Part One Of 4.
I married GenuineWife in 2002. We’ve been married 6 years, then, and she’s been fantastic. Since our baby #2 is due next Thursday, I figured I’d put my sharp stick away and look at the past a little bit. She was 22. I was still 25, nearly 26.
I was enjoying the normal post college vibe. I didn’t want to be a flunkie for the World Bank so when I graduated from GW, I got a job selling ad space for a paper with a bootstrapping ethos. That didn’t last, so I got a job training people with thick accents on a CodeBase built database. That, too, didn’t last, so finally, I got a job waiting tables and doing free lance odd jobs for a couple of ad agencies. That was cool, because I had enough to support myself, and I had ultra low expenses. And, of course, gas was a buck a gallon, so nothing else really mattered.
And I met girls. I paraded one or more annually through my parents living room, looking for that magic moment when I knew that this one would be the one that stuck. I had a series of stupid relationships with girls of varying character, beauty and quality. I never really saw myself as a good fit with any of them. Either they couldn’t dig my easy Christian metaphysics, or they dug them TOO much and I was gonna be prodded into attending an Abortion March. A couple meandered into my orbit via facebook, bringing reality to Paul Simon’s promise of gathering all the girls I knew when I was single. And he’s right about imagination, that’s for sure.
It was the girls that didn’t dig me because I was ‘just a waiter,’ that made me take some action. There was one girl that I didn’t like all that well that rejected a relationship with me BECAUSE I was a waiter. “Can’t see this going anywhere…” Nevermind that I took a title shot with my novel “Searching for Bedford Falls,” and nevermind that I’ll do it again when I get the chance, and nevermind that I’ll get the title. Being a 24 year old waiter/writer/wanabe that’s content to have no responsibilities scares off some chicks. And I got that. Chicks only dig the roller coasters at cedar point.
I was incensed by the rejection! Who was the woman to reject ME? I wasn’t going to date her, not for long anyway. It was the subtle comments that I picked up on that clued me in. She wasn’t worth changing for. After we stopped dating, she had the misfortune to sit down next to me at a party, and suggest that I ‘leave room for Jesus.’ I said something like, “Don’t flatter yourself, you living lovehandle, you sat next to me.” Real charming. Then I called her a tub of guts, and some other things. She was barely overweight, but had a complex about it. You can just tell with some girls.
I was dating, off and on, a 20 year old student. She wasn’t for me and I wasn’t for her, but she was fun to pass the time with and have beer and pizza and drive around 270 burning $1.00 gas. She’d come over a lot, and we’d walk around Otterbein’s campus. She put no burdens on me, but in when my 25th birthday came around, I had no desire to have her meet my parents who had come into town. I planned it, and made up some lie as to why it wouldn’t work. She saw through the excuse, and my 20 year old wandered off to someone that was more ready.
The next girl that rejected me, it was because of the fact that I had arranged my life in order to see if I could hack it as a writer. I never properly found out because I gave it 7 months. She didn’t dig the fact that I was an a tiny apartment, and was waiting tables for money. She didn’t know that I had untaxed money around $700 a week. I don’t know if I wanted her or not, but she was the caliber of women that I wanted to date. I don’t know NOW if she rejected me because I was aloof, or because I had been waiting tables. I figured at that point it was time to get a real job. Most of the time men are motivated by one thing, and if I had something that kept me from attracting the caliber of women I wanted, then, well, I’d have to fix it.
That’s when I started job hunting, and it didn’t take long for me to find the job at Bank One, where it took about 80 days to cement the fact that there are differences between me and a corporation.
More to come probably next week.
OH, IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Always Back Up: http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/get_a_life_blog/2008/04/the-biggest-los.html Pam is right.
We’re not nearly through the worst of it. Morgan Brown again on the Credit mess and stated income.
How To Save $$: A Guide For Freelancers.
This video? Not safe for work. Total mid 20’s vibe though.
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