SET UP FOR THE LET DOWN

_{[2]<- What's This}

_{Watching to: Dragenet Intro}

T H E L E T D O W N
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Isn't disappointment nothing more than the unknown variable that was not even considered. Why not expect the unexpected and get it over with? People do it all the time, right? Why else would people spend valuable money and time on things like Life Insurance, Living Wills, Retirement Funds, IRAs, Playing the Lottery, CD's and so on and so forth. Why else would we even plan for something to go wrong if were not expecting something to go wrong?
"

What do you do when everything is going all right. The world is at total peace. Birds sing your introduction into the day and the wind whistles your theme song. Its just a beautiful, wonderful, delightful, exciting, vivid, colorful, cheerful, great, remarkable CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OWEHJF{ IWH#Q*RYU #Q_(*RY #Q_( Q(P

What do you do when the unexpected guest known as disappointment visits?

My fiancé and I go into this conversation a lot. She is very easily disappointed. She likes for things to go the way they are planned with no alterations of any kind (not even small one's). She likes for things to be perfect or else she goes 100% Incredible Hulk [You Tube Incredible Hulk] and just loses it. Me, I'm more laid back, relaxed and calm about that sort of thing. I'm used to let downs. They don't phase me and actually I plan them into my day. Why not? Isn't disappointment nothing more than the unknown variable that was not even considered. Why not expect the unexpected and get it over with? People do it all the time, right? Why else would people spend valuable money and time on things like Life Insurance, Living Wills, Retirement Funds, IRAs, Playing the Lottery, CD's [BoA Money Management] and so on and so forth. Why else would we even plan for something to go wrong if were not expecting something to go wrong?

Sometime I think I was just born without the "OH MY GOD WHAT AM I GONNA DO!" [OMG mp3] gene. Seriously, if I look back at the OMG moments in my life they never really phase me that much. Come on let's take a trip down memory lane. (It's ok I have Geico [Gieco.com]).

In 1992 I lived in Homestead Florida. Life was good and things were great (to a 12 year old anyway). My brother and I felt like the most privileged kids in the world. We didn't have all of the material things any kid could want but we had each other and a caring mother and a devoted step father to top it all off with. Life was great.

Now! For $200 dollars who remembers what significant event altered the peaceful suburb of Homestead Florida in June of 1992 ranking the town #4 on the list of most expensive damage to a residential area?

A. Flood
B. Tornado
C. Hurricane
D. Fire

Time's up. It was C, Hurricane.

[wikipedia Hurricane Andrew]
Nothing like a hurricane to shake things up a bit. Now as you would expect most of the adults and even the other children were running around, scrambling to pick up and secure their precious memories in safe and secure places so that the "Mean ol' Hurricane" couldn't get to them and rip them to shreds and smash them to bits. Me, I was intrigued by how low the birds flew and how animals could sense the coming of danger before even the news reports. I was a stone standing in the rapids of a raging river, anchored by serenity and secured by ignorance and faith. I wasn't stupid. I was aware of the damage that a hurricane, with its might wind speed and invisible sharp claws, could do. I knew that a hurricane was as serious as life and death but the way I was even before 12 (the way my though process worked) always questioned, "What's life and death without the former?"

T H E L E T D O W N
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When it was all over depressed slumps of middle class citizens flocked to the street to collect the remains of their once manicured lives. Boats, Corvettes, Jet Skis and other expensive possessions were dissorientedly laying about like the room of a three year old after playtime. Andrew had thrown a temper tantrum alright, a 26 million dollar one.
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Later on that evening, after most of the scrambling had settled, my family, including my moms friends and their niece and nephew, all huddled together within a small boarded up house awaiting the arrival of the monster named Andrew. We weren't at our 2 story Town House (Sea Grapes Village) but at my mother's friend house because it was only one story and it was further away from the city (Miami) where they thought it was gonna hit to begin with. We all sat curled into tiny little balls of shivering human flesh (all except for me that is). I was sleepy. I was up all day watching birds fly and dogs run with their tails tucked between their legs towards high ground. I had spent all of my energies on the fascinations of nature and I was ready to turn in hurricane or not.

My mom told me to go into one of the bed rooms and lay on the bed (which was nothing more than an old un-sheeted mattress but it was gonna have to do. I layed my head on the soft (spring filled) mattress for what seemed to be only a single second when my mother bursts into the room screaming,

"JERMAINE GET UP! THE ROOM IS FLOODING!"

I wobbled to my feet and sleepily shuffle (half way being dragged by my arm) towards the crowded hallway of human shivering when I slowly begin to realize that Andrew had arrived. He was finally here. The monster. The Maniac. The fire breathing beast sent from the east. The news spoke of him as though he were some ferocious monster with shards of glass for teeth and semi trucks for fists. The news talked about him like he could reach into each home and consciously feel around, with his wind made fingers, for the most ripe, delectable human treats that any monster would enjoy.

I stared him directly in the eye (literally). He was nothing. He was just wind. He had no claws, teeth, fangs, scales and he barely even howled. He was a big softy on the inside, Nothing more than nature's temper tantrum.

When it was all over depressed slumps of middle class citizens flocked to the street to collect the remains of their once manicured lives. Boats, Corvettes, Jet Skis and other expensive possessions were dissorientedly laying about like the room of a three year old after playtime. Andrew had thrown a temper tantrum alright, a 26 million dollar one.

Most people would have let something like that derail the rest of their life. Most people would have looked at surviving a hurricane as a traumatic life experience that forever alters the course of their actions. Most people would allow a simple natural event to alter their perception on reality and afterwards develop some complex to cope with the fact that (excuse the expression) Shit Happens.

We all know that things can go wrong. We had a great life down in Florida. I was attending one of the best Elementary schools in the city and I was on my way to middle school. Life was good. After the hurricane we (my brother and I) had to move up to North Dakota to live with my aunt on an air force base which is another story for another time.

Crap! I've run out of time. Here's what I'm gonna do. I would like to complete this post and get to the point (trust me I'm close) but in order to do so I have to bend my own rules just a bit. So tomorrow won't be as random but I'll try my best not to mentally plot out its course either during the day.

Leave me comments and let me know how you think I'm doing so far with the five o five. Give me suggestions how I can improve and if you think it all totally sucks then let me know that too. Whatever.

I appreciate the feedback, the support, and the interest. Until tomorrow.

Are you disappointed?