Paris Comes to Denver
What do you call a learning experience where you learn a whole lot of things you didn't need to know? Today I learnt that Ramon might know French, but he has no idea where Idaho is, that Rita is the most naïve person alive, that Holly is a terrible poet, and I work with weirdos.
Some days are much like another - routine, simple. Today was not one of those days. Today was high emotion and drama. Today was sturm und drang with a high chance of melodrama. Today, I met the legendary Holly. Ramon says that once we face the things that we fear they no longer have power over us. I am not sure. I have faced her. I will admit to a fair amount of fear. I know as a true friend that I should want what is best for Oliver, and I do. My personal feelings aside, if reconciling with Holly will made Oliver happy then I should want that, but I wouldn't be human if I didn't say here (because I couldn't say this out loud to anyone else) that Holly is a little on the self-absorbed scale. And a bit of an over-sharer. Why would she talk about Oliver's kissing ability to a complete stranger? Why would she tell me about his need for clams in times of anger? I don't know what I expected Holly to be like, but this vapid and egoistic (but admittedly very well put together) creature was not what I was expecting. I know, petty self-interest is making me jealous and nasty, but writing it here is better than telling her what I think to her face, or worse, to his.
You know, when I thought about dining at some nice restaurant with Oliver, I didn't have anything like tonight's debacle in mind. Watching Oliver eat clams like a condemned prisoner enjoying his last meal while retreating into that very busy mind of his was torturous. Poor Oliver, disintegrating before my eyes – falling back on doing the job well because he had lost control of everything around him? Or was his reflection on a job well done his way of apologising for losing it and telling me he thought I didn't measure up to his extraordinary work ethic? What a mess!
When we began this letter investigation, I was fully prepared to dislike Joey Castelucci. I mean, what sort of a guy mails divorce papers so callously? Except that listening to Joey talk, he isn't callous. He did really think about what he was doing. Was this a strange case of like imitating art? Joey mailed his divorce papers accidentally, and Oliver…. What McInerney? Stop drawing deluded conclusions.
Fate or whatever that was really did have a deliciously ironic sense of humour tonight. Perhaps because of his current personal dilemma (it probably wasn't because of anything that I said, let's be honest) Oliver was about to ignore protocol (on any other day this might have delighted me) and let Joey keep the divorce papers – until of course Rita and Norman arrived with the papers just in time to hand them to an understandably shocked Caitlyn!
Watching Joey and Caitlyn was wonderful, and traumatic. I am so happy for the Joey and Caity. To have overcome so much and be so willing to forgive each other was beautiful. So why am I so sad? Oh yeh, because Oliver is going to meet his escapee of a wife with the words of a reconciliation ringing in his ears.