That time we almost fell in Love

27AUG2022; 0116, SAT- Maryland, USA

Peaceful Tidings; and God help the Bidens. Between Jill testing positive again, Hunter's 'puter, and Joey's consistent debacles...

This is supposed to be a lost Love post, tho. Not yet another political rant by yours truly.

I just wanna preface this a smidge more by stating that today is the anniversary of my enlistment into the U.S. Army a decade and a half ago. On behalf of all The Fallen from my unit, and those from throughout millennia (Til Valhalla):

I'll never forgive prez for looking at his watch when those servicemen and woman from Afghan land's withdrawal were being taken from the plane, in flag draped coffins, due to his [expletive] ups. I put that on everything that I Love.

Speaking of which tho, my very first Love interest was born on this day exactly 33 years ago. Now, I'm finna segue into my initial brushes with an entanglement of potentially the most ironically epic proportions.

This was the summer of '13; near Aspen, Colorado. If anyone had told me that I'd be on the verge of an instance such as what went down during this retreat for combat Vets beforehand, I'd have told them that I must have "Boo-Boo The Fool" written 'cross my forehead.

Before I forget tho: Mad Love to the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) for bankrolling that weeklong retreat; which me and my peoples (sic) really needed. Well worth the window decal when we were getting ready to head there.

Back to our regularly scheduled program. She was beautiful inside and out; unquestionably.

Even my overall, and deep distrust of most peeps from "the other side of the tracks" couldn't prevent from being completely infatuated with this young lady. I have a sneaking suspicion that middle class Whites aren't particularly thrilled when their daughters are 'bout falling for a poor and/or working class Black men.

That's another discussion for a different day tho. I'm replaying our obvious chemistry in my head some nine years later, and I can't help but wonder what could've been.

That's despite the fact that this Bro. right here is extremely content with, blessed by, and invigorated via his current relationship. "Stamp that, Moe"; as we say in the ghettos of Washington, DC.

Miscellaneous caveats and colloquialisms notwithstanding: The woman pictured above has been a sure pleasure to check in on since we last hugged it out. I highly doubt that we'll have anything except Love for each other in the decades to come as well.

Just because it's not romantic, but rather platonic Love couldn't be more of a moot point for me personally. If I were a betting man...

Now that I'm on the topic of chance, however: What're the chances that she got a bad flat right before what was supposed to be our interim dating? If that's not Stranger Things enough: Out of all the Vets and volunteers paired together at random...

I'm pretty sure that I didn't want to go on the retreat; almost missed my flight from DC; and we instinctively knew long distance wouldn't work for either of us. Still, the two of us were arm and arm at my first rodeo attendance.

Not only did we have an amazing time together at the event, tho the closest we ever came to physical intimacy was her tying that handkerchief around my neck; and a long goodbye hug. I vaguely recollect her planting one on my cheek before I headed to the airport also.

Tl;dr- If you don't have at least one that got away, are you even living? I know a couple that's essentially been in Love their entire lives; and I wonder if they might not be the most unique case of all time.

Like the OG Hip Hop artist Whodini rapped back in '86, "You're lucky just to have just one Love!" Peace out.

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