parts of his body (not what is usually covered) that had never seen sunlight because of all the hair. It was so thick and curly and dark. But this was a little much. He was WAY too hairy for me!

I've often wondered what became of Mario and Al, and have even (I can't believe I'm admitting this!) done an online search of them. Mario had a name that would just roll off your tongue due to the italian heritage of it. Apparently there is only one person in the U.S. with his name and it must be him, and he's in Florida. Al, I believe, is living in Italy. I could only find one reference for his name too. The other two guys had very simple sounding names and there were many people with the same name, so I have no idea where they actually are.

What I really want to know is if Mario is still hairy. THAT is the real question!