String Instruments

Apparently, not everyone agrees with what I had to say in the last post. So today, being tasteful Thursday, I have two videos to show you, one of which we can all agree is rather special.

This first video is another one of me playing a song for you all. Since some of you don't find my articles entertaining maybe you'll find some pleasure in my performing. Notice the dusty keyboard and how it accentuates the tune.



The second video is of Rodrigo and Gabriela playing the guitar. I think these guys would be great to dance to; I can't help tapping my foot in time with their songs.



And finally let us end this month with a quote from our good friend Gurney. While visiting me with Morgan, we were watching the season premiere of 'Top Chef Just Desserts', and the announcer said, "Up next, the chefs work with an ingredient that some say is better than love." To which Gurney replied, "Butter."

One Fish, Not Two Fish or Three Fish

Today I feel like sharing with all of you bleeding hearts my so called theological response to the following comment: "Don't worry, there are other fish in the sea."

No there aren't. And what follows is why.

God loves everyone, even the people who don't believe in Him. We were taught this as children. If you have forgotten, then try to remember those timeless lyrics, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." In particular, that Bible passage is 1 John 4:16. We also know this by other passages, and can infer it by many others. By loving us, God must desire what is best for us. This is because you cannot love someone and desire that something bad will happen to him or her. And by being God, He automatically knows what is best for us. Whatever this is happens to be is His plan for us. So God has a plan for everyone on the planet.

This plan is a perfect plan, because God cannot be with fault. By being a perfect plan it can only have one path of execution. This is because if something is perfect, it by definition cannot be made more perfect. You cannot have what is best and make it better. Something can only be made less perfect. And the way something perfect is made less perfect is by altering it. So by adding or taking away from God’s plan it will necessarily be made less perfect.

So since God’s perfect plan for everyone only has one path, that means for those called to marriage it can only lead to one other person. The path cannot branch off to others, and remain as God’s perfect plan for us.

As far as I am concerned, that's my argument for why there is only one fish in the sea. Essentially God's perfect plan for us can only lead to one other person.

But we aren't perfect. As much as I hate to admit it that includes me. Everyone messes up occasionally, and thereby falls slightly or significantly off the path. It may be possible to get back on the path, but in some cases it may not be. For example, maybe God's plan for me is to get an A Calculus. Say I take my first exam and get my typical C- or lower grade. At this point I have clearly fallen off the path a bit, but I have some options. I can work hard, do better, and still earn an A. Or I could give up and fail the course altogether. Or maybe I just keep at it and end up with a B. In all 3 cases, my life isn't over, but in only one of those cases did I manage to get back on the path.

But say I don't get back on. Fortunately we are not doomed to misery and wallow. Otherwise sin and death would prevail, and God has already won that battle. So even though we may fall hopelessly off the perfect path, that does not mean that great good cannot still come from it. For the guy who completely missed the boat with the girl God had meant for him, that doesn’t mean he can’t marry another and still live a happy full life. True, it cannot be as perfect or fulfilling as God had originally intended, but it can still be rather amazing. Of course it could be exceptionally awful too.

For a moment pretend all guys on the planet managed to live as amazing a life as I do. Well it takes two to tango and that still leaves the girls. Even if the guy manages to live a perfect life, that doesn't mean the girl will. So by no fault of his own, the guy may not end up with his special lady. But as I mentioned, that doesn't mean that someone else can't work some magic in his life.

Unfortunately, there is no way to ever tell for certain if someone is 'the one'. But there are signs. First off we have to remember that because God loves us, and wants what is best for us, that means we are to have inner joy. Note that inner joy, and the emotion of happiness are not necessarily the same thing. The writers of the New Testament letters explain this apparent contradiction much better than I can here. But getting back on track, that inner joy will bring peace to our hearts. Because of this, whoever we are meant to be with will bring us a sense of that peace. Setting aside our emotions, we need to internally reflect on the prospect, pray, and act.

There is a bit of trust involved, but we know that God will not give us a snake if we ask for an egg. In other words, God isn't going to hook us up with someone we simply have no desire for. But we need to trust that whoever that is, he or she may not be what we were expecting.

In short, for those of us called to marriage we were only ever meant for one other person. True, many other people may work out fine, but only one was meant to be for us.

Okay, so maybe there are other fish in the sea. I just don't like the implication that those fish are in some ways as good if not better than the one we were meant to catch.

Mini Road Trip

Much too early the next morning Kelly and I headed out for the Dells. I let her drive. The fact that I had no proper plates, registration, or proof of insurance was lost on me. Fortunately she is a great driver, and she even let me control the radio. To you, my readers, you know what marvelous taste I have, but Kelly is still a little new so she wouldn't know what to expect. But I had her singing along to ABBA's 'Take a Chance on Me' in no time.

A half hour from the Dells, we stopped at McDonald's for breakfast and she paid. That sounds random but I'm coming back to it. As we entered the Dell's we saw a place to our left called 'MagiQuest'. A co-worker of hers said we just had to go. So we did. This was at 11:00 and when we entered it must have just opened because we didn't see anyone other than some little kids and a cleaning lady. MagiQuest is essentially a 3-story McDonald Playland. Kelly just dove right in and started climbing around. I yelled at her, "Kelly, you can't just go running in there like that!" "Oh come on, what's the big deal no one is around." "You have to take your shoes off first." She didn't, and neither did I. It was sort of fun running around in there trying to avoid the cleaning lady. I think she knew we were in there but didn't care.

After a little bit of being a hamster we left. That was awesome, we just experienced a major attraction for free. It wasn't like we could have paid, there was no one around. Next we saw right next door something that looked like a massive 'Chuckie Cheese'. So we went right to it, and just like MagiQuest it had just opened. We saw DDR had free credits in it, so we danced a round and both got E's. Then we played basketball because for whatever the reason the machine kept returning the balls to us. We also used our imagination and rode on the motorcycle arcade games. Those motorcycles could really go low on the turns, I have no idea how people take turns so fast in real life and maintain their balance. Major attraction number two down and again it was all free.

Next we saw a sign for a state park and decided to check it out. On the way I decided I didn't want to go because the terrain was all flat and I didn't want to just walk around in a flat forest. But on the way out we drove over a bridge that crossed a big creek or small river that had gorged its way far down into the rocks which created really high cliffs. I told Kelly she needed to immediately pull over, and she did and we scaled a small fence and went to the river. Kelly decided to scale the cliff itself. Again I screamed at her, because it was very steep, covered in moss, and high up. High up enough that we both thought falling down would mean instant death. I went a different way that slightly safer, but she made it down fine. Then we skipped rocks for awhile and then climbed back out. This time we both went up the way she climbed down. I thought going up looked much safer than going down. Still I wasn't too thrilled about having to grab roots as a hold that was keeping me from plunging to my death.

Next we drove to the main downtown area. We found there was a huge festival going on, which had attracted a ton of people. Parking was impossible. Really, we drove around and couldn't find anything. At one point we passed a Catholic Church, and I said, "Kelly, go try the Church's parking lot. I hung up this Rosary and Mary's going to help us out." And sure enough, there was one spot left. And I might add this was the only spot we saw the entire time. Mary is awesome, always ask her for stuff.

Downtown is essentially a giant tourist trap. Walking around we saw "Wizard's Quest" and both realized this was where Kelly's co-worker wanted us to go. It did look fun, but it was expensive and time consuming so we kept walking around. At one point we went into a Haunted Hose, which was $8 a person. Kelly said, "I'll give you $4 per person" and the guy said okay. So we went in, and found it really was scary. There were no lights or noises. Just complete blackness. We had to feel along the walls. Then we came to the end of the hallway and all the lights and music came on. We had gone in the exit rather than the entrance. But this seemed like fun so we kept making our way through.

After the haunted house we went to the various candy shops and ate a good deal of free samples of fudge and peanut brittle. Then we decided we need to try chocolate covered bacon. Do not try chocolate covered bacon.

At this point we were decided to drive around some more. Doing this we saw a sign for another park and decided to see it. But somehow we wound up on the highway going towards home. So we decided we were tired and it might be best to head that way. But on the way we passed by the exit for an Indian casino, and Kelly decided we needed to check it out. I had never been to a casino before. It was a lot of fun. I lost $20 much to quickly on two hands of Texas Hold 'Em, hey I had a pair of 10s and only 2 others were playing, but then only $5 more the rest of the 6 hours we were there. Those pennies machines are a blast and we got free pop!

Finally we left to go home. At this point we had only eaten McDonald's, candy, and pop. So we were hungry and overly-tired, where everything becomes funnier than it should be. We wound up driving through Freeport, and Kelly decided to show me 'Little Wrigley', but we didn't know the way. After awhile of driving up and down streets we found it and while we were looking at it, Kelly got a phone call. Her friend Carrie wanted to hang out with us both. Being overly-tired this sounded like a terrific idea so we hurried on back.

Carrie was waiting for us outside when we pulled up. She was very nice, and not too shy. She and Kelly decided for me that I needed to ride the bull at a local bar. I too felt this had to be done. First we had to stop at 'Taco Bell', this was Kelly and I's first real meal since McDonald's. I had 1 taco and she had 1 cheese stick thingy (not sure what it's called). She paid again which rocked. Then we walked to the bar with the bull. But the bull cost $3 to ride, and Kelly and I had literally spent every last bit of cash we had at the casino, so there was no bull riding for me. But they both complimented me for being willing to ride it. We walked around to two other bars before finally at 1 in morning deciding to call it a day. Neither of us had a drink while we were out, but by the time we stumbled back into her place, anyone would think we were plastered.

Kelly commented that on the real road trip, we would have to pace ourselves a bit better or we'd be too exhausted to continue by the second day. But hey, that meant our trial was a success and she wanted to go on the real thing. I agreed with her and also felt the day had been successful. So in early October we have our plans set for the real deal. A week long road trip. No I'm not saying where or what. All that should hopefully make for good posts.

Rapidly Growing Red Lights

The seven and a half hour drive from Cleveland to Kelly's was rather uneventful excepting for one point during the trip. I was in a line of cars passing a truck. There was a car in front of me, and another car quite aways up in front of him. I myself was a pretty good distance away from the car in front of me. For whatever the reason, I decided to look to the right, I don't remember what had caught my eye now, but when I looked forward again I saw that the guy in front of me had hit his brakes.

Since he wasn't very close to anyone I got very confused because I couldn't figure out why he was braking. All I knew was that I was now very close to him and rapidly closing the gap. My first thought was to swerve around him. This was because Grandpa said the brakes needed to be changed, immediately, so I figured they should be last resort. But there was no where to turn. At this point I had made up my mind that an accident was eminent and at these speeds definitely injurious if not fatal. And I was so close I thought that even if the brakes held, there still wasn't enough room to stop. In fact I was so close I almost didn't bother lifting my root to touch the brakes. But earlier that day I had, for the first time in owning a car, hung up my rosary on the rear view mirror. I remember saying a quick prayer and then slammed the brakes.

At that point, time sort of froze for me. But I had stopped. No accident happened. I took a look in my rear view mirror and noticed the car behind me had also managed to stop. I still do not know why that car in front of me decided to brakes so hard. At the time he started I wasn't so close to him that I would have thought he would do a brake test. And even still this wasn't a brake test, where you just hit the brakes real quick. This guy had the brakes on for quite sometime.

Well I made it to Kelly's. She showed me her house and her extensive revisions which really were quite impressive. I couldn't wire in a light bulb to save me, but she had managed to practically tear down and rebuild many of the rooms in her house.
We then went for a long walk along the canal, had a Mexican dinner at an Irish bar with a middle aged husband and wife we met up with, the lady whose hair was as orange as her suit coat, and played the Wii until the next morning when I completely exhausted fell asleep. When we woke it was to start our trial road-trip to Wisconsin Dells.

Three Old Stories

Grandpa drove me to his house where Grandma had breakfast started for us. They started with a plate of fruit. This plate of fruit was a meal in itself. As I’ve mentioned I hate sushi. The only thing I hate more is people who ask me if I’ve had good sushi. Well apparently they might be on to something because I also hated pineapple. I say ‘hated’ because the pineapple Grandma had was divine. “Grandma, I hate pineapple but this is incredible.” “That’s because I bought this fresh, and cleaned it myself. I don’t trust those cleaning machines the workers use. I don’t think they clean them very well and I don’t think they wash their hands.”

After my plate of fruit, Grandpa then made me a ham, cheese, and egg sandwich. Then Grandma gave me an oatmeal cookie. Grandparents are the best. Then we got down to business. Grandpa had just bought a 2010 Land Rover and had a 2003 Honda Pilot, with only 53,000 miles on it, sitting around. And the reason I had gone to visit them was to pick it up, because they were giving it to me for free!

We talked a little more, Grandpa took me for a test drive, and then I got on the road with two more of those wonderful oatmeal cookies to go visit my other Grandfather. He was not expecting me to visit, so when I showed up and said “Hi, Grandpa” he just lit up like a light bulb. And he just talked and talked, in between bites of one of those oatmeal cookies. Mom said he doesn’t talk much, so he must have been really excited to see me. He wanted to talk about how the thing he misses the most is driving. When he was younger he liked to drive fast. He told me two stories.

Shortly after he married Grandma they took a trip down to Florida. Grandpa had gotten a new car whose speedometer was rated for 120 mph. He wanted to see if it could hit that. In Georgia he made his run, and got it up to 118 before it maxed out. At this point he saw off in the distant the whirling overhead lights in his rear view mirror. He pulled over and the officer arrested them both on the spot. They were charged with a large fine, over $100. Grandpa pulled out his bond card (no idea what that is), and said “I have a bond card”, but they weren’t interested in that. Then he said he doesn’t carry that type of cash on him, so they let him go with the promise he would send them a check when he made it back to Cleveland. And he did. Two days later there was an article in the ‘Plain Dealer’ that the police in Georgia were specifically targeting out of state speeders and charging them ridiculous fines.

Then he told me another story. Again he was in Georgia and going through a school zone. But he had learned his lesson and was driving the marked speed of 15 mph. And he noticed an officer on the left and was happy he was going the speed limit. But a short while later the officer pulled him over. Grandpa asked the officer what was wrong and he said Grandpa was speeding. Grandpa said he was not speeding, that he was going the 15 mph and asked what the officer clocked him at. The officer said he didn’t need to clock him to tell he was speeding. Then he went to the back of Grandpa and Grandma’s car, put his foot on the bumper and started writing out the ticket. Grandpa got out of the car went over to the officer and pushed his leg off the car. The officer almost fell over and Grandpa said, “Keep your foot off my car that’s private.” The officer said, “So you’re one of those damn smart a$$ Yankees.” Grandpa replied, “I don’t know about being smart, but that’s private property and you are to keep off it.” So the officer said they were going to have to go to court. When Grandpa said they were from Ohio and would have to travel back, the officer said they would do it right now and they drove off to the Courthouse. But the judge wasn’t in, so the officer said that he would just have to write them a ticket, rather than keep them in jail, and asked for Grandpa’s license. Grandpa again tried his bond card, but the officer again wasn’t interested so then Grandpa gave his driver’s license him, and the officer after looking at it said, “What this HD mean on your license?” “That means I was honorably discharged from the army.” “You were in the army?” “Yes, this damn Yankee was overseas risking his life so you could keep enjoying yours.” The officer said he would not write a ticket and instead leave them with a warning. Grandpa said he didn’t need a warning, he wasn’t speeding. But the officer wouldn’t hear it and gave them the warning anyway.

Then another time he was driving on a two lane road with Grandma when two racers were taking up both lanes of the road were driving for them. Grandpa was forced to drive off the road, which caused his car to spin out of control. Well he wasn’t about to have any of that, and turn around to chase them. He said he was going to pull them out of their cars, but Grandma grabbed him by the arm and said to let it go. So he did. His response after these three stories was, “Yeah, I was really ornery.”

At this point, I had to leave if I was to get on the road and proceed on the 7.5 hour drive I had to make. So I said my goodbye and got on the road. The rest of the weekend is coming in the upcoming posts.

Wheels Going Round and Round

Apparently my Jaguar is not suitable enough for a road trip. Kelly, the girl I'm going on the road trip with, felt that it was too small. So last Friday I went and acquired an SUV just to make her happy.

On Thursday night, I boarded a bus to take me to Cleveland. The trip had one transfer, which was in Chicago. I was to leave here at 5:15, and arrive in Cleveland on Friday morning at 7:30. On the way up, the bus driver yelled at me. Literally, he shouted at me. At 95th St. a ton of people got off the bus, so I thought that maybe this was my stop. My ticket didn't say which terminal or address the transfer was to take place. It just said, Chicago. I felt 95th St. was in Chicago, it may have only been a street in a suburb, and the terminal was very large, so it seemed like the right place. But I don't travel much by bus, so I asked the bus driver as I got off the bus, "Excuse me, can you please take a look at my ticket and tell me if this is my stop." "Where does your ticket say to get off at." "It doesn't, it just . . ." "It does." "No, it only . . ." "This is 95th St." "Yes, I know that, but I don't know if . . ." "This is 95th St. This is 95th St! This is 95th St!! This is 95th St!!!" "I do not understand." "Get back on the bus!!!!"

A girl on the bus, who heard him screaming at me, said that this was not the right stop. The terminal I wanted is in downtown Chicago. I felt that was unclear by my ticket. Maybe my ticket would have said 95th St. if that was where I was supposed to get off. But 95th St. is not a terminal or a city, it's an address. And since my ticket didn't provide an address, telling me what street we happened to be on, wasn't clearing up my confusion. If my ticket would have said 95th St. if I were to stop there, then it is perfectly reasonable to infer that my ticket would have said Main St. or whatever street it is for my terminal in downtown Chicago. But it didn't. It just said Chicago, and I thought that since Chicago is so big, there could very well be more than one terminal and all I wanted to do was make sure I had gotten off at the right one.

At the Chicago terminal a young lad came up to me, probably a college student, asking if I could help him by giving him $11 for a bus ticket to South Bend. I said no. Then I watched him walk around asking others for money, and occasionally he got some. After awhile he came back to my section of the terminal and asked another guy for $11. I didn't say anything but thought, "Hey, I just saw you get money from other people. You don't need $11. If they gave you $7 then you only need $4. Liar. Not only that but you are carrying around a hot chicken dinner with mashed potatos from the terminal restaurant. Clearly, if you can a $7 meal, then you don't need money for a bus ticket." The other guy he asked also said no. So the liar asked if he would watch his stuff as he went to fill up his water cup. He said okay. When the liar walked away the guy looked at me and asked, "How does he need $11 when he has this meal?" I said I was thinking the exact same thing.

As we approached the Cleveland terminal, the new bus driver said, "Please remain seated until the bus comes to a complete stop at the terminal." I remember thinking at that point that she was smart to say "at the terminal." Otherwise, I could have gotten up right then and there at the stop light. Maybe less than a minute later, a guy walks on up. And she yelled at him, "Did you not hear what I just said. Sit down!" Then she got on her microphone and proclaimed to us all, "There is always one. Always one who doesn't listen." I was a little scared by this. I was 2 minutes from my destination and this lady was going to us all shot. I realize that maybe from a liability perspective she needs people to remain seated, but that was not the way to handle it.

I left the terminal and went looking for Grandpa, who was picking me up. A man was standing at his window asking for money. I got in and said, "Hi Grandpa, I see you made a friend." At that point he drove me to his place where I got to see Grandma and have breakfast. The rest of this adventure continues with the next post.

IM Acquaintance

While typing a message to an extremely attractive girl with an amazing personality on the OKC site, a girl I had not seen before said “Hello” through the instant messenger feature the site offers. I took a quick look at the photo attached to her instant message, took a look at the photo of the girl I was writing to, looked back at the IM girl, and then resumed typing my message. After I sent that message I took one last look at the girl’s profile and noticed she had not signed on since February 2009. So feeling dejected once again, I decided to respond to the IM message.

The girl told me that my profile made her laugh and she wanted to say “hi”. Then she told me I shouldn’t be scared by her profile because she is much nicer in person. I took a brief look at her profile and was horrified. It was terrible. In fact I told her so, my first two sentences to her were “Hello.” and “Horrifying.”, and asked her if anyone actually writes her, and surprisingly she said she does get messages. Then I took a look at her pictures. These didn’t help anything so I decided just to focus on our conversation. She told me she does standup comedy, which made me respond that she had given me a very good compliment then saying my profile is funny. She said I should take it however I want, and I replied I will take it as a compliment and let it go straight to my head. At this point I needed to get off because it was getting late. She was pleasant during the conversation, but that profile and her pictures ensured I was not going to be falling for her.

The next day I was on the site again, and she said “hello” again. This time I had a bit more time to chat, and we talked for awhile on the IM service. Towards the end of this lengthy chat it became clear she wanted to meet up sometime. Sounding very much closed minded I said I would be happy to meet up, but just as friends. I did not think we had any chance of starting a serious relationship, but we could possibly be friends. I realized then that this sounds like I was making my mind up before even giving things a chance. I told her that and she thanked me for being upfront, but I still thought it was wrong of me to be so decided and I decided to try and keep an open mind.

We had decided to meet up for dinner at a local Indian restaurant. I was pleased to go there because the restaurant really is amazing. The Indian food is so good, I’ve tried a ton of different recipes there and they have all been winners. She had never been there before, but it was her idea to go. And she loved it too once she had her meal. After dinner we walked around some and talked some more. Then I walked to her apartment and said “too-da-loo”.

After this encounter I was further convinced that while she was very sweet and polite, we had no hope of being in a relationship. The next day she invited me to her standup comedy routine on Wednesday which takes place at a local bar.

The way the stand up works is that a number of comedians sign up before hand and they are given something like 5 – 10 minute intervals to perform. When I went there were probably 5 or so that performed while I was there. The comedy was poor. It was very vulgar, immature, demeaning, and in some cases hateful. There was no charm, and little wit. At some points I was bored to the point where I was watching baseball highlights that I couldn’t hear on one of the overhead monitors. And baseball is not a spectator sport. Amanda, the girl I’ve been hanging out with, probably had the best skit of all, but that was saying very little. A 2nd grade knock knock joke would probably have induced greater mirth out of me than anything I heard that night. After her performance we went outside and walked around town. I noticed that one of the bars had their salsa night going so we stopped in there and I taught Amanda the basic steps. That was pretty fun.

The next day she invited me to a festival in a nearby town where she is from on Saturday (today). I said I’d love to go, and I headed down and spent the day there today. That was a lot of fun. The little town was fun to walk through; we got some good festival food, saw a parade, did a little antiquing, met some people, and even went grocery shopping. Also I saw a basset hound walking in the distance. That alone makes today a good day. One of the antiques I got is an old book from 1920 called “How to Develop Your Personality.” It has chapters on proper breathing, good speaking, poise, self-confidence and other good topics. Definitely all things I can work on.

At this point Amanda and I have no new activities planned. She mentioned she would be curious to go to Mass with me sometime during the weekday, and wants to do a movie night sometime. In short, I suppose I need to give WAM some thanks for forcibly telling me to sign up on the site.

Wow, I completely butchered the word 'acquaintance'. If you look at the link to this page, you'll see what my original title was for this post.

Family First

Before the wedding started I was sitting outside talking to some of the other participants. At one point a man sat down to chat with me. He is the father of the 2nd grade flower girl and preschool ring bearer. We were chatting for a little while about the war in Afghanistan when one of the mothers who I know well came and joined us.

At this point the conversation changed a little. She asked the man what was new with him. He said that his wife has been thinking about quitting her job to stay home with her children. Or maybe she wants to be there when they get home from school, I’m not sure, but the point is she is thinking about quitting her current job. He said that she was conflicted about the decision because by staying home with her children she would not be able to pursue her career and later in life she might regret that decision to not see how far she could take it.

This man was a stranger so when I spoke I tried to do it very delicately and said that I believe in the twilight of our years when we look back on our lives, we will never regret having spent time with our children. He sort of sat there with a reflective look on his face. But to this, the mother who had joined us scolded me for making such a generalized statement. And her husband sat down and agreed with her. Now they are my elders and I was in a public place so I kept my mouth shut and let them yell at me in front of this stranger. But the whole time I was thinking, anyone who would find more satisfaction in pursuing a career than raising their own child is not fit to be a parent. Note however that this is completely different than, for example, a Mom who must work to provide for her children.

In other news, Gurney is coming to visit this weekend! She moved a little over a year ago and has only been back once.

Scenic Route Home

St. Pope Gregory the Great’s feast day was last Friday and he came through in spades for me. That weekend, I had to go home for Peter’s wedding. Speaking of weddings, we should take a moment to send Gurney our happy wishes too. But just a small moment, we don’t want her head getting too big. Now back to me. At 6:45 that morning I decided to go to the local Church for Confession, Mass and the Rosary, just because St. Gregory is so great. And then I went to work.

After work, I came home to change clothes. I needed to be home at 6:00 for a rehearsal dinner and apparently jeans were a no no. I had left work early enough to make it in at 5, and I figured I would have time to stop home and change there, but some little voice in my head said I should change now and simply have somewhat wrinkled clothes just in case I should get held up in traffic. At the time I noticed how odd that thought was. I knew there were going to be some pretty single girls around, and I did not want to be wearing wrinkled clothes. I’m also the type of person where if I plan on being home at 5, then I’m going to be home at 5. So the idea that I should make a contingency plan by dressing ahead of time was a rather rare action for me.

On the way home traffic was great, and I was probably due to set a record. Rather than being home at 5:00, I was looking to be home between 4:30 and 4:45. But then I saw a sign. It said that Exit 101 was blocked. That seemed odd to me because I was at Exit 149 and putting a sign up 50 miles ahead of time seemed a bit overly alertive. A mile later I hit the traffic jam. It was at a dead stop, but fortunately I was in the left lane and I was able to do a u-turn through the grass. I had never done that before, and was curious how my rear-wheel drive car would handle it. No problem at all, and soon enough I was looking for an exit to get off at and try the side roads. The exit I found was the one everyone was taking. I needed gas which was a problem due to the massive amounts of cars. But I wasn’t about to start taking side roads with so little fuel left. The exit was for a decent sized town so I figured there should be another gas station somewhere, but I was having little luck. I drove up and down a ton of side streets looking for a place to fill up. Finally, just as I had decided to go back to the gas station with the massive pile up I found a small station off in the distance that had just a few pumps. I filled up, took a tinkle, and was back on the road.

My GPS has a detour button, which I had not noticed before. Pressing it, I found it put me on a new side street that looked right. After a few miles on this street, my GPS decided it was time to try getting back on the highway. At this point I could see the massive line of cars that had also taken this side street and were also trying to get back on the highway. They too were at a stop. So I needed to u-turn again. But there was a problem. I was on a little two-lane country road with large ditches on either side of the street. Doing a u-turn was impossible. I had no option but to continue driving towards the line of cars and take my place. But then, just as I approached my place in line, there was a driveway to my left that let me drive in and back out of to do a u-turn. This was the only driveway in sight. Hitting detour once again, my GPS took me to a second side street. And again after awhile it tried to get me back on the original side street. And again I found myself approaching a long line of cars. And again just as I was coming to a stop, the only driveway in sight was on my right and I was able to do a u-turn once again.

This time I didn’t hit detour again. I just used the map feature and decided to make my own route. My own route took me through roads that were so curvy and hilly that I got myself carsick driving them. But I made my way back to the highway and had no other problems. By the time I got back on the highway I didn’t even know what state I was in, but I found I was about a mile from Ohio. I checked my GPS and it said my estimated time of arrival was 5:58. And sure enough I pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot promptly at 6:00!

Adding to this story was the fact that I had a GPS to use. The only reason I had it was because of my upcoming road trip. Awhile back I broke the charger, and it wasn’t until maybe a week or two ago that I replaced it. But had I not been going on this road trip I wouldn’t have bothered because I wasn’t planning on going anywhere else that would have required it. Without the GPS I never would have gotten there on time, and the only reason I am going on the road trip is because of a friend I met 6 years ago while I was an undergrad who I just so happen to still talk to, who moved 3 hours North and made a friend, and that friend is going on the road trip with me. "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" is a wonderful book.

And that's the story of my own little Friday afternoon miracle. St. Gregory the Great, pray for us!