Missed me? You can thank one of my loyal readers who cares for this update. He jerked me out of my delusion that I’ve been updating with any kind of regularity.
Exciting developments? I have many. We were amazed to discover the sheer amount of stuff that Aaron & the Sarge took with them (stole) when they moved out. Those two are about the biggest idiots I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter. I asked Aaron about it once, he hemmed and hawed, and I decided that I didn’t feel like messing with it. May they have much joy of my stuff.
Anyway, our friend Brent moved in with us. He’s a like-minded laid back political punk with a Playstation 2 and wicked bass skills. He’s been my Yoda as far as encouraging me to develop my bass playing. There’s talk that he might move out at the end of this month, because his expenses are far exceeding his income, and he doesn’t feel like he’s contributing enough to the apartment. So sad. I’ll miss him, but I’m sure he’ll be over lots, just like before.
Other Sarge developments: Dirk isn’t allowed to call over there. In fact, no one in the band is allowed to call them except me. A little while after they moved out, Aaron left Dirk a message to call him back as soon as Dirk got back from work. Dirk did so, got the Sarge once and was told that Aaron wasn’t in. He waited a while, called again, and was told never to call again or the Sarge would put harassment charges on him. So, Dirk, believing that his brother’s call was important (because Aaron had indicated as much in his message), called their mother and asked her to call Aaron for him.
It gets messy and convoluted at this point. Apparently, their mom called Aaron’s place, started talking to Aaron, complained about the Sarge threatening Dirk, and when the Sarge started screaming at her via speakerphone, told Aaron to “shut that fat bitch up”. Aaron promptly hung up on her, and hasn’t spoken to his mother since. Her birthday was August 18th, and he didn’t bother showing or calling for that, either. In return, his parents finally cancelled his car insurance, which they’d been paying for him.
Oh, and Aaron also called to tell Dirk how childish it was that he’d called their mom. I could see his point if it had been to “tattle” on him. However, Dirk was genuinely worried because of the tone of Aaron’s message, and couldn’t see another way to contact him with a roadblock the size of the Sarge in the way. It turned out that Aaron only wanted to talk to Dirk to see about using Dirk’s employee discount at Lowe’s to buy supplies for the contractor he was working for. This is a blatant misuse of the employee discount that could get Dirk fired and the answer was “no.”
This brings us to another happy topic, however. Aaron quit his courier job to work for one of the retards the Sarge works with. No, seriously, the Sarge works with the mentally challenged. I figure it’s got to be rather like an outpatient version of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” for these poor people, considering what an unpleasant human being she is. She does meal planning, takes them out to events, takes them shopping, and helps them organize themselves. She only works with the partially retarded – they’ve got to be semi-functional. Anyway, one of the retards she works with is a contractor, which is a recipe for disaster as far as I’m concerned. He apparently offered Aaron $150 a day, under the table of course, if Aaron would drive him (the guy can’t drive) and haul supplies in his van, as well has helping with the actual construction work. As far as I know, the retard mostly did door installation and drywall.
Anyway, the guy was inept, which was a surprise to no-one but the Sarge, Aaron, and all the people who got suckered into hiring him. Aaron told us an anecdote about a time when they accidentally picked up a set of French doors that was larger than they were supposed to use. Instead of returning the French doors for a set that was the correct size, they simply cut into the wall to make the hole larger, without checking for wiring or studs or anything. They cut through the people’s electricity and cable. They weren’t able to get the cable hooked up. Even more amazing is the fact that Aaron didn’t see how monumentally stupid this was.
Aaron also wasn’t being paid $150 a day. This wasn’t a surprise either – what did surprise me was how long Aaron stuck with it when he wasn’t getting paid even half of what they’d agreed upon per day, while working 12 hour days. Loser. He finally quit working for the retard, and was talking about taking him to court for the rest of the pay. I wish him good luck with that, since there’s no proof he was ever working for the guy, period. The next job he got out of desperation was deliver papers. Again.
In the final financial saga of Aaron and the Sarge, Aaron got his license suspended for reckless driving. His third reckless driving ticket, mind. The police frown on that sort of thing. Since his job requires him to drive, and I’m sure his insurance and car payments (mostly his insurance) is eating him alive, he had to keep working. Now, the Sarge drives his route at 1 in the morning, then goes to her job when she’s done with that. Aaron rides along. The stress levels in that domicile must be through the roof, and Aaron confessed to me the other day that they have way too many bills to handle. I smiled serenely and informed him that we were, in fact, rolling in it. We’re not, really, but we’re not starving like we were and we’ve been able to buy some fairly boffo stuff.
Speaking of boffo stuff, my 24th birthday just passed on Sept. 3, and I got a digital camera. This sucker is incredible; it can take video with audio as well as stills. I’ve been making documentaries about the apartment. Here, have a looky. My parents also got me a memory card, so I can take longer videos and more pictures.
For other news, our band opened for the Misfits at Jaxx on Saturday. It was a good show, we played in front of a huge crowd, and they liked our stuff. I’ve got video of our whole set. If anyone’s interested in a copy, e-mail me. It’s VHS, though, because my camera can’t record decent quality for that long. I’m still a little emotionally drained from the show.
Unfortunately, the evil that is Aaron and Sarge’s relationship reared its ugly head at the show. She drove Aaron to the show, of course, so she was there. Apparently, she hates my guts, although I can’t fathom why. I’m a friendly, easy-going sort. I certainly haven’t done anything to her since they moved out, and she was cool with me before that. Anyway, I got to discover this the hard way when I was desperately searching for Aaron before the set. The Sarge was standing next to the van, and when I went up to her to ask her if she knew were Aaron was, she just got in the van and shut the door in my face. Now, if I hadn’t been busy having a heart attack, I’d have punched her, but she was about the last thing on my mind at the time.
The day after the show, however, when Aaron called and wanted me to call him back when Dirk got home so he could talk to Dirk, I sweetly informed him that no-one was going to call his place again, ever. I explained that I wasn’t comfortable with the possibility of talking to someone who hates me so much that she couldn’t manage civility during what was obviously a time of crisis, and if he wanted to talk to us, he’d just have to call us. I also pointed out that as far as I was concerned, I had done nothing to merit her hatred, quite the opposite in fact, and was tired of dealing with that sort of bullshit.
More tomorrow. I have a date with a copy machine, and you need time to digest all this excitement.
