Another Monday in the Works
October 28^th, 2003
8:53 A. M.

Yes, indeed...yet another monday. I even refuse to capitalize that word until the day is over. It's just getting started, and so far so good. I haven't ventured outside my apartment yet, but sometimes I can get the feeling that a monday can go wrong just from the way the air feels.
Right now, I can't tell how this day is going to go...it could go well (in which case it goes from a monday to a Monday), or it could go wrong (in which case it would go from monday to...let's say...an unrepeatable string of descriptors.)

No matter how well today goes, yesterday was good. I went to a K-Mart (it's the only one left in my town, so I should say the K-Mart) and saw a couple of old friends there.
I don't remember if I've written about this or not, but I used to work at a K-Mart here in town about 3 or 4 years ago. I was in the garden shop (I love plants of all kinds), and I worked with a bunch of nice people there. There was a young couple there, both still in high school (they were about 16 years old at the time), and they looked good together. The public persona of this couple was such that I thought these two kids would be together forever. I have been wrong about this sort of thing before, though. (And, so has D! Ask her about it some time. If you mention "This Space For Rent" when you ask about this reference, she'll know what you're talking about.)
The guy was, well, kind of an average 16 year old. Lots of potential, but not entirely mature. (But, then again, I don't consider myself all that mature, and I'm counting down the days 'til I turn 30.)
The girl, on the other hand...well, she was special. She is intelligent, charming, very pretty, and an overall joy to be around. I thought that the boyfriend had enough on the ball to recognize this. Turns out that he might have been a total lunkhead. And, ladies, before you ask me why men are such lunkheads, and expect me to have a good answer simply because I'm a man, you must know right now that I'm just as befuddled as you all are. I mean, heck, I let my ex girlfiend (yes, the 'r' is missing there...ladies, you should do likewise in reference to a bad ex, too) know how much I cared about her every day...I even told her what I liked about her.
Well, back to my former co-workers. From the friends I have in common with this couple, I found out that the guy would "do his own thing" (I'm assuming he would run around with his friends and break dates with his girlfriend...which sounds all to familiar to me) and then turn around and act like he wanted to keep her around. It must have been the old keep-'em-dancing-on-a-string routine.
I wonder if this dude ever knew, or ever will know, how it feels to be done that way. I wonder if any of you who have pulled, will pull, or are pulling this horrific trick on your (in)significant others will ever know how it feels to be on the receiving end of such treatment. I gave you a clue in that last sentence. For those of you who caught it, well, you must have been done that way before; and you have my condolences, and my complete empathy. To those of you who didn't catch the clue...well, there is very little more that I can say to you. You're probably in one of these relationships where the other person treats you like an inconvenience one day and gold on the very next. You love this person with all your heart, for everything you're worth, but they never seem to wholly appreciate that. They're wrapped up in their own little worlds, doing everything that is important to them, and getting around to you dead last.
So, now I will make my clue more apparent than it already was...take "(in)significant other" and remove the parentheses.
And I can't believe this guy treated my co-worker like that (I met her before I met him). From a few days after I first met her, I was going over these impossible scenarios...like; "If I was a couple of years younger, or she were a couple of years older, I'd ask her out without hesitating."
Or; "If something happens and my girlfriend and I break up in a couple of years, and I am still in contact with my co-worker, I would ask her out then."
Well, my girlfiend of 7 and-a-half-years and I have split up. My co-worker is available, and now 19 (she happens to be the only exception I can think of to not dating anyone much younger than 24 or 25). But, I'm no longer in contact with her.

Ah, well...Like Warren Zevon said, "Grab a hold of that fistful of rain."