My friend Kevin had mentioned to me last week about going to a local club named The Circus in Ann Arbor and listen to some story telling. By now I think you know that I'm always up for a new adventure and since I had never been to such an event it peaked my interest.
The Moth is a radio show produced locally by Michigan Public Radio where Kevin's husband Rusty works. He had mentioned to me that we might be asked to judge the stories. Well guess who was asked to judge, yep Kevin and I were one pair of three that were judging the contest. I'm sure he knew we were going to be judging before hand but he didn't want to scare me off!
The evening consists of ten stories which must be true and about five minutes long. If the person goes longer than five minutes they get a warning and then pretty much needs to close before six minutes. There were only a couple of people that went over the allotted time.
The three judging couples are asked to name themselves for the scorekeeping. So Kevin and I decided to name ourselves 'White? Really!' It seemed to be a good one because people laughed out loud! The named needed to be related to weddings so the other two teams were named 'Mad Love' and 'Dearly Beloved'.
Since Kevin was the one taking this picture he couldn't be in it with Rusty and I.
The place was crowded with about three hundred paying attendees. I had no idea how popular this show is. There was no empty seats in the house.
If there are more than ten stories to be told, then ten of them get pulled from a bag and the rest don't get to tell their stories unfortunately.
After listening to five stories there was a fifteen minute intermission. While on this break I asked the host Satori Shakoor, herself a winner of a previous story telling session and now host, and Patricia Wheeler who is the producer of the show, if Kevin and I could take our picture with them? They are two beautiful ladies. Thank you for making me part of your night.
When we came back the sixth person to go up was a gentleman named Bill Kreiger. Up to this point all of the stories had been good, they had held my interest and we had given good scores to everyone. Bill got up on stage and started telling his story about getting out of the shower one day and before he could reach for a towel he heard the following words "I just don't love you enough anymore!" With that his current marriage of seventeen years ended. We were all feeling sorry for Bill. He said that he didn't believe in love anymore. He went through life on a daily basis having given up on love. Bill then continued his story and how he had been invited by a friends friend to attend a tailgate party. He went to this party with the female friend and once there he just enjoyed himself. At one point the friend came over and told him that her ride was there and left him at the tailgate party with a bunch of people he didn't know. The friend had left some stuff in his car and so he had to meet up with her to return the items. It seemed that it had become a habit for her to leave things in his car and then suddenly Bill realized they were dating.
I'm not sure how long they dated but the next thing Bill did surprised everyone in attendance last night. He reached in his shirt pocket and asked his girlfriend to marry him in front of all of us. Fortunately they were seated about three rows in front of Us and I remembered to pull out my phone and video the part where he came down and got down on one knee. It was such an incredible moment to witness such happiness two people can have with each other.
You know I had to ask if. Could take my picture with them because they were now part of my journey in Motel Miguel.
Please join me in congratulating Bill Kreiger and his soon to be wife Alexis! She is the sneaky one who kept on leaving items in his car, the one that made a middle aged man find love again and he is the lucky guy to have found such a beautiful lady to call his wife.
Thank you Kevin and Rusty for giving me another incredible memory that now joins all the others in Motel Miguel. It's times like this that I'm so thankful for all of my friends and the stories they are helping me write in the story of my life!
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