I'm dating a member of a boy band

This morning, I was sleeping. Which is what I like to do in the morning. Especially since I've started my internship at CF, I've been having to wake up early most of the week. Thursdays are my day off. I don't work, I don't intern. I pretty much do whatever I want (like go look at baby ducks at the duck pond for a half hour) on Thursdays, which make them awesome.

My favorite things to on Thursdays is to sleep till 9:30 or 10:00 in the morning. That's my favorite time to wake up.

With that in mind, I was particularly dismayed when I got a text this morning at 7:55. I was happily dreaming (spy dreams--my favorite) and my phone buzzed, which always wakes me up. I rolled over and grabbed my phone. I had a text from Julie.

Julie: So have you heard of that boy band one direction? They were on the x factor last year i think?

I had heard of One Direction. They're a British boy band, modeled after the smash hit boy bands of the late 90s. Only better, I think. If you're unfamiliar with them, here's one of their more popular songs:


Me: Yes. And it's too early to be testing me. [editorial note: for the sake of realism, I am including my misspelling. Let that be a testament to how NOT happy I was to be texting when I should have been sleeping.]

I hovered around the edge of consciousness for a few minutes to see if Julie would reply.  I was a little curious as to why she'd be so excited about a boy band this early in the morning. She did.

Julie: Sorry. I forget how early I've been getting up. Just wondering if you were aware that brian is one of the band's members? Check fb when you're awake enough :)

Knowing that Julie had now safely passed on her message and would no longer be bothering me, I rolled over and went back to my spy dream until I woke up around 10 this morning. I laid in bed for a bit, just doing my thing (ie I was being lazy) and then I happened to remember the text that Julie had sent me about Brian being in a boy band. Curious, I grabbed my laptop and logged on to facebook. Julie had posted a picture on my wall.

Pay particular close attention the boy second from the left. His name is Louis Tomlinson. For those of you who have met Brian, do you see it?

If not, here's a bigger picture:

Do you see it now? Brian finds the resemblance so uncanny that he told me if he didn't know better, he would have thought this was a picture of him from a few years ago. He's even wearing a skinny tie (which is Brian's preferred type of tie).

For those of you who haven't met Brian, here are a few pictures of you to get the general idea. These are from freshman year because Brian isn't terribly fond of getting his picture taken, and it's only thanks to Emma's perseverance as resident photographer that we have any photographic footage of his existence.

This is the picture Julie thought looked most like
the guy from One Direction

His hair is short in this one, but look at their noses! So similar!

This one you get the hair

That's Brian on the right (ie not the trumpet player)

Let's not forget this one

I mean, let's face it. If Brian regularly Bieber-sweeped his hair like he used to (he told me his hair was much better kept freshman year), he could totally be the same guy.

Which makes me wonder: does my boyfriend have a secret life? Is he really a British pop singer in a boy band and he's just pretending to be an American college student to lay low from his adoring fans? It's totally possible, I think.I mean, Louis is the oldest member of One Direction by two years. He could totally be living a secret life.

And until I know otherwise, I'm going to say he is. So until further notice, I'm dating a member of a boy band.