Diann, "Donny" and my boyfriend "Rico"

I had a good friend in college named Diann. We got along fabulously and had kind of the same attitude and taste in rock music, much to the chagrin of some of our LDS "sorority" sisters. She was a great girl and took me to my first big city, San Francisco. I think it was there that I caught the travel bug.

Diann and I had lost touch after college for quite a few years but somehow found each other about ten years ago. She had been dating her boyfriend for a while and was planning on getting married.

Here is part of a funny conversation that we had around that time:

Di: "I'm going to London with Mike and some of his family."

Me: "Oh? That sounds fun. What are you going to do?"

Di: "We're going to go sightseeing and also Mike's sister's husband is in the Andrew Lloyd Webber movie of Joseph that they will be filming."

Me: "Oh, really? What part does he play?"

Di: "Donny."

Me: "No, I think Donny Osmond is playing the Donny part."

Di: "Yes, he's Donny."

Me: "No, I know I heard Donny Osmond is still playing that part in the movie."

Di: "He IS Donny Osmond." (Probably thinking to herself, "You idiot.")

Me: "Really?"

Di: "Yes, really."

After that I wanted to ask a million questions, but restrained myself so as to not act even dumber.

At Diann's wedding, Donny was behind the video camera. My girls were around 4 and 7 at the time so I said to them, "That guy is really famous, so someday when you are big and know who Donny Osmond is, I'll remind you that you saw him so I want you to remember this."

I asked Morgan if she remembered that and she said she did but she couldn't remember who the famous person was. Now that he's on Dancing with the Stars I'll have to remind them again.

So, there you have it. Someone I know is related to someone very famous. And he's lucky to be related to HER.


Another funny incident with Diann happened when I started dating someone new in college. Diann hadn't met him yet so we decided to play a little trick on her.

I had the boy call Diann and pretend that he knew her in San Francisco, where she spent her summers. He said his name was "Rico". He called her (this was in the days before caller i.d.) and talked to her and said he knew her. She kept asking him questions and I was on the other extension, so I would tell him the correct answers. Then he said he'd go over to her apartment and visit in about a half hour.

I had baked some brownies that day, so I put some on a plate and took them over to Diann's by myself, pretending to not know anything that was going on. I showed up and Diann started to tell me about this strange phone call she got. Eventually Garren, my boyfriend, showed up.

Poor Diann was trying to be so polite and not hurt his feelings when she was telling him that she didn't remember him at all. She kept asking him other questions, but since I was sitting next to Diann she couldn't see me mouth the answers to Garren. She almost caught me when I was holding up my fingers trying to signal another answer.

During the conversation, I casually whispered to Diann that I thought "Rico" was kind of cute. I started flirting with him pretty obviously a few minutes after that. I'm not really sure what Diann thought about that but eventually I ended up on "Rico's" lap. That's when she knew for sure that it was a set-up.

I think she thought something was fishy, but I'm not sure if she suspected that I was in on it from the beginning or not.

Diann was such a fun friend and I really miss those days sometimes.