Oh Gosh

My first kiss with a girl... Does anyone care? I'm kinda late... What? I know you do, quit lying! Whatever, I'm telling it anyway!

I was in junior high and I was the girl who never had a whole lot of female friends. In fact, at this point, I really only had one true gal pal, still my buddy to this day, and this pal o' mine made me come to a sleepover she was invited to. I protested, but really I would do anything she asked of me. So I went.

There were three other girls and two of those girls I knew, not personally just their names and faces, because we all went to school together. The unknown, we'll call her C, was a cousin of the chick who was having the slumber party and god did she take my breath away... and I truly had no idea why. It's obvious now. But I had no idea then.

After the gossiping and playing with the ouija board and downing snuck in lukewarm wine coolers, like a scene from a movie, someone suggested we play Truth or Dare. Everyone chose truth and the questions were kinda really personal. I'm not a personal person, especially with complete strangers, so in my buzzed mind I thought the better choice would be dare.

Of course you can guess what the dare was, "Kiss C, for 10 seconds... with toungue." And the dare was given to me by none other than my bff. I wanted to kill her. I think I sobered up right there because I still remember how nervous I was, how much I was shaking and I tried the lame excuse of, "But what if my boyfriend finds out." Which they all said just do it, it's a dare, it's nothing.

They were wrong, that kiss was far from nothing, it was everything! It was electrifying. It was soft. It was beautiful. It was confusing as all hell, but when our time was up I broke from her and quickly made up an excuse to leave. I dunno exactly what was said, but I left fast and quite pissed off.

I met C again years later when we attended the same high school and some time after graduation...she became another first for me.

CLUB YARA

It was my senior year of high school, I was 18 years old, and a group of us were hanging out at one house where most of us were drinking. When it was about time to head to our respective homes, a few of my friends weren't quite ready to call it a night, so we decided to call my parents to ask if three of them (2 guys and 1 girl, my best friend) could spend the night. My parents were cool with letting guys stay over and all that jazz...but, my sister had already invited three of her girlfriends to sleepover! So, after a bit of haggling and outright begging, my parents agreed to let them all stay at our place for the night.

And so, the night of "Club Yara" was born. (Factoid: Yara, rhyming with the Spanish pronunciation of Sara, is my first name.)

The night was filled with much merry-making - dancing, laughing, and I admit that most of us were under the influence of three various substances. Suffice it to say, we got pretty trashed. My memory of the night gets a bit hazy half-way through, but I clearly remember seeing my best friend start making out with one of my guy friends. They had dated years before, and I knew she still carried a torch for him. This was just a taaad bit upsetting to me, because by that time, I had already come to the realization that I had more-than-friendly feelings for her (I was already out of the closet...it just took me a bit longer to accept what I was specifically feeling for her). I went to lay down on the twin bed on the other side of the room, wanting to get away from seeing what was happening.

Eventually, though, she ended up coming over to me, climbing up on the bed, and laying down on top of me to talk. I can't for the life of me remember what the hell we talked about, but I do remember that Tool was playing on the stereo. Then, somehow, someway, we started kissing. From what I can recall, it was actually quite lovely...until I heard a voice in the distance: "Aww, they're kissing!". It was my sister's voice, so we pulled away, turned to look, and yes, we had a rapt audience. We continued kissing anyway.

I can't remember just how the kissing came to an end, but I know it eventually did, and we went back to drinking and dancing with the rest of the gang before finally crashing as the sun started to come up, concluding the night.

"Club Yara" and the kiss it engendered...my first kiss, not just with a girl, but my first kiss at all...was a thrillingly strange experience indeed. I just wish I could remember it better. :-)

BMF'S FIRST TIME

Well I am not going to pretend like nothing has happened since I posted my last food column. Getting kicked off my favourite site, nearly cause me to give up on Pepsi U/ Pepsi/ Marian/Laura/Life ,but luckily the support I have been given has made me want to still be a part of the Pepsi magic....

I also wanted to say that I miss you all so much ...

Anyway, moving on swiftly.. I am going to tell you about my first kiss!! Ok, so its not exactly my first kiss, because I don't remember my first kiss and I think I kissed about 5 girls that night who really did not mean anything to me and who's faces I would not recognise if you paid me a million pounds ( ahhh the power of alcohol).

Before I begin my first kiss story ( well 16th kiss actually), I am going to tell you why AE is so special and how I came to find someone special on the very site that had me barred!

So... I am sure many of you know my evil partner in crime Lizzie (she's a real softie by the way). Lizzie and I both got kicked off AE at the same time so instead of PM ing eachother, we had to move to Twitter. Once the save BMF/Lizzie campaign began, we moved to email ( god bless blackberrys), then we began BBM ing ( thats Blackberry messaging by the way).

We finally decided it was time to meet up and console each other for losing an important source of entertainment.... our cyber lives. So Lizzie suggested me coming out with her on Saturday to GAY( an insanely good club in London). It did not take much convincing me( what can I say, I like going out) so I said yes and that was that.

Anyway, so on Friday night we were both out in London ( in completely different areas, MILES apart) and I am getting quite merry with my friends.

Lizzie and I begin BBM ing and the next thing I know is I have abandoned my friends without letting them know where I was going....got in to a cab with a random man (who paid for my taxi thank god) and came to the club with me, where Lizzie was. Yes I know I sound a bit mad but I had this burning desire to meet the girl I had been chatting to for months on AE.

I got the club and saw Lizzie....needless to say, she was just like I imagined her to be...charming, super hot and endearing (or should I say cute Lizzie?).

So then Lizzie and I went back to a house party and then I realised I could not wait any longer to kiss this girl...I could not keep my eyes of her. So there in the kitchen of some random persons house, we kissed and WOW was it good...she has the softest lips I have ever felt and I wanted to kiss her all night and I did....

Sure enough the next night, I went to GAY with Lizzie and some of her friends and lets just say, I enjoyed myself a lot.

So ladies... I thought you should know that just because I was unfairly kicked off AE...something good came of it...and that something was Lizzie. She rocks my world.

Number one

...or "I'm glad you brought your books"

This brings back a lot of memories. And looking back now, I see I was very stupid and gullible. But we have all been there, haven’t we?

It was my first year of university. I had met this very nice girl, Maria, a friend of a friend. I used to sit with her in every class we had together, and make fun about pretty much anything, but specially, ahem, sexy stuff. We were genuinely flirting from the very beginning, but we couldn’t really see it. I was 18, I had kissed a fair share of boys but things never seemed to work out for me. She hadn’t even kissed anyone yet. I fell in love with her without even realising, and I guess it happened like that for her as well.

One night, we decided to go out partying with my friends, and I had agreed with my parents that they would let us sleep in their bed when we came back. That night, dancing with her, I realised I wanted her. Imagine how it was to sleep and wake up next to her, even if we had just cuddled up like friends. I wanted to kiss her so badly, so I leaned on her chest and started kissing her neck slightly, making my way up, using funny noises to release the tension. When I was about to get to her lips, my sister entered the room to wake us up, and the world fell on me, as I thought I would never have the chance to do that again.

I wanted to ignore what happened, but I couldn’t. I told her I had wanted to kiss her. And I told her that I had feelings for her. She told me she had wanted to kiss me too. I hadn’t been in uni for that week because I was sick, so there had not been another time for me to kiss her. Until Friday. We had a Russian exam and Maria told me I could come to her flat early that day (she lived in campus, and I had to take a 2 hour train to get to uni) so we could study together. I told her that if I saw her, I didn’t think I could hold my wish to kiss her. She said we’d just let things flow naturally.

I got there at 8am, not having slept at all. When she opened the door, I realised I didn’t know if I’d have the courage to kiss her. So I walked in and we studied like nothing happened. She was sitting on her couch, holding a Russian grammar book opened, reading out loud something. I saw my chance, it was now or never. I approached her. She got very nervous and started talking very fast. I bent down in front of her and took the grammar book from her hands. I said “I think there’s something I need to finish” and I started kissing her neck exactly on the spot where I was the week before. It took me a minute to build up the courage, and I finally kissed her. It was new and tender. I knew I wanted to do that all day, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide it from anyone. We kissed until exam time. May I say, it was a disastrous exam because I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. It was a happy ending one: despite facing many obstacles, we were together for almost a year, and she was the most special person I’ve ever been with.

She will always be #1.

KISS ME

"You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how."

Rhett Butler to Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind

This week is dedicated to kissing. I have been thinking about the Pepsi kisses and how thrilled I was each time Pepa and Silvia would kiss. The kiss that got the most attention was their first kiss in the famous bathroom scene. Silvia stepped towards Pepa and kissed her not once, but twice.

This week you will be hearing personal stories from our lecturers about the first time that they kissed a girl. My story is at the end of this lecture.

I have also been thinking of some famous kisses in film history. It would be impossible to list all the great kissing scenes, but here are a few of my personal favorites. And I am sure you could add more films to this list.

LADY AND THE TRAMP it all started with a meatball

NINOTCHKA one of the funniest and sexiest movies ever made

A PLACE IN THE SUN look up sensuous in the dictionary, and this famous kiss will come up

THE HUNGER Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve-what more do you need?

CINEMA PARADISO hot kiss in the rain...you will need a towel

TITANIC Kate Winslet, Kate Winslet, Kate Winslet. Oh yeah, there was a guy in that too.

WILD THINGS two topless women in a pool

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN no sheep were kissed during the filming of this movie

ATONEMENT makes you want to build a bookshelf

Here is my personal story:

While in college, I was in an advanced acting class and I had been cast in a one act play. I was surprised to discover that my character was going to kiss a woman. Not only had I never kissed a girl before, I would have to do it on stage!

That night I went into my room mate's room and I told her how nervous I was. She and I were good friends and nothing more. We were not attracted to each other, in fact, we were young women who were open to the strong possibility that we were gay, but we were kinda clueless. I did know that she had more experience with kissing than I, she had kissed more boys than I had.

On this night, I asked her for advice. During this conversation, she was already in bed and I was sitting on her bed, near her feet.

"Do you want to practice with me?" she asked.

I was stunned. I started to stutter..and then she said "wait a minute" and turned off her light. Now we were in darkness and she said "come closer".

Hey, I knew how to follow instructions and I moved closer to her. I felt her hands pull my head toward hers and we kissed. It was technically a wonderful kiss--really quite nice.

But it would be another few years before I felt the earth move with a kiss... before I kissed a woman that I loved and not just for practice.

The irony is that the kissing scene in the play was cut. But my friend was a great teacher and I look back on that night with fondness and gratitude.