Journal mcgrew's Journal: It's done 12
I've done everything for you,
You've done nothin' for me.
Well, I'm going out on the town tonight and be as wild as I can be
I'm going to find out what it's really like to be loose, high, and free.
--Sammy Hagar
Kathie had been in a foul mood for a couple of weeks, and I was getting tired of it. She'd argue with her sister or her daughter, and then take her frustrations out on me. Meanwhile, I've been investing a lot of time, effort, and money on a relationship that was starting to look like it wasn't going anywhere; she seems to make not one whit of effort, taking me for granted. Wednesday was the worst, and I wound up leaving her at Felbers, and left a voicemail telling her we were done. She tried calling after I got home and I ignored the call.
Thursday morning there were messages on my phone. "I need you!" she had begged. She ought to treat things she needs better. I'm done with taking shit from women.
Lunch found a letter from the State's Attorney's office, threatening me with jail for a bad check -- but I didn't write the check. My house had been burglarized in April, and this was the second time the damned incompetent SA had sent a letter. I'd called back the first time and had been told not to worry about it. Then another letter came.
I steamed about it all afternoon, and decided to call Kathy after work; I needed someone to talk to. She wasn't answering her phone. I left a message letting her know we were done; I'm getting nothing from this relationship except grief and expense and being ignored and taken for granted. Nine thirty she decided to call back. Screw it, I'm not answering the phone. Most likely she wanted a ride, let her take a cab.
I had a couple of beer tokens from The Converse Street bar on the north side of town, where Kathie and her sister and daughter hang out, so I decided to go spend them. Kathie had left an "I'm sorry I won't be like that again and I really need you" messages, so I called to see if she wanted to go along.
She wasn't answering the phone. Screw her.
At the bar they were talking about a shooting "right here at the bar -- there's a bullet hole in the floor over there!" Converse street is on the north side of town, "NEWT" territory. NEWT stands for North End White Trash, and there used to be a bar up there called "Newt's". It's pretty redneck and rough up there. I don't think I ever saw a black person at the Converse Street Bar. The week earlier they'd been talking about the guy next door getting raided for child porn and kiddie fiddling.
Nice neighborhood, eh?
"This black guy came in and pulled a gun, and everybody beat the shit out of him. The gun went off and shot his buddy in the foot. The guy with the gun's in intensive care." In Springfield, never bring a gun to a fistfight or you might wind up in the hospital or worse. One of the bartenders, a girl named Linda, got fired over it and she wasn't even at the bar! It was her sons and a few other men who beat the holy hell out of the armed thug and put him in the hospital, so they fired her. "It wasn't even in the paper", the bartender said. As they were telling me about the excitement, my phone rang. It was Kathie.
"I was upstairs at Cynthia's and left my phone at home. What did you want?"
I didn't like her tone. "I'm at Converse, I was going to buy you a beer but you ignore my calls." She said she was going to her mother's house in Buffallo, why don't I drive out Sunday and go to church with them and give her a ride home? "Well," I said, "I guess." After two beers at the Converse I went to Felbers, met a guy with some pot, and went home and got stoned.
The next morning I took my little notebook to Buffallo with me, and had no trouble connecting to Kathie's mom's wireless. I read the paper on it while her mom was getting dressed and Kathie was off doing something else, and they finally printed the story about the shooting.
A 27-year-old man was being treated at Memorial Medical Center Saturday after he allegedly pulled a gun on a man inside a bar and was pummeled by other patrons.
The incident occurred about 11:45 p.m. Friday when the 27-year-old walked into the Converse Street Bar, 1601 E. Converse Ave. He reportedly pulled a handgun on a patron, and the patron began struggling with him over the weapon. Other patrons started hitting the gunman, police said.
The gun discharged during the struggle and struck a 23-year-old man in the foot. The gunman then fled the scene.
A short while later, police located him at Memorial Medical Center, where he had gone to seek treatment. He sustained head injuries, was still being treated Saturday. He had not been arrested.
The man who was shot in the foot, Andrew J. Staber, 23, of the 800 block of Milton Avenue, was treated at St. John's Hospital. He was arrested on a charge of mob action.
"Ain't that like the Springfield cops," I said to Kathie. "Some guy brings a gun and the guy he shoots goes to jail!"
Kathie's mom's church was small and unadorned, with farm equipment outside. The music was ok, if a bit amateurish compared to West Side, and the preacher was pretty good, but he's no Eddie Lowen. While her mom was making lunch after church, Kathie was on the phone, which was typical lately and one reason I was a hair's breadth away from breaking up with her and in fact had told her Friday we were done. She didn't listen, but what woman ever listens to any man?
As we were eating lunch it occurred to me that this was the second time I'd met her mom, and her mom was feeding me, but Kathie never had. Not once, despite the fact that I've cooked for her at my house lots of times, besides taking her to restaraunts (including D'Arcy's). One evening Lindsay had dropped by my house as we were eating steak and baked potato and I mentioned I'd been cooking all day. "It took you all day to cook a steak?" she'd said. "Well," I'd answered, "I made omelets and toast this morning, burgers and fries at lunch, now steak and potato."
"Wow," Lindsay had said, "I hope you're gonna be my new dad!" Lindsay's 27, a year older than my oldest daughter Leila.
After lunch the call Kathie had been waiting for came -- Kevin called saying he was opening the bar. Which was greatly needed, as I wanted to cash a check for gas money to get back to Springfield. At the bar I mentioned Thursdays and wanting that to be our TV night; the Big Bang Theory is on at seven.
"But that's the night my shows are on!"
"That's right, and they're on after Big Bang and on the same channel! I can sit through your shows but you can't sit through mine?" She didn't answer, but just sat there pouting. After two beers we made the trip back to Springfield, to the Converse, which was what a lot of the phone calls she was on were about. Lindsay's friend Roxy had been carjacked at Felbers a year ago, and injured severely. She'd been hit on the head so hard her right eye socket was shattered and she lost the eye. They were holding a benefit poker run and 50-50 drawing and other things for her at the Converse to raise money for a prosthetic eye. Roxy's a pretty young thing, except of course for the empty eye socket. I kept thinking of Rooster Cogburn -- the new Rooster had the patch on the wrong eye, but it didn't matter because in the book he didn't wear a patch on his eyeless eye. Neither does Roxy.
Kathie spent the whole two hours we were there ignoring me and talking to Lindsay while drinking the beer I was buying for her. I think Roxy talked to me more than Kathie did.
Larissa was tending bar, and had been bartender when the shooting happened. "I hear you had a little excitement Friday," I said. We chatted a bit and I remembered -- "Hey, I wrote a book and you're in it. I'll have to get you a copy when I publish."
She scowled. "What did you write?"
"Nothing bad," I said. Speaking of which, the Paxil Diaries (the book in question, of course) is done... I think. I decided to add both volumes in one book, so if you have the PDF you've got maybe a third of it. I've been working on it lateley, mostly getting rid of typoos and such, and it has a table of contents now, too. It should be on BitTorrent tonight. Look for "mcgrew - The Paxil Diaries". If you can't find it, gmail me. Next payday I'm going to send money to the copyright office and look at some vanity publishers; any suggestions are welcome, of course. If you DL the PDF and find any typos or stuff like that, please let me know.
After the bar there was a music thing in the park behind Kathie's apartment, so we went there and found a bench not far from the stage. They didn't finish a single song before Kathie jumped up and took off, saying she saw someone she hadn't seen in a while, before disappearing. After sitting there by myself for half an hour, I hunted her down, gave her a piece of my mind, told her we were done, and left. That was about two, she called back at 10:30 (after I'd gone to bed) and again at one in the morning, drunk, giving me hell.
That was four days ago. I haven't called back or talked to her since. I guess I'll be missing Big Bang tonight, since I can seldom pick up channel 49.
Today's paper had more news of the shooting last week.
A Springfield man was arrested for allegedly shooting a friend in the foot during a fight inside the Converse Street Bar Friday night.
Prosecutors charged Sequoia D. Pittman, 27, of the 500 block of Williams Boulevard with unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
Bar patrons beat Pittman during the melee, and he had to be treated at the hospital for head injuries.
Pittman and Andrew J. Staber, 23, of the 800 block of Milton Avenue entered the bar at 1601 E. Converse Ave. about 11:45 p.m. Pittman reportedly pulled a handgun on a patron, and the patron began struggling with him over the weapon. Other patrons attacked Pittman, police said.
The gun went off during the struggle and the bullet struck Staber in the foot.
Staber was arrested on charges of mob action. The gunshot wound to his foot was not considered serious, police said.
There's a shop on Dirkson that sells sex toys, I see they were robbed. The radio blurb/jingle goes "Priscilla's -- where fun and fantasy meet." Or is it "We're fun and fantasy meat"?
I'll be glad when I can retire and get the hell out of this damned town.
.
Idiots shooting themselves in the foot... (Score:2)
In other words, there are a lot of people around here we
Looking for the new Paxil Diaries (Score:2)
I checked the legal torrent sites and TPB this morning and I can't find it. I have your rocketmail address and I know you had an old gmail address that got disabled, I don't know what your latest gmail address is (I assume the one you use with Google+).
If you make any money from sales of the paper book I'll buy one. It should be easy to sell it through a DRM-free ebook store as well once you get any copyright issues sorted out.
I wonder if I could get away with pimping your book on Something Awful forums...t
Re: (Score:2)
Well, there should be a seed, at least when the notebook's running... send me an email and I'll attach it to a return. You mention Something Awful, I used to know the guy that started that place (can't remember his name, Rich maybe?). He was big into Quake, and was with Planet Quake when he started Something Awful.
It's been so long I don't even remember if he was a fan, but don't do any p1mpage until I get it in paper form.
I'd like to read the Street Sweeper's Tale.
Re: (Score:2)
Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka is the guy who started Something Awful.
You can download A Street Sweeper's Tale here:
http://www.storylog.com/a-street-sweepers-tale/ [storylog.com]
That also has a link to the SA forums thread where you can see the story post-by-post with comments, but you'd probably need a paid account with archives access to see it.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, he used the "Lowtax" name playing Quake and posting at PQ. Thanks for the link!
Re: (Score:2)
I sent an email to your rocketmail address earlier, so take a look if you don't normally check that one.
epublishers (Score:1)
Have you considered using a place like http://www.smashwords.com/ [smashwords.com] to publish your books? I've got a Nook Color and a lot of the free/cheap books I get from B&N is from them. The only really bad think is they want a .doc file.
Re: (Score:2)
I'll check them out, Open Office will read and write .doc files.
Heh. (Score:1)
I've been working on it lateley, mostly getting rid of typoos and such, and it has a table of contents now, too.
I like what you're doing here. Your work is good. :)
Re: (Score:2)
Thank you!
Seems like this has gone on forever - that's good. (Score:2)
Wow... How long have I been following this now? Insanity... I do get to live through your stories though, well - in some manner of speaking. I don't often envy you but I appreciate your... Hmm... Patience and willingness to stick with the people you have chosen as friends. Had there been a time and place where we could have met in person I'm sure I'd be unworthy to be your friend but I suspect I would have been influenced by it.
Mcgrew's women (Score:1)
No, not this [wikimedia.org].. as much as we would like it to be..
For some reason, this [youtube.com] always comes to mind...