Somewhere Out On That Horizon

I don't have any kind of unifying theme for this here post, nor do I have any weird, interesting, or funny pictures that will compliment whatever I'm talking about, so instead I'm going to have to just shoot around and see what sticks to the wall. I guess that means not much has happened since my last post.

My stake-outs at the gas station have turned up no Jennifer as of yet. It's still my best lead, though, so I'm going to try try again. If this doesn't pan out I'll have to resort to other tactics. The good thing about being me is that not only am I persistent, but I always have a Plan B ... and sometimes a C, D, and E if necessary.


Meanwhile, I haven't yet proven my theory vis-a-vis Amy yet, but I still believe I'm right about it. As such, I'm acting as though the theory is correct until proven otherwise. And the first part of that is the implementation of the Funari Principle, by which I've backed off about as far as I can possibly back off while still remaining somewhat in sight. I'm remaining pleasant still, but I've otherwise pulled back. And while I believe the theory to be true, I'm also not going to make myself available to the two of them for those drives up the mountain to pick up Allison, and Cooter is going to have to get off his lazy ass and do it himself.

That would be fine with me anyway, because the boy does piss me off. Nothing specific; just on general principle. I've always looked at my doing this as doing Amy a favor anyway. If I thought of it as taking time from my busy schedule to do this so that Cooter could lounge around on his fat, lazy ass ... my head would explode. Besides, I really like Amy and I enjoyed her company. However, if I'm right about what I think I'm right about, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for me to be there anyway, since it's just her and me heading out there. I'm awkward enough around girls I kinda like as it is without some stupid tension making it worse. And I kinda like her a lot, as you know.

And today I more or less ditched them, too. Cooter mentioned that Amy wanted to go back to Lebanon, specifically Newbury Comics, and I mentioned that I had a reason to head out there myself (to replace Veronica Mars season 3), so they could come along if they wanted. And that led to him talking to her on break and whatnot, and they were doing the typical couple thing and I never really got a straight answer. The closest I got was him telling me that she said it was up to him. Then at the end of the day he was in a snit because Jim pissed him off (which was my fault, btw), and he blew out of there and went home. So I came home, and since nobody had given me a straight answer I just took off for Leb on my own.

I was going to be kind of dickish about it anyway. Last time, I went over to Claremont and picked them up, and then dropped them back off after. This time I was going to tell them to meet me here by such and such a time and then we'd go. Why? Claremont is out of my way for the Lebanon excursion. It adds about 20 miles to the trip, and that's just on the picking them up side. Screw that. They want to tag along? They can show up here. I don't think Cooter would have been too keen on that suggestion, but you know what? Too bad. It isn't like he does me any favors at all. By the by, I never ever ask for any gas money for all those times I show up and run Amy up the mountain either. I'm not that mercenary. And none is ever offered either. If someone were helping me out like that? I'd pay them up front, whether they asked for money or not. But that's me. But he's to blame there. I'd do it for Amy either way for free.

To tell the truth, I wasn't much in the mood to listen to their Amazing Bickermans routine all afternoon either (as amusing as it often is). I was fine with the relative peace and quiet, while blasting Kittie at full volume. I went, did my business, lingered in Borders a bit, and came on home.

Besides, he just blew out of work without a word. Hey, asshole! Do you want to go or not? What am I supposed to do? Chase him down? Screw that, too. I'm not his babysitter. I have to put up with carrying his dead ass for 10 hours during the workday (although, that's coming to an end, too), and I'm not doing it after work, when my time is so much more valuable (I could think of it like this: any time I spend babysitting him is time away from my book). He's a big boy. He can take care of himself. Meanwhile, I have other fish to fry.

Oh, what about that part where the snit was all my fault? Ok. I'll tell you. Sometimes in Mini-14 Cooter is the square peg that doesn't fit into the round holes with the rest of us. All the rest of us, misfits though we are, can work as a team, and that's something Cooter isn't all that great at. And he has a big, ornery mouth, and he likes to run it, run it, run it. So there was this gun he couldn't get to work, and he got Jim to look at it for him, but he kept running, running, running his big, fat mouth at Jim. Sometimes Jim picks at him, and Cooter always takes the bait and gets really fired up (not unlike how Krysten and me used to get along at FMC), and this was one of those times.

So Cooter was being belligerent, but Jim was looking at that gun anyway. I was watching all this and said, "So, you're helping Cooter out, and he's treating you like shit?" And Jim stopped, looked at me, said "You're right", put the gun down, told Cooter to go fuck himself, and went back to what he was doing ... which set off another ten minute battle between the two of them. And, even though Cooter was flying off at the mouth, it was pretty much all my fault. He was still pissy at Jim, and everyone else, when we left. Oh well.

We were standing around at the end of the day, and Cooter was still yap yap yapping to me about Jim, and I made it a point not to ask about the Lebanon thing, and normally I would have, because that's what I have to do ... I have to stay on his ass and walk him through the whole thing. "So, are you going or what?" "So, how are we doing this?" and so forth. Not this time. If he was going, he had to tell me. And if Amy needs me for the Allison thing, SHE needs to ask me. Not Cooter. Amy does. Otherwise, I'll be unavailable. Because he annoys me and she's a sweetie.

A few weeks ago Jim was giving Christy a hard time about something, and she reminded him about his New Year's resolution to "try to be less of an asshole". Only hearing half of what was going on, I asked him about it. And I replied, "That kind of fits in with my New Year's resolution." "What's that?" Jim asked. And now everybody was listening. "To be MORE of an asshole."

Christy says I need to be meaner anyway, especially to Cooter. She doesn't really like him. She likes me. She's kind of my little buddy, and has been looking out for me from the first day. I'd read more into that, but I don't think there's more to read into it outside of what would be wishful thinking on my part.

Yeah, so either way I wasn't going to Claremont today to pick them up. That's stupid. I'll make unnecessary, out of the way, trips to Claremont to flirt with the nice young miss who works at the Dunkin Donuts inside Wal-Mart, but that's a horse of another color. I'm doing that purely for my own benefit.

I have to make one last trip to Leb at some point to close my Bank of America accounts (Yay!), and the same parameters apply to that trip. If they come along, they'll have to show up. And they'll have to show up quick, too. I have to make it there before 5, and with me getting out of work at 3:50, that's pretty tight. And once I accomplish that task, I no longer *have* to go to Lebanon for any reason whatsoever.

So that asshole thing? It started as a joke, but it might just work out ok. I hate being taken for granted and I hate being taken advantage of. And just to show that I am somewhat self-aware here, the thing from a couple weeks ago that went on between me and Amy is absolutely a factor in this attitude. I had an opportunity and I blew it and I know it and that sucks. I'm taking whatever bitter taste was left in my mouth and using it for my own advantage.

I just have too many other fish to fry.