cute meet-cute

meet-cute: (thank you, Urban Dictionary)

scenario in which two individuals are brought together in some unlikely, zany, destined-to-fall-in-love-and-be-together-forever sort of way (the more unusual, the better). 

Have you ever thought about yours?  And I mean the meet-cute you have with the person you spend the rest of your life with, not the kind you have with some "summer fling" a la Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (although a gorgeous Italian boy on the island of Santorini isn't bad, either...kidding).

I guess its more of a girl thing, but I like to think about it from time to time.  It all started with The Moffats by Eleanor Estes (again, probably more of  "girl" book) - I went through this whole Eleanor Estes phase in fourth grade after reading The Hundred Dresses, but anyway.  In the book, the son (and I remember it being the son because I thought it was odd that a boy would care about such a thing) was talking about how proud he was that his parents didn't meet like Harry's or Sally's or John's parents - at their high school prom, in college, at work.  No, his parents actually had a story behind their meeting, a story worth telling, a story he was proud to share.  They met on a descending escalator in a mall - the dad, for whatever reason, was attempting to run up the escalator while his future wife was riding it down.  I don't really remember all the details, but I do remember thinking, 'Dang I wish my parents met on an escalator...they just found a matchmaker, met each other, and then got married.'

As amusing as that is now that I think about it, and how unlikely meeting the love of your life on a flight of mechanical stairs really is, that darn immutable, hopeless romantic side of me has longed for a "meet-cute" ever since.  I actually fantasize about it sometimes.  Maybe I'll be lost and ask some random stranger on the street for directions.  Maybe we'll get into a car accident (minor, of course) and by the time everything's all sorted out, well, you know.  Maybe we'll walk into Yogurtworld and I'll have to wait behind him, only to realize we're getting the exact same things - plain tart, asian peach tart, fruity pebbles, mochi, strawberries, and blueberries.  Cue cutesy music and witty conversation.  And of course, in each hypothetical scenario, this random stranger would turn out to be single.  And Korean. And...

Sad, isn't it?  How I totally swear like I'm a jaded, the-male-race-solely-consists-of-male-chauvinist-pigs, cynic type of girl with a head on her shoulders, but everytime something remotely close to a meet-cute happens (a bump on the shoulder, a glance on the shuttle), I envision a mini-series complete with k-drama worthy moments in my head.

So, so sad.

And the thing is, you probably won't end up having a meet-cute.  The most exciting thing that'll probably happen is you fall for the new intern at work or someone you sit next to in class.  But even that's a little unlikely; you'll probably end up with someone you've known from school, church, or mutual friends.  Probably not on an escalator.

Probably.

Because the world doesn't exactly play cutesy music when you first meet that person, and it's not exactly filled with eligible bachelors and bachelorettes running around, all candidly bumping into each other and falling in love.  And, most of all, because the underlying rule of all Mr. and Mrs. Moffat-esque meet-cutes seems to be that you can never know it's a meet-cute when it happens.

But.  It's fun to dream.

:)