It's a Small "World" After All

(In my last post, I mentioned that I had another "coincidence" tale regarding my sister-in-law. The following is also a true story!)

A fellow blogger, whose writing I respect and admire, told the story recently of a friend being “outed” about her daily habit of tuning into “All My Children” for the last couple of decades. I guess we have all been guilty of watching the soaps at one time or another, and many of us probably chose to “out” ourselves in the hope that the person we were talking to would be just as enthusiastic about their daily dose of unreality as we were.

My grandmother had gotten me into “Days of Our Lives” when I was ten. I know, I know…I was a little young to be quite so interested in the drama of the soap world, but back then you didn’t need an “M” rating to watch the passion between Doug and Julie. Dare I say that it was…wholesome?

Eventually, I became addicted to “Another World”, which followed “Days”. I was pregnant with my second child at the time, and I spent a lot of hours alone and longing for adult interaction. Watching the soaps, I found that I could transport myself into “another world”, even if it was only for an hour. I lived vicariously through the passion, love and emotion of the characters on the show. I fell in love with a rogue character (whose name I will keep anonymous out of respect for the gentleman who portrayed him), and couldn’t wait to tune in every afternoon to see what trouble he was cooking up that day. A few years later, after my marriage had ended, I was presented with the opportunity to attend an "Another World" luncheon. When I met this gentleman in person, I thought that he was just as charming and adorable as he was on the show. So about a month later, I decided to write to him and send him my picture and my phone number.

Less than a week later, I received a phone call from a man stating to be this actor. At first, I didn’t believe that it was him…and then I gained my composure and enjoyed a 30 minute-long conversation with the most smooth-talking Romeo that you could imagine. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. He called the next day, and told me that his house on Long Island was “under construction”, so how would I like to meet up with him at his hotel in Manhattan for lunch? Then we could pay a visit to Victoria’s Secret, so he could "buy me whatever I wanted” and, according to him, we could go back to his hotel where I could “model” all of the outfits for him!

Okay, I admit…I was feeling a little desperate after my husband left me for someone else, but thank God I wasn’t stupid. I politely told him that I would consider it (I already knew the answer was no, but I will admit...if I were a different kind of person...say, to the tune of Paris Hilton...it could have been fun). He told me to think it over and that he would call me the next day.

He did call the next day, and the next day after that. The clincher was when he called one afternoon right after my kids came home from school, and they started to have a rip-roaring fight over a toy. They ran through the house like Tom and Jerry and finally ended up between my legs, crying and whining while I embarrassingly stood there on the phone and exclaimed “What can I say?!? This is my life!!” He politely told me that he had to go, and would call me again tomorrow.

I never heard from him again.

Well, life goes on. Several years later, I remarried and became very close with my new sister-in-law. One day, while we were having a ladies night at her house, she started to tell the story of when she dated “this guy from Another World”, and she went into detail about how all he seemed to care about was getting into her pants! I stood there in amazement, and said, “Hey, wait a minute!! That’s my story!!” She looked confused, as did all of the other women in the room. It turned out that she actually dated this very same soap star for a few weeks and came to realize, as I did, that although he was a really nice guy, he was definitely a player and not worth investing any emotion into. We laughed over the similar stories and pointed out how small the world actually was that the two of us were “involved” in some way with the same male star of a soap opera.

I no longer watch the soaps, and haven’t for about 9 years. I found that once I met my present husband, my life became a soap opera of its own with ex-wives, ex-husbands, ex-girlfriends, ex-boyfriends, his kids, my kids, our families, our friends…who needed to watch it when I could live it every single day?!? Although I admit...I could use the commercial break now and then.