Long time gone...
"An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex."
- Aldous Huxley
"The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously."
- Nicholas Butler
I put these in quotitudes.
Is it just me or is Bob from the Enzyte commercials a really creepy guy?
My hair is growing out quite nicely. I hope to get it as long as I had it in college. We'll see. Right now I have it just long enough to be a little uncontrollable. On one side I have what appears to be a tuft like that an owl might have. It's kind of groovy. It's been a while since I have had this much hair. Feels good. In college I had it clear down to the middle of my back. Twice.
The first time I had a little mishap. I am sure you have heard the story of someone who lost hair to a drunken revel. Well I am one of them. In my freshman year my friends tried to take me to my dorm room and I got a little belligerent so they left me on the couch in the lobby. I had apparently somehow found my way to my room in the night. When I woke up I was more confused than usual. I was looking around and I felt that something was wrong. I think it took me a couple of minutes to realize it was my reflection in the mirror. Half of my hair and an eyebrow was missing.
I had to have it evened out. I don't know why I just didn't buy some clippers and do it myself. I wasn't thinking clearly that day, I guess. I was still drunk up until that night even. I had drunk nearly a pint of rum, straight, in a bet the night before. I won five bucks, though.
I have done some interesting things from betting and daring. Most of this was due to my pride in my ability to resist and process chemicals of various sorts, including alcohol.
Once I drank a cup of dregs out of a friend's collection of bottles. It didn't taste that bad, actually, though the alcohol had evaporated, I think. I recall lachlan being there for that but I can't remember. It was at The Barn Mobile Home Estates where Len and his Delta Tau Delta room-mate lived a road over from us.
There was much D&D playing there, I can assure you! Some of it drunk...but not much. I don't like my role playing tainted by altered states of mind. The only altered state of mind I want is that caused by the role playing, itself. Otherwise the game suffers. So I'm a purist? Sure. Why not?
Wow. That year (Sophomore - Hey look at that....Wise Fool) was an interesting one for me. The next year was when I met Theresa and things got decidedly boring and irritating at the same time, in spite of having met billazilla at about that time. I think he helped me save that one from complete oblivion.
That whole year a car was and off-and-on thing. I had this huge green Delta 88. I loved that beast. It leaked gasoline when a corner was turned and got about 7 to 10 miles to the gallon, but it was mine and it was huge.
Much of the time I walked, however. It was during this time that I got into good shape. I was taking karate and running back to the trailer a long ways down the railroad tracks. It was no small walk. While this was going on was when I met Mike/Misha/Michelle/What-have-you (I like to call her Etcetera). She claimed to be "Mike" at the time. She said it was because her dad had wanted a boy. She was lachlan's girlfriend at the time. There was once I had run back from my class and the furniture was moved around for some reason. I chalked it up to lachlan's little idiosyncrasies at the time. The chick was blatantly and rudely digging on me right there in from of him! Shortly after that she dumped him and I made the mistake of accepting a date with her when she called. Yeah. I was a dumb one in some ways.
It's kind of indicative of the wrongness of something when you are asked not to meet someone else at your own house, eh? But that's what happened. I met her at the entrance of the Mobile Home Estates and we went to Burger King and a movie. We went out after that with only a few indications of her unstable character. That summer I gained some weight. Not a lot, but I wasn't the "buff beast o' doom" (billazilla made that one...) that she met initially. I could see it in her eyes when I met up with her at the end of it. We had set up an apartment and planned to move in together, and all.
I suppose the true "excitement" kind of ended when I was dumped by Etcetera in the beginning of my Junior year. She dumped me for this wee fella named Dain. Dane? I can never remember. I can only begin to guess why him. I still don't get it, even considering her "condition". We had even moved into an apartment together. One morning I woke up and heard her on the phone. I listened. I have said before that I have really good hearing. I kind of like to play that part of me down as I have had numerous occasions where underestimation of that trait has helped me. Well I heard at the end, "I love you."
So when she left for work I got up and pressed redial on the phone. Dain answered and we shot the shit for a little while. Finally ready to hang up, I told him, "Hey, man. I lost your number. Can I get it from you?"
"Didn't you just call me?"
"No. I pressed re-dial."
"Dude..."
His pathetic attempts to make good with me after that were amusing. They were actually good for me at the time considering I got to spend more time with jaydeja. But that is a long story in and of itself. His weaseling was made even more idiotic when he would tell his friends things that put me in a bad light. Apparently he told them that I was a violent and unstable psychopath who could snap at any moment. Go figure. I'm a big teddy bear! Right?
So after this I realized that the person I had loved never really existed. The woman completely changed personality! It was as if a pod person had taken her over. This isn't just, "You've changed." I didn't even recognize her face, anymore. I found out that she was crazy. After she broke up with me she claimed to people that I hit her constantly. She also told people that I called her "Mike" because I wished she were a guy. She was noted to have claimed she was a vampire at one point. No really. You might not believe it, but it's true. Oddly enough I still love that imaginary person that she became. I can't even mourn a death as she didn't ever really exist.
Well hell. Ain't life the damnedest thing?
But anyway shortly after all that business I met Theresa. This was one of the very bad turning points of my life. I should have stayed home, that night. I was there for a game but somehow a movie was played and she was there. Supposedly it was a half-joke to set "the hulking yokel" up with his perfect woman. Somehow I had the reputation of being a complete idiot. Everything I said or did was cast in a negative light to everyone involved it seemed. It was like there was a critic going around behind me making sure that I was made to seem like a moronic red-neck. But that's a different story, too. Suffice it to say that I was deemed the village idiot simply because I was on the positive side and didn't try to slip bile into everything I did. I suppose it didn't help that I would support that activity with periodic bouts of inebriation.
I don't know what that woman had on me but it wasn't good. Maybe I just went crazy or something. I don't know. But she wasn't, in any way, shape, or form, my kind of woman. She was far from intellectual in any way, though she could bullshit a little. I never could tell where I stood with her because her opinions changed like the weather in Georgia. And talk about hot and cold running moods... Sheesh. Stability was not an option.
How the hell did I even stay with that woman more than a few days...much less the years. Oh god. The years. *claws eyes out* I think I was in a nervous break-down when I met her in the fall of '91 and pretty much stayed that way until I started to recover in the spring of '96. I wonder if it's contagious, lachlan? Perhaps one could research the pathology of lunacy.
In the fall of '93 I went especially nuts and listened to her wanting me to join the military. So I joined the Army. We got married while I was off for Christmas leave. We moved to Fort Hood, Texas in March of '94 and the hell began in earnest. She was a complete harridan. She was constantly on me about something. And that voice fit her personality. Shrieking... If she was picking me up from work she would typically be late (sometimes by a couple of hours). She flirted with my co-workers. I wish I had listened to SFC French at the time. He had my best interests at heart. Oh well. Hind-sight's 20/20.
Things kind of came to a head when we went to Georgia for Summer leave. Hoo boy did they ever. I spent all my time in Statesboro for one reason or another. And she spent all her time with her family. I had a lot of fun, then. I was actually happy away from her and in the presence of certain others. And it was completely platonic! It was then I realized on some level that if I didn't get rid of her things would end very, very badly.
It was shortly thereafter that I convinced her that she would be better off without me. At first she resisted. But her ego won over eventually and she realized that, yes, she could find someone better! So she left. And with her family's blessing and financing. They never did like me. Even after that one Summer of helping that inbred bunch at the dairy farm for free they found ways to find fault with everything I did. I think it was that summer that they caught her brother molesting the cattle.
After she left I met April. That's another story, as well. Strange girl. She still somehow finds fault with the way I did things. I scarred her for life, apparently. *makes small circles around ear and whistles*
What's with the crazy women???
I learned later that while I was in Basic Theresa had a fling with someone and never told me. Of course that was only the start. She had numerous flings, as I later found evidence and interviewed people. Including her former workers at Wal-Mart. She even screwed this one guy who was in my D&D group and he was married to this really lovely woman. She was sweet and giving and very beautiful. And he cheated on her with Theresa? Wow. Heck. We should have gotten some revenge, together. But we didn't even know. I'm surprised I didn't get something unpleasant from all that besides experience. Her best friend in Copperas Cove had herpes.
I can't believe I felt guilty for that one indiscretion on Christmas leave after she left me. I went down to Georgia to try to work things out and she kept trying to push me off on this girl. Well I suppose it wasn't that bad for me to seek the arms of another considering the circumstances. It was at this point that I realized how someone could be two to three hours late picking up someone from work, as I was, myself, picking Theresa up from Wal-Mart, where she worked. Funny how things work themselves out. An interesting note about that is that while Theresa was trying to push me off on this girl her husband was trying to push her off to me. How about them apples?
I cannot believe you read this far. You know I wonder if people actually read these little rants and reminiscences. If so I do welcome questions. Perhaps those might help me focus some. Kind of like guiding old gramps down memory lane. *grin*
But I have come out of all this pretty damned well. If it weren't for me being in the Army at Fort Hood I might never have met Jodi. This is especially true as I met her through an acquaintance who visited her from there. It was her talking to me about that that got us together. Now I have two beautiful daughters and a butt-load of experience.
In the Army they will tell you that harsh experiences build character. I often joked that if I had any more character I would mutate. Maybe I did.
I think I have a moral for this story... An epiphany, if you will: "Things happen on leave."
Not that they have much time to happen anywhere else, in the Army.
Speaking of Infantry...my knee hurts. Osgood-Schlatter's Disease is not a pleasant combination with almost ten years in the Infantry.
- Aldous Huxley
"The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously."
- Nicholas Butler
I put these in quotitudes.
Is it just me or is Bob from the Enzyte commercials a really creepy guy?
My hair is growing out quite nicely. I hope to get it as long as I had it in college. We'll see. Right now I have it just long enough to be a little uncontrollable. On one side I have what appears to be a tuft like that an owl might have. It's kind of groovy. It's been a while since I have had this much hair. Feels good. In college I had it clear down to the middle of my back. Twice.
The first time I had a little mishap. I am sure you have heard the story of someone who lost hair to a drunken revel. Well I am one of them. In my freshman year my friends tried to take me to my dorm room and I got a little belligerent so they left me on the couch in the lobby. I had apparently somehow found my way to my room in the night. When I woke up I was more confused than usual. I was looking around and I felt that something was wrong. I think it took me a couple of minutes to realize it was my reflection in the mirror. Half of my hair and an eyebrow was missing.
I had to have it evened out. I don't know why I just didn't buy some clippers and do it myself. I wasn't thinking clearly that day, I guess. I was still drunk up until that night even. I had drunk nearly a pint of rum, straight, in a bet the night before. I won five bucks, though.
I have done some interesting things from betting and daring. Most of this was due to my pride in my ability to resist and process chemicals of various sorts, including alcohol.
Once I drank a cup of dregs out of a friend's collection of bottles. It didn't taste that bad, actually, though the alcohol had evaporated, I think. I recall lachlan being there for that but I can't remember. It was at The Barn Mobile Home Estates where Len and his Delta Tau Delta room-mate lived a road over from us.
There was much D&D playing there, I can assure you! Some of it drunk...but not much. I don't like my role playing tainted by altered states of mind. The only altered state of mind I want is that caused by the role playing, itself. Otherwise the game suffers. So I'm a purist? Sure. Why not?
Wow. That year (Sophomore - Hey look at that....Wise Fool) was an interesting one for me. The next year was when I met Theresa and things got decidedly boring and irritating at the same time, in spite of having met billazilla at about that time. I think he helped me save that one from complete oblivion.
That whole year a car was and off-and-on thing. I had this huge green Delta 88. I loved that beast. It leaked gasoline when a corner was turned and got about 7 to 10 miles to the gallon, but it was mine and it was huge.
Much of the time I walked, however. It was during this time that I got into good shape. I was taking karate and running back to the trailer a long ways down the railroad tracks. It was no small walk. While this was going on was when I met Mike/Misha/Michelle/What-have-you (I like to call her Etcetera). She claimed to be "Mike" at the time. She said it was because her dad had wanted a boy. She was lachlan's girlfriend at the time. There was once I had run back from my class and the furniture was moved around for some reason. I chalked it up to lachlan's little idiosyncrasies at the time. The chick was blatantly and rudely digging on me right there in from of him! Shortly after that she dumped him and I made the mistake of accepting a date with her when she called. Yeah. I was a dumb one in some ways.
It's kind of indicative of the wrongness of something when you are asked not to meet someone else at your own house, eh? But that's what happened. I met her at the entrance of the Mobile Home Estates and we went to Burger King and a movie. We went out after that with only a few indications of her unstable character. That summer I gained some weight. Not a lot, but I wasn't the "buff beast o' doom" (billazilla made that one...) that she met initially. I could see it in her eyes when I met up with her at the end of it. We had set up an apartment and planned to move in together, and all.
I suppose the true "excitement" kind of ended when I was dumped by Etcetera in the beginning of my Junior year. She dumped me for this wee fella named Dain. Dane? I can never remember. I can only begin to guess why him. I still don't get it, even considering her "condition". We had even moved into an apartment together. One morning I woke up and heard her on the phone. I listened. I have said before that I have really good hearing. I kind of like to play that part of me down as I have had numerous occasions where underestimation of that trait has helped me. Well I heard at the end, "I love you."
So when she left for work I got up and pressed redial on the phone. Dain answered and we shot the shit for a little while. Finally ready to hang up, I told him, "Hey, man. I lost your number. Can I get it from you?"
"Didn't you just call me?"
"No. I pressed re-dial."
"Dude..."
His pathetic attempts to make good with me after that were amusing. They were actually good for me at the time considering I got to spend more time with jaydeja. But that is a long story in and of itself. His weaseling was made even more idiotic when he would tell his friends things that put me in a bad light. Apparently he told them that I was a violent and unstable psychopath who could snap at any moment. Go figure. I'm a big teddy bear! Right?
So after this I realized that the person I had loved never really existed. The woman completely changed personality! It was as if a pod person had taken her over. This isn't just, "You've changed." I didn't even recognize her face, anymore. I found out that she was crazy. After she broke up with me she claimed to people that I hit her constantly. She also told people that I called her "Mike" because I wished she were a guy. She was noted to have claimed she was a vampire at one point. No really. You might not believe it, but it's true. Oddly enough I still love that imaginary person that she became. I can't even mourn a death as she didn't ever really exist.
Well hell. Ain't life the damnedest thing?
But anyway shortly after all that business I met Theresa. This was one of the very bad turning points of my life. I should have stayed home, that night. I was there for a game but somehow a movie was played and she was there. Supposedly it was a half-joke to set "the hulking yokel" up with his perfect woman. Somehow I had the reputation of being a complete idiot. Everything I said or did was cast in a negative light to everyone involved it seemed. It was like there was a critic going around behind me making sure that I was made to seem like a moronic red-neck. But that's a different story, too. Suffice it to say that I was deemed the village idiot simply because I was on the positive side and didn't try to slip bile into everything I did. I suppose it didn't help that I would support that activity with periodic bouts of inebriation.
I don't know what that woman had on me but it wasn't good. Maybe I just went crazy or something. I don't know. But she wasn't, in any way, shape, or form, my kind of woman. She was far from intellectual in any way, though she could bullshit a little. I never could tell where I stood with her because her opinions changed like the weather in Georgia. And talk about hot and cold running moods... Sheesh. Stability was not an option.
How the hell did I even stay with that woman more than a few days...much less the years. Oh god. The years. *claws eyes out* I think I was in a nervous break-down when I met her in the fall of '91 and pretty much stayed that way until I started to recover in the spring of '96. I wonder if it's contagious, lachlan? Perhaps one could research the pathology of lunacy.
In the fall of '93 I went especially nuts and listened to her wanting me to join the military. So I joined the Army. We got married while I was off for Christmas leave. We moved to Fort Hood, Texas in March of '94 and the hell began in earnest. She was a complete harridan. She was constantly on me about something. And that voice fit her personality. Shrieking... If she was picking me up from work she would typically be late (sometimes by a couple of hours). She flirted with my co-workers. I wish I had listened to SFC French at the time. He had my best interests at heart. Oh well. Hind-sight's 20/20.
Things kind of came to a head when we went to Georgia for Summer leave. Hoo boy did they ever. I spent all my time in Statesboro for one reason or another. And she spent all her time with her family. I had a lot of fun, then. I was actually happy away from her and in the presence of certain others. And it was completely platonic! It was then I realized on some level that if I didn't get rid of her things would end very, very badly.
It was shortly thereafter that I convinced her that she would be better off without me. At first she resisted. But her ego won over eventually and she realized that, yes, she could find someone better! So she left. And with her family's blessing and financing. They never did like me. Even after that one Summer of helping that inbred bunch at the dairy farm for free they found ways to find fault with everything I did. I think it was that summer that they caught her brother molesting the cattle.
After she left I met April. That's another story, as well. Strange girl. She still somehow finds fault with the way I did things. I scarred her for life, apparently. *makes small circles around ear and whistles*
What's with the crazy women???
I learned later that while I was in Basic Theresa had a fling with someone and never told me. Of course that was only the start. She had numerous flings, as I later found evidence and interviewed people. Including her former workers at Wal-Mart. She even screwed this one guy who was in my D&D group and he was married to this really lovely woman. She was sweet and giving and very beautiful. And he cheated on her with Theresa? Wow. Heck. We should have gotten some revenge, together. But we didn't even know. I'm surprised I didn't get something unpleasant from all that besides experience. Her best friend in Copperas Cove had herpes.
I can't believe I felt guilty for that one indiscretion on Christmas leave after she left me. I went down to Georgia to try to work things out and she kept trying to push me off on this girl. Well I suppose it wasn't that bad for me to seek the arms of another considering the circumstances. It was at this point that I realized how someone could be two to three hours late picking up someone from work, as I was, myself, picking Theresa up from Wal-Mart, where she worked. Funny how things work themselves out. An interesting note about that is that while Theresa was trying to push me off on this girl her husband was trying to push her off to me. How about them apples?
I cannot believe you read this far. You know I wonder if people actually read these little rants and reminiscences. If so I do welcome questions. Perhaps those might help me focus some. Kind of like guiding old gramps down memory lane. *grin*
But I have come out of all this pretty damned well. If it weren't for me being in the Army at Fort Hood I might never have met Jodi. This is especially true as I met her through an acquaintance who visited her from there. It was her talking to me about that that got us together. Now I have two beautiful daughters and a butt-load of experience.
In the Army they will tell you that harsh experiences build character. I often joked that if I had any more character I would mutate. Maybe I did.
I think I have a moral for this story... An epiphany, if you will: "Things happen on leave."
Not that they have much time to happen anywhere else, in the Army.
Speaking of Infantry...my knee hurts. Osgood-Schlatter's Disease is not a pleasant combination with almost ten years in the Infantry.