She blinded me with [computer] Science!

Sunday October 19th - Las Vegas, NV - 10:00 AM Local Time

I jerked awake in a haze of disorientation, pain, and nausea. I had only been asleep for 2 hours. I could barely stand up, but we needed to check out of Harrah's by 11. As I stood there in my room contemplating if I should throw up now or later, I wondered how I let myself get this far out of control... and then I remembered.

Two days earlier, I was given some disturbing news. My job security in the coming months was bad. The phrases, "budget cuts" and "lay-offs" were used. So at that moment I decided what needed to happen. If I was going to be unemployed in a month then I was going to make damn sure that this was the best vacation EVER. I had 48 hours before I needed to be on a plane back home, and a bank account with a good chunk of change set aside for "emergencies"... and this seemed to count as one.

I was gonna have some fun.

Over the next 2 days I:
- slept 4 hours total
- ate 2 small meals
- drank one glass of water
- drank LOTS of Red Bull and Vodka
- won lots of money at the tables
- spent it all at the bars/clubs

I only had a few hours that I can't recall exactly on saturday night. Luckily, I befriended a nice dancer who filled in some of those details through facebook later on.

The fun ended with a sunday morning 7AM mad dash (literally sprinting) down the strip to make sure a friend got to his plane on time. Then I stumbled back to my room and passed out. For 2 hours.

Let's jump forward to later Sunday morning. I decided that throwing up now AND later was the best idea. Then, while in my momentary state of feeling better, I started to fill my body with water, stomach medicine, headache medicine, and caffeine. I just needed to function for another 12 hours before I could be in my bed.

(I am getting to a point with all this... I just wanted to set the stage first)

So fast forward to around 2PM. We were finally on the plane. I was hurting pretty bad but thought I could keep it together for the flight home. I was sitting in a middle seat. Trian was at the window. Then this girl sits next to me in the aisle seat.

She's around my age. She's cute, and I can see a lower-back tattoo peaking out when she sits down. And then she starts fidgeting. And complaining. She hates sitting in the back of the plane. She doesn't like that some people around us have babies that are already starting to cry. It's just a constant stream - and I think she's just talking out loud and not necessarily to anyone specific. And then she's complaining that it's too hot in here.

So I turn my head towards her. And somehow fight through the pain and nausea to say, "Well [pause to breathe] any part of the plane [pause] that I'm in [pause] is always hot."

I really said that. And I sounded just like the black kid in Malcolm in the Middle who was in that wheel-chair and had asthma.

Well she finally stops talking, and she looks at me, and after a few seconds she says "was that a joke?"

me: "yeah"

her: "oh ... ok"

And then we started actually talking. We never stopped the whole way home. I learned that we had a lot in common. We both worked in IT, liked motorcycles and tattoos. We really seemed to click.

As we landed, I asked if I could show her around some time, because she was new to the area and hadn't explored philadelphia yet. She said yes.

I felt like "the man". In my half-dead state, I hit on a girl and got her number. Everything was coming up Millhouse!

Now let's jump ahead, because the point of this story isn't really about us dating. The point is how we began, and how we ended. So let's skip ahead.

Two months, and a few dates, later she was taking a trip to Asia for New Years Eve. I was excited to see her when she got back because she hadn't been to Delaware yet and I had some fun plans already in my mind.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't get to try any of those fun plans. In fact, I wouldn't get to try any plans at all. Why?

...because she was engaged when she came back to the US (And not to me).

To say the least, I was a little surprised. I mean, I couldn't be too upset or angry because we had only been on a few dates. I don't think you could say that we were even really "dating". On the other hand, I was fairly upset that I found all this out through facebook. She didn't tell me directly for a few more days. That really pissed me off.

But such is life. I got over it in a few days. And I'm not going to dig into the details here... it's not the point. You see, I bring all this up because of a conversation I had with a friend last night.

I told her the complete version from beginning to end. I even expressed how excited I had been, because if we became a couple then the story of "how we met" would be a great one to tell people.

Then she laid some knowledge on me.

I was looking at it all from the perspective that it was so cool that I had met a girl on the way back from Vegas - and that it could really turn in to something, and be a great story.

Her perspective was that, the chances of it working between us were just too slim. The chances of sitting next to a girl, on a plane, coming back from the city where "what happens stays there", and hitting it off, then her turning into "the one"... were just too slim. You don't meet future wives that way.

In truth, neither one of us is right. Or both of us are right... depends on how you look at it. I guess the advice that goes along with this story is that you should always try to see a person for who they are. Don't get distracted by unimportant details like the stuff they own, or how you met, etc. Because the attraction to those things will wear off eventually... and then you're just left with that person.

Also - life is too short to get mad about things. I got over my anger, and now I just have a funny story that I can share with people.

...I can't wait to go back to Vegas.