First of all, I'm over at Tina Donahue's blog, and there's a sneak peek at the upcoming Teacher's Pet posted, so come by and say hi? Please?
Secondly, when I reposted what I thought was one of my funniest Epic Fails, I failed to recall another one. Ever get a message and totally misunderstand the instructions? This happened in college, and all I can say is, thank God the guy was patient!
Aug 1986:
For a little background info: My roommate and I had stored our belongings at a friend's house, since we were attending the summer session a few weeks later. In late June, when we arrived to pick them up, our friend met me at the door and told me one of his friends wanted to get in touch with me. The name wasn't familiar, but as I was between boyfriends at the time, I told him to have him call me.
And for three weeks, no phone call, so I put him out of my mind.
My roommate and I had taken jobs at a local restaurant, and split the shifts during the week. She took M/W; I took T/Th, and on Fridays, I worked in the kitchen while she bussed tables and vice versa on Saturday. We weren't old enough to wait tables, since this was also a bar.
Anyway, one day I came in from class/dinner/playing Euchre (don't really remember!) and E met me at the door with a phone number.
"He gets off work at 5 and wants you to call him." It was the friend of my friend.
E was getting ready to head to work (it was Wednesday), so after she left, I looked at the clock. Nearly 5, so I decided to give the guy time to get home and settle in before I called.
6pm: I dialed with semi-shaking hands. And turns out he'd left a message for me to call at 5, and had just spent the past hour thinking I was uninterested in him. I told him the reason behind the delay, and he laughed.
"I was going to invite you over for dinner, but I went ahead and ate. What are you doing tomorrow?"
I explained my work schedule. "So not to sound arrogant or anything, but if you want to meet me, it would have to either be tonight or you'll have to wait until Sunday."
We also talked about how he knew me, and when he described who he thought I was, he was dead wrong. I'd never worn a beret in my life, and the last time I'd worn knickers was in the 6th grade. So now he was even more curious as to what I looked like!
"How about I finish up some things around here and come get you in an hour? We'll go out for ice cream."
"Sounds good to me." We hung up.
An hour goes by and my phone rings. My room was the first room past the lobby doors, so I asked him if he was facing the wall with the phone or the front desk.
"The wall; why?"
I opened my door and stepped out into the hall. "Turn to your left and look through the door window. I'm the one waving at you. Have you ever seen me before?" He certainly didn't look familiar!
"No; I don't think so. Do you still want to get ice cream?"
"You bet. Give me two seconds to hang up and grab my keys."
We went out for an enjoyable evening and had a wonderful six-month relationship, marred by only three misunderstandings.
-He was newly divorced, so I assumed he wasn't ready for a serious relationship. I found out later he'd instantly flipped over me and assumed since I was ten years younger, I couldn't possibly feel the same way about him. So we never expressed our true feeling for each other until it was too late.
-It was during this turmoil that I accidentally cheated on him, which caused us to be miserably apart for 5 weeks. He was taking a night class at the university, and one of my friends in my 9am class was also in his class, so every M/W/F she'd greet me with 'Did you talk to him?/He's miserable without you/'
'He ended it; he needs to make the first move.'
'Funny, he says the same thing about you!'
So finally when I received my graduation notice, I took a firm grip on my courage and called him, fully expecting to either get the machine or have him hang up the minute he heard my voice. But he picked up.....and we talked. And talked. And he ended up coming to get me and I spent the weekend with him.
-After we'd been apart two months after graduation, I missed him so much, I got clingy. And it basically drove him into the arms of another woman, who married him six months later, only to divorce him when SHE graduated. And in 1990, he and I were back on friendly terms, only this time HE was living with someone. When I happened to be in town one day, I stopped by to see him.
'Y'know, V's getting ready to move out. If this had been next week, our reunion would NOT be taking place in my living room. We'd be in there.' He pointed down the hall.
I went home and thought about it. Two weeks later, I called him to see how he was doing.
"Hey, congratulate me: I'm getting married!"
"You are? Congratulations!' (Well, I guess that means I don't need to ask off for the weekend...).Turns out his girlfriend had changed her mind and once again, my decision to give him more time had backfired.
Fast-forward to 2006. I'm married; he's married. My family ended up moving back to town. Some mutual friends showed up at Christmas and wanted me to go with them to see him. I declined, since my hubby knew him but didn't particularly like him. I figured it's a small town; surely I'd run into him somewhere! I did send him a postcard announcing my book signing in Evansville in 2008, and put a personal note, asking him to attend. And when he didn't, I took that as a sign he had no desire to renew our friendship.
And three weeks ago, I received the sad news he'd passed. Last week, I met his 6th wife and we actually hit it off. She knows some of the people I knew back in 1986, and was able to fill me in on everyone's happenings. She misses him, as do I. I regret the missed opportunities, but as I told her, I have some wonderful memories of the time I spent with him. And that I will never regret.
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