I had everything planned out for a fun Wednesday night. My friend James would meet me at work, and we would go down to Washington to see a D.C. United soccer game.<\/p>\n
We planned to leave at 6 p.m., which allowed me to get some extra work done without feeling like I was abandoning my family because they already knew I was abandoning them for the evening.<\/p>\n
So I worked up until about 15 minutes before James was arriving. I went into the men’s room in my building so I could change out of my work clothes and put on shorts and my soccer jersey for the game. That’s when I came to a horrible realization.<\/p>\n
I forgot my shoes.<\/p>\n
I had my shorts, my souvenir jersey and a t-shirt. I even had a pair of athletic socks. But I had no shoes. Well, I had the black dress shoes that I wore to work, but I didn’t think they would fit in even though D.C. United’s primary color is black.<\/p>\n
I really had no time to do anything except swear at myself for being so absent-minded. I didn’t have any casual shoes in my office, and I knew I didn’t have any in the car since I had cleaned it out right before we went to the beach.<\/p>\n
That meant one thing – I had to rely on the mercy of a friend. I had no intention of going into Target in my dress shoes and a pair of khaki shorts. At first glance, the situation might not seem so dire. James, after all, is a pastor. How could I not trust a man of the cloth?<\/p>\n
Well, he’s my friend. Which means he has a similar sense of humor. Which means he might love the opportunity to get me some footwear that I might not really want to wear in front of other friends.<\/p>\n
I made this mistake once before, albeit on a much smaller scale. Some friends and I went to see a baseball game in Pittsburgh one summer in college. Somewhere on the way, we stopped at a convenience store to get some snacks.<\/p>\n
Since I was sitting in the backseat and didn’t feel like moving, I asked a friend to get me some candy. He told me to get it myself, but I whined and complained and he eventually gave in and said he’d get me something.<\/p>\n
He brought me back a pack of Nerds and a pack of Runts. I got the message clearly and have always worried about asking people who enjoy a good joke to lend me a hand since.<\/p>\n
So we went to Target, and I pleaded to James’ better senses to not embarrass me too much. Of course, I didn’t have much money on me so he would have to shop in the discount rack.<\/p>\n
The worst thing about all this wasn’t just the uncertainty. The worst thing was that this wasn’t the first time I had visited this Target store on the way to a soccer game to get appropriate footwear because of my poor planning. It was just the first time I had no control over the situation.<\/p>\n
Lucky for me, James passed up the opportunity to buy me Crocs or something with flowers attached. The white flip-flops were not that manly, but they did the trick. I think I’ll have to put them in the trunk because I just might need them again some time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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