No. 213 – Run to You

Performer: Bryan Adams

Songwriters: Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance

Original Release: single, Reckless

Year: 1984

Definitive Version: None.

I don’t know if she really was afraid of the concept, but I do know that Beth didn’t like this song, because she thought it might apply to us—and that she was the cold-loving woman I would run from into the arms of another. It didn’t apply to me … until two decades later.

After Bachelorette No. 1 famously flamed out by running off to hide at her mother’s in April 2004, Laura’s friend Kathy tried to make things right by setting me up with, as she put it, Bachelorette No. 2. My only stipulation was that Bachelorette No. 2 was a grownup. Kathy could make no guarantees. Well, fine. What better did I have to do?

Bachelorette No. 2 was a nurse at Riverside Methodist Hospital, although Kathy didn’t personally know her. She was a friend of a friend who had agreed to be set up—blindly again—with me. She had a name—Christie—and a pulse. I can work with that.

We met at Easton, and the attraction wasn’t as instant as it had been with Vicky, but Christie seemed OK. We went to Bar Louie, a chain bar that was new and hip at the time, and had a few drinks while we acquired sight of each other. I remember being less than impressed, but, hey, Christie had a pulse after all. Maybe it would get better after a while.

It didn’t, really. Christie and I went out for a while. We had some fun dates, but there never seemed to be any spark. One time, I even drove her almost to Zanesville at her request to go to an animal preserve where we could drive around in a safari-like tourbus to see giraffes and rhinos and such in the wild. Then I made dinner at her place.

It was all with the express intent that I would spend the night, but it didn’t happen. Apparently, she was less than impressed with me, too.

I don’t remember what we did on our last date, which I think was in June, but I knew that it would be our last date during the event itself. Our relationship had reached the point where I realized I’d rather be home by myself working on my computer than out with Christie. When that happens, you know it’s over.

Christie drove that night, and when she dropped me off at home, she said she would call me. If she had called, I would have told her I didn’t want to see her anymore, yet she never called, so that was that. It didn’t work out, but at least Christie was a grown-up about it.

We didn’t have that spark, but it didn’t help that while all that was going on, I was pining for someone else. Actually, I DID have something better to do—something of which no one else was aware at the time. You see, right as I began to go out with Christie, a longtime seemingly unattainable object of physical attraction suddenly became available for pursuit—and appeared to be interested.

Coincidentally, this flame lived not far from Christie, and I couldn’t help but want to be with her when I was in the area. So, yeah, I definitely understand what this song is about. I wasn’t interested in the sweet though cold unencumbered woman; I wanted the hot-blooded entangled woman. I wanted to run to … Janice.