2000-07-31 - 01:23:01

It�s The Manager. My day off. So I don�t know how the moving goes. But I got a e-mail from the Uberhamster asking me to keep the entries up for another day or two. So you probably are stuck with me until at least Tuesday. Then perhaps, you will be treated to your normal dose of Uberhamster goodness.

It was a well used day off. After a week of customers like I described yesterday (and even worse) , I needed a day away from their smiling mugs, and the store, more than ever. I�ve used it in a number of ways. Some house cleaning, a bit of on-line research, some writing, a conversation with an old friend, and I met an interesting new person on-line. A nice balanced way to spend a day in my eyes.

But most of the day was spent out with my oldest friend. He and I met on the first day of Kindergarten almost thirty one years ago. Our friendship has been one of the greatest constants in my life, and he provides me with a kind of grounding that I�ve never quite found anyplace else.

He�s not the happiest of people of late. Life circumstances have placed him in stress filled situation, where he�s had to give up most of his personal life in order to take care of an aged, but very demanding parent. So when we go out, it�s his main way to decompress away from her.

Unfortunately today we were faced with an endless list of small things that simply cut into his ability to enjoy his day out. Horrid drivers and a big rain storm chiefly among them. But what really spoiled the day was dinner. When he and I go out we have the uncanny ability to get seated in the �poor service� & �bad experience� section of almost any restaurant. Even when we go to one that is usually a top flight place, like where we went today. Today was one such bad restaurant experience day. All he wanted was a nice plate of pork chops, some bread, and time to enjoy it. What he got was a plate of some of the fattiest chops I ever saw. A surly waiter who kept forgetting out bread (never did get any), and a table full of screaming kids seated behind him. Not one to make a scene or complain (As I would have, but didn�t because he hates it when I do), he made the best of it. And was totally disappointed.

After we left the restaurant the damn burst, and he began ranting about everything that had bothered him all week long. It was a long list, and getting it out was good for him. This is how he get his stress out, and I�m well used to it. So I just listen, and sometimes make a small comment if I feel he has said something that is just simply wrong. Today he was unusually loud and energetic in his curses and such.

After one long outburst he turned to me and said: �And to top it all off, now I�m all hopped up on bad pork.�

A classic line that put me on the ground laughing. It will be one of those phrases that echoes across our relationship for years. And it�s the small things like that which make up a friendship at it�s core. The ability to take something that was created in a bad set of circumstances, and find the humor and fun in it, and use that to make life better.

We had a good laugh and his spirits lifted for a bit. I know that I�ll be able to cheer him up for at least a few months by simply mentioning �Hopped up on bad pork�. Always good to have a new weapon against the gloom.

Hopped up on bad pork. Heh.

�Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled. Not for it�s own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it.�

George Bataille