"joe waple is hot"

i'm going to tell you about the one and only trend i ever started.

i'm still not sure why i did it. maybe it was the thrill of anonymous graffiti. maybe it was because i thought he'd know it was me and then we'd be together and live out the rest of our days in harmonious bliss that all started with those four words.
or maybe i was under the influence of some illegal substance. who knows.

but 3 years ago, i wrote "joe waple is hot" on the wall of the rankin science elevator.

really.

at age 21.

the next day everyone on 4th floor rankin was discussing it, making jokes, and asking around "who did it?"

i heard that one of the funnier geography professors even went up to him to feel his forehead, then said, "you feeling okay? i heard you were hot."

within two days everyone and their mother decided to write about who they felt was hot in the elevator. i even read one that said "mike mayfield is hot" (mike mayfield is one of the friendlier (and in his 40s) geography professors.

'ye olde ozone flyer' (as it is called) had never seen so much action.

of course the next week one of the senior staff members brought in a can of paint and decided to end everyone's fun. each time he rode the elevator he brought the can of paint with him to make sure he was covering up every single piece of graffiti.

it was fun while it lasted.

did joe know it was me? i don't know. he jokingly said "it had to be you" to me one day, so maybe.

wherever joe is now (i heard wilmington, nc) i hope every once in a while he thinks back to that elevator and says to himself, "i was hot."