The first cut is the deepest

My first taste of a mid-life crisis ensued last night when I received a phone call from Mom. She told me Uncle Jim had two tickets to tonight’s World Series Game in St. Louis, and he wanted to give them to me if I could go. It’s a no-brainer right? You go to the game. For some reason though I began doubting whether I was up to the task of making the 6-hour drive for the game, then driving home the next day. And at work we’re in the middle of one of our biggest projects, which is due by Friday, and I’m already taking Friday off for our trip to California. So either I go to the game and make it up by busting my butt at work the next two days, or stay home, play it safe, watch the game from the comfort of my home, get a good nights sleep and show up on time to work the next day. You still go to the game right? That’s where the mid-life crisis kicked in and all the sudden I was in a struggle between the early 20’s Wes who swam the Colorado River, climbed the highest peak in the U.K in my Pumas, flew to England for 24 hours and then back home, flew to Brazil, Australia, Belgium for the night etc.; and the late 20’s Wes who has a full time job, environmental consultant, Father to Be etc… Sure enough I tossed and turned all night, woke up early and decided it was all too much I should just stay home and watch the game. Then I made the mistake of telling everyone at work about it and calling a few people, and all the sudden I have co-workers, friends, family, and even my boss telling me to go! Uh oh! So I make a desperation call to Sarah, arrange to switch cars, take some money out, get myself ready to go…and sure enough the responsible Wes starts doubting himself again. By this time I have a stomachache, headache, and am still wondering what to do. After twenty minutes of waffling at the library, while Sarah was awaiting my decision, I made my decision it was too much to handle and I should just stay home and watch the game on T.V. So, after blitzing out of work early, “SEE YA, I’M GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!”, I got back in the car and drove back to work. As I was on my way I drove over Interstate 69 and could swear I saw the young 20’s Wes waving me onto that entrance ramp. “Not this time,” responded responsible Wes, “Not this time”. Ouch! That Sheryl Crow was right, “the first cut IS the deepest”. This one will take some time to recover from. All in all Uncle Kurt and Joel get to go the game now and that’s pretty cool. And despite my lapse, I’m sure my adventuresome days are far from over. Or maybe they’ve only just begun…

P.S. The writer may have exaggerated for dramatic effect and was in no way permanently wounded by this incident.