Day 2: The Love of Your Life

So today's task was to "gaze at everyone wondering whether they might be the one true love of your life." Unfortunately, I still haven't really gotten the hang of this thing yet, so I kind of forgot about it until later in the day, but it was still okay because I was at the perfect place to do some people-watching (or possible-love-of-my-life-watching): MYRTLE BEACH! Tourist capital of the world! Packed with possible loves of my my life. Mostly redneck, tattooed, or hairy possible loves though, but hey, the book said everybody. Oh yeah, so that was my main problem. Was I supposed to gaze at women too? Babies? Children? 90 year old men? It may sound kinda sick, but I did. I wanted to follow the books instructions to a tee.

So, I was walking around the outlet mall when I remembered my mission, and if I remember correctly, the first person I gazed at was a 40s/50s-ish looking man, balding slightly, with his wife and kids. Now, if this guy was supposed to be my one true love, I really wanted to gaze at him, you know? It couldn't just be a quick glance. I had to really look at him and try to imagine myself...with him. Which was disgusting first of all because he could be my dad (and I'm telling you right now I am NOT going to end up with some guy old enough to be my dad) and second of all because, if I was meant to be with him the rest of my life...that would mean I would have to tear his family apart somehow so I could have him all to myself, and it was just getting too complicated. But, while I was thinking all of this, I was still gazing at him I guess, so then he started gazing and me, and then he wouldn't stop and it was REALLY creeping me out. So...I moved on. Yes, I looked at women and children like I said before, but that was just wrong so I only did that for a little bit, and then I narrowed it down to just men, but then there were the old ones, and the REALLY old ones that (sorry to be morbid) could probably kick the bucket before I'm even a sophomore in college, and...it was just hard to be realistic with those guys. And I didn't like gazing at the 40s/50s-ish men either because it seemed to always turn out into the same scenario as the first guy...he thinks I'm giving him "the eye" or something, and he gives it back.

So pretty much I decided that I just needed to be gazing at males around my age or a little older (20s). But of course, I still made it complicated. Instead of gazing at them with genuine appreciation of the fact that they could be my soulmate, I was analyzing them from top to bottom. I would look at a guy and be like, "If I were to marry him I would DEFINITELY make him shave that stupid goatee" or "How annoying that he walks like that...if we were holding hands and walking together or something he would always be walking into me." I was just being really critical and mean. The only two guys that I felt like I could be soulmates with was this guy that worked at Ben and Jerry's who was tall, slender, tan, with brown hair and a yellow bandanna tied around his head like he was a teenage mutant ninja turtle or something, and he had ice cream stains all over his shirt, but he seemed really nice even though I didn't talk to him or even hear him talk. And then this guy that did air brushed caricatures of people for a ridiculous price. But that was just because he was kinda cute too. I was totally going based on looks! This was a good exercise to see how shallow I really am. Now I feel bad.

BUT. There was one moment that stands out above the rest. On the way home from Myrtle Beach, I was driving down Highway 17, the main highway that cuts right through the center of all the tacky touristy gloriousness of the town, and I was listening to a really good Coldplay song on my ipod (I think it was Don't Panic) and I saw this guy riding his bike down the side of the road. He had longish shaggy kinda brown hair, and a yellow shirt, and he wasn't even that cute, but he just looked kinda nice, and I really gazed at him hard (without losing concentration on my driving...no, I'm not that irresponsible) wondering if he was the one for me, and then when we passed each other, I got kinda sad and kept watching for him in my rearview mirror until he was gone from sight. With the Coldplay song on and everything, it really felt like a scene from a movie. It would have been like one of those dramatic irony things where the audience knows that we are meant to be together forever, but we the characters have no idea, and we are just SO close at that very moment, but oblivious to each other's significance and existence, and just pass each other, and keep moving farther and farther apart. After that experience, I really felt like I completed Day 2's task. Will yellow t-shirt bike boy and I ever cross paths again and discover our (possibly) true destiny? Time will only tell.