I have a story for everything, the first one in free.

I have been told the following three things:

Recently by a manager at work:  “You do an excellent job effectively using stories and analogies to emphasize a point.”

Previously by friends: “Dude, you have a story for everything!”

In my past by my mother: “Would you get to the point already?”

 

So, I’m reading a small blurb in the Travel section of the Star-Ledger this week. Yankee Magazine’s 2008 Special Travel Guide has come out with its list of the top five New England Diners. Among the eateries is the Modern Diner, East Ave, Pawtucket RI.

 

Here is my story.  

 

NFL history shows the game between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots of November 28, 1993 as a final score of Jets – 6, Patriots – 3. It also shows the weather as a rainy, windy, 63 degree day.  Let me tell you the parts I remember. Fourteen years will erase only so much.

 

ü      The big weekend in Boston turning into leaving the night before because somehow no one on this trip was actually able to leave when we said we could.

ü      It was raining the night we left

ü      Leaving late because I went to “Joe’s house” instead of “Joe’s house”.

ü      Sitting in the back seat of a 1993 Ford Thunderbird with two other guys, my head on the speaker, and very loud Metallica on the radio.

ü      A fried shrimp platter at the Howard Johnson in Mystic CT (it’s raining while we are having dinner)

ü      Checking into a Days Inn in Pawtucket RI, where the key didn’t open the door to the room and the security guard had to let us in whenever we left the room.

ü      A lot of keys on the security guard’s key ring.

ü      The bars in Rhode Island closing before we checked into the room.

ü      Playing touch football in the hotel parking lot the next morning (still raining).

ü      Going for breakfast at the Modern Dinner. The greatest breakfast I ever had in my life.

ü      Arriving in the parking lot at Foxboro Stadium (still raining).

ü      The kickoff, when the rain suddenly morphed into freezing monsoon.

ü      Two field goals.

ü      My big winter coat I wore in preparation of the 30 degree snow storm that should have arrived in New England that day

ü      My water logged “Michelin Man” winter coat when the game was over.

ü      The waterfalls on the stairs and lakes in the concourses in the stadium

ü      Going back to the car when the 3^rd quarter was over.

ü      “Don’t get the inside of the car wet!”

ü      The rain stopping as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot.

ü      Making the trip home from the game in about two hours because the driver had a date that Sunday night.

 

You might think I didn’t like that trip. It’s more memorable to me than other trips and is discussed quite frequently among the attendees. Every time I’m out in a storm I’ll say “I haven’t seen a storm like this since my trek into hostile Patriots territory in 1993”.

 

Here is my free piece of philosophy from this story:  if you can take one lesson out of an adventure, it was an adventure worth having.

 

The next piece of philosophy will cost you fifty cents. I’ve got hosting charges to pay.