On Thursday afternoon after I came from school, I found out that one of my friends asked a girl that I once had an interest in during my time at Southwest to marry him.

After being forced to deal the reality of that happening in the near future, I was asked by my friend why didn't I take advantage of a second chance with the girl when it was offered.

The reason why that happened was because well, I realized over time that we didn't have too much in common and much like the guy that gave me advice on the book, I like girls who like sports or better than yet, can somewhat understand the difference between a basketball and a football.

And when i decided to leave Southwest for somewhere else, possibly back to Carbondale or some school here in Memphis, I realized that there were other fish in the sea and I wanted to see what was out there.

I know that might sound a bit harsh, but sometimes the best thing in order for you to survive and stuff is to forget about what you left behind.

Many times I've asked myself had I gone out with the girl at Southwest, would I have even thought of a book on baseball and summer memories?

Probably not.

And what would have happened if Mr. Pujols had not hit that homer in Kansas City at the same time that I was milling around the concourse area of Autozone Park on May 21, 2006?

We wouldn't be talking about one of the cutest summer stories in Memphis history.

On the same day I was hired out at Costco as the new spokesperson for the Tennessee Cheesecake Company, I mentioned to the girl who hired me that I had a friend of mine who constantly calls me "Pumpkin" and humiliated me in front of my then-staff while I was at the University of Memphis a few days prior to me heading to Atlanta.

"Everytime I say something bad about her, something bad happens to me," I said to her as we left the store.

'Karma can be a bitch, you know," she said, "Whatever you do, don't badmouth the girl again."

Obviously, I haven't reached the point of avoiding that.

Three days after saying there was something wrong with her in front of her mother, my precious Zune player fell  victim to my washer here at the house after I  (pause for dramatic effect) did a very horrible thing in my pants on the interstate as I headed home from work.

And then on Sunday as I cleaned everything off at my work area, the already-shattered sign that I have for my demo mentioning the price fell to the floor, breaking it.

Last night, I mentioned to my therapist about what had gone in the last few days and the belief that of all people, the city's northern version of Peppermint Patty in fact placed a curse on me.

His response?

"You like her, don't you?"

My response?

When pigs fly.  

Since the beginning of August, many things have happened as far as the book was concerned.

The first thing that happened was that on July 18th, the incomplete manuscript was sent to my publisher through email plus a boring-assed questionaire that I had to fill out for liabilty reasons.

The second thing was that towards the end of July, the introduction was sent after a few alterations were made to the list of people I wanted to thank.

And the third thing that happened was the introduction that was done by Sabrina, Katie, and I back in April as the book came to fruition.

The only thing that hadn't happened yet was me telling the chocolate cutie or in this case, Michelle or Sharika, who is somewhere driving a cab in Montreal that the book was going to be filled with all of the adventures the four of us had during the summer of 2006 as well as what would become the hottest near-couple in the long history of Memphis professional baseball.

Which was the same thing I told Dr. Joye, the city's answer to Kim Parker, Ms. Drake, the Playboy Bunny in Carbondale, and of course, Kasi.

During lunch this afternoon as i was getting stomped in pool (more on that later), I finally explained to Michelle that the book was without a shadow of a doubt, focused on her and twin sister, the chocolate cutie, Sharika, and all of the funny moments we had during the summer of 2006.

"She's going to kill me when this book comes out," I said, "Believe me, everybody in the country is going to laugh at her as well as me for writing a book like this."

And much like what happened on June 25th of last year on my anxieties of bringing the chocolate cutie into the booth for the Fourth, she again tried to calm me down as I tried to convince her that there's a huge chance that the chocolate cutie may sue me for writing the book.

"She's not going to do that," she said, "She might think it's flattering you wrote a book about her."

Of course, that was the same thing that was told to me by my therapist Dr. Chris.

"You told them before the book came out that it was about them, so why worry?" he asked.

Good point.