As JP and I were stuck in holiday traffic on the northbound 405 yesterday I began to observe the many other similarly situated people in their vehicles. There were quite a few minivans filled with impatient families returning from the fun-filled four-day weekend. The sight of the minivans naturally reminded me of a date I had a few years back - once again courtesy of online matchmaking.
Chris was a 32 year-old engineer who enjoyed playing guitar, bowling on Sunday mornings and kite surfing. He was the spitting image of a young Mel Gibson, only shorter. Yes, I know Mel is not known for his stature, and yes, Chris was shorter. Note that this was back when I was 29 and in 'scramble-for-a-man mode' so I was willing to overlook a couple of inches here or there. On our first date we met downtown for midafternoon oven-baked pizza at Caprizio's. Conversation went well, he was seemingly normal and fun despite the fact that he was an engineer. Still, I should have known from his profile - wherein he selected a 'house in the suburbs' as his dream home that our souls would never be joined. But he was so darn cute and I was 29...
It was the weekend before Christmas and after pizza he agreed to help me pick out a Christmas tree. He offered to deliver it to my house in his minivan. I thanked him but informed him that I had a truck. After the tree was delivered and set up we decided we may as well continue the date into dinner and catch a great jazz band that was playing at a local restaurant. I was thinking how great and easy the date was going. Maybe this guy's only problem was that he was vertically challenged. I could live with that. But why was he still single?
Go back to the second sentence of the last paragraph for Clue #1 - he had a minivan.
I inquired at dinner about the minivan. Why would a single guy like him have a minivan? The answer was simple and quite logical...He had a life plan. According to his life plan, he was to have a career and be married by age 30, first child at 32, family trips to Hawaii, retirement at 55, bingo at the rec center on Tuesdays. etc. It was even on a chart on his computer. So the previous year, when he needed a new car he figured he would buy the minivan in preparation for parenthood. The thing was that he didn't even have a girlfriend who would carry his progeny that would eventually ride in the carseat that I am certain was in his garage back home.
The planning didn't end at the minivan. Chris had also had the foresight to purchase a new tract home in a good school district in the suburbs. He did not decorate the home because he was certain his future wife would take care of that and he would need to wait to see if the room should be pink or blue. He was stuck living according to a plan, even though the key components of the plan had not yet arrived.
Needless to say, I did not fit into Chris' plan nor he in my non-plan. I did run into him about a year ago at the post office. He still had the minivan. I asked him if things were back on track. Not quite yet, but he was working on it. Me too.
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