Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Her Boyfriend's Name Is Rick Day!

Go to the bar again, she'll be there tonight. It's Wednesday.

This is how you know it's right between the two of you. Because she'll be at the bar tonight because it's Wednesday. Normally, you'll see a lady on the train that morning you get up ten minutes earlier and you'll think, "If I just get up ten minutes early every single day, I'll get to look at that lady every morning. And soon she will love me."

But you wake up early for a week and a half without ever seeing her again and you accept that perhaps she woke up late that day you saw her. Or perhaps she was only a visitor in your city. Or perhaps you only imagined her. You do that sometimes, imagine things that never really happened. It's been getting worse lately, btw.

This lady who is at the bar on Wednesdays, however. She is at the bar on Wednesdays. The first time you saw her there, it was a Wednesday. So you naturally made a point of going to the bar the following Wednesday to see if she would be there (your appointment book is pristine). And on that following Wednesday, she was there. Just like all those Wednesdays in August. This has never happened before, a strange lady sticking to the schedule you assume she'll keep.

So go to the bar again. She'll be there and her boyfriend's name is Rick. You heard the bartender (a lady) ask her about "Rick." And when she was on a cellular phone call, you heard her say both "Rick" and "Goddammit Rick." Rick is her boyfriend's name and he doesn't come to the bar on Wednesdays.

But you do. Win her. Tell her the story about how your mother has been in a psychiatric facility for twelve years and you stopped visiting her in 2001. "It got so I couldn't catch my breath for a week after I'd visit. So I've had to pretend that my mother is dead in order to go on living myself." Your story will intrigue her. And the fact that you chose to confide in her so suddenly will trick her into thinking there is a connection between the two of you, and soon she will love you.

Happy Her Boyfriend's Name Is Rick Day!