I am the Invisible Man!!

I am the Invisible Man!!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Hey totally random question

I ran into an old friend on Facebook the other day, and we got to talking. I shouldn't really say friend, we were in high school together, and we knew of each other, but we weren't really friends, and 8 plus years of no contact surprisingly didn't bring us closer.

Now I am usually only online to talk when I'm at work, and I work from 11 PM to 7 AM at a hotel, which limits who I'm able to talk to. So, this conversation that begins around 1:30 AM starts where we're doing the normal catching up questions, like what have you been up to lately?, where do you work?, do you smoke pot?..... Wait, how did the conversation get here?

It was a pretty normal catch-up conversation, at least in terms of my experiences with conversations with people I haven't seen in nearly a decade. The question caught me so off-guard that I just threw a semi-casual, semi-funny response at it, "No, unfortunately I'm only high on life."

Now, normally that would end that specific part of the conversation, and it would move on to another area, or it might go to the other person's reasoning for smoking, or why they like it, and why it should be legal, and f**k the government for not legalizing it, pretty much a conversation that I could add my two cents on, as I can make comfortable conversation with just about any topic.

However, this person retorted with the totally unexpected, "Why unfortunately?" I've always been anti-drug, even though as I've grown older, I've been more susceptible to trying new things, taking any kind of illegal substance has never come up. In all honesty, I would love to go back to my more youthful days, and try drugs, have it be one of the few things I could shrug off later in life as being part of my youthful existence.

Here's my response to the "Why unfortunately?":

well, there have been plenty of times where drugs made sense, but my inner monologue always said no. I've realized as I've gotten older, you only get one chance to experience a lot of things, and it's a lot easier to look back to your younger days and just shrug something off as a fad

I'm not sure what's worse, the fact that I referred to doing drugs when I was younger as a fad, or that I referred to my own inner monologue guiding me. The conversation eventually moved on, even though it got stuck when I asked her why she wanted to know if I smoked, and she replied because she was looking for a connection, and that she liked it, smoking weed that is.

Once again, Dan "Mr. Awesome Conversationalist" rang in with another generic, "I can imagine." The next few minutes entailed some of the most painful internet messaging I've ever been a part of, and trust me when I say I have had some awkward conversations via IM. We go through a whole mess when she wonders via a '?' response, and I reply that I can understand why she likes it because TV and the media make weed seem like a pretty good drug.

She promptly responds by saying she's not affected by the media, and I say that I wasn't trying to say that she was. We go back and forth a few more times, so I try to spell it out. I said something like, I'm not saying you like it because of what the media says, I'm saying that I can see why you like it though, because the movies and TV shows usually put a positive spin on it. Since the message box isn't open anymore, I'm just guessing what happened next. I ask something to see if we're on the same page, and she says "different page, different book."

Now, the sarcastic side of me wanted to ask if the book was in a different library, but I'm not quite sure she would've caught on to the metaphor. We finally move away from the pot portion of our convo, and chit chat about a mutual friend for a few minutes before she heads off for the night.

What I'm wondering if what I said about the pot being held in a good regard as far as TV shows and movies go was a good thought, or was she right and I just wasn't making any sense.

Hit me up with your thoughts.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Ode to Bob

Long ago, in a universe just like this one, my sister got a cat and named him after her current boyfriend, calling him "Baby (Insert any generic boy's name here, because I wish to be honorable and not mention his name)." I refused to call the cat this, and instantly renamed him Bob. Not to brag, but it seemed to me besides my sister, everyone called the cat Bob.

Bob was a great cat. Everything you expect from a cat when you go to the pet store or animal shelter to get one. He was completely self-sufficient, eventually to the point where he never came inside apart from 5 to 10 minute spurts when he just wanted water or warmth.

Unfortunately, Bob was hit by a car a few weeks ago, and even though I only saw glimpses of him running around outside, or squeaking in and out of the house, I have started to notice the differences in my new Bob-less world. First, let me preface the next part of this story by saying, not too many birds, squirrels or mice used to ever dare roam around or near my house. I can't count how many times I've either seen Bob taking down one of the previous mentioned animals, or seen our dogs fighting over his leftovers.

The other day I literally counted 40+ birds congregating on the front lawn, as well as recently spotting anywhere between 2 and 5 squirrels using the tree in our front yard as their base of operation. While I was counting birds I couldn't help but to smile, which as of late with school and work being really hectic, along with not seeing my friends much at all, has not happened much.

The first thought that popped into my head after counting the birds was, "I hope there are birds and squirrels in Cat heaven, otherwise Bob is going to be really pissed off." For a cat that would rarely let you get close to him, and even more rarely ever pet him, Bob and his death had a rather profound impact on me, and my feelings about the positive light that can be placed on death.

Every time I see a squirrel now prancing along the front lawn, or a bird pecking on our pool deck in the back, I can't help but think that the local neighborhood fauna are rejoicing in the death of poor Bob. And that fact surprisingly makes me smile every time I think about it, because it makes me realize the tremendous impact Bob had on the area surrounding our house. Over the course of the past 5 years or so, I'm sure our house has become known to many local animals as being a death trap for any who get to close. Knowing that animals can now travel around and about my house, as I have seen since the week after Bob's passing, makes me think of Bob, and how great a cat he was.

What surprises me most is how much I think of him now, after having no real attachment to him while he was alive. I end with saying again how great a cat he was, and I hope he's having fun stalking animals of all sorts where ever his spirit is now.

The Dingo's Bookshelf reserved for his favorites

  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series
  • The Twilight series
  • The Harry Potter series
  • Fight Club
  • On the Road