Rant: Attack of the Wackos
I should've saw it coming.
After losing touch with Warren for about 4 years, I bumped into him on Catherine Street on a brisk May night. I hadn't seen him in the flesh since Billy's wedding, about 7-8 years ago. I didn't even recognize him...he flagged me down and gave me a little smile. Gone was his infamous boyish demeanor, replaced with a worn, bogged-down-by- society look. It was poignant.
Warren was my buddy back in high school and we had a lot of fun together. Unfortunately, he refused to grow up and would continue to reminisce and live in the past. You'll always hear him talk about the good ol' days in high school, during the glory of the Volleyball championships and guzzling over the love of his life.
The thing is, all of this took place a decade and a half ago. Throughout his 20's, he'd ramble about high school. Now that's he's in his 30's, he's yukking over the days that took place in college. So he's progressed just a tad bit.
I guess because he refused to move on with time and life, he couldn't hold down a decent job, a mature relationship, or even set goals for the future. After 9/11, he's been unemployed and has been collecting state and city aid since. Yes, he's survivor of the heinous 9/11 attacks and escaped just in the nick of time...but how long can you parade the town about it?
So he rings me up so "we" can talk. Two minutes into the conversation, I cursed myself for not having call waiting. He went on like an Energizer bunny, about his ideas, faults, friends and whatever crap he could conjure at the moment. I walked over to my computer, turned on Yahoo! games, started playing Spellbound, and 'uh-huhed' him for over an hour.
He repeated the same thing the following week. And the week after that.
I had to tell him NOT to call after 11PM...us families go to bed early (yeah right!), plus, I have no interest in being his psychological dumping ground. His last drivel was based on the burning of 6 bridges, just to reclaim outstanding debts from his 'friends'. Oh, we're talking $20 here, another $120 over there, and so forth. In fact, one of his friends had to call the cops on him for 'disrupting the peace'. It was embarrassing. Does one stoop to this level when they reach welfare?
Around the same time, my girlfriend, Ellen, started buzzing me up once a month. Okay...I have no time for her either. I'm not being insensitive, but again, she's another wacko who goes on and on and on...and I've lost count as to what her problems are this time. Ellen was my ESL tutor and a brilliant academic scholar, whose genius mind is her greatest fooking downfall. She can speak 8-9 languages fluently, has a Bachelor's degree in Theater Arts, a Masters desgree in religious studies and was working on her doctorate in Rabbinical studies until she got punted. Her 1st attempt at the Masters degree had gotten her kicked out when she pointed out the inconsistences between the Old and New Testaments.
Her academic spiel is charming and extremely inspiring. But she doesn't spend much time talking about it - she constantly battles with the demons of her dysfunctional family, her disability status, unemployment, legal issues, bureaucracy, so-called medical malpractice, her terminal illness and now, her husband. The worst of all, she's repetitive - she'll tell me the same thing over, and like Warren's call, I can't get a word in. Uh-huh.
Because Ellen is a genius, she has no concept of practicality. Zero. Zip. Nada. When she was unemployed (many, many times), she'd move in with some jerk of a guy so she'd have a roof over her head. Instead of flipping burgers, or do what she does best, teach (commanding $15 or more an hour in 1990 wages) to pay her damn rent. Because she no longer had the patience for teaching or wanted to deal with the institution's bureaucratic red tape, she opted to move in with jerks. Any jerk.
How else would she have gotten married?
The thing is, everything in life revolves with some political bullshit. When she was paralegal, she elevated herself in the same level as an attorney, loudly claiming herself as an officer of the court. Yes, you work for the legal system, but let's face reality, shall we? You're not a lawyer, despite the many years of schooling, she would've been one 3 times over. She threatens lawsuits to every academic institution who didn't put a handicap sign on their bathroom doors or a ramp in the hallways. Interestingly enough, most people who are disabled abhor being labeled as such. Those who don't look the part, get extremely upset when people don't show any pity nor hold the door for them.
So now, she's bitching day and night about her husband. Whatever. The reason why I drew the line on Ellen was because of her abominably stupid confession last year. She rang me up outta the blue at 9AM and apologized profusedly for "believing that you were being overdramatic about the problems you had with your family and the events that followed after 9/11. I'm so, so, so sorry to even think you were exaggerating about how bad things were and blah, blah, blah..."
Let me put it this way - I was literally seeing red when I heard the stupid confession. Some things are better left unsaid.
Last but not least, there's psychomom Grace Sr., who recently has been replicating a number of my habits and my effects. It's freakish, and no, I am not being paranoid. She's been donning a messenger bag (like me), hanging out at the internet cafe (like me), trying to get her daughter to play and become Joyce's best friend (Kristy goes around saying that Joyce is HER best friend, whatever...), got highlights in her hair (like moi), and started eyeing my nice batch of Asian rubber stamps for her scrapbooking projects. Does this woman have any ounce of originality in her?
Lindi = Freak Magnet.
After losing touch with Warren for about 4 years, I bumped into him on Catherine Street on a brisk May night. I hadn't seen him in the flesh since Billy's wedding, about 7-8 years ago. I didn't even recognize him...he flagged me down and gave me a little smile. Gone was his infamous boyish demeanor, replaced with a worn, bogged-down-by- society look. It was poignant.
Warren was my buddy back in high school and we had a lot of fun together. Unfortunately, he refused to grow up and would continue to reminisce and live in the past. You'll always hear him talk about the good ol' days in high school, during the glory of the Volleyball championships and guzzling over the love of his life.
The thing is, all of this took place a decade and a half ago. Throughout his 20's, he'd ramble about high school. Now that's he's in his 30's, he's yukking over the days that took place in college. So he's progressed just a tad bit.
I guess because he refused to move on with time and life, he couldn't hold down a decent job, a mature relationship, or even set goals for the future. After 9/11, he's been unemployed and has been collecting state and city aid since. Yes, he's survivor of the heinous 9/11 attacks and escaped just in the nick of time...but how long can you parade the town about it?
So he rings me up so "we" can talk. Two minutes into the conversation, I cursed myself for not having call waiting. He went on like an Energizer bunny, about his ideas, faults, friends and whatever crap he could conjure at the moment. I walked over to my computer, turned on Yahoo! games, started playing Spellbound, and 'uh-huhed' him for over an hour.
He repeated the same thing the following week. And the week after that.
I had to tell him NOT to call after 11PM...us families go to bed early (yeah right!), plus, I have no interest in being his psychological dumping ground. His last drivel was based on the burning of 6 bridges, just to reclaim outstanding debts from his 'friends'. Oh, we're talking $20 here, another $120 over there, and so forth. In fact, one of his friends had to call the cops on him for 'disrupting the peace'. It was embarrassing. Does one stoop to this level when they reach welfare?
Around the same time, my girlfriend, Ellen, started buzzing me up once a month. Okay...I have no time for her either. I'm not being insensitive, but again, she's another wacko who goes on and on and on...and I've lost count as to what her problems are this time. Ellen was my ESL tutor and a brilliant academic scholar, whose genius mind is her greatest fooking downfall. She can speak 8-9 languages fluently, has a Bachelor's degree in Theater Arts, a Masters desgree in religious studies and was working on her doctorate in Rabbinical studies until she got punted. Her 1st attempt at the Masters degree had gotten her kicked out when she pointed out the inconsistences between the Old and New Testaments.
Her academic spiel is charming and extremely inspiring. But she doesn't spend much time talking about it - she constantly battles with the demons of her dysfunctional family, her disability status, unemployment, legal issues, bureaucracy, so-called medical malpractice, her terminal illness and now, her husband. The worst of all, she's repetitive - she'll tell me the same thing over, and like Warren's call, I can't get a word in. Uh-huh.
Because Ellen is a genius, she has no concept of practicality. Zero. Zip. Nada. When she was unemployed (many, many times), she'd move in with some jerk of a guy so she'd have a roof over her head. Instead of flipping burgers, or do what she does best, teach (commanding $15 or more an hour in 1990 wages) to pay her damn rent. Because she no longer had the patience for teaching or wanted to deal with the institution's bureaucratic red tape, she opted to move in with jerks. Any jerk.
How else would she have gotten married?
The thing is, everything in life revolves with some political bullshit. When she was paralegal, she elevated herself in the same level as an attorney, loudly claiming herself as an officer of the court. Yes, you work for the legal system, but let's face reality, shall we? You're not a lawyer, despite the many years of schooling, she would've been one 3 times over. She threatens lawsuits to every academic institution who didn't put a handicap sign on their bathroom doors or a ramp in the hallways. Interestingly enough, most people who are disabled abhor being labeled as such. Those who don't look the part, get extremely upset when people don't show any pity nor hold the door for them.
So now, she's bitching day and night about her husband. Whatever. The reason why I drew the line on Ellen was because of her abominably stupid confession last year. She rang me up outta the blue at 9AM and apologized profusedly for "believing that you were being overdramatic about the problems you had with your family and the events that followed after 9/11. I'm so, so, so sorry to even think you were exaggerating about how bad things were and blah, blah, blah..."
Let me put it this way - I was literally seeing red when I heard the stupid confession. Some things are better left unsaid.
Last but not least, there's psychomom Grace Sr., who recently has been replicating a number of my habits and my effects. It's freakish, and no, I am not being paranoid. She's been donning a messenger bag (like me), hanging out at the internet cafe (like me), trying to get her daughter to play and become Joyce's best friend (Kristy goes around saying that Joyce is HER best friend, whatever...), got highlights in her hair (like moi), and started eyeing my nice batch of Asian rubber stamps for her scrapbooking projects. Does this woman have any ounce of originality in her?
Lindi = Freak Magnet.
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