When To Take Your Shot

There are three of them yapping at each other about their extensive knowledge of women but none of them know how to speak quietly in a locker room.

I am leaning against a locker wondering why I haven’t put my Airpods back in my ears so I am not subjected to this nonsense.

One of them catches the look on my face and makes a crack that things are different from dating during prehistoric times.

“No, they are not. Women are still women and men are still men. Hasn’t changed in 10,000 years.”

We go back and forth for a moment or two and I tell them that when they have made a couple of kids and put them through school they might have a clue.

“That has no relevance here” says the one.

I ask him how old he is and he says 25 and I shake my head.

“Met more than one 25 year-old in Texas that is already a mother. I can talk to her or any other woman about being a mother, daughter, sister and or woman. Those are different roles and if you can’t discuss the distinctions you probably shouldn’t try to date that single mom.”

We bounce a few more remarks back and forth and the one asks me how to determine when to take your shot.

“Hard question to answer, so many variables. But if it was me and I thought she might start dating some other guy I might take a swing. I hate being caught with the bat on my shoulder.”

Fifty Percent Of The Way

The email said something about our being fifty percent of the way through the year and ended with an inspirational message of “you have got this.”

I looked at it and cursed at it, “don’t send me this crap when I haven’t had my coffee yet.” I snorted at that because it wouldn’t matter if I had my coffee, I get too much email and don’t want that unsolicited crap coming from people I never speak with.

That is when I knew I should have taken the day off because it is weird coming back from the weekend for a day of work followed by a day off and then back to work again.

It is harder to get a rhythm going like that and even harder when so many people are on vacation or in vacation mode.

But I did my best and accomplished more than I had thought I would get done. Sometimes the quiet moments come at the right time and you receive a pleasant surprise.

Went back to the motivational email and considered for a moment how strange it felt to realize that we’re 50 percent of the way through the year.

I haven’t been playing Rip Van Winkle or lost in the upside down so you would think that I wouldn’t feel strange as I have been present for every day of ’23, but then again maybe it is not.

Maybe I have been so busy in this world and the other I occupy that time slipped away in a way I didn’t expect it to.

****

That passage of time caught up with me again for a different reason during the early evening. Later this summer I am going to head back to LA for a bit and I decided to look at the menu of one of my favorite restaurants.

I was shocked to see that my go to meal there went from about $9 bucks to $18. That threw me and for a moment I tried to figure out how such a big increase could have happened in such a short time.

That is when I remembered that I have been living here for seven years and that I didn’t make it to the restaurant during my last trip back in early 2022.

So the last time I was there would have been 2019 or maybe even 2018 which would still make it a large increase, but maybe not as big as I thought.

****

Seven years later I am not surprised by some of the changes in life and yet still kind of shocked anyway.

Feels like much of what I thought would come to be has and some is still possible, even if somewhat improbable. But that is what makes life interesting, the intersection of the possible and improbable.

You never know for certain how somethings will turn out even if you think the unlikely is likely it still may render itself into reality in unexpected ways.

Seven years is a small section of a life well lived, but it could be one of the most important parts because the big things are always made of the little moments.