Long time followers of my personal life will not be suprised at the outcome of my evening with Katie

It didn't happen. Nope.

So I came home from work, after talking with Rose on the drive home. Everything's going fine so far. I shower, do the dishes, clean up, clean out my truck (not in this order, of course), and get ready to leave. I even burn two new CDs; one is a dance mix, and the other is a compilation of the all the Reel Big Fish, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Squirrel Nut Zippers songs I have so far, with Sing Sing Sing and You're the Boss thrown in for good measure.

I go to start my truck... it over-revs, and when I take the key out, it keeps trying to start. This is seriously bad (it's raining fairly heavily at this pint, as well). I call Jerry, and he tells me it's a short in the starter, and to disconnect the battery cable from the terminal. I do so, and it stops. He then tells me to get underneath the engine and (I'm not kidding at all here) hit the starter with a hammer. I do so, to no avail. I had the cell phone with me a little under the truck, as I was trying to find the starter and he was helping me. It got a little wet, but I didn't think anything of it. I, on the other hand, got *very* wet. My shirt and shorts were just soaked.

I finally called Rose to let her know what was going on. I also let her know that Janelle wouldn't let me borrow her car, and that Mom wouldn't be home for a while, and probably wouldn't let me borrow her car either. She said she'd start looking for another ride. I resumed banging on the starter; no effect.

Rose and I talked a little later; Zack Scofield said he'd give them a ride, but it would cause some delays. It was really funny - Katie, upon learning that Zack was going to be their ride, wasn't sure if she wanted to go. She was like, "Well, I'm really tired, I think I'm just going to go back to my house then." (I finally got the story out of Rose as well - apparently, Katie asked them if I was going to be driving back here, then back to San Antonio, or what while they were at the concert, and Rose told her that she was fairly sure I'd be remaining in San Antonio; Katie then asked if Rose thought I'd like some company. Rose was like, I'm fairly sure he would. We were all four going to pile into my cab for the rides, and Katie and I were going to hang out in SA during the concert. This is the second time we were going to hang out, just the two of us, at her instigation, that's been cancelled). So in a weird, preverse way, that makes me feel better - she didn't just want to go to San Antonio and hang out, she wanted to hang out with me. Damn. Zack, upon hearing Katie wasn't going to go, was like, "Well, what am I going to do, then?" It was a funny little moment, and I think Rose got Katie to go anyway to help salvage the situatin. I'll have to talk to Rose when she gets back.

That was the final conversation with Rose. I really hope they made it to the concert and had a great time. I feel really bad that I wasn't able to take them - it was so very frustrating, having problems AT THAT MOMENT, with them all depending on me and stuff. I think Jerry's coming over tomorrow to fix it or something; I don't know. Janelle's going to give me a ride to work, and I don't know how I'm getting home. We'll see.

But our story doesn't end there. Oh, no. So my phone's acting a little weird; I assume it's due to the water exposure, and let it dry out. I was (and still am) very depressed, so I sat out on the driveway in the rain. I eventually got up and moved to the chair in the garage when I realized Mom would be home soon, and wouldn't be too happy to find me sitting there in the rain. I sat there for a while, then changed into some dry clothes and went to bed (it was like... 6:30 or so at this point). I finally got to sleep when my mom came into the room, saying that Cullen's dad was on the phone and wanted to talk to me. That was... weird, to say the least. The last time a parent's friend called me, it was Stuart's mom while we were playing D&D, and they had to home and couldn't come back. So yeah.

But apparently, Cullen's dad was on his way to pick up Cullen from work (they live out on Hilliard), but couldn't because of some major flooding. He waa asking me if I could go pick up Cullen and take him to a hotel or something. I was like, sure, no prob. Of course I'll help a friend in trouble, especially when it's something minor like just drive around a little. So I go and pick up Cullen; we come back here, he calls his dad, then we have a mini MvC2 and SCII tournament. He beats me in MvC2 4/3, but I destroy him in SCII 3-0, 3-0. Then we go to Target, Sonic, and Motel 6 where he's going to crash for the night.

When I get home, my phone freaks out. It basically lets me know that it's not going to work anymore. This was a shame, because it did survive the three story fall and continue working after that. Michael did have an extra phone, so I called and he let me have it. I sent him a gMail invite when I got home. It works fine now, although I don't have my custom ringtones anymore. That's slightly annoying, but much, much better than being phoneless or having to buy a new one.

This whole thing brings up an two interesting points:

1) If I had gone to San Antonio, what would have happened to Cullen? I'm not sure. So I guess it's good, to an extent, that I wasn't able to go. I'm certainly not going to go into a "Everything happens for a reason" spiel (well, it does - the events leading up to it, obviously). I made a comment about how I felt somewhat cheered up by our hanging out, and Cullen said something about how Katie was a lot cuter than he was. I forget exactly how it went, but it made sense at the time, trust me. Cullen's like Jarrod and I - we understand, agree, and even expect each other to choose girls over friends. Why? The friends will be there tomorrow, but the girl might now, so enjoy that while it lasts. Plus, they're usually a hell of a lot cuter. If I had to make a choice, it'd be pretty difficult. I'm somewhat confident that Cullen would have been taken care of, and he would preferred that I had gone to San Antonio. In his shoes, that's what I would have preferred (and yes, I've been in a very similiar situation). This is now the second time Katie and I had our plans, made at her instigation, to hang out together dashed by cruel, cruel fate. I don't really believe in signs or that sort of thing, just that it's a very annoying pair of coincidences. Those that feel otherwise will point to the Cullen situation as a third coincidence that makes the whole thing being just a random collection of events unlikely. I say: go away before I hurt you.

2) Dagmar lives out on Hilliard. Were they able to pick her up? Cullen's dad tried 1 1/2 to 2 hours later than they would have, so I'm not sure that they would have been caught in the same situation. What about taking her home? I don't think she'll have a problem crashing with Rose or something similar, but it's an interesting little situation. Again, I'll find out later when I talk to Rose.

I've been toying with the idea of calling Katie to find out what happened and how things went. Of course, if she's hanging out with Zack, that might not be the best idea. That, and I'm incredibly awkward on the phone. I feel - not quite sick, but definitely something in the nauseous category - at the mere thought of calling her. But I think I will.

Looking at the concert info, this is his last concert, or something to that effect:

http://www.sbccenter.net/events/detail.asp?EventID=311&EventDateID=390.

Interesting.

Okay, I'm going to call her.