What can I say about Sara Sidle? Well, she is stubborn, far too emotional, bossy, and very opinionated, but she's also caring, organized, thoughtful, and highly intelligent, probably too smart for her own good. Yes, Sara Sidle is a mixture of qualities. I guess that's why my feelings towards her have always been mixed. I remember telling Sara once that being confused is the best place a scientist can be. Is that true for my case?

When I first met Sara, she was a recent college grad working at San Francisco's finest coroner's lab. I was giving a seminar on how entomology is closely tied with criminology. All members working in a criminal investigation position were invited to attend. Sara's job as a coroner's assistant qualified her to come, since they deal with both naturally caused and crime related fatalities.

When I give seminars, I always scan the audience before hand to see if I can predict who will actually be interested in what I'm saying, verses those who were just forced to come. As I did my pre-seminar ritual, my eyes fell upon a brunette in the third row. She seemed to have come alone, since both seats on either side of her were empty. I have to admit that I was instantly intrigued and attracted to her. I was captivated by her brown eyes that conveyed independence, strength, and intelligence. She was probably too young for me; she looked fresh out of college with her flawless porcelain skin and shoulder length, wavy, brown locks. Still, she could become an acquaintance or maybe even a friend. Why was I thinking about her in an attractive sense anyway? I didn't even know her yet. Anyway, my thoughts were overwhelming me, so I didn't realize I was staring at her, until she turned her head and looked me straight in the eye with a surprised, but curious look on her face. She raised one eyebrow and her lips curled into a half smile. I immediately dropped my eyes from her to the floor, keeping my head angled downward, until I was sure that all the remnants of embarrassment were wiped off my face. When I raised my eyes to her level once again, I was relieved to find that she had taken an interest in the displays on the stage and not in me.

My seminar went well. As usual, the people who were truly interested in the topic sat near the front and were eager to ask me questions, those who had better things to do sat near the back and dozed. Although I got a wide variety of questions from different people, the brunette I eyed earlier asked several. Her questions were highly advanced, thought provoking, and intelligent. One almost stumped me. Normally at the end of a seminar, a few people stick around to ask the speaker for more information. I really hoped that brunette would hang around. I was lucky because she did. She was polite and patient by letting everyone else come up to me first. I was also polite by paying attention to their questions. I was glad to see her out of the corner of my eye as I answered the last question besides hers. As I shook hands with the last gentleman, she approached me. She had a sweet smile on her face as we shook hands and introduced ourselves. She told me she worked for a coroner, but was looking for a job as a CSI, since she was qualified. I told her about my job as a CSI level 3 back in Vegas. She seemed so interested which surprised me. I'm not a sexist guy, but most CSI positions are filled by men, women normally choose the, "lab rat," jobs as they are called, like in fingerprint analysis or in the DNA lab. We talked for twenty minutes, which was the longest conversation I have ever had with a person who had come to one of my seminars. We would have talked longer, but the janitor came in and told us that the auditorium was closing up for the night. I wanted to continue to talk with her and I could tell that she did too. I thought about asking her out for coffee that night, but it was late, so we arranged to meet at an Italian restaurant, a few blocks away from the auditorium for lunch the next day. We said our goodbyes and she walked out as I finished packing up my things. During the walk to my car, I could only think about what stories and cases I should tell Sara about tomorrow during lunch. I wanted to intrigue her and show her the different sides of crime investigation, but mostly, I just wanted to impress her.