Getting to Know Me: TD?

You have seen that I entitle my weekly NFL picks 'TD's Official NFL Picks - Week _'. For those of you who know me - I'm guessing everyone who's reading this blog - you know that my initials are DK. So, where do I get that TD? I must journey back.

It was 13 years ago - August 1995 to be exact - that I left my family and friends in Connecticut to attend the University of Delaware. I moved into Russell B. The Russell dorms are located on East Campus adjacent to an open field area named Harrington Beach. No, it's not a beach. When it was wet, it was more like a mudpit. And when dry, like a desert. It was - and still is - surrounded by groups of dorms.

So, back to Russell B. I lived on the second floor. A co-ed dorm. Our RA, Aimee (pronounced ah-may) was a pushover who was rarely in her room. In other words we had free reign.

It was a good dorm, the best living experience I had at Delaware, to be honest. I couldn't really be an introvert in that dorm. First of all, I lived in a double with two other people. And that would have been all well and good, but the two other people - both named Chris - could not have been more different than I.

The one Chris - the pretty boy - had a girlfriend in southern jersey but found a way to bring a different girl home every night. Almost literally. He once came home with a girl I had known in high school. The only other girl from my town at Delaware. He loved Morrissey and The Cure. Blech! And he was a surfer who tried - and failed - to sound like he was from 'Cali'. Ugh! Suffice it to say, we tolerated each other.

The other Chris - the city boy - was from Staten Island. Though short, he did not have a Napoleon complex. Instead, he was laid back and generally agreeable. I could imagine him being a salesman from whom a person would consider buying.

Then there was me. Introvert. Studier. Liked quiet. I learned how to get out of the habit rather quickly.

So, I didn't spend much time in my own room. Too crowded. Too loud. I also did not want to go out and about. I wasn't much into the party scene. And I wasn't much interested in joining a frat. That left either sitting in the hallway by myself or actually engaging others. I did the latter.

I came to meet a while slew of characters in my freshman dorm. There was Steve. Big guy. Loved sports. All sports. He used to stay up until all hours of the night watching sports like cricket and bocce on ESPN. Loved Syracuse football, though he lived his entire life in central Jersey. A Dallas Cowboys fan too. Yeesh. Still, a good guy. Would give you the shirt of his back even if it was three sizes too big for anyone else in the dorm. He's the one who gave me the nickname, TD.

Why?

There were four Daves in Russell B, Floor 2. So, yelling Dave or David when you wanted one of us was rather... inefficient. That meant we needed nicknames. The first idea was to give us nicknames based on the state from which we came. Interestingly, we all came from different states: Delaware, Connecticut, Vermont, and Ohio. But, if you know anything about life in college, people abbreviate - or have pet names for - everything. Delaware Dave just doesn't have a ring. Nor Ohio Dave. Nor Connecticut Dave. So, they gave us names based on other things.

Ohio Dave. The absolute best ultimate (frisbee) player I have ever seen. Even by other ultimate players, he was said to have been one of the most accurate throwers. He became Frisbee Dave. By the end of the year, he was just Frisbee.

Delaware Dave. Smart guy. Also VERY muscular. Too muscular, you might say. He became Muscle Dave. As the year wore on, he would take to challenging everyone - guys and girls alike - to a wrestling match. Thus, by the end of the year, we didn't actually call him much because he freaked everyone out.

Vermont Dave. I have nothing against Vermont. Nice state. Has the Green Mountains. Has Ben & Jerry's. But we had two people from Vermont in Russell B. And both were just weird. I remember many an occasion when I'd be in the midst of a conversation with Dave and without warning or reason, he'd leave. I asked others if they had ever witnessed this behavior. All of them had. He became the only one who kept his state as the nickname. It got shortened. VD. Yeah, I know.

Then there was me. It's really not that exciting. You might have figured it out already, in fact. It came from the first time Steve saw me stand up. I surprised him with my height since I had been slouching in my chair. You're a tall Dave, he said. That stuck for a little while - Tall Dave. But it needed shortening. That's when I became TD.