The Good Body

I was supposed to go to the theater tonight to see The Good Body.

I always ask the same girlfriend to go to plays with me - it seems to be our thing that we do together. Our plan was that she would pick me up and we would go somewhere for dinner at 6 p.m. and then go the the show for 8 p.m.

Our evening started out okay but just about when we were finishing our dinner she spilled coffee down the front of her blouse and white pants, a considerable amount. She didn't show it at first but she became quite "unglued." I've known her for more than 20 years and have never seen her this way. She did it quietly, quietly tears running down her cheeks and you could tell that it ruined her night. She was just so pissed at herself. We were near a Target and went it to buy a stain stick but the stain was so large there was no way of erasing it. Then she attempted to buy a long shirt to cover the stain and although for the most part it worked you could see that her night was ruined. Again, I've never seen her like this before.

It got to the point where she said she 'just can't do it." I'm sure she was afraid of disappointing me and I certainly wasn't feeling disappointment at the time, just concern for why she let the coffee ruin her night in such a way that she was unrecognizable to me. I think she was hugely disappointed. I won the tickets and we were both very excited to go to the show and if I had enough to time get their on my own I would have done that but by the time she drove me home I didn't have enough time to get there without missing part of the play.

On the ride home I could see her bottom lip quivering - she really let this get to her and said "I start each day this way." I asked why. She has a doctor's appointment on Wednesday as a follow up and is having a possible cancer scare. Well, she hasn't let on how serious this might be, or not, or that she simply herself was worried or scared. Again, she doesn't let this side of herself show normally so this was all a shock to me tonight.

So when she dropped me off I asked if she wanted company at home - I figured we'd open a bottle of wine and talk our hearts out - but she seemed to want to go off by herself.

Unfortunately, and she knew this and I didn't, it's the last night of this show. I think she herself was more disappointed than me and it added to her unhappiness.

We just don't know what people are going through sometimes or how they may be really feeling, no matter how close we are to them.

So when I got home my daughter was surprised to see me and happened to be on the phone with my mom who was surprised to know that I was back home. So we chatted and I told her what happen and she said, a mosquito bite would have put her over the edge tonight - just not in her normal frame of mind. And added, it wasn't meant to be tonight. Gotta love moms.

BUT she was right. I hated to see my friend go home by herself but respected that she needed to be alone. I just hated the thought of her feeling miserable and wanting to go home and be more miserable...alone. However, I will schedule the next show in the Summer series and its Mihalia.

Mihalia is a gospel musical starring Frenchie Davis, the cast off from American Idol with a powerhouse of a voice. It wasn't our first choice but maybe in some way it will bring some spiritual peace to my friend. I think it will be cool and like mom said, tonight wasn't meant to be, but maybe the gospel play in some freakish way is considering how my friend has been feeling.

Peace all.