"From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines, going where I list, my own master total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me."
Walt Whitman (1819-92)
"When I look back now over my life and call to mind what I might have had simply for taking and did not take, my heart is like to break."
Akhenaton (d. c.1354 BC)
And now, the current weather, from some random person we pulled off the street:
Friday, June 03, 2005
Point
Ok-to-ber-fest 1 : a two-week beer festival held each year in Munich (München), Bavaria, Germany, during late September and early October 2 : an excuse for a bar to dress its waitresses up in odd outfits and maybe sell more beer during a slow season
It was the beginning of October, 1981, and life had settled into a sort of groove for me, although not a comfortable one.
Usually it involved getting into work a bit late in the morning, which is not a good idea when you work for your father, doing insurancey things all day long, then grabbing a bite to eat and heading out to Moe's, the bar I frequented. On occasion maybe I would hit a movie with some friends, but still I would end up at Moe's.
In the meantime, my father would go home or somewhere else, have too much to drink, and my mother and he would get in huge screaming arguments until around midnight, after which I would come home and be late to work the next day due to too little sleep.
Ah, what a life.
Moe's was never really crowded. For me, that was good, since it gave me first dibs at any single unattached girls that came in.
Back then, I was in reasonably good shape, had a lot more hair than nowadays, and could dance up a storm. When new blood came in, my radar went right up and I targeted them for the dance floor.
Even when they might be a bit unusual, like the night the two girls in lederhosen came in.
They were both wearing outfits that looked like a cross between the Ricola ad and Peter Pan. Suspenders, feathered caps, the whole shebang.
One was somewhat chubby for my taste. But the other one, she was a looker. So, I put on my best debonair demeanor and headed over.
"Excuse me, but may I have the next dance?"
She looked at me, then started to smile. Wider and wider. Then she laughed, and pointed.
At me.
Sheesh, I was thinking, I gotta work on this "may I have the next dance" thing. I decided the better part of valor was to walk away before I looked even more ridiculous.
Two weeks later, I came to Moe's one night and the parking lot was empty except for one car. It was the girl who tended bar, and she told me that they didn't know what was going on, just that when they got there that evening the place was locked down and closed. She decided to hang around and let the regulars know. They never reopened.
There were two more bars in the area, the Thunderbird and Syds. The Thunderbird was pretty redneck, so I headed to Syds.
Syds was in the middle of its Oktoberfest celebration. Beer was on special, the place was decked out like Germany (not really but they thought it was) and the waitresses were in lederhosen.
I grabbed a free seat at the bar, which happened to be at the waitress station.
And lo and behold, guess who was the waitress using that station? Yep. Miss Point and Shoot.
But I didn't hold it against her. On the contrary, I started up a conversation with her, and she didn't remember me from Moe's so she didn't mind.
By the end of the week, we had our first date.
Today, she is my wife.
More to come.
Each person's life is lived as a series of conversations. --Deborah Tannen
