(no subject)
I have a problem. For as far back as I can remember I've been pretty lucky. But not for me. For other people. Friends would take me to the store and ask me to pick out basketball card packs for them. More often than not I'd help them get exactly what they wanted. When I'd want to get things for myself I'd buy dozens of packs and get nothing. The guy after me buys one and gets some 100 dollar rookie card. This has been going on forever. Not just in material things like that but life in general. Someone would ask me for advice or something and while I'd have no idea of their situation or anything like that it would be the exact thing they needed to hear and stuff would turn around for them. At one brief point in my life I wrote fanfiction and actually started a short correspondence with a guy who everyone thought was a moron and no one took seriously. But I gave him the benefit of the doubt and he was thrilled for it. At one point before I stopped talking to him he was telling me how my words helped him and he was turning his life around. He even wanted me to write a self-help book. That's how great he thought I was. Hah. Still have those emails around somewhere.
But in the end that can be a problem. After a while you kind of wouldn't mind some of that luck rubbing off on yourself. You do things that make people's lives better and they're grateful for it but all you'd like is a little leftover luck for yourself. It's especially "great" when nice looking girls/women come up to talk to you and be nice to you while you sit there stupidly thinking they're interested in you. But no. They want information on your friend or that foreign exchange student you're temporarily living with. Silly me. My mistake. Should have known my place.
But after a while you get used to it. Of course by "used to it" I mean more along the lines of wishing 99% of all people would just leave you alone. Because after all the only thing that'll happen is that they'll get what they want somehow or another and I'll be left on the side of the road as usual smiling through my teeth as they drive away all thrilled that's I'm such a great guy. So the only thing that keeps me peaceful these days is just being by myself where my own instincts can't stab me in the back.
This Saturday was pretty much like any other day. Waking up around 10 am. Avoiding the phone (it's never for me anyway). Pretty much dodging human interaction at every possible turn. Go to the store and talk to the people there just long enough to get in and out. Nothing wrong with them. They're great people. Just don't wanna talk to anyone. I decide to take a movie. It's a great way to kill time without having to talk to anyone. So I buy a ticket for Tranformers 3. Eventually get to my seat and it's pretty packed considering it's opening weekend. A couple of kids are sitting next to me on the right. Brothers. Their mom is sitting up higher than they are. The younger kid has got a smartphone and is doodling on it. Calls his mom above us and asks her something about telling him the answer to something. He's talking about those movie quizzes. Those silly things before the movie no one really pays any attention to. Well, this kid is. If you text the answer at the number on the screen you can win a prize and they enter you in some sweepstakes for movie tickets for a year or something. Anyway this kid's plan was to get his mom to tell him the answer and he was going to quickly enter it via his phone. Silly kid.
So the question eventually comes up. The kid frantically whisper yells to his mom a few rows up asking what the answer is. Now whether she wasn't paying attention, didn't know, or didn't care I'm not sure about. I do know that the kid eventually turned around in his seat looking depressed that he couldn't enter the contest and just decides to wait for the feature.
"...Indiana Jones."
The kid is like "What?"
There it was. The first words I purposely said to anyone all day.
"Indiana Jones."
He's like "Is that the answer?". I told him yes. I was confident. It wasn't exactly a hard question. He rushes to pull his phone back out. He's about to start dialing when he realizes that the answers are coded. Each one is a letter/number code. He didn't get that part. He's bummed again. But then he turns.
"Did you see the code?"
"...C4."
"OH!...oh."
I ask him what the matter is now. He didn't know the number to text the answer to either. At this point I realize what I had done. I had quietly overheard his conversation before and subconsciously kept track of everything for no real reason. So yeah. I just happened to know the number too. So he's like "Thanks!" and starts texting away. Not like it matters. No one ever really "wins" those things. I'm sure he'll get some kind of "thank you for playing" message or maybe a free ringtone with some bad advertising for Sprint or the movies or something. My mind wanders off again. A minute or so later I hear "OH! LOOK!". The kid is all excited and runs off to where his mom is. I turn to his slightly older brother and ask what that was all about. His brother tells me "Oh. He just won movie tickets. Maybe even for a year or something."
Really.
He comes back down and is all "Wow! Thanks! How did you know that? I can't believe I won!"
I didn't really say much. Just shrugged. It wasn't a hard question after all. So the movie eventually starts and apparently I've got a new best friend for almost 3 hours. At points during the movie he turns and chats to me about stuff that happens, if I liked the other movies, and so on. His brother eventually notices and gets in on the act too. They're nice enough kids.
Movie ends and I sit like I usually do till the credits end. Not necessarily because there's something at the end (there isn't for this movie) but just to let everyone clear out. The kid is like "Are you staying till the end?". I tell him yeah. I always do. So he's like "We're gonna stay too." So we're the only three sitting in our seats. Their mom shows up and tells them it's time to go but the young kid says that we're watching the credits. She waits and the credits end uneventfully. They get up and leave and the kid thanks me again for the answer to the silly question that won him free movie tickets.
And I smile through my teeth as those kids run off with their movie tickets wondering who that great guy was who was able to give them the answer. And I go the other way and walk off, wondering when it's gonna be my turn.
But whatever. Good for you, kid. Good for you.
But in the end that can be a problem. After a while you kind of wouldn't mind some of that luck rubbing off on yourself. You do things that make people's lives better and they're grateful for it but all you'd like is a little leftover luck for yourself. It's especially "great" when nice looking girls/women come up to talk to you and be nice to you while you sit there stupidly thinking they're interested in you. But no. They want information on your friend or that foreign exchange student you're temporarily living with. Silly me. My mistake. Should have known my place.
But after a while you get used to it. Of course by "used to it" I mean more along the lines of wishing 99% of all people would just leave you alone. Because after all the only thing that'll happen is that they'll get what they want somehow or another and I'll be left on the side of the road as usual smiling through my teeth as they drive away all thrilled that's I'm such a great guy. So the only thing that keeps me peaceful these days is just being by myself where my own instincts can't stab me in the back.
This Saturday was pretty much like any other day. Waking up around 10 am. Avoiding the phone (it's never for me anyway). Pretty much dodging human interaction at every possible turn. Go to the store and talk to the people there just long enough to get in and out. Nothing wrong with them. They're great people. Just don't wanna talk to anyone. I decide to take a movie. It's a great way to kill time without having to talk to anyone. So I buy a ticket for Tranformers 3. Eventually get to my seat and it's pretty packed considering it's opening weekend. A couple of kids are sitting next to me on the right. Brothers. Their mom is sitting up higher than they are. The younger kid has got a smartphone and is doodling on it. Calls his mom above us and asks her something about telling him the answer to something. He's talking about those movie quizzes. Those silly things before the movie no one really pays any attention to. Well, this kid is. If you text the answer at the number on the screen you can win a prize and they enter you in some sweepstakes for movie tickets for a year or something. Anyway this kid's plan was to get his mom to tell him the answer and he was going to quickly enter it via his phone. Silly kid.
So the question eventually comes up. The kid frantically whisper yells to his mom a few rows up asking what the answer is. Now whether she wasn't paying attention, didn't know, or didn't care I'm not sure about. I do know that the kid eventually turned around in his seat looking depressed that he couldn't enter the contest and just decides to wait for the feature.
"...Indiana Jones."
The kid is like "What?"
There it was. The first words I purposely said to anyone all day.
"Indiana Jones."
He's like "Is that the answer?". I told him yes. I was confident. It wasn't exactly a hard question. He rushes to pull his phone back out. He's about to start dialing when he realizes that the answers are coded. Each one is a letter/number code. He didn't get that part. He's bummed again. But then he turns.
"Did you see the code?"
"...C4."
"OH!...oh."
I ask him what the matter is now. He didn't know the number to text the answer to either. At this point I realize what I had done. I had quietly overheard his conversation before and subconsciously kept track of everything for no real reason. So yeah. I just happened to know the number too. So he's like "Thanks!" and starts texting away. Not like it matters. No one ever really "wins" those things. I'm sure he'll get some kind of "thank you for playing" message or maybe a free ringtone with some bad advertising for Sprint or the movies or something. My mind wanders off again. A minute or so later I hear "OH! LOOK!". The kid is all excited and runs off to where his mom is. I turn to his slightly older brother and ask what that was all about. His brother tells me "Oh. He just won movie tickets. Maybe even for a year or something."
Really.
He comes back down and is all "Wow! Thanks! How did you know that? I can't believe I won!"
I didn't really say much. Just shrugged. It wasn't a hard question after all. So the movie eventually starts and apparently I've got a new best friend for almost 3 hours. At points during the movie he turns and chats to me about stuff that happens, if I liked the other movies, and so on. His brother eventually notices and gets in on the act too. They're nice enough kids.
Movie ends and I sit like I usually do till the credits end. Not necessarily because there's something at the end (there isn't for this movie) but just to let everyone clear out. The kid is like "Are you staying till the end?". I tell him yeah. I always do. So he's like "We're gonna stay too." So we're the only three sitting in our seats. Their mom shows up and tells them it's time to go but the young kid says that we're watching the credits. She waits and the credits end uneventfully. They get up and leave and the kid thanks me again for the answer to the silly question that won him free movie tickets.
And I smile through my teeth as those kids run off with their movie tickets wondering who that great guy was who was able to give them the answer. And I go the other way and walk off, wondering when it's gonna be my turn.
But whatever. Good for you, kid. Good for you.