Poor Boy, Minor Key

My credo: give yourself a gift everyday.

Don't anticipate it, don't plan for it, don't expect it.

It can be an extra cup of coffee or a nap in your chair. It might be free, it might be spendy. It might be anywhere in between.

Don't worry about that. It will present itself to you.

I wanna pull on your coat about my victory night, my present to myself after changing out those struts. I got the ol girl all cleaned up, thinking about how I'm coming up on five years with this wagon. It's paid for now, so anything that goes wrong, hell...I gotta fix it. I'm invested. But I'll tell you what, everything I've had to do recently is well worth it...never, not once has it ever left me stranded.

I'm invested. I put in new factory floor mats, as if presenting fine lingerie, then I went inside and got cleaned up myself. Put on a decent pair of jeans and a shirt that was at least passable in today's fashion trends, and set off to take myself out to dinner. You know, sometimes I'll call myself up, ask myself out. One great thing about it is I'm always around.

I thought a good gift for the day would be to go to one of my favorite little bistros for a kabob trio of chicken, lamb, and tenderloin. Comes on a huge pile of yellow rice. God, I want to get a job there just to find out what they sprinkle on their vegetables...that and the garlic schmutz sauce, a dollop of which comes with each entree. Hell, I'd buy that stuff by the tub.

As I rolled along the showcase street in town, I admired the fact that I could now listen to music at a reasonable volume and understand what I was hearing at the same time I admired the million dollar homes that line the way. Huge stone mansions made for lumber barons...sorry, I'm smirking. Anyway, I pulled off the main boulevard and fiddled with the CD player while in the island waiting on traffic. When I looked up I noticed some raindrops on the windshield and I hit the wipers. Nearing the restaurant I had to put the wipers on intermittent. Rolled to a stop at the light right by my favorite coffee house and stared front, waiting on my green when it finally hit me.

Wait a minute.

“It's...it's raining.” I said to no one.

“IT'S RAINING!” I screamed to no one, but I'm sure was heard by the people on the corner outside my car.

I didn't know whether to shit or go blind, I just started laughing and calling people. I left one message that was evidently close to feelings recently expressed by the Double Rainbow Man.

The light turned green and the car behind me honked. I said “Go to hell, it's raining, don't you understand??”

Clearly they didn't. Another honk got me going, but the restaurant was only a few blocks away and I took my sweet time getting there. There was one tight parking spot open on the street...jackpot. I eased up and put it in reverse, getting ready to work my magic. I can move this ol girl backwards and sideways at the same time. The honking asshole passed by with an exhibition of acceleration that I'm surprised didn't rattle his car apart.

I have wined, dined, sipped and supped at some of the better middle to upper-lower-upper-class places you can find in the greater metropolitan area before I ran across this place. Now, it's one of my first choices. This joint is locally owned, and it has done well enough that they need a bigger space. There was a bit of a line, and the young woman behind the counter looked a little swamped. There's always a crowd here, right up to closing. When I finally got up to the counter she asked for a second and ran to the back to help the waitresses.

“Sorry...” she said trotting back to the front. She puffed her hair with “Kay...g'head.”

As I started my order she narrowed her gaze a little and asked if I had been crying.

“Wha...me? No. No, huh-uh.”

I motioned over my shoulder, “It's raining.”

She went up on her toes, her head poking over the display case like a little puppet. Matter of fact, she sounded like a puppet with the squeal she let out. She yelled to everyone in back about the rain, and they all came to the door and looked for a few seconds.

Blushing, she finally turned back to me and apologized for the rumpus, took my money and said it would be about 10 minutes.

"Don't worry, I did somethin' similar."

I found a two top over near the window, sat there without a book or paper, left my phone in my pocket, and I just watched the rain hit the street. Diamonds on the window. My dopey gaze was mistaken by a few college girls a few tables over. All I could think was “don't worry ladies, this dog knows when to stay on the porch...despite the rain”. I guess I must have looked pretty funny, when I realized what was happening I snapped back with a bit of awkward laughter and pointed out the window.

“Rain!” I mouthed, wide-eyed with a double thumbs up.

Thankfully the awkward moment was broken by the smell of grilled beast, wafting from the plate that had just been set in front of me. This...this is very special. I know I made a couple yummy sounds, but I didn't care. This was my gift. And then I got to thinking...you know I come here a lot. I mean...if you start giving a gift with regularity it becomes the norm. Right?

“Yeah, I think it does.”

It turns out this...wasn't my gift.

I climbed back in the car and got ready to get back into traffic when this song came on.

I felt so good, so good I started scooting around in my seat, signaling with the beat, and singing like I wrote it. Then suddenly it hit me. I knew what the gift was...and I went and got it.

This was the day. Go to hell, winter of 2010...you magnificent bastard.