My family and I went to the Israel Fair today at Rancho Park in West Los Angeles. \u00a0My wife and her friends scheduled to meet up and spend the day there. \u00a0I got dressed as usual, putting on a t-shirt, khaki shorts, white socks and black shoes; just like I always do to go to work. \u00a0As I’m about to walk out the bedroom door, I’m officiously stopped by the wife and told to get dressed in something that won’t humiliate her.<\/p>\n
I selected a pair of long pants she recently purchased for me. \u00a0They were snug, \u00a0fit tighter and more constricting than I remember the last time I wore them a month ago. \u00a0This ensemble was approved by my wife even though I could tell from her smirk that I had barely passed the fashionability threshold.<\/p>\n
I spent my day as the family Sherpa; lugging water bottles, food, stuffed animal winnings, sticky ice creams, baby formula, etc. \u00a0All the while, the delicate skin on the back of my neck sizzled bright red in my first sun exposed outing of the year. \u00a0Happy day!<\/p>\n
While my family enjoyed rides with names like tilt-a-whirl, gravitron, and \u00a0kamakaze, I thought about lunch. \u00a0When would I eat? \u00a0What would I eat? \u00a0 The morning wore into noon, and finally, everyone was hungry so my wife told me to cough up my wallet and grab a lunch table while the she got food. \u00a0She has a special ability to remember what everyone likes to eat. \u00a0I’ve always been impressed with her talent and she returned with her arms full of meals. \u00a0I was presented with a juicy hamburger on a bun.<\/p>\n
After eating it, I patiently waited to see who wouldn’t finish their meal so I could. \u00a0My wife, who is kind and generous, bought an extra large grilled lamb and chicken shwarma laffa knowing that she would give me what she couldn’t finish. \u00a0She left me 75 percent of her uneaten laffa. \u00a0 Thanks to her, I ate two lunches for lunch. \u00a0Happy me!<\/p>\n
After eating, we sent the kids back on the rides hoping they wouldn’t throw up their expensive lunches. \u00a0When they tired of the rides, we spent the remainder of the afternoon visiting crafts booths and waited an hour for parachutists that never landed. \u00a0After the emcee\u00a0announced that the jumpers were delayed for another two hours, my wife declared that our day at the fair was over.<\/p>\n
Still full from my two lunches and not really hungry but still wanting to eat; I suggested we have Mexican for dinner. \u00a0We drove to a place called MexiKosher. \u00a0The place is too cramped to really enjoy eating in, so we stood in line, ordered, and had it packed for take out.<\/p>\n
I had trouble getting my wallet out of my pocket, my pants were so tight. \u00a0How did these pants shrink in such a short time? \u00a0I couldn’t have gained that much weight in just one month. \u00a0After waiting way too long for our food, we were finally ready to go. \u00a0I paid and we walked back to the car. \u00a0I\u00a0could barely lift my leg to step on the running board as I got in the car. \u00a0Those damn pants.<\/p>\n
When we pulled into the driveway, I jumped out with our dinners. \u00a0I planned to put the food in the house and then help the wife bring up the kids. \u00a0(Maybe I should have taken the wife and kids up first and the dinner second.) \u00a0I hurried ahead, and as I reached into my pocket for my house keys, I remembered that I hadn’t taken them. \u00a0So I turned around and went back down the stairs to get my wife’s house key.<\/p>\n
I knew I was going to hear from her mouth because I had just left her to get the kids out of the car by herself so I could run ahead with our food. \u00a0I realized I was acting like a schmuck. In that second of thought, I lost focus and I hit the edge of the stair incorrectly. \u00a0Those cursed tight pants had altered my steps by a fraction of an inch. \u00a0That fraction of an inch prevented me from extending my leg properly. \u00a0I didn’t remember to recalibrate my steps to compensate for the tight pants, I wasn’t able to regain my balance.<\/p>\n
Realizing that I was going down, I quickly calculated my two options; \u00a0toss our dinner and render it uneateable but have two hands free to break my fall, or hold onto the dinner (it cost $60.00) and try to save myself and the dinner.<\/p>\n
I chose option number two. \u00a0Save me and the dinner. \u00a0Bad choice. \u00a0I fully blame my pants for this fall. Had I worn my khaki shorts, I would have had the freedom of movement to save me and our dinner. Instead, I ended up going head first down the stairs. \u00a0I only remember coming to with my head pointing downward at the bottom of the staircase. \u00a0I completely lost our dinner.<\/p>\n
My wife comes running up to me and asks if I’m OK. \u00a0My answer to her was an obscenity filled tirade blaming her for my fall down the stairs. \u00a0It was as if she hadn’t heard one word of my cursing her because she immediately asked if we could eat the dinner that had fallen onto the ground. \u00a0She reasoned that it hadn’t been on the ground long enough to make it dirty. \u00a0Being the delicate flower (high maintenance one) in this marriage, I said “no.”<\/p>\n
My wife continued to press me on the possibility of still eating our dinner, now strewn over our lawn and staircase; this, even before I had time to make sure no limbs were broken or how much blood I was losing. \u00a0I felt covered in blood and I was concerned that I might have injured myself. \u00a0I did injure myself, but what I thought was blood turned out to be guacamole and taco sauce.<\/p>\n
I didn’t want anyone to know about my fall, I have MaNPriDe, but my wife thought it was noteworthy and spent the entire evening chitchatting with her friends telling them about my fall. \u00a0As I laid next to her covered with bags of frozen broccoli to stop the swelling, I got to relive my fall over and over again. \u00a0Lucky me!<\/p>\n
The next day I slipped the pants into a Salvation Army clothing receptacle. \u00a0Hopefully someone thin will enjoy them. \u00a0I didn’t.<\/p>\n