mcgrew's Journal: The blues sure didn't last long this time...

Instant karma's gonna get you,
Gonna knock you right in the face.
Better recognize your brother,
Join the human race.

What on earth you thinking of,
Laughing in the face of love?
What in the world you gonna do?
It's up to you. Yeah, you.

I can't handle those damned drugs Tammy's doctor has her on. Sunday night she went into one of her drug-induced psychotic episodes, and after verbally abusing me for an hour over something that happened a year and several breakups ago, she slapped me.

"When you leave," I told her, "don't come back. And don't call." The first time she hits you you're a victim, the second time you're an accomplice. There won't be a second time.

Breaking up is hard even when you're the one who ends it. I took Monday afternoon off work because I was afraid of breaking into tears at my desk. I did a little grocery shopping, and as I was putting the food away, Amy came by. It was probably pretty apparent that I wasn't in the best of moods. "What's wrong?" she asked. I told her, and started crying like a baby. She consoled me in the best way a female friend possibly can, and I took her to Felbers for a few beers. Her BF called my phone asking if I'd seen her. "Yeah, she's right here." He came and got her, somebody got me high out in the beer garden (out of sight of the cameras, of course), and I went home to bed.

I was blue Tuesday, but not nearly as bad. I stayed home that night and transferred some old Star Trek from tape to DVD.

When I got home from work yesterday the phone rang. It was Kathie. "Whatcha doin'?" she asked.

"Cooking a hamburger."

"You goin' to Felbers tonight?"

"I don't know, probably. Want me to give you a ride there?"

"I'm down the street from there now," she said. There are about five taverns in a quarter mile stretch of fifteenth street. You can't throw a beer bottle in this town without hitting a bar with it. "Will you give me a ride home when you leave?"

"Sure, I'll be down there in an hour or so," I said. I ate my burger and fries, logged into slashdot and used the rest of my mod points, which were about to expire anyway. Kathie called again. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Surfin' the web. I'll be at Felbers shortly."

I drove down, and the place was packed. I didn't see Kathie at first. I sat down next to Lucky, the most misnamed person I ever met. The conversation was so boring I don't even remember what was said. I finally noticed Kathie at the other end of the bar, talking to Billie -- the woman who knocked one of my teeth out last summer. Kathie saw me and came down as I was getting out of my stool to see Gaal, who lives next door to the bar; I'd left my NASA jacket at his house. "You're not leaving are you?" she asked.

"Only for a minute, I left my jacket at Gaals Monday night."

He wasn't home, but his girlfriend was, so I got my jacket and walked back to the bar, beer mug in hand. Gaal drove up before I went in.

Someone had given him a computer, and he wanted me to take it home and see if it was any good. I put my mug on the fender of Mike's Bobcat (a Bobcat is a piece of construction equipment), put the PC in the car and started back. Kathie came out as I was picking my beer back up. We walked over to Gaal's, who was outside sitting in a lawn chair talking to another guy. The two of them left, and I was there alone with Kathie.

Billie had been badmouthing me. "Billie said you're really mean."

"Me mean? Jesus, she knocked my tooth out!"

"She said you called her a whore."

"I didn't call her a whore, someone else did and I said 'she's not a whore, she's a slut.' It was a bad joke. I was drunk and didn't realise it would hurt her feelings." I hadn't known at the time that Billie was a reformed crackwhore. In real life as at slashdot, sometimes you go for funny and get modded flamebait. The difference is in real life, a flamebait mod is a punch in the face. Or worse in Felbers' neighborhood -- a lot of folks there are armed.

"I sure wasn't nice to her after that, though. She took another swing at me a month later and missed, and I hadn't said a word to her. I almost hit her back, but Kelvin talked me out of it. He said 'you can't hit a girl!' and I said 'that's no woman, that's a man without a dick!"

"So how's your girlfriend doing?" she asked.

"I broke up with her Sunday", I said, and explained the situation to her.

We talked a while longer and went back in for another beer. She kissed me on the lips, right there at the bar.

I took her home, and we made out in the car in front of the apartment's security camera. "Your eyes!" she said. "Oh god, your eyes are like laser beams! I think I'm in love with you... of god, I shouldn't have said that!"

Chris had told me almost exactly the same thing several years ago when I was dating her. I kissed Kathie passionately again, and put my hand up her shirt. She seemed to enjoy it. We made out a little more, and I walked her to the door. "Come on up," she said.

"I don't... I don't think I should, not unless we're both sober" I said. So I guess I have a new girlfriend.

I drove home happy.

Well, we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah, we all shine on.
On and on and on and on....

You got more bounce

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

than the Globetrotters.

When I grow up...

[GameboyRMH]

...I want to get as much action as mcgrew.

Re:

[mcgrew]

Be careful what you wish for!