Ya know what drives me nuts?

I have a favor to ask of everyone reading this blog today. If you are here, reading today’s entry, would you please submit a comment with just “Read it” or “Been here” or something simple. I just want an idea of if I still have readers, or if I’m writing for myself now. Thanks.

Friday and Saturday were reasonably good emotional days for me, but they were otherwise from hell. Friday morning, I interviewed with REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.), a sporting goods store (one of the coolest stores on earth) for a cashier or floor job. If I don’t get hired, something is wrong with the world. I’m just looking for a part-time job to have something to do this summer and to make a little money. Also on Friday, Mic had his wisdom teeth out. Don’t misunderstand. I love my son and I want the best for him. I care about his life and the difficulties he has, and those that he will always have. These things make me incredibly sad and guilty and, I suspect, they are a large part of the reason that I have trouble dealing with and being around him. The feelings that come from my realization that he isn’t the son I always thought I would have (the star athlete, the boy I would play catch with and take fishing and to ball games and play video games with, etc.) play havoc with my own mood problems.

My idea of what is “best for Mic” and Melissa’s ideas differ, and at some times our opinions clash and result in some bitter disagreements. I mostly let her handle his care. Mic is the hardest person on earth for me to be around just on an every day basis. He is emotionally about 6 years old (he’s 13) and getting younger, he is very learning challenged, volatile, as contrary as anyone can be, and just generally drives me nuts, no matter how or what I try to relate to him. I try not to show these feelings to him (he can’t help who he is) and keep them inside, and sometimes I’m successful with that. When Mic is sick or hurt, he usually is less difficult to handle, more mellow and agreeable. But this time, maybe its just that he’s older, maybe it’s the pain medications, but he’s a constant time bomb, fragile and volatile.

A couple months ago, Mic traded his Gameboy, all of his games, all the accessories, as well as some cash which he got as a gift for Sony’s newest top of the line portable game system (Portable Game Platform or “PSP”.) It’s a pretty impressive $250 piece of electronic equipment. Since then, he has acquired games (about $40 each) and movies (why anyone would want to watch a movie on a 16 square inch screen beats me, but they run about $40 each, too.) As I’ve mentioned in the past. Mic seems to have peaked in his emotional maturity. His emotional control seems to be deteriorating much more quickly lately. I hope its just the stress of moving and selling the house that is effecting him. Its effecting us all. So, Friday Mic was lying on the couch, drugged up and playing his PSP. He gets frustrated with the games often and has little ability to know when to put it down and cool off. I was the same as a boy. Melissa and I were on the porch talking, and we heard him just start screaming and wailing and crying. Melissa jumped up and rushed in to check on him. He was screaming about breaking his PSP, that he “dropped it” and it just broke and that it was ruined. She also found the remote control to the TV with the battery cover off and the batteries strewn about. The PSP had a spider web crack radiating outward from the center of the screen to the edges. Remember, he “dropped it” and he hung on to that story and got very upset and out of control when we questioned him about it. Its obvious that, what really happened, is that Mic got mad while playing a game, picked up the remote control and struck the PSP screen with it. The PSP is destroyed, can’t be fixed, and a lot of money has been wasted. Money we don’t have right now. I feel sad for Mic that, because of his lack of control, he ruined one of his favorite things and can’t replace it. I also feel sad and very frustrated that, despite the pain this incident will cause Mic, he will likely take nothing positive away from it, and learn nothing, no matter how much we talk about it. He is still, now 2 days later, clinging to the story that “he dropped it.” He could have dropped it from a ten story building and not done this damage. Otherwise, a good day.

Saturday, we had to be out of the house all day for showings and an open house. We were gone from 11:00 to 6:00. Long day. I’ve been savings up little tasks and things to read that I can do at Starbucks. So far (week) 3 showings, 2 previews and an Open House. Slow week, the realtor thought, because of Mother’s Day.

So, these adversities in the last two days, and the reaction from my mind and mood stability was nothing more than a bit of a bad mood for a couple hours on Saturday. The rest was difficult, boring at times, but of no real trouble for me. I’m happy with that.

Ya know what drives me nuts? I know this is a small detail, but I was raised, despite growing up in Arkansas, using proper English. I know not to use a preposition at the end of my sentences (“Where are you at?”) and to use the proper tense of my verbs (not “I seen the man at the mall.”) And it drives me nuts when people talk in present tense when describing things which occurred in the past. I have noticed that the entire book, “Electroboy”, thus far is written like this. An example would be “And then, we go to the bar, and the bartender says to me ‘Where’s you get that hat?’ And I say to him “I got the hat around the corner.’ So he goes to the hat shop and he buys the same hat.” instead of “and then we went to the bar and the bartender said to me ‘Where’s you get that hat?’ And I said to him ‘I got the hat around the corner.’ So he went to the hat shop and he bought the same hat.” I can’t figure out WHY people adopt this style of story telling, but just pay attention to conversations with people or that are going on around you and notice how often you hear it. That ends my “quirk of the day.” Thanks for listening.