(no subject)
First, a brief intro, I realize I haven’t posted much on this journal, and to be honest, for reasons that I’ll get into in a later post, this journal’s time may be coming to an end very soon. But, this post is something that has been taking its tool on my life for the last 3 or 4 days and I can’t keep walking around in a daze so I needed to find an outlet.
I guess what it comes down to is that, I feel that I need to talk about this to get it out of my head and move on but since I don’t really want to talk TO anyone about it, I figured my best bet was to post it here. So, here it goes...
I used to have a friend named Drew. I first met Drew on what was called a BBS when I was about 14, basically a message board like those you find on the web these days, but at the time there was no web so individual people would host a BBS on their personal computer and people could dial in to that computer and post messages.
Anyway, years later I started working at a computer store and Drew was one of the people that worked there with me. I didn’t know he was the same guy until months after he’d started working there, but I’d grown to like him and that little connection from our past served to solidify our relationship.
After a couple of years, we became roommates. Now, this is hard to understand if you’ve never had a friend as a roommate, but there is probably no closer friendship simply because that person becomes your "go to" guy. Your car breaks down, you call him, your sick and need more medicine, you call him. Maybe it’s just the proximity (e.g. he’s coming home anyway so when you need help you call him) but one way or another you get very close.
We were roommates for a little over 2 years before he met his fiancé. That’s when things really went bad, you see, it was a pretty whirlwind romance and they, understandably, wanted to start their new life as soon as possible. One problem, the lease that he’d signed kept him in the apartment for another 2 months.
Here’s where I made my mistake, I told him that I would pay the rent, utilities, etc… for the last two months so he would have money to buy her a ring and that he could pay me back in a couple months. Their plan was to live with her parents for the next 6 months, pay me back, save their money, and then go get an apartment and start their new life together.
In addition to this, my car broke down and he (as sort of a thank you to me) agreed to let me use his van while it got repaired (he was going out of town for the weekend). As luck would have it, the van broke down on my first trip to work. I had it towed to the repair shop, and after talking it over with him agreed to repair it for about $365 with the understanding that we would just add that to the money he’d already owe me and he’d pay be back for everything at a later date.
Well, as is usually the case, fate does not always work out like we would hope. Living with her parents turned out to be too much for them and after a month, they got an apartment. He then called me and told me that "since he was barely living in our old apartment for the last two months and since I had broken his van (by driving it 2 miles) he didn’t think he owed me anything"
So, after a few threats to sue him (which I would almost surely win on the rent and utilities) we agreed to a total, significantly less than the $2000+ he owed me but significantly more than the $0 he was planning to pay me (I essentially let him off on the last months rent (since he was moving out over the course of the month) and the van because I had no proof of our agreement). We then agreed to a payment plan of $100 per month until he’d paid me back in full.
As you can imagine, this was pretty much the end of our friendship as far as I was concerned. He’s consistently acted like he thinks it’s "no big thing" but I can’t claim to know how he really feels. There have been various other problems over the last 8 months that have kept him from paying me (his car got broken into, he flattened two tires, etc...) but he’s always been apologetic so I let it slide. This month, I finally received the first payment of $100.
Now, through the last 8 months or so I’ve been working really, really hard to maintain my composure and be reasonable through out the whole affair despite the fact that I was still pretty livid. Honestly, at this point, I was just happy that it looked like it was finally going to be over and I could put this all behind me.
Then Thursday afternoon, I get this:
Well, Tom, I'm sorry to say but I'm shipping to the army stuff and money's going to be tight while I'm away.
If my wife is able to do so, she'll go ahead and do things but pay with the army can be a rough thing.
I leave tonight for some last-minute training and am set to go to Kuwait for 18 months. It sux cuz my ETS date was September 24th of this year (ETS = End of something or other) and so ... anyways, I hope you understand and can be cool about this. I can be reached at
xxxxx@us.army.mil
if you want to email me there to prove that I am actually set up with the army again.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Well, may I just say, $#%#$%
I mean, really, what am I supposed to do with THAT?
This is a guy who hasn’t gone to a PT test (a Physical test they give to reserves to make sure they are still fit to serve) in 2 years, he hasn’t had any contact with the military in the last 1.5 years. Then one day a registered letter shows up at the door, and you’re off to Kuwait.
Imagine that for a second, how you would deal with it if two weeks from now you were on a plane to the Middle East. These people are marching into a war zone completely unprepared, having not even gone through training for (in many cases) years and their being put right into the heart of the battle.
Understand this; Kuwait is a staging ground, which means that when someone in Iraq needs a munitions specialist or is low on troops, that person is transported in from Kuwait.
Yes, I realize that, of the roughly 135,000 troops in Iraq less than 1% of them have died but that doesn’t take into account a few things. One, how many soldiers have been maimed, lost limbs, been crippled, etc... I know the answer but I’m not going to tell you because, quite frankly, if you don’t already know you don’t want to. Two, the current rate of "death and injury" is based on a military force of experienced soldiers, these people going in now aren’t even weekend warriors they’re essentially civilians. Finally, I’ve never been in the service but I grew up in some very bad neighborhoods, places where a shooting a day wasn’t considered all that bad, and from that experience I can tell you...as far as bad things go, death itself pales in comparison to the constant fear of being killed.
This just all sucks so bad...
There is probably no emotion more complicated (save maybe love) than being worried about someone you aren’t sure you even care about anymore.
I guess what it comes down to is that, I feel that I need to talk about this to get it out of my head and move on but since I don’t really want to talk TO anyone about it, I figured my best bet was to post it here. So, here it goes...
I used to have a friend named Drew. I first met Drew on what was called a BBS when I was about 14, basically a message board like those you find on the web these days, but at the time there was no web so individual people would host a BBS on their personal computer and people could dial in to that computer and post messages.
Anyway, years later I started working at a computer store and Drew was one of the people that worked there with me. I didn’t know he was the same guy until months after he’d started working there, but I’d grown to like him and that little connection from our past served to solidify our relationship.
After a couple of years, we became roommates. Now, this is hard to understand if you’ve never had a friend as a roommate, but there is probably no closer friendship simply because that person becomes your "go to" guy. Your car breaks down, you call him, your sick and need more medicine, you call him. Maybe it’s just the proximity (e.g. he’s coming home anyway so when you need help you call him) but one way or another you get very close.
We were roommates for a little over 2 years before he met his fiancé. That’s when things really went bad, you see, it was a pretty whirlwind romance and they, understandably, wanted to start their new life as soon as possible. One problem, the lease that he’d signed kept him in the apartment for another 2 months.
Here’s where I made my mistake, I told him that I would pay the rent, utilities, etc… for the last two months so he would have money to buy her a ring and that he could pay me back in a couple months. Their plan was to live with her parents for the next 6 months, pay me back, save their money, and then go get an apartment and start their new life together.
In addition to this, my car broke down and he (as sort of a thank you to me) agreed to let me use his van while it got repaired (he was going out of town for the weekend). As luck would have it, the van broke down on my first trip to work. I had it towed to the repair shop, and after talking it over with him agreed to repair it for about $365 with the understanding that we would just add that to the money he’d already owe me and he’d pay be back for everything at a later date.
Well, as is usually the case, fate does not always work out like we would hope. Living with her parents turned out to be too much for them and after a month, they got an apartment. He then called me and told me that "since he was barely living in our old apartment for the last two months and since I had broken his van (by driving it 2 miles) he didn’t think he owed me anything"
So, after a few threats to sue him (which I would almost surely win on the rent and utilities) we agreed to a total, significantly less than the $2000+ he owed me but significantly more than the $0 he was planning to pay me (I essentially let him off on the last months rent (since he was moving out over the course of the month) and the van because I had no proof of our agreement). We then agreed to a payment plan of $100 per month until he’d paid me back in full.
As you can imagine, this was pretty much the end of our friendship as far as I was concerned. He’s consistently acted like he thinks it’s "no big thing" but I can’t claim to know how he really feels. There have been various other problems over the last 8 months that have kept him from paying me (his car got broken into, he flattened two tires, etc...) but he’s always been apologetic so I let it slide. This month, I finally received the first payment of $100.
Now, through the last 8 months or so I’ve been working really, really hard to maintain my composure and be reasonable through out the whole affair despite the fact that I was still pretty livid. Honestly, at this point, I was just happy that it looked like it was finally going to be over and I could put this all behind me.
Then Thursday afternoon, I get this:
Well, Tom, I'm sorry to say but I'm shipping to the army stuff and money's going to be tight while I'm away.
If my wife is able to do so, she'll go ahead and do things but pay with the army can be a rough thing.
I leave tonight for some last-minute training and am set to go to Kuwait for 18 months. It sux cuz my ETS date was September 24th of this year (ETS = End of something or other) and so ... anyways, I hope you understand and can be cool about this. I can be reached at
xxxxx@us.army.mil
if you want to email me there to prove that I am actually set up with the army again.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Well, may I just say, $#%#$%
I mean, really, what am I supposed to do with THAT?
This is a guy who hasn’t gone to a PT test (a Physical test they give to reserves to make sure they are still fit to serve) in 2 years, he hasn’t had any contact with the military in the last 1.5 years. Then one day a registered letter shows up at the door, and you’re off to Kuwait.
Imagine that for a second, how you would deal with it if two weeks from now you were on a plane to the Middle East. These people are marching into a war zone completely unprepared, having not even gone through training for (in many cases) years and their being put right into the heart of the battle.
Understand this; Kuwait is a staging ground, which means that when someone in Iraq needs a munitions specialist or is low on troops, that person is transported in from Kuwait.
Yes, I realize that, of the roughly 135,000 troops in Iraq less than 1% of them have died but that doesn’t take into account a few things. One, how many soldiers have been maimed, lost limbs, been crippled, etc... I know the answer but I’m not going to tell you because, quite frankly, if you don’t already know you don’t want to. Two, the current rate of "death and injury" is based on a military force of experienced soldiers, these people going in now aren’t even weekend warriors they’re essentially civilians. Finally, I’ve never been in the service but I grew up in some very bad neighborhoods, places where a shooting a day wasn’t considered all that bad, and from that experience I can tell you...as far as bad things go, death itself pales in comparison to the constant fear of being killed.
This just all sucks so bad...
There is probably no emotion more complicated (save maybe love) than being worried about someone you aren’t sure you even care about anymore.