The Game of Life
I walked to meet my date last night and ran in to him as he exited a convenience store next to the restaurant. He had obviously just purchased minty gum and was frantically chewing it, which I found sweet. In that one moment, he showed me more courtesy than Shaun ever had. It was cute. A little bit precious, but cute.
We had a lovely sushi dinner, and I unexpectedly got loopy from one Cosmopolitan. Working the chopsticks was a total exercise in humility for me, post-Cosmo. We talked a lot, despite the noise of the restaurant, and then went to a bar to have drinks which I, frankly, did not need as my speech was already a little slushy.
At the bar, we talked more, being that he is a pleasant conversationalist, and we played board games. We even sang the Hamm's Beer theme together. "From the land of sky blue waters, wa-aters! Hamm's, the beer refreshing, Hamm's." To end the evening, we played a game of Life. Unlike my real life, I had a well-paying career and never seemed to be out of money. I quickly acquired a child, its pink peg body firmly ensconced in my green plastic car. I kept landing on spaces like "Buy a boat," or "Go on vacation to Europe" or "Take a class in CPR". If my real life were outlined in orange spaces on cardboard, the messages would be more akin to "Forget to call your mother," "Donate money to charity to exponge your conscience from the lie you told your boss," or "Date yet another ridiculous man." We both ended the game with over a million dollars and I actually wound up winning the Nobel Prize. So there I was, at the end of the game, rich, accomplished and with a girl child. I put the game away before I stopped to wonder when I'd ever have that in my real, non board game life.
At my bus stop, I hugged sushi boy and almost missed my bus because of it. I ran for the door, hollering back "Call me! I owe you dinner!" My flip flops must have made me look ridiculous running, and my skirt probably flipped up and showed my underpants at least once.
Today, I got an apology email from Shaun. I realized that I don't have to forgive him to get on with my life. Nor will I. He's got a lot of learning to do and this time the lesson is, sometimes it don't matter if you're sorry. Sometimes, you can't undo your hurts. Spin the wheel, move your piece and hope you don't land on the space that says "You fucked up big time. Game over."
We had a lovely sushi dinner, and I unexpectedly got loopy from one Cosmopolitan. Working the chopsticks was a total exercise in humility for me, post-Cosmo. We talked a lot, despite the noise of the restaurant, and then went to a bar to have drinks which I, frankly, did not need as my speech was already a little slushy.
At the bar, we talked more, being that he is a pleasant conversationalist, and we played board games. We even sang the Hamm's Beer theme together. "From the land of sky blue waters, wa-aters! Hamm's, the beer refreshing, Hamm's." To end the evening, we played a game of Life. Unlike my real life, I had a well-paying career and never seemed to be out of money. I quickly acquired a child, its pink peg body firmly ensconced in my green plastic car. I kept landing on spaces like "Buy a boat," or "Go on vacation to Europe" or "Take a class in CPR". If my real life were outlined in orange spaces on cardboard, the messages would be more akin to "Forget to call your mother," "Donate money to charity to exponge your conscience from the lie you told your boss," or "Date yet another ridiculous man." We both ended the game with over a million dollars and I actually wound up winning the Nobel Prize. So there I was, at the end of the game, rich, accomplished and with a girl child. I put the game away before I stopped to wonder when I'd ever have that in my real, non board game life.
At my bus stop, I hugged sushi boy and almost missed my bus because of it. I ran for the door, hollering back "Call me! I owe you dinner!" My flip flops must have made me look ridiculous running, and my skirt probably flipped up and showed my underpants at least once.
Today, I got an apology email from Shaun. I realized that I don't have to forgive him to get on with my life. Nor will I. He's got a lot of learning to do and this time the lesson is, sometimes it don't matter if you're sorry. Sometimes, you can't undo your hurts. Spin the wheel, move your piece and hope you don't land on the space that says "You fucked up big time. Game over."
posted by Unknown at 11:25 AM
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