Have you ever seen the film, ‘Sliding Doors’, starring Gwyneth Paltrow? Here’s a short summary of the plot: The film follows Helen Quilley (Gwyneth Paltrow), a young Englishwoman living in London who has just been fired from her public relations job. The plot splits into two parallel universes, based on the two paths her life could take depending on whether she catches a London Underground train or not. (imdb.com)
The film is amazing and of course so is Gwyneth Paltrow. There are all these little moments in our lives that happen everyday i.e. the street we take when we walk to the store, the daily drive home on the same freeway, choosing to go to Ralph’s market instead of Trader Joe’s, you get my drift. These are tiny blips on the radar of our lives, but these little decisions, can have huge consequences on our lives. And in the film we see this play out. So, why am I having an existential moment…yet again? Because, last night, at the Lenny Kravitz concert, I had a ‘Sliding Doors’ moment. Let me break it down real quick…
My sister and I have been on a summer concert tour of sorts. We’ve gone to music and food festivals all summer, and last night, we watched the amazingly sexy, and insanely talented Lenny rock out. My sister has never really been into Lenny, but I have since about the age of 13, but she quickly changed her tune when she had the “Lenny” experience last night!
When I was purchasing the tickets online, I kept going back on forth on where I wanted us to sit. I changed my mind so many times, kept looking at the seating chart, then finally decided on the seats I eventually bought. We arrived at the greek about fifteen minutes after his opening act began, bought a few drinks, and headed inside. No one was sitting in the two seats next to us, and we were feeling excited and kind of happy that we’d have leg room to move around.
Cut to about 45 minutes later when two guys walked up and sat in the seats next to me. I have to tell you, I literally paid them no attention because Lenny was on and I was in a state of transcendence. I accidentally bumped the guys arm next to me, and said sorry without even looking at him. Listen, that’s what Lenny Kravitz does to you! Then, Lenny sang his hit, ‘It Aint Over’ and I jumped up and began singing along and dancing. That’s when the guy next to me made a comment about me grooving out so hard, and I laughed, but again just kept looking at Lenny. I heard him introduce himself to my sister, and ask what my name was. That’s how hard I was grooving guys, he didn’t even get a chance to ask me my name!
There was a lower level where we could sneak into and get video and pics of Lenny, so my sis and I left our seats and explored the venue, trying to schmooze our way into other areas. After getting our pics and video, we ventured to the snack area and I stood in line behind a guy, who turned around and said hi. Guess who it was? Yes, the guy who had been sitting next to me at the concert. Ummm…why hadn’t I noticed how cute he was earlier? How did I not spot the beard, or that he smelled so good. Damn! I was so hungry I moved to another line and left him chatting with my sister. Was it hunger or sheer terror, I couldn’t really say.
As I gathered my grilled cheese sandwich, my sister came up to me and said the he asked about me, and I immediately deflected the sentiment. That’s what I usually do, because I’m so damn awkward around guys, I’d rather just throw a rock at them and run away. That’s how they know you like them, right? Well, she made an obnoxious comment about me not talking to him, so I stopped, turned around, and walked right up to him and began teasing him about some nonsense, which turned into a battle over the amazingness of a grilled cheese sandwich (he doesn’t like them, I called him un-American), because we all know I like to throw rocks.
When we got back to our seats, me and Mr. Beard, talked the entire night, danced together, joked, and then he said it, “What if this is some ‘Sliding Doors’ moment, and we get married, and have kids, and they wonder why I keep calling Mommy, ‘Grill Cheese’ all the time?” Turns out he is a traveler, entrepreneur and then to make matters even worse, he freaking helps to run a volunteer organization that sends youths to college! Are you kidding me right now. The fear was evident, so I kept making jokes aka throwing rocks, but he kept up with me all night. His friend was also incredibly cool, and my sister and I ended up grabbing drinks with them later. There were so many little moments that lead up to this, that never occurred to me until Mr. Beard made that reference.
I texted him that I thought he was great, for a guy who didn’t like grilled cheese…I know,I know, I’m an awkward weirdo who has to throw rocks because I’m too chicken shit to say, “Hey, Mr. Beard, you were so damn cute, and fun and awesome, (I use the word awesome a lot), and I can’t wait to go on an actual date with you.” Those words would never come out of my mouth because not only am I way too scared to say them, but wouldn’t that scare him to hear? Maybe not. Maybe it’s just me projecting my fears onto Mr. Beard. Anyway, he text me back, but no future plans have been made. We’ll see if he asks me out, or if I threw too many rocks at him. For now, I think I’ll go watch ‘Sliding Doors’ on Netflix.