Shot through the heartNovember 27th, 2007 @ 7:01 am
The summer before my senior year was spent like most of my summers before. I sat in my backyard with a thick book and a pillow and turned my body a lovely shade of dark brown. Hey, it was the early 90’s. Nobody had heard of skin cancer back then. Or rather, we didn’t care about it.
Naturally this drove my parents batty. They wanted me to get a summer job. They wanted me to be a productive member of society. I thought reading and getting the best tan ever was being productive.
I was seventeen, what did I know?
My mom called me one extra sunny day and asked me to drive to her work and have lunch with her. Of course this bugged me as I was just getting ready to get my sun on. She told me if I’d just make the twenty minute drive to her work she’d make it worth my while.
I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but I went along.
I hopped in the shower and quickly got dressed and ready to go. The phone rang again. And again it was my mom. She decided to come clean with the real reason she wanted me to come and have lunch with her.
My mom, the nurse, had a hot patient.
And he was just my age.
Of course I wanted to know what he was doing in the hospital. My mom told me that he was there because he had shot himself in the leg. Totally on accident. Totally. He was out in the mountains cutting wood for furniture (he worked for a furniture maker) when he started messing about with his boss’s pistol.
The gun went off. And he was down.
I may have mentioned before that I was stupid when I was a teenager. The thought of meeting a hot guy who was laid up in a hospital bed should have excited me. Any other normal seventeen year old girl would have gotten all giddy and turned into Florence Nightingale. Anybody but me would have walked back into her bedroom and changed out of her ratty cut offs and maybe run a comb through her damn four foot long hair.
But no, not me. I just rolled my eyes thinking about what was to come and drove over to the hospital my mom worked at to eat lunch and meet a strange boy.
My mom and I ate lunch in the cafeteria at the hospital and then she said, “you ready to meet him?”
I figured I might as well get it over with.
My mom took me into his room and as soon as I saw Dweezil (not his real name, thank goodness) I was in love with him. Or rather, pretty much in love with him. (What teenager truly knows what love is?)
My mom was right, Dweezil was hot. Way hotter then any other boy I’d ever talked to in real life. He was funny and sweet and we all agree that he had good hair. Best of all, he seemed to really like me. I think he liked me because we lived in different cities and went to different high schools. So he had no idea what a loser I was at my own high school.
It was like Dweezil was my gift from the Universe for being such a nerd for so long.
And I liked it.
I spent the next week driving back and forth from the hospital to visit Dweezil. After he was released I’ll admit that I got a little nervous we’d never see each other. Like maybe he only liked me when he was stuck in a hospital bed with nothing better to do then play card games with his nurse’s daughter.
I patiently waited for him to call me. It only took a few days before my phone rang and Dweezil asked when I was going to drive up to his place to visit him*. He said he missed me and I vowed, silently, that I would stay by his side forever.
And thus began my courtship with my mom’s hott patient.
Of course my vow to stay by his side forever didn’t really take. We dated for most of our senior year, but it ended.
They always do.
What I learned most from this experience is that set-ups aren’t so bad. Believe it or not, even set-ups by your parents aren’t so bad. From then on out I didn’t shy away when someone said they had the perfect guy for me to meet.
I mean, we all remember that I met The King on a set-up.
So tell me, have your parents ever set you up with someone? And did it go as good for you and it did for me?
*Apparently a gun shot wound to the leg takes a long time to heal. He wasn’t going to be driving anywhere for a long time.
They're just my family · Back in the day
Monica
said,
November 27, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Ash and I met on a set up. My aunt asked me to meet him, and I said “no thank you.” A little while later she had my cousin invite me to a wedding show to help plan her up coming wedding, and failed to mention that Ash’s parents owned the wedding show. We got married 2 years later, and lived happily ever after. The End.
-R-
said,
November 27, 2007 at 7:17 pm
I have never been set up, but my mother-in-law used to try to set up my husband all the time (before I met me). Fortunately for me, she always tried to set him up with women who were both extremely dumb and super weird. I think she was just hoping he would end up with someone from their hometown so that he would stay there and she could control him forever.
Nic
said,
November 27, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Nope, never been set up by the family. I honestly don’t think it would even enter their minds. I have been set up, though, and it did not go well.
Jana
said,
November 27, 2007 at 7:19 pm
And your to blame. Darling, you give love….a bad name!
Nora Bee
said,
November 27, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Hello! No, my parents never set me up, but I did set myself up with the son of some family friends. He became a hundred times hotter after he accidentally shot himself in the leg on his summer construction job, so I’m with you there!!
Dirka
said,
November 27, 2007 at 7:52 pm
I can’t view the flickr pic. Can I be your friend in flickr?
I haven’t ever been set up on a blind date. I dated a lot in high school, dated some people I worked with at the restaurants, and then I met my husband!
Then I got divorced and met Andy pretty soon after that, so no blind dates/set ups needed. I would have gone if someone had set me up, though!
stefanie
said,
November 27, 2007 at 8:01 pm
My parents have never tried to set me up, but my boss did. We went on two dates, one of which was a double date with my boss and her husband. It never went anywhere, which is just as well, because she met him on vacation at what I later found out is a resort popular for nakedness and swinging, and I don’t think I’d ever get past wondering if he’d actually slept with my boss.
(I’m just going to assume there is no WAY that was a concern with your mom’s setup.)
Operation Pink Herring
said,
November 27, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Best post title ever.
I have never been set up by anyone. Isn’t that sad?
-R-
said,
November 27, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Umm, my comment above should say “before HE met me.” Not “before I met me.” Doh.
Rachel
said,
November 27, 2007 at 8:40 pm
I don’t think that I have ever been intentionally set up before. I may have ended up going on a date with someone that I met through a friend, but not on purpose.
Sara
said,
November 27, 2007 at 9:57 pm
I’ve never been set up by anyone in my family. That just gives me the chills to think about them doing something like that.
I’ve only been on a few blind dates. Luckily I met my hubby with my eyes wide open!
Danielle
said,
November 28, 2007 at 12:01 am
I think I would die if my mom wanted to set me up with a guy.
So far I have only been offered set-ups from friends…and I’m perfectly cool with that!
Fraulein N
said,
November 28, 2007 at 1:01 am
Never been set up, and certainly not by a family member. I can’t even imagine what kind of guy my mother would “pick” for me.
Andy
said,
November 28, 2007 at 3:17 am
My mom tried to set me up with someone when I was in high school. She kept telling me “he’s so cute and such a nice boy.” I totally didn’t trust her opinion. He later became famous for playing local college football and is now in the NFL. And her opinion was spot on. Oh well, wouldn’t trade my partner for the world.
metalia
said,
November 28, 2007 at 3:31 am
..aaaand now Bon Jovi is going to be stuck in my head all evening. Thanks, yo!
Lisa B
said,
November 28, 2007 at 3:43 am
Hey, I remember that pic. (And you look so cute in it! Awww.)
My mom kept telling my brother that there was this really cute girl who worked at the grocery store. This girl was very sweet and my mom adored her.
Finally my brother went in, saw her and asked her out. They got married this past April.
What’s funny is I don’t think my mom is as crazy about her now as she was 5 1/2 years ago heehee.
SJ
said,
November 28, 2007 at 4:15 am
I have never been set up with someone to date. Never. And the thought of someone in my family setting me up - kinda freaks me out.
What a cute photo!
Keri
said,
November 28, 2007 at 3:07 pm
I have never been set up - ever by anyone (is that sad?). But I did meet my husband in an odd way.
Meritt
said,
November 28, 2007 at 3:16 pm
While I would totally set up my kids with some hot teen I can’t even imagine my parents doing such.
Then again, they were pretty much failures in the parenting department and didn’t do anything parents are supposed to do. LOL.
*BUT*
I just remark that yes, sometimes teens do know what love is. Remember; I’m a high school sweet heart bride. Married at age 18 just 6 weeks after graduating high school (no, I wasn’t pregnant) and that was uh, about 19 1/2 years ago!
Virginia Gal
said,
November 28, 2007 at 8:57 pm
I was picked up by my husband’s best friend’s wife at a party. Seriously thought she was hitting on me until she said “You have to meet my husband’s best friend.” And that, as they say, was it. He didn’t know that she had just met me like 20 minutes earlier, and didn’t find that out until a week or so later. I don’t know if you would call it a set up or not, but it’s a great story.
Christar
said,
November 28, 2007 at 10:08 pm
I dated this guy that I didn’t like whatsoever for my cousin, because the guy she liked was his best friend, but he wanted his friend and I to double date with my cousin and him. So I was forced to go on 3 dates with this guy. Whenever he’d put his arm around me, I’d cringe. He picked me up two out of the 3 tiems, and both times he met my mom, and she thought he was nice and didn’t get that I just didn’t like him. You can’t help it if you don’t like them!
My uncle, cousins, and all my friends tried hooking me up with Shaun for months before I finally came to my senses. But that’s the only stories that I have that kinda come close, haha.
MK
said,
November 30, 2007 at 3:47 am
My parents never set me up with anyone, but my husband I met on a set up. My best friend and his sister worked together and set us up- we have been together since the first date! That was 5 years ago- married 3 now with a 22 month old daughter and a little boy on the way! We don’t waste time!
Set ups are the best!
angela
said,
December 1, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Fortunately, my parents never set me up. I’m pretty sure they had pretty bad taste when it came to stuff like that.