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Originally Posted by JeeberD
You smooth operator...
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Not really, I'm afraid.
I called earlier in the week, asking about the date again, and specifically mentioned going to the County Fair.
Her reception was cool and remote, gilded voice shuffling me off with an excuse that I knew to be hollow and meaningless.
We talked for a few minutes more about idle things that didn't matter and then hung up.
The fascinating thing was, as I stood there in my grandmother's driveway and looked at my just closed cellphone, I realized that I simply didn't care.
There was no gnashing of teeth, no stab of pain, and no wild gestures that might seem the forerunner of insanity as I have done in prior defeats.
I only smiled, chuckled, and shrugged, muttering to myself, "Well I made a good show of it and since this fell through, my last possible reason for wanting to stay in my hometown is gone. If Wyoming admits me, it's to the West I'll go then."
And so this small chapter in my life closes. But I knew then as I stood there and I know now as I type this, there will be others written, ones that brim with successes both great and small.
A far cry from the old days, when, even when I was with someone, I gloomily predicted to myself that failure would result in the end.
And that, I think, makes all the difference.