Downs.OhOhI’mOh, The Downs. at Denny’s.
The line above is a mistake caused by me not understanding the focus scrolling on my Android phone while I was attempting to add the “down side” part of tonight’s story. I wrote the text below while I was waiting at Denny’s for my Bacon Avocado Burrito and hash browns. I’d barely sipped my coffee and hardly gulped my water and I was already off and Swyping into my phone the text below.
Tonight, I engaged socially with the people of Shawnee at the live music, pool hall bar, Hot Rods.
I walked in at about ten o’clock, ordered and consumed a Miller Light, and listened to the band while smoking a cigarette.
Yes, I have been smoking.
Then I looked around for people I might know. Wonderfully, several of the bartenders from Buffalo Wild Wings were there, entertaining their private time. Since I have history with so many of them, it was fun to see them out and about.
I, of course, inquired or otherwise ascertained the details of each woman’s situation: Ring, no.
Question: Living with baby daddy, but really appreciative of the attempt. I was charged by the fact that I’d had a smooth interaction with a twenty something. I like that chick, but I can’t see me with a twenty anything.
The Buffalo Wild Wings bartender, Jennifer: That is a different story. She’s not a twenty-something, she’s like a super awesome thirty-something. I want to at least know that woman, and tonight I might have helped that situation by enthusiastically pleading my case to her coworkers. It turns out that Jennifer didn’t tell anyone about the freakout, scare she had when I God-stumbled into all her personal business in Okemah last January when I ended up at a bar owned by people who know her and sitting next to people who know her and were blathering out all her personal information into my ears. It all seemed kosher in the moment… I was just tooling around town telling my story and people just joined in to help me finish it.
So, that night at the bar I called Jennifer and told her that I’d found out all this stuff…
And she freaked out.
And word came through friends that Jennifer had called the police and Joe should leave town now.
I left town then.
When I got home, a police officer called me and asked me not to have any further contact with her by phone (at her request) and I have not.
I’m not a psycho killer.
Anyway, I’m back on mission to get to know Jennifer, but I need a kinder, slower approach of some kind. That can be worked out sometime later.
There are so many wonderful ladies in my life. Eventually, this process should result in just one.
I need to drive to Toledo.
Oh, The Downs:
Well, that’s how it was left. Sort of. I did make a couple of corrections. It’s now 4:15 in the A. M. of Sunday, November 10, 2013.
I would like to announce that I have fallen in love with Shawnee, Oklahoma.
This is a town that’s just the right size for me.
I can meet and remember a large proportion of the WHOLE TOWN — it’s just a matter of time.
People I’ve meet who work at Buffalo Wild Wings were at Hod Rod’s tonight. And they accepted me warmly and we had fun together.
I’ve been trying to be sort of a regular at Hot Rod’s. I stop in at least twice a week for a beer or two. And while I’m there, I make a point to meet the people who are sitting at the bar.
Over this last few years, I’ve gotten to know the owner, Travis, and his daughter. About a month ago, I pitched an aggressive sort of Web Management Contract between me and the bar with a large up front investment. And Travis said he’d think about that and call me. Tonight, he agreed to a pretty substantial monthly investment (in my business eyes — to him, it’s not much, but to me it’s an anchor contract). And that contract was sort of written on a Post-It note. So, I’m now the web wrangler for Hot Rod’s of Shawnee, OK.
Actually, I think I want it to be the first contract for syiStudios if that meets with the approval of the president of the company, Stephanie.
SyiStudios is the name of Stephanie’s photo studio (et. al.) business at the corner of Kickapoo and Highland in Shawnee (actually 430 N Kickapoo Ave, Shawnee, OK 74801).
I have moved into an upstairs apartment at that address.
I now want to build my office (a desk and a computer) in the lobby of the building. I’ll be the programming guy and receptionist.
You know what? I’m not going to document the down side of tonight. It was just some weird social drama that played out in front of me. Another man’s behavior reminded me of how I used to be and I compared that with how I am now; and, as I now reflect on how I didn’t even fluster or get confused or defensive in the situation while that guy went drunk-sideways before me, I’m proud of my progress and I pat myself a little on the back.
Although there was lots of God’s work in that transformation.
At the bar, I was buying drinks for people, so I went through my cash, like $40. I walked out of the bar with $11 in cash.
Cash is expensive.
Money is in the bank, but it costs money to take it out of the bank because there are no branches here in Shawnee. I detest using ATM’s these days (I do that math in my head of the percentage of the fee against the withdrawal and throw up a little in my mouth). If I use an ATM to get cash, then I get A LOT OF CASH, but it has to pretty much be an emergency. Anyway, the way I garner cash (my checks are deposited electronically, sorta, with my phone) is to do extra cash out debit transactions when I buy things that I need. So, ANYWAY, this isn’t rocket science, and I know I’m not the first person to manage things this way… I’m just saying… cash in my wallet is more valuable that the $ the paper represents because cash is useful anywhere… like at Hot Rods… where it would be nasty to try to do a tab (in my opinion, although they do it — I just like cash).
So. I had $11.
I drove straight to the casino.
I walked up to the same machine that gave me $1100 that day after one spin.
I put in $5.
I spinned $.30 and won $7 on a bonus thing.
I spinned $.60 and won $63 on a bonus thing.
I left the casino and drove to Denny’s for a Bacon Avocodo Burrito.
And that is how my week went.
Everything is looking up.
Thank you, God.
It’s nice to have social interactions. Sounds weird, but I once thought that I was the one guy who would be able to survive alone at the south pole. What happens when a human being is alone? He or she goes nutty. I have been going nutty time and again thanks to week after week of living and working in the same room, for a number of years. And I took a drug that made it possible for me to forget reality and just make up my own as I went along. This was not practical and it was not productive. And years were spent cheaply by me, where it might seem that little was purchased.
But I learned so much about myself.
I learned how I lie to myself.
I learned how I can live in denial of myself or some issue and not even see it as part of reality.
I have witnessed time and again a dream state where my version of reality including what I would see on televisions and computer screens, with my eyes open, was completely fabricated by my own mind.
That might be shocking.
And most people would be frightened if it happened upon them all of the sudden, but I became comfortable with the cycles, the waxing and waning of reality before me.
I have so many stories to tell.
But, as I have said many times over the last few years, I get most joy out of helping people with their daily toils, so I’m writing software to help Stephanie order her prints.
Baby steps take over my world.
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