Friends

One of the things that makes friends so special is that you get to choose them. In great contrast to your family who you don't get to choose at all. You are born into family. I bring this up because this weekend I made someone cry. The reason that she was crying is that we were once friends, but I have decided that I no longer want to be her friend. I have spoken of her before, she is the one who beat up her boyfriend. My roommates have tried to get me to make amends with her, multiple times. They kept inviting her over and hoping that it would make me forgive her.

The first time that she came over after 'the incident' I was very drunk. We were all sitting around and attempting to have a conversation. Well, all of us except for me. I would just break into rants about how she had hit him. Stuff like, "I mean, you hit him in the face. So hard that you actually chipped his tooth. Flying across the room and doing some real damage." It was pretty obvious that although everyone else had put her transgression behind them that I had not. Eventually I had to be taken aside and told that I needed to stop what I was doing. I decided that the best thing to do would be to just go to bed.

The next day I told my roommate that it would be best if she didn't come over anymore. He didn't really understand, but he said that he wouldn't bring her over anymore. And of course he did anyway.

The next time he came over I was given notice that she was coming. I was told that I wasn't allowed to be mean to her. She showed up and tried to talk to me, but I refused. I sat on the opposite end of the room from her and tried to avoid making any sort of contact at all. Eventually I decided that going to sleep would probably be the safest thing to do.

The next day I talked to my roommate and let him know that it would be best if she didn't come over anymore. I told him she had last night for free, and it was really because of him that I gave her that, but the next time she showed up she would leave in tears. He said okay, that he wouldn't bring her over anymore. And of course, he did anyway.

This time she showed and and I wasn't prepared. Nobody told me that she was on the way. I was pissed because I was about ready to go to bed when she showed up, and so she showed up, said she wanted to talk with me and I told her that I didn't want to talk to her and tried to go to bed. She followed me into my bedroom and proceeded to talk with me. We were probably in there for a good twenty to thirty minutes. All that I said was that I was done with her, that I didn't want anything to do with her anymore. She went on and on about how much it hurt that I didn't want to be her friend anymore. And how she wasn't the only one at fault in the night in question. And she cried, a lot. And I was good, I didn't laugh at her once. It was hard not to, but I didn't. And she just kept going on and on about how she really wanted to be my friend. And I just let her know that that was not going to happen. Finally she left my room and I went to bed.

I talked to my roommate one more time, I called him an ass, or a dick, or some such thing. And then I told him that this time she really needed to not come over anymore. He said that it wouldn't be a problem because he figured that she didn't want to come over anymore anyway. Then he asked why I made her cry. And I reminded him that I'd given him warning that the next time she showed up that she would leave in tears.

The whole point to me is that I get to choose my friends. I choose who I spend my time with and I try to make good decisions about that. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but once they've crossed that line there's really no coming back. Once I decide that it would be a bad idea for me to hang out with them then they're gone. It's not always easy, but that's okay, because that's life. And I know that my friends are good people who will help me.

La Migra

As some people may know I used to live in Utah. It was a little place called Wendover. A border town. I lived in Utah and had a casino just down the street. Maybe four blocks away. It was kind of nice to live in a town with casinos because it was never very difficult to get a job. In fact, the town had become something of a destination for illegal immigrants. Probably because of the whole two state thing. I mean I bet it's way harder to track someone who is working in one state and living in another.

So basically the town is dependent upon the illegal immigrants and things really don't run very smoothly without it. If you've ever seen "A Day Without a Mexican" then let me tell you, I've seen a week.

He ran in yelling, "La migra, la migra." It would be the headline of the local paper that week. After that was yelled the workers cleared out. It was amazing to watch the population just disappear. Well, not entirely disappear, because I could see the fires up in the hills where everyone had gathered to hide out until immigration left the city.

School started that week. Well, I should say that the school opened up. There was a problem, though. Half of the students didn't show up for the first day. So not a lot of teaching went on because all of the teachers knew that when immigration left all of the students would be back and they'd have to teach everything all over again.

Back in the casinos business didn't stop, it just became very difficult to keep things going. It was so bad, in fact, that the CEO of the two most profitable casinos in town was not able to do any of his CEO duties but instead had to spend his time washing dishes. His thirteen year-old son, my friend, worked in the restaurant that week too.

That was a week that I don't think I'll ever forget. Once it was done everyone came back into town and things went back to how they were before, like nothing had ever happened.

Stripper story

So I'm at work right now, waiting for one of the various programs I use to load. It's been having problems lately so I figured I might have enough time to try and write a little bit.

I saw Arun last night for the first time in over a year and half. It was good times. We went to a nice restaurant, Jake's, and proceeded to act like we were in a dive. Dennis began telling his stripper story, which I think I'm going to have to repeat now.

So he goes out with his buddies from back on the res. They go out to Barracuda and go dancing with the ladies. Having a good time. Then Dennis see's some of his former co-workers and offers to buy them a drink. They're acting all snobby towards him while he's being nice to them, and he's getting a little fed up when suddenly someone grabs his arm and drags him onto the dance floor. They dance and make-out and whatever, I don't really know because I wasn't there, but he made it sound really fun. Anyway, he ended up with her number and then they left the club. Well one of his buddies, Gabe, decided that he needed to go back to the club so that he could fight his ex's boyfriend. Apparently the police were called in and they tackled him. When he hit the ground he shat himself. I bet it was a pretty nasty sight. So he spent the night in jail and had to clean himself in front of a whole bunch of people. Tons of fun is what I call it.

So Dennis calls up this girl and after dealing with her Dungeons and Dragons obsessed roommate picks her up. He brings her, and his other friend Robert, to the apartment. I was sitting quietly with my arms around a girl watching Antonio Banderas cause a ridiculous amount of mayhem. They come in and Dennis asks me whether I want Robert to sleep out in the main room or in my bed. I took one look at his beyond drunk ass and decided that he was couching it. Dennis and his girl roll back into his bedroom and proceed to turn on the music very loud. Unfortunately it wasn't loud enough to drown out the incredibly loud woman he was with. In fact it was so loud that I had to deal with two different noise complaints. Robert was trying to sleep, but he tried to talk to me for a while. He kept mumbling about the west side and I really wasn't able to understand anything else he said.

Finally Robert stood up and headed towards the back. I figured it was probably a good idea for him to spend some time in the bathroom. About ten minutes later I sudddenly hear Dennis yelling at Robert to get out of the bedroom. Apparently what happened was Robert snuck into the bedroom. Once he got there he laid on the ground for a little bit, then he got bored and decided that he wanted in on the action. Apparently his way of getting action was to grab the poor girls foot.

All in all, it ended up being a funny situation. At least from my perspective.