The Dogleg Turn I Missed

"It's plain there was a dogleg turn I missed, the one that would have landed me in the wedding dress. It doesn't matter how much I hate the dress, of course, or this grand affair. It's only that love-something pure and less groping for glamour-still holds a certain promise, and I've done bad by it."

Julianna Baggott & Steve Almond from their novel Which Brings Me to You


Yes. Absolutely. I thought when I read this passage for the first time earlier this year. The first chapter of this book is so pitch perfect and terrifically written that I kept rereading it every time I went to the library. (Sadly, I seemed to be the only one who ever checked it out. It also never came out in paperback-??)

I thought of that passage again tonight as I was taking my walk, thinking back on the events of the day. It's my friend's birthday and I told him whatever he wanted, we'd do. (I'm a firm believer in spoiling people on their birthdays.) He asked if we could take a drive out to Bardstown, his hometown. Among other stops, we dropped in on his grandparents and had a lovely, truly old fashioned visit complete with sweet tea and cookies. His grands are great people, warm and funny, just the kind you want to make a call on. I was nervous, as I always am in those situations, and not at all dressed for grandparenting but they made me feel at ease. Seeing their affection for each other after 50+ years of marriage, and their obvious, unabashed delight in a surprise visit from their grandson, made me sad after though and more than a little envious. Yes, if I married tomorrow and lived to be 101 I could be married for 50 years but, since I'm alone and blogging in my PJs on a Saturday night, let's just say that possibility seems remote.

Not to say I'm giving up, I am not. Getting to spend time with another person recently, who although very cool, can only be described as emotionally becalmed has reinforced more than ever I want to be with someone. And I so I feel any effort to that end, no matter how clumsy or inept, is not just important but imparative. So I will keep trying in the hope that, like the protaganists in the above quote, I won't end up alone at THE END.