The Silly Decisions You Make... TarheelMike: The extra trip to the store. One more round of drinks. Going into the bank instead of doing the drive thru. The little throwaway decisions such as these can have life-altering results just as easy as "major" decisions such as changing jobs, relocating to a different part of the country, or transferring colleges.
In my case, it was volunteering to work a Sunday night. September 2 marks the five year anniversary of the night I met my ex-wife. Looking back... whether now or mere months after it happened... it still seems like the stars were aligned just right. The situation was SO contrived it seemed like it came out of a bad movie script.
I worked the night before at the bowling center - where I was working in college - REALLY late. Like 4:00am late, when we had an employee breakfast meeting just hours later at 10:00am. I had made the mistake of telling my mother this on Saturday, and therefore, she woke me up about six hours earlier than I would've liked that morning to tell me to get to this meeting, despite the boss knowing I was at work til nearly sunrise. So I went... to be a good employee and I liked my job. I couldn't tell you a thing about what was said at that meeting. The only part that matters to this story is what Jenny, a co-worker, said after the meeting: "Anybody care to work my shift tonight?"
Here's where things REALLY start to look scripted. Just so happens that this night was going to be my buddy (and still best friend to this day) Eric's last night of work at the bowling center. Since I more or less got him the job int he first place, I volunteered to work Jenny's shift, if only to have one more night with Eric behind the counter with me, so we could assign the hot girls to the "sexy lanes" [read: the ones right in front of the counter"> and play all of our favorite songs with all of our inside jokes til closing time. Just another Sunday night shift. Nothing new.
Got home and went to sleep around noon, but woke up late. I needed to be into the place by 6:00, but woke up at 5:45. I threw on a blue long sleeve shirt, a pair of jeans and my Boston Red Sox hat and headed off to work, calling Eric to let him know I was late, but on my way. The place was a zoo when I got there. We had two leagues bowling - one on each end of the place - and for some reason, everybody in Montgomery decided to want to come bowling tonight. Therefore, we had a waiting list over an hour long. It was only 6:30.
On top of this, we were debuting a new gimmick at 8:00 this night: Quartermania. Ya pay $5.00 to get in the door, then everything is a quarter after that. We didn't really know exactly how we were gonna do all this, but we managed to figure it out. The leagues cleared out, we slowly worked our way thru the waiting list... only to have a mass rush of people show up at 8:00 for Quartermania. So much for eliminating the waiting list. Things finally settled down a bit, the list wasn't that long, and we had everything under control.
Then, in the blink of an eye, my life changed forever.
(continued...)
Re: The Silly Decisions You Make... TarheelMike: (...concluded)
She came in with Amanda. I knew Amanda from the bowling center. She had worked the snack bar about a year prior before quitting to give birth to and raise her daughter. I did not know the young lady that was with Amanda. All I knew is that she was the mst beautiful woman in the building. While Amanda came up and made small talk with me and Eric, she stayed back a little. Me being the smooth cat that I still am to this day said nothing... until we skipped them up the list, gave them the only lane we had [NOT a "sexy lane""> , and they walked away. THEN I said to Eric, "I'm taking her home tonight."
Keep in mind, this was probably the sixth or seventh time I'd ever said this to Eric. And in EVERY previous scenario, I took nobody home. But there was something about this blond haired girl in the silver shirt that had me interested. The night went on, they bowled, me and Eric worked, and nothing of note happened until they came to check out.
I charged Amanda "a buck fiddy," and again, said nothing to the blonde, opting to turn around and get to clearing off the coutner and getting ready to close out the night - turning it over to Cynthia, the asst. manager, who was running some youth lock-in that night. Slowly, the customers left, and the kids arrived, and the next thing I know... I turn around and they're still here, standing next to the counter as if they're waiting for somebody. So, I finally speak to the girl. And the first thing that comes out of my mouth is...
"So, what're you idiots still doing here?"
Her response: "Waiting on your dumb ass to get done."
Somehow, in the next 20 minutes, Amanda managed to bail on us, leaving me to take the gorgeous blonde home that evening. The best part is that the blonde LIKED the idea. To this day, I still don't know why. Me and Eric finished our stuff, met up with a friend of his, and the three of us, along with this girl I've known for 30 minutes, go to eat at the IHOP. My impromptu date said she wasn't hungry, but managed to steal about half my French toast... like I cared. It hadn't been an hour, but I was totally falling for this girl.
We leave IHOP, and they go their own way, leaving me alone with the woman who I didn't know at the time would become my wife. Turns out, she's only been in Montgomery for two weeks and doesn't know her way around. The street she lives on is one I've never heard of, and the only thing she can remember about the direction of it is that there's the Crate and a Winn-Dixie next to the turn. And I have NO idea where to go. So we drive around Montgomery after midnight for literally two hours, talking the whole time. By the time we FINALLY found her place, it was 3:00am, and I was in love.
Never would've guessed where we'd each be five years later; her in Key West, Florida and me raising our daughter.
Re: The Silly Decisions You Make... monkeygirl: Wow. That's quite the story. It's bizarre how fate works.
Re: The Silly Decisions You Make... TarheelMike: [quote author=monkeygirl link=topic=34094.msg354597#msg354597 date=1157212974">
Wow. That's quite the story.
[/quote">
Well, thank you.
But I think I will stick to posting nonsense from here on in. Wasting an hour of my night typing and searching for links doesn't quite seem worth it when I can post absolute crap like this or this and get more responses, like I did here .
On second thought, no, I will keep on bringing my brilliance to the board. Unfortunately, I can't rattle off great posts like the ones above at the rate of those CLASSIC posts of like seven words to START a thread. But maybe if I can perhaps churn out one a day, it will someday pay off.
Maybe one day threads like this and this will get the attention that this or this .
Hey, I can dream...
Re: The Silly Decisions You Make... Batman: TH - firstly, you're obviously hurt by the memory of meeting your ex. All i can say about that is ... sorry. it sucks. it's a wound and five years doesn't always heal it.
secondly, why get angry about random posts? i wish my problems in life were so small that i could complain about the drivel that gets posted on the internet.
with that in mind, i'll leave you with two thoughts ... 1) i hope you heal your broken heart soon and 2) bleep blop blorgh blaag wazoonga
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