Month: June 2022

The Rules of Engagement


He walked out of the bathroom of their small 1 bedroom apartment and out into the main room, where his girlfriend of over 6 years sat and filed her nails.

He knew it was time to finally ask her. He couldn’t take the what if’s that ran through his mind anymore.

He had to be straightforward and direct. Confidence was the key.

She looked up at him as he walked into the room and smiled.

He returned the smile and approached her as his hands began to sweat.

“Honey…I need to ask you something…” He began as he faced her.

“Ok.” She kindly replied.

He glanced at the floor, knelt down on one knee and placed what was in his hand on the floor next to him.

He looked up at her lovingly, paused, smiled and began,

“Eve…would you…”

Her heart began to race before he could finish. She jumped up and exclaimed,

“YES YES OF COURSE I WILL MARRY YOU!…I need to call my Mother…she doesn’t think you are good enough for me….never has…..but it doesn’t matter now…we are getting married!! I need a dress….we need to start making plans…O….M…..G…bridesmaids…how many? What color for their dresses…we need to learn a cool dance like those ones on the youtube! Wait…wait.,,.before I do anything.. I need the ring….where’s the ring?….PUT IT ON MY FINGER!!”

She said as she stuck her left hand out while continuing her happy dance.

He looked at her bewildered, stood up from his kneeling position and replied,

“I…I…I don’t have a ring…”

“No ring? What do you mean no ring? Don’t you know the rules of engagement? I NEED A RING!” She answered.

“I wasn’t asking you to marry me….” He began as he knelt down and picked up what he had placed next to himself and cautiously continued,

“I was gonna ask….would you please remember to put the cap back on the toothpaste after you use it….it gets all crusty and then SHOOTS out without warning.”

As he spoke he handed her the tube with the crusty top.

She looked at it and replied,

“Toothpaste crust? Then why did you get down on one knee?”

He looked down and pointed as he replied,

“My shoelace is untied.”

Retrieval from the archives of good2begone.

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Letter Point


The most efficient way to reach point B from point A is a straight line. Which is true in some cases-

The asteroid that took out the dinosaurs

The bullet that ended the life of a world leader

The dart that hit the bullseye

Get the point as quickly and efficiently as possible.

But a lie can travel from a-z and back again before the truth can ever get to c.

The O,M,G’s and R,O,T,F,L,M,A,O’s of a lie get more traction than the A,B,C’s of the truth.

T,B,H the truth is non dramatic, straightforward…to the point.

The lie is W,T,F and N,S,F,W…..click bait. It makes the brain tingle with wonder.

The truth induces the ZZZ.

The end of the line. It is what it is.

While a lie is the winding road of the S.

A new twist around every curve.

I don’t know which path you choose….

But now you know some of my A,B,C’s I’ll let you figure out if ya wanna sing with me.

T,T,Y,L.

Screen Break


We don’t own a television.

Yes, you read that right. We just don’t.

Whenever someone comes over the first thing said is….where’s your TV?

We haven’t always been tvless.

But, for the last 12 years we have been.

It started as a gotta drop some bills issue.

It was purely a cost saving measure.

My wife needed to finish her degree without the hassle of also working 40 hours a week.

So I worked 2 jobs, which eventually turned into 1 to help her achieve her goal.

No TV was rough….for a while.

But, eventually we all just got busy doing other things instead of zoning out on a large screen.

We had Netflix for a while but all those choices and really nothing to watch.

The deal is once we went without….we didn’t miss it.

For sports I read about it the next day. I’m not much into them anyway.

The truth is….for me…I have enough drama, comedy, horror, romance, and well….reality in my own life.

It’s kind of strange to watch scripted acted lives where everything has a happy ending and perfectly clean homes. And dopey dad’s and socialite moms and blah blah blah when it’s just not entertaining anymore.

So instead…we communicate with each other and enjoy each other company.

It works for us.

We dont even go to movies.

The last time I went to the theater was to see the Man of Steel. You know Superman.

Wanna know what thought of it…

It was better when I saw in the late ’70’s.

Everything is a remake.

No Bueno for me.

No TV or movies isn’t for everyone but for us it keeps us engaged with our reality instead of what TV tells is is reality.

Engage laugh track and audience clapping.

Due Date n Extras


Been working 10-12 hour days for the last 2 weeks without a day off in this wonderful Texas heat.

But…

I’ve got a few minutes for a update on the adoption files.

Adoption status is still the same.

We do have a due date of around December 3rd.

The young lady will be having a girl.

YAY!

And we have a name for the baby girl that the young lady is hoping for us to adopt on or around December 3rd…

Backstory first.

I’ve always liked the name Zander.

Not sure why…

Partially it’s because I have always been a fan of Cheap Trick, whose lead singer is

Robin Zander.

But. Naming a female child after a male rock singer is….something.

The ladies want the child to have 3 names.

So I improvised their request with my idea and came up with-

Alex Zandria Anne

The Anne is in honor of my Mom who adopted 3 children to raise as her own.

To me, to honor her is appropriate.

The wait continues…

But as we wait, here is one of my favorite Cheap Trick songs-

Now….back to work…..I’m burning daylight!!

The Searching


I’m not a religious person.

I’ll come right put and write it….

I don’t believe in gods.

Notice the s. That refers to me not believing in any of them. I don’t single out.

I just don’t have it in me.

I respect and envy people that do believe. I don’t backtalk or badmouth anyone’s belief system. That serves no purpose to me.

I did believe for a while…

When I first got sober through a 12 step program, I dove in.

No floaties, no preconceptions, no lifeguard on duty.

Just follow the program.

I couldn’t be who I was anymore. So I went at it. Prayer. Meditation. Every day. Followed all twelve steps into completion….twice over a period of 5 years.

I became a different person. I found out things about myself I didn’t know and became comfortable with the transformation.

Life is better with me being 100 percent ok with….me.

I kept finding more out about me.

Over the next 2 years of sobriety, I became uncomfortable with the idea of God.

To make a long story short….I made a decision to follow my heart and not rely on a God for me decision making and happiness.

I left the recovery program for a simple reason-

No god….no recovery program…can’t have one without the other.

That was around 8 years ago.

Still sober. Still…me.

Since then I search.

Search for purpose. Meaning. Something to keep the calm in the hecticness of life.

I read spiritual blogs, books and watch videos from around the world on every aspect of the subject.

Why?

There’s got to be something out there. Even if its just a force from within the universe that keeps it all together.

I don’t know if I will land on anything concrete from all this but I enjoy the searching and learning about other beliefs and cultures that this world have given us.

The searching is part of the journey.

The Adoption Roadblock


I have reached the point of the adoption process where I have to talk about something that concerns me.

As wonderful and exciting as the prospect of adopting a child into our family is….

There is certain roadblock that is preventing me from being on the same level of wonderful and excited as the young pregnant woman, her mother and my younger than me wife is (I don’t know why I keep calling her that. I just do)

This roadblock could possibly end our dreams of having this child as our own.

And, I’m the only one concerned. At least so it seems.

If you’ve gotten this far, I’m sure you may think my is that the young lady will back out and want to keep the baby.

That’s a fair assumption….but not my concern.

Here is the rundown to the roadblock-

If she chose to have an abortion, she could have….without parental concent or any other consent. It is her choice.

But….

In choosing to have the child and give it up for adoption…it is not her choice.

She needs her parental consent…

AND

The baby daddy’s consent along with his parents consent.

She is underage at 16. Baby daddy is underage at 15.

Which brings us to the roadblock…..

Young pregnant girl and her mother haven’t and don’t want to tell baby daddy that he is going to be a baby daddy.

I wait a minute and let that sink in…..

……….

……….

My younger than me wife is going along with it.

………..

………

I’m sure they have a reason. I’m not privy to what it is….but I’m sure there is one. It seems like a bitter man hating thing, but what do I know…

So, we asked our lawyer.

He had a few questions..

-do you know who the father is

-was she raped or assaulted

-is he of legal age while she is not

First question answer was yes. The 2nd to answers were no.

He’s using his lawyer ways to look into it but to this point he can’t find anything.

Here is what he told us-

It’s admirable that you 2 want to adopt this child, but, if I don’t find any new information about not telling the father then here’s the deal….

Mr. And Mrs. Good2begone…you are outsiders in this process. Until the situation with the father and his family is resolved you all have no stake in the game.

So, there it is.

Even with this information. The ladies are carrying on like the adoption is a done deal.

My wife says the I’m just pessimistic and need to be more positive.

I say I’m realistic and can’t set myself up for a fall that I KNOW is coming.

But, what do I know….

I’m just a man.