Come To Think Of It . . .

Everyone has a story about Ecuador, right? Well, now that I just watched the Ecuadorians defeat a pesky squad from Poland in a World Cup opener for both teams, I remembered my Ecuador story. It's not great, but it's better than being the only slap in the conversation without a tale about such a fine country.

I lived with a cool cat named Tom for many years in Cincinnati. One of his dudes who had a weird last name just got out of a bad breakup and was looking for some companionship. Tom left for work, and when I was contemplating rolling down to the apartment complex pool, I looked out the window and saw Tom's boy Jeff already trying to claim some turf.

He talked to this gal for quite a while before coming back up to our place. He told me she was even cuter up close and was very cool to talk to. She was from Ecuador and staying with her brother for the summer.

Jeff left a short time later, allowing me a minute or two to dust off one of my history textbooks and read up on Ecuador. What a nation.

Anyway, Ecuador is where Mt. Chimborazo is, as well as a few other interesting things that, 10 years later, I cannot remember nor do I care to Google right now. I'm at work, ya know.

So I slithered down poolside, and Jeff was right, this girl was cute.

"Oh, you're from Ecuador? Wow. Chimborazo, eh? That's some mountain down there."

And it only took about 15 minutes of conversation before it dawned on me that she also might have been illegal.

So after she answered my age inquiry with a polite, "14," I didn't want to seem like my only motive was, well, I wanted to seem like there was no motive. So I talked to her for a few more minutes, made up that my girlfriend was coming over shortly and I'd better get going.