Blue Marker: the saga continues

Tonight I went to dinner at Zemam’s Ethiopian Restaurant in downtown Tucson with my friends Crystal, Gary, Jon, and Emi. It was delicious, community style food that you eat with your hands off of a big tray in the middle of the table. No plates. No silverware. It was great.

The tale of the blue marker dates back to my junior year in high school, which is now 7 years past. Jon and I were in Mr. Madden’s chemistry class together in the afternoons that year. Mr. Madden was a terrific teacher, and every Friday he BLASTED ( to the enormous displeasure of all other teachers in his building) “I Feel Good” by James Brown, and he danced on top of the lab tables giving a stunning lip singing performance. He also always wore short hiking shorts that got him in trouble with the board because it was against the school dress code to wear shorts that short.

It was in Mr. Madden’s class one afternoon that several of our classmates returned from taking the ASVAB military aptitude test earlier that morning. They received a free blue marker with stars on it that looked like this:

More or less, Jon asked if I wanted one, because no one wanted them, and I said no thanks. When I got home from school that day, I found that he had slipped one into my bag nonetheless….and there the war began!

Since then, the marker has been passed back and forth several times (we wait patiently for the right moment), and the methods have gotten progressively more methodical and complex. One year it was a mystery Christmas present that showed up on my doorstep disguised in a LARGE box of bricks. In another plot, I performed precise surgery and resealing on a bag of betty crocker cake mix for a birthday surprise at Jon’s house in Iowa. It showed up inside my bean and cheese burrito one morning at Nico’s Taco Shop in Marana! It was a secret admirer’s valentine sent to me at NAU, along with the SECOND blue marker ( the original's long lost sister )delivered by Aaron Steele, an accomplice brought in by Jon himself from that same chemistry class.

The markers have been through a lot, and actually, they have been used for a lot of good! I have written many friendly notes to people with them, filled out paperwork, to do lists, Bible verses for the wall, and much more! Who knows which of YOU have been touched by the blue markers.

And now, they have been passed once again, after years of waiting, plotting, and saving the forgotten SECOND marker….they are together again and have double whammied Jon in blindsided fashion. I snuck them into a bath set gift basket which I gave as a wedding gift to Jon and his new fiancée at dinner. It snuck right by them until Emi found the markers inside the toothbrush tubes as they drove away from the restaurant and I got a call from Jon, who said “I should have known. I should have been much more suspicious.” But he WASN’T. And now I wait. And watch. Train myself to site anything out of the ordinary, sketchy, or BLUE. I gotta be ready this time.


It was such an enjoyable evening with those friends. Sometimes it is sad to come back to Tucson and realize how much other people I once knew have changed, but I love seeing Jon and Crystal, being thankful every time that such a strange trio has remained friends after high school. It makes me feel rightfully small to know that God has such good, weird plans.