Well, it's been well over a year since I've last written. Whoops. I'm never going to catch up to current day at this pace. Hmmmm. Time to get back into the swing of it. What comes next in my story?
So now I am chosenly unemployed, have Sean as a roommate and the two of us are going out to karaoke bars six to seven nights a week. There are dozens of people that we know and hang out with at these bars, and we have a 'core' six or seven people that we are becoming friends with, and starting to associate with outside of the bar.
At this time I suppose one of the more relevant persons would have to be Karra. She was this attractive girl (single mother actually) in around her late twenties that we were starting to spend more and more time with. Actually, it was Sean mostly that was trying to spend time with her as he was trying to date her. Which incidently wasn't too difficult, as she seemed to come on to pretty much every fun/ sociable person at the bar. In fact, I think I am the only person from all the people we hung out with that she didn't come on to. This didn't bother me, but I did find it kind of curious. It's not that I was all that or anytyhing, but I was better looking and more outgoing and popular than at least half the persons that she came on to and/ or f#cked. She was good looking and pretty interesting, intelligent and fun, so I certainly wouldn't have minded getting in on some of that action. However, it is true that I was more laid back in my approach, and wasn't aggressive about getting laid like the rest of us guys that were part of the crowd. I did like getting laid as much as anyone, but I wasn't concerned about it enough to bother putting any effort into it. Anyway, I digress.
Karra hung out with us and 'the crowd' for a couple of months both at the bar, and at each other's houses, and at the time she was pretty relevant to us. But as far as the story goes, the only reason I'm giving her mention now is that she ended up being a 'bridge' that would soon connect us to much more relevant persons along our journeys. I'll get to that shortly.
There was one other reason I wanted to mention Karra as well, as it's relevant to a story I'm soon going to get to. As I mentioned, Sean was pursuing Karra for a relationship. Eventually they did start dating. But that didn't last long. Sean was really into Karra though, and was very happy to be in a relationship with her. The other girls I'd seen Sean with, they were pretty much 'casual' relationships, and more for just sex and some fun times. For Sean it was different with Karra. She was attractive, but also a pretty cool girl and intelligent. Sean viewed her more as 'a keeper'. Someone he could have a long term relationship with. I guess Karra didn't really view them that way though. They only dated three weeks. The first two weeks was still casual, - sex and fun and such. Then they supposedly started a 'real relationship'. As mentioned, Sean was quite happy about it. I guess Karra wasn't though, because less than a week later she started cancelling on Sean and spending the night with her ex-boyfriend. Only 'as friends' of course, 'nothing for Sean to be worried about'. But of course, she was f#cking her ex by the end of the week and pretty much dumped Sean. Karra would still be around for a number of months still, and she was still part of 'the crowd', but that was the end of their 'relationship'. That really did hurt Sean though. More than he liked to let on. I felt bad for him. This will have relevance in a future post.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Sean's Current Situation
Sean and me had similarities in what our current lives were, and we both wanted to escape the same way, by having tremendous fun with a lot of fun and crazy people. This made us good companions during that current journey of our lives.
Sean was a good guy to hang out with. We had interesting, intelligent, and fun converstaions. We could go to the bar and have a lot of fun having drinks, shooting pool, and flirting with the ladies. We fit in equally well whenever people (especially the girls) invited us to join them in whatever escapades that they had in mind. He was a good buddy. But we did have a lot of differences though. For one, Sean was pretty much a player. He would do anything, and/ or say anything if it meant getting laid. I mean by ANYBODY too. He had no standards. He dated and went out with some of the cutest and most attractive ladies on these bar scenes (mostly by charm, not by looks in my opinion), but he would also go home with and f#ck the fattest, ugliest chicks too if they came onto him at the end of the night. It's not that he was drunk either. We usually only drank about one pitcher of beer each when we were hanging out. He just had no standards. It was also a lot to do with his ego, and his insecurities for that matter. In some way, f#cking as many chicks as he possibly could made him think that 'he could get anyone he wanted' and therefore didn't need any one of them. Or something like that. At any rate, for all the cool and hot looking chicks that he would date and/ or f#ck, I couldn't believe how many ugly and/ or sloppy or 'stupid' chicks he would also f#ck. Even when he had good looking girlfriends, he would still cheat on them with most 'unimpressive' chicks at times. Somehow it 'proved' something to him.
Anyway, as decent as he was to have as a 'buddy', he was equally a complete asshole when it came to women that he was dating or especially used to date. It's like he had something to prove to every girl he was dating or ever did date. Something to prove to his own insecurities I think. But when it came to women, he was a complete jerk and an asshole.
this 'personality' with women is what led him to his current life's crisis. Sean used to be married and had two (or three) children. I cannot say what kind of a husband or a father he was back then, that was before I knew him. His wife was bipolar, which I know can be quite the 'challenge' to say the least. He did tell me stories about a lot of the 'psycho' things that she had done, and I believe them. Though I also believe that he was never as 'innocent' as he liked to let on during this time as well. Lord only knows what he did to prompt her 'psychotic episodes'. None of my business.
Anyway, while married, Sean was a young successful engineer. He was also a part-time law student. His life looked full of promise. Things were NOT good at all at home. This (amougst Lord knows what else) eventually led him to having an affair with a very attractive law student in his class. Eventually things got so insane at home that he left his wife and children for this hot law student that he was having an affair with.
This caused his wife the get really 'psycho'. She called the police on Sean and accussed him of all sorts of things including abandoning his kids (who were toddlers) while he was the only one looking after them, beating his wife, and all sorts of other things. These all turned out to be false accusations. It also helped that she left messages on his answering machine (which he kept) that she was going to accuse him of all these things if he didn't come back to her prior to her filing all these charges. She also did things like totally destroy their house, like kitchen cabinets, and walls, and things like that. It also caused her to call his work a number of times and causing troubles with his boss to try to get him fired. Things like that.
These charges all went to court but were all dropped due to the overwhelming evidence against her that she was just making it all up. She also accused him of 'stalking' her. Which according to Sean, she was the one stalking him. I only know his side of the story (and I do know that Sean is a liar), but I tend to believe him on this one. Anyway, due to her current 'mental' state and all the other sh!t that she charged Sean with, these charges weren't dropped (as the other ones were), but they were 'stayed'. Which means that they go 'dormant' and are ignored unless something happens to brings these charges back up again. Pretty much the court's discretion.
Well, this new 'love' of Sean's life though very attractive and a law student turns out to be quite the 'psycho' herself. I don't know what she had, but to listen to the stories that Sean told about her, she MUST have had some sort of mental condition. Anyway, she was super possessive, and violent, and her and Sean were ALWAYS fighting over something. (Actually all Sean ever seemed to do when in a relationship is to constantly fight and argue - usually over nothing except both of their mistrust and insecurities). Once again none of my business, and "don't care".
However, this eventually led Sean to dumping the girl that he dumped his wife and kids for.
Sean, being the dick to his ex's that he is, he just couldn't leave it at that and move on with his life (which at the time was still good - he still had his job, and career, and a very promising future). He did abandon his wife and kids for another woman though, which did leave him with a $700 monthly alimony payment after the divorce. Plus he had to fix or else pay to fix all of their things that his wife destroyed. But, all-in-all, his life was still in pretty good shape.
But like I say, Sean just cannot leave things alone. Not when it comes to women anyway. So what does he do? He goes on to try and rub it in his ex-girlfriends face that he is 'just fine' without her. So he gets an apartment in the same building that his ex-girlfriend does. And he goes out of his way to show her how great he is doing without her, and how much he doesn't need her. Knowing Sean, he probably went out of his way to flaunt any girls that he dated in front of her, and went out of his way to rub anything that he could infront of her face. That's just how Sean is around women. Especially ex's. He just can't help himself. He just has something to prove. What? I don't know. But something!
However, Sean's ex-girlfriend isn't as dumb as Sean when it comes to things like that. She is just as vindictive though. Actually, more so. You see, she was Sean's girlfriend and moral support while Sean was going through all the court battles with his wife. As he did rely on her for moral support during this time, he told her EVERYTHING that his wife was trying to pull, and EVERYTHING that was going on.
She being smart, vindictive, and a law student knew EXACTLY what to do to get back at Sean. She accused Sean of all the same charges that his wife charged him with. Now, there were TWO women (in a row) charging him with all the same charges. This caused the stayed charges from his wife to be reopened as well. Now he was screwed. And both women HATED him with a PASSION and wanted to see him burn in hell! So neither one was backing down from pressing these charges to the maximum penalty that they could get for him.
He got away with 'not-guilty' verdicts from his ex-girlfriend, but it cost his thousands and thousands of dollars in court costs. He also had a 'restraining order' so that he could not go within 100 yards (or so) of his ex-girlfriend. Which means he had to drop out of law school because she was going to the same school and in his classes. Then he still had his wife's 'felony stalking' charges to deal with. These court battles were going on while he was living at my place. This cost him thousands of dollars more and drained any money he had left in his savings. It also led to his being found 'guilty' of a felony which means he could never work as an engineer (a professional job) again.
I do believe that Sean was innocent of the felony charges that he was found 'guilty' of. But he was guilty of pushing these women to the point of hating him so much that they wanted to ruin him. And in the end, they did. All because he just couldn't leave it alone, and had to rub it in their faces how well he was doing without them. He may have been innocent, but he did deserve what he got. He just couldn't leave it alone...
I do remember, seeing we were really close friends at the time (and I was still out of work myself) going down to the courtroom with him during his trials (against his ex-wife). To offer moral support. Plus it was kind of interesting. He would wear his suit. I put on business casual clothes. His wife had two lawyers, and she stood up with them during the trial. Sean had one lawyer, and stood up with him as well. I (who walked in with Sean) sat in the front row of the court room. What was really funny is that seeing Sean was wearing his suit and standing up with his lawyer, the judge mistakenly thought that I was Sean, and that Sean was one of the lawyers.
So when the judge laid down the guilty verdict and was sentencing Sean to 30 days in jail he was staring at me and talking to me instead of Sean. He was giving me his sturnest look, and giving me (Sean) this LONG speech about how poorly he thought of what I had done, and how much I (Sean) should think very long and hard about it so as to not repeat it again. Meanwhile, I'm giving the judge the odd smile, and nudging my head towards Sean trying to tell the judge "Hey, it's not me. He's over there!" FINALLY, after the judge finishes his LONG and STERN speech, he finally asks if "YOU UNDERSTAND, MR. [Sean's last name]". Then Sean responds from where he was standing along the side with his lawyer, and FINALLY the judge whips his head around and starts talking at Sean instead of me!
I thought it was pretty funny. But I was also thinking, "Hey, I've done nothing. Why should I be the one getting the dirty looks and mean speech from the judge!" No problem though. I wasn't the one having to serve the sentence.
Sean was quite thankful I was there though. He didn't want to have to face that LONG and STERN speech, not to mention the complete look of disgust on the judge's face while delivering it. I endured that for him. What a friend! He owed me!
Sean was a good guy to hang out with. We had interesting, intelligent, and fun converstaions. We could go to the bar and have a lot of fun having drinks, shooting pool, and flirting with the ladies. We fit in equally well whenever people (especially the girls) invited us to join them in whatever escapades that they had in mind. He was a good buddy. But we did have a lot of differences though. For one, Sean was pretty much a player. He would do anything, and/ or say anything if it meant getting laid. I mean by ANYBODY too. He had no standards. He dated and went out with some of the cutest and most attractive ladies on these bar scenes (mostly by charm, not by looks in my opinion), but he would also go home with and f#ck the fattest, ugliest chicks too if they came onto him at the end of the night. It's not that he was drunk either. We usually only drank about one pitcher of beer each when we were hanging out. He just had no standards. It was also a lot to do with his ego, and his insecurities for that matter. In some way, f#cking as many chicks as he possibly could made him think that 'he could get anyone he wanted' and therefore didn't need any one of them. Or something like that. At any rate, for all the cool and hot looking chicks that he would date and/ or f#ck, I couldn't believe how many ugly and/ or sloppy or 'stupid' chicks he would also f#ck. Even when he had good looking girlfriends, he would still cheat on them with most 'unimpressive' chicks at times. Somehow it 'proved' something to him.
Anyway, as decent as he was to have as a 'buddy', he was equally a complete asshole when it came to women that he was dating or especially used to date. It's like he had something to prove to every girl he was dating or ever did date. Something to prove to his own insecurities I think. But when it came to women, he was a complete jerk and an asshole.
this 'personality' with women is what led him to his current life's crisis. Sean used to be married and had two (or three) children. I cannot say what kind of a husband or a father he was back then, that was before I knew him. His wife was bipolar, which I know can be quite the 'challenge' to say the least. He did tell me stories about a lot of the 'psycho' things that she had done, and I believe them. Though I also believe that he was never as 'innocent' as he liked to let on during this time as well. Lord only knows what he did to prompt her 'psychotic episodes'. None of my business.
Anyway, while married, Sean was a young successful engineer. He was also a part-time law student. His life looked full of promise. Things were NOT good at all at home. This (amougst Lord knows what else) eventually led him to having an affair with a very attractive law student in his class. Eventually things got so insane at home that he left his wife and children for this hot law student that he was having an affair with.
This caused his wife the get really 'psycho'. She called the police on Sean and accussed him of all sorts of things including abandoning his kids (who were toddlers) while he was the only one looking after them, beating his wife, and all sorts of other things. These all turned out to be false accusations. It also helped that she left messages on his answering machine (which he kept) that she was going to accuse him of all these things if he didn't come back to her prior to her filing all these charges. She also did things like totally destroy their house, like kitchen cabinets, and walls, and things like that. It also caused her to call his work a number of times and causing troubles with his boss to try to get him fired. Things like that.
These charges all went to court but were all dropped due to the overwhelming evidence against her that she was just making it all up. She also accused him of 'stalking' her. Which according to Sean, she was the one stalking him. I only know his side of the story (and I do know that Sean is a liar), but I tend to believe him on this one. Anyway, due to her current 'mental' state and all the other sh!t that she charged Sean with, these charges weren't dropped (as the other ones were), but they were 'stayed'. Which means that they go 'dormant' and are ignored unless something happens to brings these charges back up again. Pretty much the court's discretion.
Well, this new 'love' of Sean's life though very attractive and a law student turns out to be quite the 'psycho' herself. I don't know what she had, but to listen to the stories that Sean told about her, she MUST have had some sort of mental condition. Anyway, she was super possessive, and violent, and her and Sean were ALWAYS fighting over something. (Actually all Sean ever seemed to do when in a relationship is to constantly fight and argue - usually over nothing except both of their mistrust and insecurities). Once again none of my business, and "don't care".
However, this eventually led Sean to dumping the girl that he dumped his wife and kids for.
Sean, being the dick to his ex's that he is, he just couldn't leave it at that and move on with his life (which at the time was still good - he still had his job, and career, and a very promising future). He did abandon his wife and kids for another woman though, which did leave him with a $700 monthly alimony payment after the divorce. Plus he had to fix or else pay to fix all of their things that his wife destroyed. But, all-in-all, his life was still in pretty good shape.
But like I say, Sean just cannot leave things alone. Not when it comes to women anyway. So what does he do? He goes on to try and rub it in his ex-girlfriends face that he is 'just fine' without her. So he gets an apartment in the same building that his ex-girlfriend does. And he goes out of his way to show her how great he is doing without her, and how much he doesn't need her. Knowing Sean, he probably went out of his way to flaunt any girls that he dated in front of her, and went out of his way to rub anything that he could infront of her face. That's just how Sean is around women. Especially ex's. He just can't help himself. He just has something to prove. What? I don't know. But something!
However, Sean's ex-girlfriend isn't as dumb as Sean when it comes to things like that. She is just as vindictive though. Actually, more so. You see, she was Sean's girlfriend and moral support while Sean was going through all the court battles with his wife. As he did rely on her for moral support during this time, he told her EVERYTHING that his wife was trying to pull, and EVERYTHING that was going on.
She being smart, vindictive, and a law student knew EXACTLY what to do to get back at Sean. She accused Sean of all the same charges that his wife charged him with. Now, there were TWO women (in a row) charging him with all the same charges. This caused the stayed charges from his wife to be reopened as well. Now he was screwed. And both women HATED him with a PASSION and wanted to see him burn in hell! So neither one was backing down from pressing these charges to the maximum penalty that they could get for him.
He got away with 'not-guilty' verdicts from his ex-girlfriend, but it cost his thousands and thousands of dollars in court costs. He also had a 'restraining order' so that he could not go within 100 yards (or so) of his ex-girlfriend. Which means he had to drop out of law school because she was going to the same school and in his classes. Then he still had his wife's 'felony stalking' charges to deal with. These court battles were going on while he was living at my place. This cost him thousands of dollars more and drained any money he had left in his savings. It also led to his being found 'guilty' of a felony which means he could never work as an engineer (a professional job) again.
I do believe that Sean was innocent of the felony charges that he was found 'guilty' of. But he was guilty of pushing these women to the point of hating him so much that they wanted to ruin him. And in the end, they did. All because he just couldn't leave it alone, and had to rub it in their faces how well he was doing without them. He may have been innocent, but he did deserve what he got. He just couldn't leave it alone...
I do remember, seeing we were really close friends at the time (and I was still out of work myself) going down to the courtroom with him during his trials (against his ex-wife). To offer moral support. Plus it was kind of interesting. He would wear his suit. I put on business casual clothes. His wife had two lawyers, and she stood up with them during the trial. Sean had one lawyer, and stood up with him as well. I (who walked in with Sean) sat in the front row of the court room. What was really funny is that seeing Sean was wearing his suit and standing up with his lawyer, the judge mistakenly thought that I was Sean, and that Sean was one of the lawyers.
So when the judge laid down the guilty verdict and was sentencing Sean to 30 days in jail he was staring at me and talking to me instead of Sean. He was giving me his sturnest look, and giving me (Sean) this LONG speech about how poorly he thought of what I had done, and how much I (Sean) should think very long and hard about it so as to not repeat it again. Meanwhile, I'm giving the judge the odd smile, and nudging my head towards Sean trying to tell the judge "Hey, it's not me. He's over there!" FINALLY, after the judge finishes his LONG and STERN speech, he finally asks if "YOU UNDERSTAND, MR. [Sean's last name]". Then Sean responds from where he was standing along the side with his lawyer, and FINALLY the judge whips his head around and starts talking at Sean instead of me!
I thought it was pretty funny. But I was also thinking, "Hey, I've done nothing. Why should I be the one getting the dirty looks and mean speech from the judge!" No problem though. I wasn't the one having to serve the sentence.
Sean was quite thankful I was there though. He didn't want to have to face that LONG and STERN speech, not to mention the complete look of disgust on the judge's face while delivering it. I endured that for him. What a friend! He owed me!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Genetics Gone Wrong?
If I ever want to get to the more fun posts, I've got to start writing more than one post a week. I wasn't even going to write about this one, but it is more good background information on people in 'this environment'.
I guess I was starting to become more popular at this point. Or at least more noticed anyway. The first day that Sean was out of the hospital and staying at my place we were sitting around in the afternoon watching movies that he had. We were watching "Road Trip", and "Chasing Amy" this particular day.
The phone rang. I answered. It was this chick named Robin that phoned 'to inquire about how Sean is doing' but then procededed to talk to me for the next two hours (even though Sean was sitting next to me on the couch). For the first hour I had no idea who this was that I was talking to. At first I thought that it may be the girl that we referred to as "Troll Robin". Who was a very nice person, and one of the people that we hung out with, but she really did look somewhat like a short pudgy troll. I wasn't interested in her, so really wasn't that much into the conversation. Sean was giving me the 'who is that?' look, and I was shrugging my shoulders and giving the 'I don't really know' look. Then I all-of-a-suddenly clued in and realized who I was talking to. Robin was this decent looking chick in her mid-thirties that worked as a server at Eldorados bar. Okay. She was pretty good looking, and I would f#ck her. So then I perked up a little bit in the conversation. We talked for about another hour, - blah, blah, blah, blah, - then hung up. We had to put the movie "Road Trip" back in because I missed the whole thing. (Great movie by the way.)
After that Robin started calling me pretty much every day. I would see her at Eldo's and we would talk there as well. She kept talking about 'hanging out', and I agreed that it would be a good idea. Eventually we went out together a few times. The first time was to an outdoor concert, - Billy Squire, Bad Finger, and Styx. That was fun. We had some drinks at her place first. She got drunk (she was pretty much a light-weight) then we went to the concert and had a good time. We went out a few other times, like to Buckeye Lake to go boating with her father. That was also fun. We'd make out some afterwards, and talked about wanting to have sex with one another, but she kept wanting to 'hold off' on it. Fine by me. I would ask her to stay the night, but also wasn't pressed about it. She wasn't someone that I was actually 'interested' in.
After a few times of seeing her and talking to her 'all the time' when she called me on the phone, I quickly began to realize that as much as she talked (and talked and talked and talked) she never actually had ANYTHING to say. I mean, it really started sounding like a constant droning, or buzz in the ear. Everything she talked about was whining about this or that, and it was never anything of any relevance. On the phone, I wouldn't even say anything for several minutes at a time and she would just keep talking and talking and talking. A few times I put the phone down, and then picked it up about 10 minutes later and she was still just talking and talking and talking. She didn't even know that I wasn't on the phone.
I remember the last time that I did something with her was when she called me up and asked if I wanted to go to an afternoon movie at the second run theater (the cheap theaters). We went. We saw the move "Blow". It was a good movie. She was talking about the movie afterwards, I could tell she didn't even 'get' that movie. What's not to get? She really wasn't very bright, and really wasn't very interesting. When I first started talking to her, and hanging out with her, I figured she was just one more person to hang out and do things with. Now I realized that I would rather spend time alone than to spend time with her. I decided to myself that I didn't even want to have sex with her anymore, and didn't want to spend any more time with her, and ESPECIALLY didn't want to have to listen to her anymore.
I probably should have just told her that then and there. But, seeing she worked at Eldo's and knew (but wasn't really friends with) all the karaoke people that I knew, I just let it go. I did tell her the next time she called me that I didn't think that we should 'date' anymore and that I just wasn't 'feeling it'. I agreed that we were still friends though and could continue talking to one another. Big mistake!
I didn't see her anymore, except for at Eldo's Thursday and Sunday nights during karaoke while she worked. But she continued to call me on the phone pretty much every day. Same as before, she would just talk and talk and talk and never say ANYTHING! It didn't matter if it were me or Sean who answered the phone either. She would talk AT whomever answered. She was a nice enough person, and neither me nor Sean had the heart to tell her to leave us alone, but we seriously began screening our phone calls and would NEVER answer if it was Robin. When we did slip up and answer the phone, we could never get her off the line. We would give all the 'bored' indications. Even be somewhat rude, and several times say, "Well, I've got to go now...", but she just wouldn't stop talking! She never ever even stopped to take a breath. You really did have to say, very quickly, "Okay, gotta go now!", then hang up really quick before she could respond.
It took months of us not answering when she called, and never calling her back for her to eventually stop calling us. Once again, not exactly an exciting post, but I just wanted to bitch about it because it was such a PAINFUL and drawn out experience.
I think she was just a lonely person. Actually, it seemed to be a 'family' thing. She had a brother that was one of the karaoke 'regulars'. (But definitely NOT one of the more 'popular' ones.) He was at the VIP and Eldo's every karaoke night just like the rest of us. He went by the nick name 'Mr. Happy'. His real name was Todd. Everyone knew him to say 'hi' and he was welcome at our tables on karaoke night. But he didn't seem to have any REAL friends. He never had any money either, because he hadn't worked in years. Apparently he was in the militiary during Desert Storm and 'apparently' had some sort of disability because of it. He was always going to court, trying to get money out of the government for it, but never got any (besides a military pension of some sort) due to the fact that nobody could prove there was any 'disabilities' or anything wrong with him for that matter. He was one of karaoke people that went to karaoke every night and only drank water (there were a few of them). Long after I stopped seeing his sister, he would call me up (because I was 'dating' his sister) and ask to borrow $20. Now, I knew lots of people that would ask to borrow $10 or $20 until payday (like for a few days). But Mr. Happy would call me up in (say) March, and ask to borrow $20 until July. Who does that? The first time I did loan him the $20. Oddly enough, he really did pay it back a few months later as promised. Still, I didn't loan him any more money after the first time. About a year later, he was hanging out with one of my roommates. (She was a fun person but REALLY dense though.) Anyway, he asked to borrow money from me again. I said, "no". But, it was a nice sunny Saturday afternoon and I was finally planning to pull the knee high weeds that completely covered my front flower bed. (I was back to work by this time too.) I didn't want to do it. It would take about four hours. So instead of loaning him money, I told him that I would give him $40 if he pulled all my weeds for me. Of course he stammered through his refusal, and cited some sort of 'bad back' or something. It figures. I went and pulled them myself.
It's funny. Both him and Robin were two of the most lonely people that I had ever met. Desperate to talk to people but just didn't seem to know 'how' to talk. Yet they wouldn't talk to one another. I don't know why. It went back for years though. I became aware of this one time when I was still hanging out with Robin and went to her father's house for some sort of dinner party. The other weird thing is that both of them were also super lazy, super whiney, and super dumb. BUT their dad was a really smart and really hard working engineer that owned his own (small) engineering company. Figure that one out. Some sort of genetics gone wrong I suppose. Oh well. One of life's many mysteries...
I guess I was starting to become more popular at this point. Or at least more noticed anyway. The first day that Sean was out of the hospital and staying at my place we were sitting around in the afternoon watching movies that he had. We were watching "Road Trip", and "Chasing Amy" this particular day.
The phone rang. I answered. It was this chick named Robin that phoned 'to inquire about how Sean is doing' but then procededed to talk to me for the next two hours (even though Sean was sitting next to me on the couch). For the first hour I had no idea who this was that I was talking to. At first I thought that it may be the girl that we referred to as "Troll Robin". Who was a very nice person, and one of the people that we hung out with, but she really did look somewhat like a short pudgy troll. I wasn't interested in her, so really wasn't that much into the conversation. Sean was giving me the 'who is that?' look, and I was shrugging my shoulders and giving the 'I don't really know' look. Then I all-of-a-suddenly clued in and realized who I was talking to. Robin was this decent looking chick in her mid-thirties that worked as a server at Eldorados bar. Okay. She was pretty good looking, and I would f#ck her. So then I perked up a little bit in the conversation. We talked for about another hour, - blah, blah, blah, blah, - then hung up. We had to put the movie "Road Trip" back in because I missed the whole thing. (Great movie by the way.)
After that Robin started calling me pretty much every day. I would see her at Eldo's and we would talk there as well. She kept talking about 'hanging out', and I agreed that it would be a good idea. Eventually we went out together a few times. The first time was to an outdoor concert, - Billy Squire, Bad Finger, and Styx. That was fun. We had some drinks at her place first. She got drunk (she was pretty much a light-weight) then we went to the concert and had a good time. We went out a few other times, like to Buckeye Lake to go boating with her father. That was also fun. We'd make out some afterwards, and talked about wanting to have sex with one another, but she kept wanting to 'hold off' on it. Fine by me. I would ask her to stay the night, but also wasn't pressed about it. She wasn't someone that I was actually 'interested' in.
After a few times of seeing her and talking to her 'all the time' when she called me on the phone, I quickly began to realize that as much as she talked (and talked and talked and talked) she never actually had ANYTHING to say. I mean, it really started sounding like a constant droning, or buzz in the ear. Everything she talked about was whining about this or that, and it was never anything of any relevance. On the phone, I wouldn't even say anything for several minutes at a time and she would just keep talking and talking and talking. A few times I put the phone down, and then picked it up about 10 minutes later and she was still just talking and talking and talking. She didn't even know that I wasn't on the phone.
I remember the last time that I did something with her was when she called me up and asked if I wanted to go to an afternoon movie at the second run theater (the cheap theaters). We went. We saw the move "Blow". It was a good movie. She was talking about the movie afterwards, I could tell she didn't even 'get' that movie. What's not to get? She really wasn't very bright, and really wasn't very interesting. When I first started talking to her, and hanging out with her, I figured she was just one more person to hang out and do things with. Now I realized that I would rather spend time alone than to spend time with her. I decided to myself that I didn't even want to have sex with her anymore, and didn't want to spend any more time with her, and ESPECIALLY didn't want to have to listen to her anymore.
I probably should have just told her that then and there. But, seeing she worked at Eldo's and knew (but wasn't really friends with) all the karaoke people that I knew, I just let it go. I did tell her the next time she called me that I didn't think that we should 'date' anymore and that I just wasn't 'feeling it'. I agreed that we were still friends though and could continue talking to one another. Big mistake!
I didn't see her anymore, except for at Eldo's Thursday and Sunday nights during karaoke while she worked. But she continued to call me on the phone pretty much every day. Same as before, she would just talk and talk and talk and never say ANYTHING! It didn't matter if it were me or Sean who answered the phone either. She would talk AT whomever answered. She was a nice enough person, and neither me nor Sean had the heart to tell her to leave us alone, but we seriously began screening our phone calls and would NEVER answer if it was Robin. When we did slip up and answer the phone, we could never get her off the line. We would give all the 'bored' indications. Even be somewhat rude, and several times say, "Well, I've got to go now...", but she just wouldn't stop talking! She never ever even stopped to take a breath. You really did have to say, very quickly, "Okay, gotta go now!", then hang up really quick before she could respond.
It took months of us not answering when she called, and never calling her back for her to eventually stop calling us. Once again, not exactly an exciting post, but I just wanted to bitch about it because it was such a PAINFUL and drawn out experience.
I think she was just a lonely person. Actually, it seemed to be a 'family' thing. She had a brother that was one of the karaoke 'regulars'. (But definitely NOT one of the more 'popular' ones.) He was at the VIP and Eldo's every karaoke night just like the rest of us. He went by the nick name 'Mr. Happy'. His real name was Todd. Everyone knew him to say 'hi' and he was welcome at our tables on karaoke night. But he didn't seem to have any REAL friends. He never had any money either, because he hadn't worked in years. Apparently he was in the militiary during Desert Storm and 'apparently' had some sort of disability because of it. He was always going to court, trying to get money out of the government for it, but never got any (besides a military pension of some sort) due to the fact that nobody could prove there was any 'disabilities' or anything wrong with him for that matter. He was one of karaoke people that went to karaoke every night and only drank water (there were a few of them). Long after I stopped seeing his sister, he would call me up (because I was 'dating' his sister) and ask to borrow $20. Now, I knew lots of people that would ask to borrow $10 or $20 until payday (like for a few days). But Mr. Happy would call me up in (say) March, and ask to borrow $20 until July. Who does that? The first time I did loan him the $20. Oddly enough, he really did pay it back a few months later as promised. Still, I didn't loan him any more money after the first time. About a year later, he was hanging out with one of my roommates. (She was a fun person but REALLY dense though.) Anyway, he asked to borrow money from me again. I said, "no". But, it was a nice sunny Saturday afternoon and I was finally planning to pull the knee high weeds that completely covered my front flower bed. (I was back to work by this time too.) I didn't want to do it. It would take about four hours. So instead of loaning him money, I told him that I would give him $40 if he pulled all my weeds for me. Of course he stammered through his refusal, and cited some sort of 'bad back' or something. It figures. I went and pulled them myself.
It's funny. Both him and Robin were two of the most lonely people that I had ever met. Desperate to talk to people but just didn't seem to know 'how' to talk. Yet they wouldn't talk to one another. I don't know why. It went back for years though. I became aware of this one time when I was still hanging out with Robin and went to her father's house for some sort of dinner party. The other weird thing is that both of them were also super lazy, super whiney, and super dumb. BUT their dad was a really smart and really hard working engineer that owned his own (small) engineering company. Figure that one out. Some sort of genetics gone wrong I suppose. Oh well. One of life's many mysteries...
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
My First Roommate
Like I mentioned in my prior post, Sean was the first of the karaoke crowd that I had met at the VIP. I guess I met a bunch of them all around the same time, but Sean was the one I started hanging out with first. We met shooting pool. Then when me and Bill started going to Eldorados (down the street a ways) on their karaoke nights (Thurs and Sundays), Sean was also there. Then the first Friday night that me and Bill went to that karaoke show (at a bar called Dino's), the first person we seen when we walked in the door was Sean. That's probably the first night the three of us started actually hanging out together.
Me and Sean had immediate connections due to the similar circumstances of our current lives. Sean had an Engineering degree and worked as an Engineer/ supervisor at a soap manufacturing plant. I was a Business Systems Analyst with a Computer Science degree. So we were both career professionals with a technical background and job. Sean had also been a part-time law student, but had to quit that due to some f#cked up sh!t he got himself into with his ex-girfriend (related to issues with his wife as well - I'll talk about that another time). Sean had split from his wife in the past year (actually he left her though) and she had bipolar disorder. A VERY mood altering disorder. I split with my wife just recently, and she had clinical depression and Attention Deficit Disorder. Also mood altering conditions. We both had very successful careers up until the last year, and were now both having f#cked up problems with our jobs, and taking crap and blame for things that we shouldn't be, and that were beyond our control.
The thing that truly 'endeared us' (in a totally 'manly way' of course) was when Sean asked me, "What was in your jacket pocket?" We both empties our jackets and both had the EXACT same things in each. A condom, breath spray, and a karaoke slip with some girl's name and number written on the back of it. That was hilarious.
Anyway, Me and Bill and Sean started hanging out together after that. Sean would even call me me from work (because I was still on 'the bench' and didn't have to report to the office) near the end of his shift and we would chat and then meet up later afterwards. Then I got laid off (along with about 50 other employees that were not attached to projects). About two weeks later, Sean got fired for 'falling asleep at work'. He says it's because he was allergic to the soap products they were manufacturing, which I think was partly true, but it was also because he was also staying out at the bars until 3:00am every night as well. Mostly we both got let go because someone of greater influence than us took dislikes to us (for their own reasons) during our last projects. Prior to that, we were both deemed 'high performers' at work, and used to get the praise of all our peers.
Like I mentioned earlier, I still didn't have my head or my life on straight due to my marriage collapsing as it did, and seeing the technology market had bottomed out, and the fact that I had a lot of cash on hand, I decided to not work for a while. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I did know that I needed time to sort things out in my life. I had just bought my house eight months earlier, so couldn't leave Columbus. So I just existed for a while.
Like I also mentioned earlier, Bill was starting to become a 'nuisance' at the bars because once he got drunk he would turn into a 'hood boy' and just not fit into the environments of these 'non-hood' bars. That was temporarily solved by Bill having to spend 30 days in jail due to something he got into a year earlier.
So now me and Sean were hanging out every night. It's Sean that introduced me to the rest of the 'karaoke circuit'. Though I had already met a number of them. But there were about 20 karaoke regulars that followed the same karaoke show night after night. Monday night was Rosie's, Tuesdays was Shorty's, Wednesdays was the VIP, Thursdays was Eldorados, Fridays was Dino's, Saturdays was back to the VIP, and Sundays was back to Eldorados.
After the bars closed, I used to go home to bed so I could get up and work (or study) in the morning, but now I didn't have work anymore. So, on the second night that I was no longer working, Heidi (a girl that I had been getting to know) asked me if I wanted to go to TJ's with them. It was a popular 24 hour breakfast joint that they often frequented. I replied, "Why not? I don't have anything better to do." So I went to TJ's with Sean, Heidi, Bass Dave, Robin (Troll), and (Moody) Gina (not the one that you know Kelley - in case you are reading). Five of the karaoke regulars. The first week hanging out with Sean, he had introduced me to ALL of the karaoke crowd. I pretty much was now a member (even though I didn't sing).
A couple weeks later, Sean had to have overnight surgery to repair a deviated septum (or something like that). He had to take advantage of his former company's benefits before they ran out. Apparently, the recovery would take about a week, and he was supposed to pretty much not move at all for that week. So it was recommended that he not stay alone during his recovery. He wasn't seeing Smiley anymore, but was trying to see if he could stay with another girl that he was starting to mix up with. That fell through, so I told him he could stay at my house for the week. After all, I had a fully furnished four bedroom house, and it's not like I had anything better to do during the day. So he stayed at my house that week. He had just bought the game 'Vanishing Point', a fun racecar game. We basically played that several hours every day. We got along so well, and enjoyed the company and conversation so much, he just never left. So Sean became my first roommate.
I know, not exactly an 'exciting' post but it's background information. There are plenty of more interesting stories related to Sean, and it's through him I initially met a lot of the other people that I will be relaying stories about.
There would be more to follow, but we'll get to that eventually.
Me and Sean had immediate connections due to the similar circumstances of our current lives. Sean had an Engineering degree and worked as an Engineer/ supervisor at a soap manufacturing plant. I was a Business Systems Analyst with a Computer Science degree. So we were both career professionals with a technical background and job. Sean had also been a part-time law student, but had to quit that due to some f#cked up sh!t he got himself into with his ex-girfriend (related to issues with his wife as well - I'll talk about that another time). Sean had split from his wife in the past year (actually he left her though) and she had bipolar disorder. A VERY mood altering disorder. I split with my wife just recently, and she had clinical depression and Attention Deficit Disorder. Also mood altering conditions. We both had very successful careers up until the last year, and were now both having f#cked up problems with our jobs, and taking crap and blame for things that we shouldn't be, and that were beyond our control.
The thing that truly 'endeared us' (in a totally 'manly way' of course) was when Sean asked me, "What was in your jacket pocket?" We both empties our jackets and both had the EXACT same things in each. A condom, breath spray, and a karaoke slip with some girl's name and number written on the back of it. That was hilarious.
Anyway, Me and Bill and Sean started hanging out together after that. Sean would even call me me from work (because I was still on 'the bench' and didn't have to report to the office) near the end of his shift and we would chat and then meet up later afterwards. Then I got laid off (along with about 50 other employees that were not attached to projects). About two weeks later, Sean got fired for 'falling asleep at work'. He says it's because he was allergic to the soap products they were manufacturing, which I think was partly true, but it was also because he was also staying out at the bars until 3:00am every night as well. Mostly we both got let go because someone of greater influence than us took dislikes to us (for their own reasons) during our last projects. Prior to that, we were both deemed 'high performers' at work, and used to get the praise of all our peers.
Like I mentioned earlier, I still didn't have my head or my life on straight due to my marriage collapsing as it did, and seeing the technology market had bottomed out, and the fact that I had a lot of cash on hand, I decided to not work for a while. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I did know that I needed time to sort things out in my life. I had just bought my house eight months earlier, so couldn't leave Columbus. So I just existed for a while.
Like I also mentioned earlier, Bill was starting to become a 'nuisance' at the bars because once he got drunk he would turn into a 'hood boy' and just not fit into the environments of these 'non-hood' bars. That was temporarily solved by Bill having to spend 30 days in jail due to something he got into a year earlier.
So now me and Sean were hanging out every night. It's Sean that introduced me to the rest of the 'karaoke circuit'. Though I had already met a number of them. But there were about 20 karaoke regulars that followed the same karaoke show night after night. Monday night was Rosie's, Tuesdays was Shorty's, Wednesdays was the VIP, Thursdays was Eldorados, Fridays was Dino's, Saturdays was back to the VIP, and Sundays was back to Eldorados.
After the bars closed, I used to go home to bed so I could get up and work (or study) in the morning, but now I didn't have work anymore. So, on the second night that I was no longer working, Heidi (a girl that I had been getting to know) asked me if I wanted to go to TJ's with them. It was a popular 24 hour breakfast joint that they often frequented. I replied, "Why not? I don't have anything better to do." So I went to TJ's with Sean, Heidi, Bass Dave, Robin (Troll), and (Moody) Gina (not the one that you know Kelley - in case you are reading). Five of the karaoke regulars. The first week hanging out with Sean, he had introduced me to ALL of the karaoke crowd. I pretty much was now a member (even though I didn't sing).
A couple weeks later, Sean had to have overnight surgery to repair a deviated septum (or something like that). He had to take advantage of his former company's benefits before they ran out. Apparently, the recovery would take about a week, and he was supposed to pretty much not move at all for that week. So it was recommended that he not stay alone during his recovery. He wasn't seeing Smiley anymore, but was trying to see if he could stay with another girl that he was starting to mix up with. That fell through, so I told him he could stay at my house for the week. After all, I had a fully furnished four bedroom house, and it's not like I had anything better to do during the day. So he stayed at my house that week. He had just bought the game 'Vanishing Point', a fun racecar game. We basically played that several hours every day. We got along so well, and enjoyed the company and conversation so much, he just never left. So Sean became my first roommate.
I know, not exactly an 'exciting' post but it's background information. There are plenty of more interesting stories related to Sean, and it's through him I initially met a lot of the other people that I will be relaying stories about.
There would be more to follow, but we'll get to that eventually.
Friday, April 24, 2009
The Death of Superman
Well, me and my black eye (from the Jeff and Jack fiasco) were back in Canada for Christmas. Actually I wasn't 'home' which would be Manitoba. I was in Calgary (where my brother was living). My brother had to work through Christmas so couldn't go home. The parents decided to visit him for Christmas because they were in Columbus a few years earlier (also when my brother had to work at Christmas). Originally me and my wife were supposed to spend a nice quiet Christmas alone together. We were looking forward to it. Well, obviously that was no longer the case, so I flew to Calgary also.
It was also obvious that Melanie was no longer going to pick me up at the airport when I returned to Columbus, and that we weren't going to spend New Year's together as originally planned. Oh well. So Bill picked me up at the airport (in a borrowed car). After we got my car and dropped the borrowed one off, we went to the VIP which was having a huge New Year's Eve celebration. It was a friday night. Not a karoke night, but it was PACKED with fun patrons and a huge party none-the-less. What a good time!
The first of the karoke crowd that I had met playing pool was a guy named Sean. I'll write a separate post about him in more detail later. Sean was 26 years old, was a career professional (like me) whos life was in the process of spinning out of control. So we had a connection right away. I can't say that he was an attractive man. In fact, I found him somewhat unattractive. He was soft and a little fat, and had a baby face. He was VERY outgoing though and could sing fairly well. I think that was the attraction for women. I think the baby face and roundly softness invoked some sort of 'maternal instinct' in the ladies at these bars too. That's just a theory though. BUT for whatever reason, most of the ladies were widely attracted to him. In fact, he was there that night with Smiley, who he was 'sort of' seeing. They called themselves girlfriend/ boyfriend, but I think it was more of a f#ck buddy relationship actually. They did date for a couple of weeks though and she was his date this particular evening. We all sat and partied together that night. We were all having a ball!
Bill was getting hammered, but seeing I was driving I had only about one pitcher of beer for the entire evening. One amusing thing about this night that I remember was that Mark (YoBoy) had a pot luck type spread of food at the back table. It was quite good. In a large crock pot was some sort of sausage-stew type of concoction that he had personally made. It was quite good. At one point, Mark goes over to Bill and says, "Hey Bill! Try some of this food that I made. It's really quite tasty!" As usual, talking to him like they were old best buddies. The funny thing is that Bill, though would talk to him, usually talked fairly down to him. He's really the one that continued to give Mark a hard time after our initial encounter. Mind you, I found it all funny, and did my share of disrespecting him as well. Mostly with just going along with, or laughing about the things Bill would say about Mark. But mostly, I was trying to 'smooth over' the relationship between me and Mark, given the fact that he owned the bar, and it was our absolutely FAVOURITE bar (for good reason). Anyway, I was sitting next to Bill when Mark made the food comment to him. He didn't even acknowledge my presence. Later I went and had some food, and whatever that stuff Mark made was, it was really good! Trying to be nice, I said to Mark, "Hey Mark. This stuff is really good! What's in it?" He looks at me with complete disdain, and replies in a grumpy tone, "Sausage." I say, "Oh,.....Just sausage?" He says back in the same grumpy tone, "Yes, sausage. Just sausage!" Whatever. At least I tried. I went back to my seat and told Bill and we laughed about that as well. Then made more fun of Mark while laughing. GFX looked pretty damned HOT that night I may add, and I did do my fair share of fraternizing with her as well. I always had to subtly flirt with her. That was a given.
Anyway the night was total fun. Great times were had by all. Near the end of the night me and Bill were heading out of there. Like I say, I was pretty sober but Bill was completely smashed. We headed South on High street (which is a major road that the bar was on). We went two blocks and I noticed when we went through a greeen light that the green glow of the light showed that my windshield was starting to fog up. So I reached down and put on the front defogger. In the two or three seconds it took me to do that, whilst I had my eyes of the road, Bill all-of-a-suddenly yelled, "Car! Car!" I quickly looked up, and at the EXACT moment I took my eyes of the road, the car a little ahead of us came to a very sudden stop due to the fact a car in front of them was waiting to turn left into the Huntington bank ATM drive through. I SLAMMED on my brakes! But it was too late. We nailed them from behind still travelling about 20 mph. They were in an older (solidly built) car. The bumper of my neon was lower to the ground than the back of their car. My front end hit and crumpled in like paper. We came to a VERY sudden stop into the rear bumper of their car.
We got out of my car. Out of the car that we hit emerged two cute little college-aged chickadees wearing their little fancy party dresses. They were both drunk. Bill walked over to them all drunk and his usual 'drooley', meanwhile I called him to 'step back'. Then, before I could address them, the chicky that was the driver said to me, "We don't have to report this or anything!" Knowing that I rear-ended them and would automatically be at fault, replied, "No. I don't see a need to report this." They were drunk and I was sober, but even a pitcher or so of beer would probably been enough to put me over the 'legal driving under the influence' limit. So I didn't want police involvement any more that they did.
As soon as I replied, they immediately jumped (I mean jumped) into their car and sped off. I didn't even have a chance to exchange any driver, insurance, or vehicle information. I couldn't see any visible damage to their car what-so-ever. Meanwhile my car was a crumpled mess stuck in the middle of the road. One headlight was smashed, the other was pointing at a 45 degree angle to the road. The car wouldn't even start. So we pushed the car off the road and into the gas station to our right. After a few minutes of looking under the hood (which was wadded up in the shape of a paper ball), we had realized that one battery cable had been knocked off. We reattached that, tried the ignition and the car started back up to life.
I was in a pretty pissed off mood. We both were. Actually Bill probably just used it as an excuse, but said, "F#ck this! That's it, we're going down to the hood and getting some stuff!" I agreed. This isn't how my night was going to end. So we took my crumpled heap of a car with one headlight smashed and one headlight facing directly into the pavement on New Year's Eve (or more like the morning of the New Year) into the North Hood to buy some crack. Fuck the tiny amounts. We bought a whole eight-ball. Which is 1/8 of an once (hence the name). (8-ball = 1/8 of an once, Teenager = 1/16 of an once, a Bill is $100 worth., everything esle is pretty much sold in multiples of $10.) We went to Pork's house. He's a dealer that works with Dave. (Him and Dave grew up together.) I said, "F#ck it! I'm not waiting in the car. I'm going in there and doing this deal myself!" Bill says, "Okay, G, let's go in and do it then!" Pork had never seen me before, and seeing I still had that corporate image about me, it made a lot of people from the hood that didn't know me think I may be a cop. So Pork pulls out this automatic weapon and points it at me. I didn't even care. I was still pissed off about my car. Pork says, "I'm not trusting him until I see him do a hit." I look around and say, "Well I'm not going to waste my time with a pop can, I need a real stem then." Pork hands me one loaded with a small hit and I do it. I'm not even paying attention to the gun he's pointing at me. He puts his weapon down and spreads out $150 worth. (Incidently, in Columbus the going rate for an 8-ball is $150. From what I understand it costs about $240 in Canada. Not that I care anyway. I haven't had any desire to use for years now. Just found the price difference noteable.)
So we drove my car all the way into the North Hood, then drove it all the way back to my part of town where we started from, and blazed this 8-ball of crack until about 7:00am. It was the first time that I had ever done a quantity more than about $20 at a time. No big deal though. We still only did small hits at a time and therefore didn't have any of the 'weird' side effects. On Sunday afternoon I called my insurance company and reported that I had hit a guardrail. After all, I didn't have any information at all to give them about the other vehicle or driver anyway.
That worked out pretty good. Later that week the insurance company wrote off my vehicle and gave me a $5,000 cheque for my 1996 (black) dodge neon with 80,000 miles on it. They appraised it at $5,500, but it cost $500 for them to haul it away for me. I could have kept it and got the full $5,500, but didn't want to bother with the hassle of getting rid of the car myself. A friend at work had just bought a new Toyota, and said there were used trade-ins for sale at the dealership. I called them, told them I had $5,000 in cash to spend and inquired what was available. They had just got a 1997 dodge neon (purplish grey) with 40,000 miles on it as a trade in, and would sell it as-is for $5,000. Bill got a friend of his to drive us there. We gave it a quick test drive. It was nice. I handed them $5,000 and the car was mine. So I ended up getting a neon (same as I had), that was one year newer, had 40,000 less miles on it, and was a nicer color for the same as I was given for my neon. Sweet deal. I was back in business!
The following Saturday morning at 7:00a, I got a telephone call from some lady detective. I at first thought it was looking for donations as I often got those phone calls and was kind of irritated that they would be calling me so early on a Saturday. Then she asked me if my car was in an accident the following week. I said, "yes". Then they asked why I didn't report another car involved in the accident. I originally said, "Well, there wasn't another car. I hit a guard rail." Then she stated, "That's not what so-and-so, the driver of the other vehicle, is reporting." Then she proceded to tell me that the other driver reported that we were intimidating them and then sped off in our vehicle before we could exchange information. With that, I told the detective, "Okay. There was another vehicle. But that's notat all what happened..." Then proceded to tell them the real story. The detective said, "Hang on. I'll call you back." Then called back a few minutes later saying that the other party has admitted that your details are correct. What had happened, is that this wasn't the 'little girl's car'. It was her father's car. A couple days after the accident, the father noticed some undercarriage damage (apparently $1,200 worth) and interrogated his daughter about it. She made up the story about us intimidating them, and taking off on them so that her father wouldn't get mad about not exchanging information. When the police questioned her about my story, she caved and told the truth. So all I had to do in the end was call my insurance company, explain the details, and the additional $1,200 to fix their car was included on the claim.
Now the whole story is over. Rest in peace, Superman. Rest in Peace.....
It was also obvious that Melanie was no longer going to pick me up at the airport when I returned to Columbus, and that we weren't going to spend New Year's together as originally planned. Oh well. So Bill picked me up at the airport (in a borrowed car). After we got my car and dropped the borrowed one off, we went to the VIP which was having a huge New Year's Eve celebration. It was a friday night. Not a karoke night, but it was PACKED with fun patrons and a huge party none-the-less. What a good time!
The first of the karoke crowd that I had met playing pool was a guy named Sean. I'll write a separate post about him in more detail later. Sean was 26 years old, was a career professional (like me) whos life was in the process of spinning out of control. So we had a connection right away. I can't say that he was an attractive man. In fact, I found him somewhat unattractive. He was soft and a little fat, and had a baby face. He was VERY outgoing though and could sing fairly well. I think that was the attraction for women. I think the baby face and roundly softness invoked some sort of 'maternal instinct' in the ladies at these bars too. That's just a theory though. BUT for whatever reason, most of the ladies were widely attracted to him. In fact, he was there that night with Smiley, who he was 'sort of' seeing. They called themselves girlfriend/ boyfriend, but I think it was more of a f#ck buddy relationship actually. They did date for a couple of weeks though and she was his date this particular evening. We all sat and partied together that night. We were all having a ball!
Bill was getting hammered, but seeing I was driving I had only about one pitcher of beer for the entire evening. One amusing thing about this night that I remember was that Mark (YoBoy) had a pot luck type spread of food at the back table. It was quite good. In a large crock pot was some sort of sausage-stew type of concoction that he had personally made. It was quite good. At one point, Mark goes over to Bill and says, "Hey Bill! Try some of this food that I made. It's really quite tasty!" As usual, talking to him like they were old best buddies. The funny thing is that Bill, though would talk to him, usually talked fairly down to him. He's really the one that continued to give Mark a hard time after our initial encounter. Mind you, I found it all funny, and did my share of disrespecting him as well. Mostly with just going along with, or laughing about the things Bill would say about Mark. But mostly, I was trying to 'smooth over' the relationship between me and Mark, given the fact that he owned the bar, and it was our absolutely FAVOURITE bar (for good reason). Anyway, I was sitting next to Bill when Mark made the food comment to him. He didn't even acknowledge my presence. Later I went and had some food, and whatever that stuff Mark made was, it was really good! Trying to be nice, I said to Mark, "Hey Mark. This stuff is really good! What's in it?" He looks at me with complete disdain, and replies in a grumpy tone, "Sausage." I say, "Oh,.....Just sausage?" He says back in the same grumpy tone, "Yes, sausage. Just sausage!" Whatever. At least I tried. I went back to my seat and told Bill and we laughed about that as well. Then made more fun of Mark while laughing. GFX looked pretty damned HOT that night I may add, and I did do my fair share of fraternizing with her as well. I always had to subtly flirt with her. That was a given.
Anyway the night was total fun. Great times were had by all. Near the end of the night me and Bill were heading out of there. Like I say, I was pretty sober but Bill was completely smashed. We headed South on High street (which is a major road that the bar was on). We went two blocks and I noticed when we went through a greeen light that the green glow of the light showed that my windshield was starting to fog up. So I reached down and put on the front defogger. In the two or three seconds it took me to do that, whilst I had my eyes of the road, Bill all-of-a-suddenly yelled, "Car! Car!" I quickly looked up, and at the EXACT moment I took my eyes of the road, the car a little ahead of us came to a very sudden stop due to the fact a car in front of them was waiting to turn left into the Huntington bank ATM drive through. I SLAMMED on my brakes! But it was too late. We nailed them from behind still travelling about 20 mph. They were in an older (solidly built) car. The bumper of my neon was lower to the ground than the back of their car. My front end hit and crumpled in like paper. We came to a VERY sudden stop into the rear bumper of their car.
We got out of my car. Out of the car that we hit emerged two cute little college-aged chickadees wearing their little fancy party dresses. They were both drunk. Bill walked over to them all drunk and his usual 'drooley', meanwhile I called him to 'step back'. Then, before I could address them, the chicky that was the driver said to me, "We don't have to report this or anything!" Knowing that I rear-ended them and would automatically be at fault, replied, "No. I don't see a need to report this." They were drunk and I was sober, but even a pitcher or so of beer would probably been enough to put me over the 'legal driving under the influence' limit. So I didn't want police involvement any more that they did.
As soon as I replied, they immediately jumped (I mean jumped) into their car and sped off. I didn't even have a chance to exchange any driver, insurance, or vehicle information. I couldn't see any visible damage to their car what-so-ever. Meanwhile my car was a crumpled mess stuck in the middle of the road. One headlight was smashed, the other was pointing at a 45 degree angle to the road. The car wouldn't even start. So we pushed the car off the road and into the gas station to our right. After a few minutes of looking under the hood (which was wadded up in the shape of a paper ball), we had realized that one battery cable had been knocked off. We reattached that, tried the ignition and the car started back up to life.
I was in a pretty pissed off mood. We both were. Actually Bill probably just used it as an excuse, but said, "F#ck this! That's it, we're going down to the hood and getting some stuff!" I agreed. This isn't how my night was going to end. So we took my crumpled heap of a car with one headlight smashed and one headlight facing directly into the pavement on New Year's Eve (or more like the morning of the New Year) into the North Hood to buy some crack. Fuck the tiny amounts. We bought a whole eight-ball. Which is 1/8 of an once (hence the name). (8-ball = 1/8 of an once, Teenager = 1/16 of an once, a Bill is $100 worth., everything esle is pretty much sold in multiples of $10.) We went to Pork's house. He's a dealer that works with Dave. (Him and Dave grew up together.) I said, "F#ck it! I'm not waiting in the car. I'm going in there and doing this deal myself!" Bill says, "Okay, G, let's go in and do it then!" Pork had never seen me before, and seeing I still had that corporate image about me, it made a lot of people from the hood that didn't know me think I may be a cop. So Pork pulls out this automatic weapon and points it at me. I didn't even care. I was still pissed off about my car. Pork says, "I'm not trusting him until I see him do a hit." I look around and say, "Well I'm not going to waste my time with a pop can, I need a real stem then." Pork hands me one loaded with a small hit and I do it. I'm not even paying attention to the gun he's pointing at me. He puts his weapon down and spreads out $150 worth. (Incidently, in Columbus the going rate for an 8-ball is $150. From what I understand it costs about $240 in Canada. Not that I care anyway. I haven't had any desire to use for years now. Just found the price difference noteable.)
So we drove my car all the way into the North Hood, then drove it all the way back to my part of town where we started from, and blazed this 8-ball of crack until about 7:00am. It was the first time that I had ever done a quantity more than about $20 at a time. No big deal though. We still only did small hits at a time and therefore didn't have any of the 'weird' side effects. On Sunday afternoon I called my insurance company and reported that I had hit a guardrail. After all, I didn't have any information at all to give them about the other vehicle or driver anyway.
That worked out pretty good. Later that week the insurance company wrote off my vehicle and gave me a $5,000 cheque for my 1996 (black) dodge neon with 80,000 miles on it. They appraised it at $5,500, but it cost $500 for them to haul it away for me. I could have kept it and got the full $5,500, but didn't want to bother with the hassle of getting rid of the car myself. A friend at work had just bought a new Toyota, and said there were used trade-ins for sale at the dealership. I called them, told them I had $5,000 in cash to spend and inquired what was available. They had just got a 1997 dodge neon (purplish grey) with 40,000 miles on it as a trade in, and would sell it as-is for $5,000. Bill got a friend of his to drive us there. We gave it a quick test drive. It was nice. I handed them $5,000 and the car was mine. So I ended up getting a neon (same as I had), that was one year newer, had 40,000 less miles on it, and was a nicer color for the same as I was given for my neon. Sweet deal. I was back in business!
The following Saturday morning at 7:00a, I got a telephone call from some lady detective. I at first thought it was looking for donations as I often got those phone calls and was kind of irritated that they would be calling me so early on a Saturday. Then she asked me if my car was in an accident the following week. I said, "yes". Then they asked why I didn't report another car involved in the accident. I originally said, "Well, there wasn't another car. I hit a guard rail." Then she stated, "That's not what so-and-so, the driver of the other vehicle, is reporting." Then she proceded to tell me that the other driver reported that we were intimidating them and then sped off in our vehicle before we could exchange information. With that, I told the detective, "Okay. There was another vehicle. But that's notat all what happened..." Then proceded to tell them the real story. The detective said, "Hang on. I'll call you back." Then called back a few minutes later saying that the other party has admitted that your details are correct. What had happened, is that this wasn't the 'little girl's car'. It was her father's car. A couple days after the accident, the father noticed some undercarriage damage (apparently $1,200 worth) and interrogated his daughter about it. She made up the story about us intimidating them, and taking off on them so that her father wouldn't get mad about not exchanging information. When the police questioned her about my story, she caved and told the truth. So all I had to do in the end was call my insurance company, explain the details, and the additional $1,200 to fix their car was included on the claim.
Now the whole story is over. Rest in peace, Superman. Rest in Peace.....
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Bar Scenes
One thing that I should mention for clarity is what 'type' of bar scenes these were. Anyone coming from the background that I came from (that would be university/ college educated, career job, family focussed, etc.) don't generally hang out at bars much once they've graduated and started their careers. They are career and family focussed. They usually meet a like-minded person, date her for a stretch, get married and continue to build on the marriage and career. That's what path I was on for the first several years of my adult life.
When these people go to the bar, it's usually just to have a few drinks with a friend or friends and 'catch up'. Or maybe the wife or girlfriend is out of town, and you want to get drunk with the 'buddies'. You don't generally go there to meet new people or to hook up with anyone. Unless you decide to go to a stripper bar (which of course is different), the bars are generally nice, fairly upscale, and cater to this type of client. You basically go to these bars and sit and talk to whomever you went there to meet up with (and generally nobody else). They are not a 'sociable' bar. These are not the type of bars that I am referring to in my blog.
Of course there's also the dance bars, student/ young person bars. We all know them. They are the bars where the general age is 18 to 24 years old. Most people are students, or are at least not into their 'careers' or 'adult lives' yet. Of course these are just bars to mix and mingle and dance and party and do all the 'young adult' stuff. Obviously, these are not the type of bars that I am referring to in my blog either.
The bars that I'm referring to are the local area pubs. The 'sociable' bars. These are the bars where everyone just drops in. They often just drop in by themselves and everyone talks to everyone else sitting around the bar. For the most part, the patrons at these types of bars are quite a bit different than the bars I've mentioned above. For one, the patrons generally hang out at these bars on a regular, perhaps even daily basis. Many of their 'friends' are generally people that they've met hanging out at these bars. Most of these 'bar friends' they've never even seen outside of the bar. A lot of these patrons go to the bar to grab a few drinks and chat after work before preceding on with their lives. But a large part of the patronage is there to simply socialize and get drunk. It's a lifestyle.
Most of the patrons are single. Many or more like most of these patrons are not career or family focussed. In fact, a lot of them don't work at all, or at least don't work regularly. A lot of them are also the cooks, bartenders, and waiters that work in the area as well. They hang out here 'after work' which could be at any hour for those types of jobs. I've found that many of them tend to be the 'independent contractors' that work as painters, carpenters, remodelers, or labourers. Often these jobs don't require you to necessily be there from 9 to 5, or don't require you to work set days or hours. Any 'career professionals' that hang out at these bars are generally in the same boat that I was in. Displaced and in some sort of 'holding pattern' or 'f#cked up state of mind' due to whatever caused them to be displaced in the first place (lost job, failed marriage, new in town, whatever). You do get quite the variety, but for the most part everyone is there to meet people and socialize. It's at these bars, you have every different perspective, anything can happen, and everything is 'fair game'. These are the types of bars that I was hanging out at.
When these people go to the bar, it's usually just to have a few drinks with a friend or friends and 'catch up'. Or maybe the wife or girlfriend is out of town, and you want to get drunk with the 'buddies'. You don't generally go there to meet new people or to hook up with anyone. Unless you decide to go to a stripper bar (which of course is different), the bars are generally nice, fairly upscale, and cater to this type of client. You basically go to these bars and sit and talk to whomever you went there to meet up with (and generally nobody else). They are not a 'sociable' bar. These are not the type of bars that I am referring to in my blog.
Of course there's also the dance bars, student/ young person bars. We all know them. They are the bars where the general age is 18 to 24 years old. Most people are students, or are at least not into their 'careers' or 'adult lives' yet. Of course these are just bars to mix and mingle and dance and party and do all the 'young adult' stuff. Obviously, these are not the type of bars that I am referring to in my blog either.
The bars that I'm referring to are the local area pubs. The 'sociable' bars. These are the bars where everyone just drops in. They often just drop in by themselves and everyone talks to everyone else sitting around the bar. For the most part, the patrons at these types of bars are quite a bit different than the bars I've mentioned above. For one, the patrons generally hang out at these bars on a regular, perhaps even daily basis. Many of their 'friends' are generally people that they've met hanging out at these bars. Most of these 'bar friends' they've never even seen outside of the bar. A lot of these patrons go to the bar to grab a few drinks and chat after work before preceding on with their lives. But a large part of the patronage is there to simply socialize and get drunk. It's a lifestyle.
Most of the patrons are single. Many or more like most of these patrons are not career or family focussed. In fact, a lot of them don't work at all, or at least don't work regularly. A lot of them are also the cooks, bartenders, and waiters that work in the area as well. They hang out here 'after work' which could be at any hour for those types of jobs. I've found that many of them tend to be the 'independent contractors' that work as painters, carpenters, remodelers, or labourers. Often these jobs don't require you to necessily be there from 9 to 5, or don't require you to work set days or hours. Any 'career professionals' that hang out at these bars are generally in the same boat that I was in. Displaced and in some sort of 'holding pattern' or 'f#cked up state of mind' due to whatever caused them to be displaced in the first place (lost job, failed marriage, new in town, whatever). You do get quite the variety, but for the most part everyone is there to meet people and socialize. It's at these bars, you have every different perspective, anything can happen, and everything is 'fair game'. These are the types of bars that I was hanging out at.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Perspectives
I want to take a short break from the 'sagas' of my past and talk about something that I touched on in my prior post. That would be the perspectives that people have based on the 'environment' where they are from.
Everyone starts from a certain environment that they were raised in. That of course is influenced by their parents (or whomever raised them) and the influences and perspectives of the community or society around them. Most people never truly leave the environment that they were raised in. That is to say that they may 'visit' other environments, or even 'know' people from other environments, but rarely do they get to the point where they 'live and fully understand' the perspectives of any environment outside of where they live in. Therefore, they tend to think pretty much the same as everyone else that they've been exposed to. Meaning that what they view as 'right', or 'impressive', or 'better', or even 'normal' is based on what everyone else in their own environment views as that.
The part that many people fail to consider is that what they view as 'better' or 'impressive' usually is totally different than the perspectives of the people from different environments or even different 'social-economic classes'.
Case in point. When I was in university, I was there to study hard and launch my professional career. I viewed my career as starting the day I started university, and not the day after I had graduated and actually started making a paycheck. The people I looked up to and respected were the people who were also doing the same things I was doing, and studying daily, getting A's, and building their career potential every single day. Those are the people that I thought were 'impressive', 'better', or the 'best'. To a point, I also only 'respected' people who were in good physical shape and exercised fairly regularly. The funny thing is that it never occurred to me at first that other people didn't consider that the most 'impressive' or the 'best'. But I had no point-of-reference to contrast that belief. All my friend's and peers thought as I did.
An example. I remember one time in my graduating year after I had completed (or was in the process of completing) all my degree requirements. I could actually take a few 'elective' courses outside of my degree. I always loved pscychology, so took a second and third year psychology course for personal interest. At the time I considered any Arts course to be a 'rubber' course, because it didn't require near as many hours of study and practice as the Science courses that I was taking. Admitedly, I looked down on Arts students unless they were in an after graduate (Master's or Ph.D.) program. So did everyone else that was a dedicated student in the Sciences (or other specific disciplines like Commerce and such).
There was this one attractive girl in my psych class that I sat next to and would talk to regularly. She was attractive, but I had no interest in her because she was an 'Arts student'. That's just the mind set I had. I did feel myself in a way 'superior' because I was in a much more difficult discipline. (Once again, so did everyone else in my 'environment'.) Meanwhile, I'm sure she though herself in a way 'superior' to me because she probably saw me as somewhat of a 'geek' in her eyes. That's the perspective she would have based on her 'environment'. In human nature terms, we were just being the exact same way. Products of 0ur environments.
The reason I became aware of this is because one day I was at my locker and she walked past with a friend and I said 'hello' (as we often talked together in class). She looked right at me (we were five feet apart) and pretended not to know me because she either didn't want her friend to know that seh knew me, or was afraid that I was interested in dating her. This made me laugh. I wasn't interested in her. In my mind, she wasn't in 'my league'. And it occured to me, in her mind, she felt the same about me.
This is just a sample of what happens in every environment or society of life. We just naturally assume that our environment's perspectives are the 'best' and due to the fact that we are rarely exposed to a contrasting view because we have a tendency to stick to our own 'kind' who think that same way that we do, we are often unaware or surprised that people don't think in the same way as to what is 'right' or 'normal' or 'better'.
The truth is, that none is 'better'. Each one is just different. I may think someone is 'unaware' because they don't 'know' the same things as I do becasue they've never been exposed to the same teachings or concepts or experiences as I. So you 'could' say they are therefore 'unaware' of how I perceive because of it. But I am also 'unaware'. I don't know the things that they know unless I've lived their lives, and learned from the same experiences and perspectives as they have. Neither one is better or worse, or more aware for that matter. We just know different things, and think differently based on 'what we know'. In reality, we are still all being the same as we are judging the world and forming our perspectives based on our own personal life's experiences.
Until I started truly living and understanding other 'environments' these concepts never truly occurred to me. How human. How we are all so different, and yet so very much the same all at the same time.
I could elaborate much more than this, and originally was going to go into more detail. But I don't feel like it, and it's not really necessary anyway.
Everyone starts from a certain environment that they were raised in. That of course is influenced by their parents (or whomever raised them) and the influences and perspectives of the community or society around them. Most people never truly leave the environment that they were raised in. That is to say that they may 'visit' other environments, or even 'know' people from other environments, but rarely do they get to the point where they 'live and fully understand' the perspectives of any environment outside of where they live in. Therefore, they tend to think pretty much the same as everyone else that they've been exposed to. Meaning that what they view as 'right', or 'impressive', or 'better', or even 'normal' is based on what everyone else in their own environment views as that.
The part that many people fail to consider is that what they view as 'better' or 'impressive' usually is totally different than the perspectives of the people from different environments or even different 'social-economic classes'.
Case in point. When I was in university, I was there to study hard and launch my professional career. I viewed my career as starting the day I started university, and not the day after I had graduated and actually started making a paycheck. The people I looked up to and respected were the people who were also doing the same things I was doing, and studying daily, getting A's, and building their career potential every single day. Those are the people that I thought were 'impressive', 'better', or the 'best'. To a point, I also only 'respected' people who were in good physical shape and exercised fairly regularly. The funny thing is that it never occurred to me at first that other people didn't consider that the most 'impressive' or the 'best'. But I had no point-of-reference to contrast that belief. All my friend's and peers thought as I did.
An example. I remember one time in my graduating year after I had completed (or was in the process of completing) all my degree requirements. I could actually take a few 'elective' courses outside of my degree. I always loved pscychology, so took a second and third year psychology course for personal interest. At the time I considered any Arts course to be a 'rubber' course, because it didn't require near as many hours of study and practice as the Science courses that I was taking. Admitedly, I looked down on Arts students unless they were in an after graduate (Master's or Ph.D.) program. So did everyone else that was a dedicated student in the Sciences (or other specific disciplines like Commerce and such).
There was this one attractive girl in my psych class that I sat next to and would talk to regularly. She was attractive, but I had no interest in her because she was an 'Arts student'. That's just the mind set I had. I did feel myself in a way 'superior' because I was in a much more difficult discipline. (Once again, so did everyone else in my 'environment'.) Meanwhile, I'm sure she though herself in a way 'superior' to me because she probably saw me as somewhat of a 'geek' in her eyes. That's the perspective she would have based on her 'environment'. In human nature terms, we were just being the exact same way. Products of 0ur environments.
The reason I became aware of this is because one day I was at my locker and she walked past with a friend and I said 'hello' (as we often talked together in class). She looked right at me (we were five feet apart) and pretended not to know me because she either didn't want her friend to know that seh knew me, or was afraid that I was interested in dating her. This made me laugh. I wasn't interested in her. In my mind, she wasn't in 'my league'. And it occured to me, in her mind, she felt the same about me.
This is just a sample of what happens in every environment or society of life. We just naturally assume that our environment's perspectives are the 'best' and due to the fact that we are rarely exposed to a contrasting view because we have a tendency to stick to our own 'kind' who think that same way that we do, we are often unaware or surprised that people don't think in the same way as to what is 'right' or 'normal' or 'better'.
The truth is, that none is 'better'. Each one is just different. I may think someone is 'unaware' because they don't 'know' the same things as I do becasue they've never been exposed to the same teachings or concepts or experiences as I. So you 'could' say they are therefore 'unaware' of how I perceive because of it. But I am also 'unaware'. I don't know the things that they know unless I've lived their lives, and learned from the same experiences and perspectives as they have. Neither one is better or worse, or more aware for that matter. We just know different things, and think differently based on 'what we know'. In reality, we are still all being the same as we are judging the world and forming our perspectives based on our own personal life's experiences.
Until I started truly living and understanding other 'environments' these concepts never truly occurred to me. How human. How we are all so different, and yet so very much the same all at the same time.
I could elaborate much more than this, and originally was going to go into more detail. But I don't feel like it, and it's not really necessary anyway.
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