It came to me at 2:17am while I was watching the 1974 British Open highlights on ESPN23. I was in a rut. I was bored. I needed some excitement. My job was going well, but was on autopilot for now. I wasn't dating anyone steadily, and with the cold and amount of snow outside I might as well be hibernating. I desperately needed
something.
I was about to go to bed when a blaring commercial caught my eye. There was a montage of groups of guys deep sea fishing, golfing, drinking beer, hooking up with gorgeous babes and most of all, having a blast. Shot at a luxurious, tropical vacation resort, the handsome and obviously successful pitchman, with a sexy blonde on his arm looking adoringly up at him, said, "Are you in a rut? Are you bored? Do you need some excitement? If you answered yes to any
one
of these questions you need a MANCATION!" Pointing his finger at me he continued, "And you need it NOW!"
"Yes!" I shouted and pumped my fist in the air. They repeated the phone number seven or eight times until it was seared into my brain. I called right away and the overtly sexy, yet courteous operator said the catalog and a DVD would be in my hands in a couple of days. I went to bed and dreamed of fun in the sun with the guys.
I jumped out of bed in the morning, called four of my friends and got them to agree to a mancation. I told them it would be a tropical trip, and that I'd handle the details and get back to them in a few days.
The catalog was in my mailbox when I got home from work, much later than normal as it turned out. I'd had to take care of a crisis and got home close to midnight. I changed clothes and finally sat down in my recliner with the catalog. The fire was blazing in front of me, and I was warm, maybe a little too warm, since I was already a bit drowsy. I soldiered on though, because I desperately wanted to select a destination for our mancation so I could book it tomorrow. I needed something real to look forward to.
I'd removed the awesome killer zombie DVD before I sat down and replaced it with the mancation DVD. Sitting in my chair with remote in hand, I pressed play and watched. The brief video made it seem like you were missing out on life itself if you didn't experience a mancation at least once. The video was a slick little piece and made me eager to get going.
There were mancations all over the globe, but I was set on tropical. I thumbed through the catalog. There were lots of cute vacation destination "names" like Zhi
man
tanejo, Cay
man
Islands,
Man
serrate,
Man
tinique, and
Man