The Beginning of All Things Geek, or Spousal Unit is Hot When He's Smart

My very first crush defined the rest of my life quite well, in that he was the geekiest kid in class.

I was in second grade and at a new school. I hadn't realized yet that in public school, with 40 kids in my new class and too few teachers to explain the golden rule, you got teased for being different. That hadn't been such a problem in my old school, where the most I got teased for was my new glasses.

But like I said, this was before I realized all that. As far as I was concerned, Mark was the dreamiest kid in class. And he had enormous glasses, just like me.

He was smart, too, especially where math was concerned. I think that was why I developed my little crush on him. I never really understood liking someone for their looks, even from age eight. To me, it was about discovering what was trapped in their devious little brain-cases and analyzing it, to see whether it was appealing or not. I didn't get what other people found attractive in certain looks - still don't in some cases. (Robert Pattinson? Really? Harrison Ford any day, please.)

Maybe it's just a matter of liking scruffy-looking scoundrels. Spousal Unit certainly has that look about him from time to time. But the one certain thing is that my taste hasn't changed that much since second grade: I like the smart ones. Seeing as we first bonded over Invader Zim, you could say neither of us are necessarily wise. But he's definitely smart.

Spousal Unit presented his proposal defense last Thursday. He was totally on his game for everything, and even maintained his composure for what other students told me was a major inquisition from the professors. He dazzled everyone with his wits, and he did it in a kilt. As one of our friends said, he can take major steps in life without an inseam (which sounds like a new "most interesting man in the world" commercial).

I've known since college (even if he didn't) that he would go on for a PhD one day. He's every kind of intelligent: not only can he learn the facts and analyze them, he's smart about social situations, practical matters, and pretty much everything else there is to be smart about.

The next step on the road to his Master's degree is to collect data from each of the skeletons in his set. In the fall, he'll defend his thesis and officially have two degrees.

We'll probably celebrate by playing an Invader Zim drinking game.