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Thread Number: 38072
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Original Message
"Target misacquired."
Posted by Estee on 04-30-13 at 01:37 PM
I'd been having a bad week.

Ultra-comprehensive details aren't fully necessary and getting into the exacting bits would mean totally recreating the mood. Some of them are financial, one is injury-based (and it's the injury I've been trying to avoid for years and it wasn't my fault), I've been having more trouble with bystanders, spectators, and free commentary with attendant photography than usual, an absolute overload of biddies, plus the weather has svcked. Especially yesterday, on and off rain with chill and some wind. Fifty-four feeling like twenty, to the bone.

The rain broke briefly around six. I went to the park.

Just for a few minutes. Sometimes you have to get out, get whatever passed for fresh air, clear your head. And the park was empty: the rain had taken out all the traffic. Every surface damp: no one risking the skate ramps because the death factor shouldn't be higher than self-assigned, no one soaking themselves through on the playground, dogs being walked elsewhere. No one there but me, and even with the rain gone for the moment, not many reasons to be there other than 'it was outside and it was close.'

I wiped off a swing. Sat down, got soaked by the wet side chains anyway. Rocked back and forth a little.

And I thought about the financial issues which had been cropping up, and the pain which the rocking wasn't helping, and the absolute biddy overload, plus all the gawdsdamned fights I'd been getting into (or having people trying to get me into) out in public, and this, and that, and fifteen doses of the other things to the point where you just start wishing there was a sink available so you could launch emotional vomit into it. Sick unto death of the universe and 99% of the people in it, and that's before taking headlines into account. Just too much personal stuff.

Someone walking up.

Male, early twenties at best, hoodie (no jacket) but with features exposed: dark-hued Hispanic. Tense expression. Tall, lean, seemed to be moving a little too heavily. He didn't look like a mugger-in-wait (or worse) and I had the option to swing right into him with feet out, but there was only the two of us in the park and so much else had gone wrong lately that this would be the crap icing on the manure cake...

Right up to me.

Looked down at me. And said, with a heavy accent, "This is children's park."

I was tired. I was cold and wet. I was hurting. I was juggling a dozen issues. And this bastard was questioning my right to sit in a swing.

I stood up. And I tore into him with everything I had.

I explained the concept of 'public park'. I wanted to know if he saw any kids who needed the place ahead of me. I questioned whether he was accusing me of being a predator with no one around to prey on. I demanded to know why he was breaking the unspoken rules of the children's park and if he just wanted me to clear out so he could use it as a hunting ground. I told him that if he wanted me removed, he'd have to call a cop so we could both scream at him. There were more things said, some of which were variations and a few of which threatened to cross borders, but it all came down to this: you are the last straw and I will break you in half before I take your weight.

And he -- just stood there. Took it all without a word back. What could he say? When was I giving him a chance to say anything at all? He had been in the wrong and clearly he knew there was no defense against someone who wasn't ignorant. Yes, he could just stand there and take my pain all day, and I had so much to give...

I didn't run out of agony so much as I needed to knew if he had anything to say back. I wanted to have something else to rip apart before I thought about starting on his skin.

He noticed the silence. Looked directly at me. And said, voice weighted, "Where are basketball court?"

There was a long moment of silence.

He was new in the country.
He barely spoke English.
He was looking for a prearranged rain-or-shine game and wanted to make sure he was in the right place.
He hadn't understood a word I'd said.

...I walked him there myself.
----------------------------------------------------------------
So tell me about a time when you went off on the wrong person for the wrong reasons and lived to blush about it. Optionally, you can probably laugh at me on this one. I haven't managed it yet.

It wasn't funny at the time.

I may owe him dinner.

Table of contents
Messages in this discussion
"Oh maaaaan"
Posted by moonbaby on 04-30-13 at 01:55 PM
I hate when that happens.

Seriously, my first thought is that you need a vacation reeeally bad. Where there are NO PEOPLE. Realistic, huh? How bout a long drive somewhere quiet? I would say a walk on the boardwalk usually helps but there are few of those left standing.

Hang in there, girl.


"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by kingfish on 04-30-13 at 02:27 PM
"I may owe him dinner."

Heck, you should marry him.

Seriously.

He's Latino, so he's probably a superb lover and handsome as all get out (I can email why I think this. I am 1/4 Spanish-Cuban, so I have insight here).

He's polite. Seems to be obedient.

He's inquisitive.

He's athletic.

He can listen without interrupting. Or understanding.

Someday he’ll be multi-lingual.

And he doesn’t understand what you say, so you can take that as emotional support. Kinda like a punching bag.

(Sympathy for your pain, physical, mental, and metaphysical. And the wet bottom. I would blame most of it on winters in New Jersey, but what do I know?).

Oh yeah, and get a Lab.


"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by Estee on 04-30-13 at 02:31 PM
I would blame most of it on winters in New Jersey, but what do I know?

Apparently you don't know tomorrow is May 1st.

"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by kingfish on 04-30-13 at 05:04 PM
The pain wasn't a result of an accident during the winter? I assumed that most northerners would be limping a little after the kind of weather ya'll had.

Oh well, you know what they say about assumptions.

"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by Estee on 05-01-13 at 08:45 AM
An accident during the spring. I've been spending most of my spare time over the last six weeks helping a friend move out of her apartment. (At one point, I wrote a very long post about this and then, having achieved catharsis, saved it as a text file and didn't bother posting.) I was trying to help her shift some furniture and her end went west while mine went south. Result: the back injury I've been steadfastly dodging for years, and it wasn't my fault. I've been nursing it for a couple of weeks and it's slowly healing -- very slowly.

Realistically, the best treatment I've had has been glaring at her.

"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by Silvergirl1 on 04-30-13 at 05:34 PM

Do you need some new meds?


Snow globe sig and starfish globe by Agman 2011

"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by Estee on 04-30-13 at 06:36 PM
Are you referring to pain control or psychiatric?
"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by foonermints on 04-30-13 at 08:52 PM
LAST EDITED ON 04-30-13 AT 09:42 PM (EST)

Bath Salts? Evidently it does it all.


 Word-on-the-street says it even gives zHrelp to cure b-12 disease. It's your fingernails, right? I bet a nice manicure will fix depression.

"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by cahaya on 04-30-13 at 10:17 PM
That and some folks get incensed on fake THC.


Ragtop Ride by foonermints

"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by foonermints on 04-30-13 at 11:14 PM
"Drano Blue Thrash"?

Yep. It's just Kale with an acid wash.


I can score you some! Trust me, it's better than Yellow Sunshine!

"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by cahaya on 05-01-13 at 01:04 AM
Drano?!

Try Comet!

"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by Estee on 05-01-13 at 08:53 AM
Y'know, when an item's advertising lore is all about how it makes you vomit and die, you'd think more people would question the wisdom of using it. I? Did. The stuff gets nowhere near my apartment and I will not touch it under pain of someone else's death. There are less toxic assassination poisons.
"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by cahaya on 04-30-13 at 08:50 PM
I can't count the hours I've been on swing sets, from the front yards of now-defunct outdoor movies watching Blue Max and Dr Strangelove, to daylight watching the P-38 Lightnings from the local air reserve base fly overhead, thinking of the next generation of cobalt bombs as the air swept by my ears in gravita in Hoosier basketball territory.
"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by cqvenus on 05-01-13 at 08:16 AM

most recently, my mom called my 20 yr old sister's college and went OFF in a voicemail on some lady bc they gave her a student loan she didn't want or need. turns out, she misread the bill, and it was actually the *cancelation* of the loan, just as they'd requested.

cq

cuz it's not bad enough to have your mommy call your college. she has to be wrong, too.

"RE: Target misacquired."
Posted by Estee on 05-01-13 at 09:02 AM
To be fair, when you're dealing with student loans, screaming is the default response.
"btw"
Posted by cqvenus on 05-01-13 at 08:19 AM
when i first started reading this, i figured he had hit on you, and you lost it on him, being so completely unreceptive to the advances.

cq

platonic dinner, anyone?

"RE: btw"
Posted by Estee on 05-01-13 at 09:00 AM
Oh gawds. One wrong comment and there would have been a two-foot pile of Shredded Twit.
"RE: btw"
Posted by kingfish on 05-01-13 at 09:39 AM
LAST EDITED ON 05-01-13 AT 10:28 AM (EST)


"One wrong comment and there would have been a two-foot pile of Shredded Twit."

Adding to the above list:

- He's diplomatic enough to avoid shredding.

Or maybe he's just beat down, because I think that just not understanding the language is not enough to explain his diplomacy given your vocal level and presumed hand gestures. He got your intent.

Either way he kept you off death row (for the moment) and he got to his game.

Sounds like a keeper to me.

I can picture it, you, him, and your beloved Lab, walking in the park.