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sorry for this prolonged rant but one story reminded me of chapter 2
Actually this turned out to somehow represent part of what my first wife said attracted her to me, though since that one only lasted 15 years suggests it was not quite enough:
I was in my late 20's single guy, I'm in the Penn campus area of western downtown Philadelphia to meet a bunch of friends at a place we all liked, LaTerrace Restaurant. After hours of eating and drinking and having a great time, some of us were leaving as was I. I went out to get into my car ...and it was not in my usual parking spot ...oh, I must have left it at that other spot, so I go there but alas no car; I walk around the block, no car; I walk around the next block, no car; I'm searching a few other side streets still no car. Trouble was I went to bars and restaurants in that area so often I really had no clear recollection where the hell I parked. So I go back inside and finally my friends convince me that I'm not loosing my mind any worse than usual and the car was stolen. We file all the police reports etc and the cops are not very optimistic that I'll ever get it back. Damn, I really liked that car, my old but still perfect '65 Buick LeSabre with a Wildcat V8 no less. So for some reason as dumb as this seemed to me, it did attract this one equally strange woman who turned out to be my first wife a few years later.
I wasn't even thinking of adding the final chapter of this story but it makes me wonder who ended up looking dumb or dumber, me or....
About a week later one too early Sunday morning my phone rings while I'm still asleep and it's my friend Pete calling to say he saw my car parked near 16th and South and he'll wait there for me. So that was a few blocks from my apartment and by the time I get down there the cops are all there; we confirm it's my car, no damage that's nice, we fill out all the reports and they say I can take the car home.
Now jump forward another two weeks, it's way past 2am and since all the bars are closed by now I'm cruising from downtown to my old neighborhood to deliver my brother back to his place since we've been out bar hopping. I'm stopped at a red light and suddenly hear a tapping on my driver's window, and as I glance over I see a guy standing there in jeans and a wind breaker jacket with a .38 pointing in my face ...yikes!... almost before the shock of this even sinks in I notice in my peripheral vision that another gent is coming up the other side of the car to get my criminal-ass brother and the "unmarked" car behind me is too obviously an undercover cop car ...so while my adreniline is pumping at full speed the cop on my side is saying "get out with your hands up" and as I get out he says something about ...this is a stolen car and they've been following me for a while and... I freak out and start cursing at him pretty disrespectfully but it's because I'm so wired out of my mind from fright/panic/etc, so I'm saying what if I decided to step on the gas and take off, would they shoot me for DRIVING MY OWN CAR!!? and tell him I can show him owner's card and registration, etc. Of course this dynamic duo are working off a two week old hot sheet that still has my car listed, the car that they did not find but my buddy had to find and we recovered. I would have gotten the last laugh but at that moment it wasn't so funny.
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