Choose Your Own Adventure: The Valentine's Day Time Machine

Tonight I have something of a bit different flavor. You will find a short excerpt from our Choose Your Own Adventure Date which Stephen, Travis and I went on tonight with three very lovely, charming young ladies. Below is the introduction and if you are so inclined go ahead and email me and I'll send you the rest of the book. Guys, the girls really enjoyed themselves, so feel free to use this idea too!

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The night was Valentine’s Day eve. Cupid looked down upon the fertile, mineral-rich fields of Oklahoma (official state motto: Keep Our Land Grand – unless there is money to be made off of it) and smiled thinking that all his work was done. The families of Edmond had attended marriage and children seminars at their local Churches of Christ, and life appeared serene as Cupid’s official day of celebration drew nigh. When all of the sudden his eye lingered upon the door of Heritage Heights Phase 3, apartment 222 and saw three friends shaking and quivering in their boots. They lingered by the phone, each prodding the others to pick it up and make the call, all the while trying to delay the inevitable. While Blake intellectualized in the corner, and Travis practiced “hello” in the mirror, Stephen with his usual brashness was the first to pick up the phone and called Tara who graciously said yes. Travis, finally decided upon a deep bellowing “G’Day Strangeland!” and called the sweet and lovable Carol who after insisting that wasn’t her name agreed to join the entourage. Blake, concluding that what worked for the Greeks worked for him went with the “Hello. What’s up?” philosophy that worked ever so well for those who reached the light in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Sarah replied with excitement in her voice, “Well of course!”

Thus the boys finally laid down their emotionally weary heads, thinking that the hard work was done. Yet little did they know that Cupid had other plans in mind.

Dusk began to set and 5:30 eventually rolled along the next day and after some slight tugging Stephen and Travis drew Blake away from the TV who muttered, “Well he’s no Tom Brokaw anyway.” Breaking out the family van, the boys went and picked up the suspicious girls who had been kept purposely in the dark over the details of the date. The biggest clue was given to Carol who was told, “Well I’m not sure what we are going to do, but it is certainly all planned out.”

Once everyone was picked up the girls were handed a short novel, which Tara promptly replied “I thought I was pondering skipping class tonight. Is this what you call incentive?!” The girls opened up the book which began the way so many famous books had begun before…

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

Whoops! Let’s try that again!

Once upon a time six friends thought they were going to go out on a traditional Valentine’s day date filled with over-priced dinner plans and the latest Will Smith movie when all of a sudden Cupid appeared with plans of his own. He bellowed [it is widely believed that Cupid is a timid fellow who only knows how to shoot love arrows, but in all actuality he is a man’s man with a deep resonating voice]:

“Tonight will be filled with choices, and the decisions are all yours. Choose wisely because your choices ultimately determine the fate of your adventure and the path you shall follow. Your first choice is perhaps your most important because it determines the theme of the evening so ponder carefully.”

Would you prefer to:

· Strap on your Osh Kosh B’Gosh and tighten your Velcro Ked’s (turn to page 12)

· Ride an emotional roller-coaster (turn to page 10)

· Break out the Alka-seltzer and clean those dentures (turn to page 7)

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This is just the beginning of our 50 page short-story. Stay turned tomorrow when I hope to post a letter to Hallmark about the lack of Valentine's Day cards for my pet turtle Cartesia.