the story of the car salesman
This last Sunday my crazy parents decided to come up to see me in the play. They dote on me to distraction -- remember, I'm the good son who can do no wrong (and by extension, Mer is the dream daughter-in-law) -- and in amongst all the gushing over the play and the repeated requests for pictures (Mom has blinded people before by snapping big flash pictures at curtain calls)... Mom engages in a bit of gossip.
It's kind of her thing these days.
Anyway, this latest interesting piece of news -- besides the latest bit of lurid sensationalism with homophobic overtones -- involves a wedding one of her friends went to.
Very expensive.
Flew everybody out to Virginia.
Rumored to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000.
Beautiful wedding.
Nice, good-looking couple.
Everything goes fine, until the wedding night.
When she tells him that she's had "deep feelings" for someone else.
And proceeds to leave the groom, on their wedding night, for --
A used car salesman.
Since we haven't quite had our fill of weirdness in our lives yet, this piece of news gives us two main reactions:
1) No small amount of sympathy for someone we will never know, who will be quite justified in avoiding marriage like the plague for the rest of his life.
2) Cruel jokes involving car salesmen, along the lines of whether this service is under warranty, how many points of financing she gets, or if the undercarriage cleaning is included.
And, having dispensed with the latest in sensationalism and weird stories, taking many pictures in the dark that will be sent to us later, and depositing depressing items from the LA Times about the completely inaccessible housing market there, my parents set off for the 5 hour drive to Bakersfield the same night.
I told you they were crazy.