Friday, February 26, 2010

Life moving moments

Sometimes I just amuse myself. I crack me up. How these thoughts get in my head I'll never know. Ever have a moment when you think that u are the greatest ever? Walk with a little swagger? Chin up? Lengthened stride, quick pace? Ur on top of the world? Walk down a hallway and think everyone is looking at u? Guys envy, ladies want? It doesn't take much. Sometimes it's just you woke up on the right side of the bed or traffic wasn't bad on the highway going to the office. The smell of perfume (well, for me anyway). U just feel invincible.

Well, That's how I felt today and it's all due to this cute young woman at work. I say young cause she can't be more than 25. She's from Indian decent (I think). She has dark, mocha skin. Long flowing black hair. Green Eyes. Very attractive. So before all the men on here start pointing to page one of the "Man Manual" let me be clear on one thing, I know the rules. She's too young. I get it. Not going there. Moving on.

Well a couple of weeks ago, this girl, I'll call her Ruby to protect the innocent, started what I would call flirting with me. Every time I looked up she was looking at me. Then she would look away. On occasion, as I would walk down the hallway and I would pass her while she was standing next to her friends she would put out her foot and try to trip me then pull it back and giggle. I KNOW! Very flirty. My head was spinning. I didn't know what to do.

Well today turned out to be quite surprising. I was a really shocked when she came up to me at one of our breaks and said she wanted to talk to me at lunch, she had a question for me. I know I was looking at her and I'm sure she was wondering why my face became more and more pale. I think I froze. I must have nodded yes cause she walked away. That was the longest 2 hours till lunch, EVER. The room we were in was never so hot as it was during that time. I think I went out for water several times just waiting for lunch.

Well, time came. I looked at her and saw her get up out of her chair. Gracefully, with poise she walked over toward me, hair blowing in the imaginary wind. The room went dark except for this light glowing on her every curve. I swallowed. Beads of sweat began to build. As she walked, music began to play. "Don't stand so close to me" from The Police I believe it was. Here she is. Deep breath. She leaned in and asked,

"James, I got this letter the other week from the IRS. Can you tell me what it's about?"

The music stopped, lights came back on, beads of sweat went back into my head and all I heard were tires screeching like someone was trying not to run over a kitten doing 80 miles an hour. After a brief moment of silence as I gathered my composure so as to not blurt out the biggest tear jerking laugh ever, I said "sure, I'll help you with that". It turned out to be something miner but to her it was a very big deal. She later told me that she couldn't take it to her father. He would have just gotten mad at her for bothering him with such trivial stuff. She thanked me and walked away.

It was then I realized that, no Jamie, you're not 25 anymore. Life has moved on for me whether I like it or not. All this time she wasn't checking me out she was sizing my character. She was looking for a father figure. Someone that she could trust with very personal information knowing that we could talk about it and it would never be mentioned again.

Remember those moments I mentioned earlier, the ones that make you feel proud, puffed up? There is one feeling that just trumps them all; being a father. Seeing my kids grow into mature faithful sons and daughter is simply overwhelming, especially when those feelings comes from someone who is not your child. So when I walked down the hallway tonight, on my way home, I walked with a different kind of swagger. Oh I was still king of the world, but for very, very different reason. Thank you Ruby.