When I actually met up with my friends we took a vote between Mod Club and a strip joint. The strip joint won of course.

The women there were like hawks, I would just glance at one of them and they’d be all over me. Being a good boy I of course turned down all of their offers. Later in the evening Kari sent me a text message inviting me to swing by her place afterward. As the evening wound down I eventually made my way to Kari’s house and explained to her what had happened with my evening, mainly the switch from the regular night club to the strip joint. After my story she noticed some sparkles on my cheek. I thought about it and remembered that a young lady that went by the name “Innocence” had gotten especially close to me while trying to persuade me to utilize her services and went so far as to brush her cheek up against mine.

It’s been many months now since that night and I can only imagine what trouble I would have been in if I had lied about where I went. Instead, I’m fortunate enough to still have Kari in my life along with occasional teasing about my run in with “Innocence”.

Normally I don’t wrap gifts, I just toss them in a nice looking bag with some tissue paper. For Christmas though I try to put forth the extra effort, so when it came time to wrap the two boxes I decided to start with the frother since it was way smaller. Half an hour later I had a neatly wrapped frother and enough insight into the wrapping process that I was able to come to the conclusion that there was no way I’d be able to wrap the actual machine since it was so much larger. I decided to hide it away in a closet and present her with just the frother and the book I got her that would hopefully convince her to stop smoking and gauge her reaction and hopefully get a few giggles.

When I presented these two small gifts to Kari I immediately saw the look of sadness in her face. I could actually see the thought “Is there a Nespresso model that small?” pass through her head. She opened the book first and did her best to contain her impending greater sadness. As she started to peel away the wrapping for the frother I immediately darted into the bedroom to get the machine and came back and exclaimed “It’s ok! It’s ok! I got the actual machine too!” so she wouldn’t get the idea that I only got her the frother and still be disappointed. Happiness and relief came over her face and I knew right then and there that I done good .

Instead I sought comfort from my girlfriend and sent her the following text message:

I just lost my wallet.

My mind started racing and I got very tense. Did I lose it on the subway? Was I so focused on the book I was reading (The Lost Symbol By Dan Brown) that someone picked my pocket without me noticing? I was standing with my back to the open subway door at one point during the ride, that would have been the perfect time for a pick pocket. What do I do now? I’ve never lost my wallet before! I still have copies of all my important documents that I made before heading to Peru, those should prove useful. When today did I last remember having my wallet? Hey wait a minute… did I even grab my wallet before I went to work?

I sent Kari a message with this new revelation and then immediately called her as I briskly walked home. I kept her on the line and when I finally made it in to my home and up to my room I immediately saw the familiar black blob that is my wallet on my desk. Immediately relief came over me and I was glad.

The main thing from this ordeal that sticks out in my mind was the reaction from the people at the back of the bus. After first I was some weirdo staring at people and things at the back of the bus and the next, after saying a few choice words, I was some guy that was about to have a terrible evening.

In other news Portugal was eliminated from the tournament by Germany today which brings a smile to the face of just about every Italian person I know . Not mine of course, I like to stay neutral .