C.C. Steadman

So, as many of you know, Michael and I like to play pranks on each other. We certainly go through phases where we play more tricks than others. Our shenanigans are usually pretty intense and involve a lot of planning and trickery. On April 1^st every year, I always get a call from my mom and often several of my sisters asking me what April Fool's Day joke I pulled on Michael or what joke he pulled on me. From all our April Fool's Day jokes early on in our marriage, we've both become more vigilant and thus less easily tricked, especially on April Fool's Day. I suppose that's why Michael decided to trick me in August rather than April.

As I mentioned earlier, I taught sociology this summer at the local community college. I really enjoyed it and did several things that were a little off the wall. When Michael was in Turkey, I got an email from a struggling graduate student named C.C. Steadman. Calling me Dr. Monday, he told me that he had heard about some of my "out of the box" teaching methods from a friend of a friend who was enrolled in my class and that he wanted to be a sociology professor just like me someday. Flattery goes a long way with me (as Michael will tell you), and I was so happy about this compliment. He also told me a little about himself. He told me that he really felt passionate about sociology and that he was named after Cruz Castillo from Santa Barbara, a soap opera that I really liked when I was in 4^th and 5^th grade. C.C. still enjoyed watching Santa Barbara reruns and also did a fair amount of modeling. I emailed him back, feeling very happy that someone appreciated my teaching efforts and told him I would be happy to be resource for him when it came to teaching. The next email was full of gratitude for my willingness to help and surprise at how much we had in common. He also told me how he found a picture of me on Facebook and wondered if I had done a bit of modeling too. He said that I looked "a little shy, coquettish, mysterious and with a twinge of seduction" in my picture. His description of my picture made me a bit uncomfortable, especially with Michael in Turkey. I called Michael right away and read what he wrote. He assured me that he thought everything would be okay, and that to Michael, C.C. just sounded like a struggling graduate student. "I think you should continue to write him," he told me.

Not surprisingly, after that, the emails focused less on my looks. For approximately three weeks, I emailed him encouragement for pursuing his goals, and he emailed me questions and some weird stuff too. He sent me a couple YouTube videos of his favorite love scene between Cruz and Eden on Santa Barbara (which I didn't watch) and his favorite moments between Cruz and Eden (which I did). He also sent me a Santa Barbara quiz, which I failed miserably (I later found out that Michael did far better on it than I did, and he never watched an episode growing up—he did do a lot of research on Santa Barbara for the emails which I didn't do). C.C. then began lamenting that he worried that some of the modeling jobs that he'd done in the past might make teaching difficult, especially if one of his students found some of his "edgy, but not too over the top" pictures. At the end of that email, he told me that he'd like to thank me somehow for all I had done to help him and offered to get me a modeling job in the Lima area. This puzzled me because I don't exactly think I have what it takes to be a model in oh so many aspects and wasn't sure how to respond to that. After several days, I thought I should probably email him back. I opened the Rhodes State website to access my email and saw a guy posing next to the wall. I thought to myself, "I wonder if that's C.C. Steadman? I wonder who C.C. Steadman is?" Then it hit me like a ton of bricks—MICHAEL IS C.C. STEADMAN!!! That little sneak!" I wanted to trick him back and say something that would surprise him, but I wasn't absolutely sure that it was Michael. I decided I probably should just ask him. I went and found Michael and said, "Mike, are you C.C. Steadman." He got a big smile on his face and exclaimed, "Yes I am !" We both laughed and laughed and laughed. He is such a goof. One thing about Michael, he make s me laugh everyday. I'm really glad that I married him, even though I have to worry about him pulling pranks on me. By the way, I'll have to post my cunning retaliatory prank when it happens.