On-the-spot #1
- Thread starter KTC
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2005
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- Location
- England
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- www.richardcobbett.co.uk
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
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- Los Angeles
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- www.amazon.com
I don't know if there's anything, in my life, that I've ever technically given up on. But the one thing that comes to mind is on a friendship or two.
In life, I tend to look for someone who I have things in common with and who I feel can understand me in any situation and relate and accept how I feel and what I have to say. I've never really found someone I feel I can relate to 100% and when I find someone that reaches even 80% I get excited and get too close too quick!
One of my "best friends" is someone I've given up on because that 80% went down to about a 20%. And it probably isn't all that much because she changed that much, or because I did, but more that the change she made scared me and I wasn't ready to be all that different from her unless I wasn't around her at all.
For a little while I tried to be there throughout her change and her little dabble with drugs, sex and alcohol, but when I found it causing me ot feel more negative than usual or even contributing to my making poor decisions to relate to her, that's when I gave up trying to make this a "best" sort of relationship, and now, sadly to say, it really isnt one at all.
In life, I tend to look for someone who I have things in common with and who I feel can understand me in any situation and relate and accept how I feel and what I have to say. I've never really found someone I feel I can relate to 100% and when I find someone that reaches even 80% I get excited and get too close too quick!
One of my "best friends" is someone I've given up on because that 80% went down to about a 20%. And it probably isn't all that much because she changed that much, or because I did, but more that the change she made scared me and I wasn't ready to be all that different from her unless I wasn't around her at all.
For a little while I tried to be there throughout her change and her little dabble with drugs, sex and alcohol, but when I found it causing me ot feel more negative than usual or even contributing to my making poor decisions to relate to her, that's when I gave up trying to make this a "best" sort of relationship, and now, sadly to say, it really isnt one at all.
Giving up
The last time I gave up was the fifteenth time she stood up in the grocery cart. I just let her fall head over into the bananas. She cried, but, when I scooped her up and sat her back down on that little plastic red fold-down thingy (which preaches to you about the perils of allowing your child to stand up in the shopping cart, and peers at you in silent judgment with its big white circles slashed through with symbolic "no's"), she didn't try to stand up again. Well, at least not until we got to the check out line. But then she was distracted by the dangling pen attached to the credit card feeder, and she left a true masterwork on the conveyor belt.
Is five minutes up yet?
The last time I gave up was the fifteenth time she stood up in the grocery cart. I just let her fall head over into the bananas. She cried, but, when I scooped her up and sat her back down on that little plastic red fold-down thingy (which preaches to you about the perils of allowing your child to stand up in the shopping cart, and peers at you in silent judgment with its big white circles slashed through with symbolic "no's"), she didn't try to stand up again. Well, at least not until we got to the check out line. But then she was distracted by the dangling pen attached to the credit card feeder, and she left a true masterwork on the conveyor belt.
Is five minutes up yet?
The socks were on the floor. Balled up, dirty and reeking they sprinkled the trail of grubby clothes leading to the washer. It was much worse in there. The smell was of rancid peanut butter. They hadn’t even attempted to put the stuff into the actual washer drum, it was lying on top, a stained sweatshirt dragging an arm on the floor. I began to pick it up just as Duncan McBootie, our toilet challenged kitten, strolled in determined to be the whiz kid. I guess the sweat shirt could, indeed, become dirtier. I continued ramming the clothes into the washer, then added a generous capful of detergent. If the smell didn’t come out I could always spray the stuff with ‘Febreeze’ or even Lysol if I were desperate.
It was the subtle clanking sound that came from the washer that did it. That and Duncan. I opened the lid just to find one of the good coffee mugs being swirled with the socks and jockstraps. I reached in to take it out. Closing the lid I stepped backward into a pile left by the inestimable Mc DooDoo.
Taking off my slippers I walked to the kitchen. I opened the side door and tossed the befouled footwear into the rain, before retreating to the fridge. Just as I thought a bottle of Merlot sat chilling at the back. I grabbed it, de corked it and drank from the bottle.
“Whatcha doing mom?” It was one of my teenagers, probably hoping I was cooking some treat.
“The cat pooped in the hallway, clean it up, I quit,” I said hoisting the bottle again. As the kid looked on in amazement, I commandeered the stereo and put on Led Zepplin.
It was the subtle clanking sound that came from the washer that did it. That and Duncan. I opened the lid just to find one of the good coffee mugs being swirled with the socks and jockstraps. I reached in to take it out. Closing the lid I stepped backward into a pile left by the inestimable Mc DooDoo.
Taking off my slippers I walked to the kitchen. I opened the side door and tossed the befouled footwear into the rain, before retreating to the fridge. Just as I thought a bottle of Merlot sat chilling at the back. I grabbed it, de corked it and drank from the bottle.
“Whatcha doing mom?” It was one of my teenagers, probably hoping I was cooking some treat.
“The cat pooped in the hallway, clean it up, I quit,” I said hoisting the bottle again. As the kid looked on in amazement, I commandeered the stereo and put on Led Zepplin.
Thanks! They are great for loosening up rusty pens.
DC wasn't doing it for me, neither was Arlington. One was dirty and that's sans politicians and street people in gold chains demanding to clean your windsield for $5 or throwing stones if you say no. The other was cold, chic cafes and shops, just a place to wait on hold until, until the best reason came to leave.
Giving up a holding pattern for what I needed and didn't have for the longest time. It was easy to pack up 95% of my life and put it in storage, easy to choose what to take, what really mattered, easy to get the cats their shots, health certificates, plane tickets. Easy to say goodbye to what was just a place, easy to say hello to go home where my heart is.
Giving up a holding pattern for what I needed and didn't have for the longest time. It was easy to pack up 95% of my life and put it in storage, easy to choose what to take, what really mattered, easy to get the cats their shots, health certificates, plane tickets. Easy to say goodbye to what was just a place, easy to say hello to go home where my heart is.