What was originally planned did not happen, and that was a
romantic dinner cruise with my wife.
What did happen was this (and I should turn this into a
story because it’s too ridiculous not to)…
My wife is out of town and told me that she wasn’t going to
make it home. It was sad, but its life and not in my
control.
A few hours pass, and I look at the reservation rules for
the cruise. Nonrefundable, nor can we switch dates…but I might be able to
change passengers. I call the office, and I can indeed give my tickets to
someone else. If I call before 5:00 PM they can do it officially, otherwise I
would have to vouch for the person(s).
Screw it…I’m going to go. It sounds fun and I’ve never been
on a dinner cruise before.
So now I have to find that one lucky person to go on a “date”
with me. However, I need guidelines to rule people out. I associate with a lot
of people, but that’s not what I need.
Rule #1: They have to be male. I don’t want it to appear as
though it’s a date and piss my wife off. I must know a lot of females because
my list was drastically cut down.
Rule #2: The guy has to be single or alone on Valentine’s
Day. This of course made my list really short.
I talked to a few people through the day who may be able to
make something work. I mostly heard “any other day I would”, or something to
that effect. I got a yes, which later became a no.
I increased my search parameters to include woman who my
wife wouldn’t find threatening, and I came up with one. She is more my sister
than a “girl”. There were possibilities,
but it didn’t work.
Then I got a yes from a guy, but then it turned into a no. A
few more no’s, and then my time was getting really short.
At the last minute, I decided to give both of my tickets
away to a couple, but there wasn’t enough time for them to find a sitter and
get out the door.
At the very last minute, I decided to just go solo, and that’s
what I did.
This is where things really went bad…
I was rushing, not paying attention, trying to pull up
directions on my phone, which resulted in me falling down the stairs, but I was
still able to collect myself and leave.
My GPS told me that I was going to arrive five minutes after
the boat left, but I picked up some time on the freeway. I got into the right
area of town, and I could see the boat off to my left. GPS told me to go up and
around because there was no way to turn otherwise. I did, but then couldn’t
find where to go after that because my GPS told me to pull into a place that
wasn’t permitted. So I drove back around, and tried it again.
I hate being lost and confused, which I was, and so I pulled
over and brought up the reservation. I found where I needed to go. I parked, I
ran, and I tripped over my cane. I bloodied my face and really hurt my leg.
I missed the boat.
It could have been worse.
How? I don’t know…it’s a figure of speech. Did I mention that it was also dark and raining?
Driving home…
The area that I was in is not too far from the freeway, but
there were some construction/city workers there blocking the turn. So I drove
further on, and my GPS was being stupid, “go straight, turn left, go straight,
turn left”…it couldn’t make up its mind (not unusual). So I drove straight so
that it would recalculate.
It did, but now I didn’t know where I was. Then I got
stopped by a train. Anyone who has ever seen a train down by the water district
area knows that they are the longest and slowest trains ever.
After the train finally passed, the car in front of me
stalled and wouldn’t start. I helped them push it. Then a mile or so down the
road, I got stopped by the same damn freaking train.
The rest of the night was great…no complaints.
I’m a pretty positive person, but I am struggling to find
the moral of this story. What did I learn from this other than I’m the grown-up
version of Charlie Brown?
I thought about this a lot last night because my leg hurt
and I couldn’t find my laugh. I couldn’t find the positive to the entire
situation.
Then I found, what I believe, is the moral of the story.
“Time waits for no man”…
And what I took from that was that I need to go after what I
want, fight for it, and make it happen…we all do…every single one of us. Not
what we think that we want, but what we really want, as in it becomes a need.
I also re-realized how great people are. I talked to a few
guys and a girl on Valentine’s Day, and even though none of them went with me,
they all talked with me (some off and on for a long time) on a day that they
were spending with others.
I found my smile when I realized that I may have been alone
in my house, but I wasn’t alone in life. Life is worth fighting for.
Thank you to everyone that I talked to.
I’m not Charlie Brown, but Valentine’s Day did hurt.
UPDATE: After I wrote this, I went downstairs to get some
breakfast, and fell down the stairs again. My legs (mostly my right) isn’t
doing that well. I really should hire a stuntman, because I’m not built to do
all of my own stunts.
Maybe the moral of the story is “slow your row”…or it could
also be the very new and very popular saying, “Stop falling down the stairs kid”
(it will catch on because everyone is someone’s kid).
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