You're goddamn right I'm UNCERTAIN

[YojimboMonkey]

When I ride the bus or train or whatever, people are stepping on each other all the time and there's rarely more than a half-assed "excuse me" and that's usually from me.  Everybody else is so used to being all on top of each other that they don't think it worthy of comment.

Which is to say, THAT lady was a BITCH and FUCK HER.

[Andrew_TSKS]

yeah, backing jim 100% on this. there's no reason to yell at people on the bus for tiny space violations like that.

god, you guys, remember mackro's thread about the girl on his bus route who couldn't sit near him because of his male hormones? that was hysterical.

[jebreject]

So I just submitted a letter of interest and my resume for a supervisor position at work. Apparently seven other people are also applying.

[andronicus]

Well, I just got on the bus to see the clinical social worker I've been going to for a few weeks, and when I sat down I accidentally stepped on a foot belonging to the lady next to me. I immediately apologized, but probably too quietly, because I always talk too quietly, and she snapped, "You stepped on my feet!" I apologized again and then knew I was about to cry, so I got off the bus and here I am. Fuck everything.

I wish I could give you a big hug.

[santaclaustral]

Things just got very uncertain and I'm gonna have to wait till Tuesday, maybe Thursday, for things to resolve. It'll all work out one way or another, but I'd rather not wait. Gah.

[diesel_powered]

Well, I just got on the bus to see the clinical social worker I've been going to for a few weeks, and when I sat down I accidentally stepped on a foot belonging to the lady next to me. I immediately apologized, but probably too quietly, because I always talk too quietly, and she snapped, "You stepped on my feet!" I apologized again and then knew I was about to cry, so I got off the bus and here I am. Fuck everything.

I wish I could give you a big hug.

I thought the same thing upon reading this. And really, it's probably not that you didn't apologize loud enough, it's that this particular person decided that you, a relatively nonthreatening person, were going to be the surrogate for some other psychological trauma that she probably experienced and instead of directly addressing it, she snapped at you.

Wow. That's one hell of a run-on sentence.

[hannah]

 

After a few more days I may have some certainty in my life! Take that, bus meanface!

[Wally]

You certainly showed her. Mean spirited bitch! (Her not you, although feel free to be one if the mood takes)

[Wally]

As for my own uncertainty, it stems from New Years Eve, when the bf of a friend of mine told her that she either had to stop spending time with me, or he'd leave her. She did as he said, and I didn't have the time or energy to really kick up a fuss, so I left it all alone.

About half an hour ago she called me as I was leaving a seminar, and I got a ten minute distillation of her last 7 or 8 weeks. Basically, the boyfriend an aggressive, coke addled abusive half wit kinda of went of the rails. First by involiving them in a threesome with his best friend, and then getting incredibly insecure and jealous about the ammount of enjoyment my friend got with the best friend. He started to become more and more agressive, until one night a couple of weeks later she was around at his house with her kids upstairs asleep when he began to demand she brought him some more charlie, because he'd ran out of cash. She refused and he became violent, she sort of diffused the situation until the next morning when she ordered a taxi to go back to her mothers, when the taxi arrived the bf wouldn't let her leave, and then he said she could leave but the kids (not his) had to stay. This was pretty much the last straw for her, and found it in her to tell him they were finished and get out of the house with the kids.

Since then he's been turning up at her mother's house on a regular basis, and a week or so ago turned up in the middle of the night when my friend was "entertaining" a new friend. The ex-bf, went ballistic ended up smashing a hole in the kitchen wall. The new friend is a squadee and was able to get the ex-bf out of the house with minimal effort. That's pretty much the story, only the impression I got was that the squadee is the new bf and something of a hard case.

When the phone call ended we said we'd arrange to meet up for coffee or lunch over the next few days, my uncertainty stems from whether I really want to. I'm very fond of my friend and her kids, but she seems to go from one mentally or physically abusive dude to another, and whilst I shouldn't rush to judgement a hard case squadee could quite easily follow in this pattern. And I'm loathe to start dispelling wisdom and advice, given how useless it would be, both as advice given that I'm hardly an expert on healthy livng or relationship, and also because lets face it how likely is it that she'll listen. I'm also, no doubt a little pissed about her dismissing me in the manner she did in January, but I'm not really one for the whole bros before ho's nonsense, so I'm not that hung up with that.

In the end I'm doing my best to keep my life as steady and level as I can, and am uncertain as to whether getting involved in her life again will be conducive to that. Which kinda makes me a shitty friend, 'cause I should be trying to be there for her as that's probably what she needs.

Well I caught up with her between classes today, actually we'd arranged to meet up three times last week only for her to cancel, in the end I thought fuck it and went over. Her, her mum, her new boy, her kids and the father of her kids were all there. The littlest kid has learnt to walk in the two months since I was over there last, so that was pretty cute to see. Her mum seems utterly drained from recent drama. The father of the kids remains an long streak of piss. The new boy is probably worse then I imagined, smug and aggressive in everything he said or did. And my friend, well things weren't particularly good between us, and that wasn't help by the fact that she kept contradicting herself about various things, and kept getting caught up in various lies. It's all pretty sad and frustrating, but unless she starts playing with a straight bat I really can't see myself wanting to stay in contact with her. But then again she's been through a hell of a lot, so I feel remiss not being there for her if she needs me. At the moment I think I'll leave it to her, and if she wants to meet up then I'll do so.

[heather marie]

HANNAH!!!!!! I did that once. Well, actually, I was trying to get off the #6 bus (AKA WORST BUS EVER) and there was a lady in front of me who wasn't advancing when we were getting close to my stop so I said "excuse me" but I talk quietly sometimes (ha, sometimes) and then I said it again and she was like, "I'M GETTING OFF HERE CAN'T YOU SEE THAT?" and I said I'm sorry a thousand times but ugh people are jerks.

Also let's hang out before I peace out of Chicago.

[C of heartbreak]

Man people on buses suck.

[elpollodiablo]

I need to stop bringing my notebook to geography and geology classes. It's hard to pay attention to rocks and dirt when there's LPTj and the NY Times and like such as

[jebreject]

Man people on buses suck.

The drivers are usually pretty nice though!

[edison]

Man, I just received a job offer that actually interests me a lot, is located here, and I'd probably be pretty good at it. The twist is that they're (a research team in European political sociology) looking for someone who is preferably an English native speaker, so I'm probably screwed if any good foreign people apply, which is depressing, because now I want this job so much and there's a 70% chance that I'll be disappointed!

(alex, btw, if I make it past the first screening, the interview would be on March 27 or 28, so I might have to reschedule my visit to NL/Germany - I'll keep you updated, of course)

[alex]

Wow, good luck with that!

(alex, btw, if I make it past the first screening, the interview would be on March 27 or 28, so I might have to reschedule my visit to NL/Germany - I'll keep you updated, of course)

No wait, no good luck with that!

(I kid, of course, my fingers are still crossed)

[Wally]

Knock them dead, edison.

[edison]

Thanks! It'd really make more sense for them to hire a native speaker, since it's (partly, but mostly) about translating, editing and proofreading stuff in English, so I suppose actually knocking other applicants dead would be my best bet.

[Wally]

If the research thingy doesn't work out over the summer I'm giving serious consideration to putting a film together over the summer. Uncertain becasue obviously it'll be a big commitment, and it's questionable whether I've got the stamina to give it my all. I'd previously decided to put a pin in these type endeavours but over the last week or so a series of ideas have been festering, and if they stick around I suspect I'll have to do something with them. It's likely to follow in the footsteps of two of the previous and center around platonic friendships, although this time around I suspect the relationships will be only slightly interconnected rather than utterly meshed together. I'm certainly not going to making internet posts on casting sites, if it happens I'm going to make the most of people I know and try and pull out characters from them rather then get them to interpret my characters. We'll see, I should try and focus my final exams and assignments before I get caught up in this, but then again I do have the easter break coming up and their might be a chance to think a little harder about it then.

[auto-da-fey]

My grandmother is expected to die either today or tomorrow. No need to offer condolences--this is a good thing, Alzheimer's reduced the poor woman's quality of life to zero years ago, and both and her children and I consider this a merciful intervention. Indeed, if this were the sad thread, I'd be less sad about her imminent passing than her life, which was so tragic and pathetic that it sometimes brings me to tears (when her father made her drop out of school before eighth grade against her wishes to help on the farm, marriage became her only means of escape; unfortunately, it was to the alcoholic and abusive monster who became my grandfather; she spent the rest of her life so timid and dependent that after he died a quarter-century ago, she spent most of her time alone in her small apartment, unable to really function on her own; but I digress).

Anyway, what I'm unsure about is how I'm gonna make it back to Minnesota for the funeral. I'm supposed to present a paper in San Francisco next Wednesday (one I haven't really written yet, to my chagrin), and I can't really miss much work, so I'm hoping everything can be scheduled for this weekend, but holy hell does it make me feel bad to fret about fitting my grandmother's funeral into my relatively meaningless weekly schedule.

[jebreject]

 

[elpollodiablo]

Condolences anyway, Whit. That sucks.

[auto-da-fey]

Thanks guys. She just passed away a few hours ago, and at least she went out surrounded by all seven of her surviving children--quite a feat, considering that several of them have not been on speaking terms in years (Uncle Robbie's wife leaving him for his brother, Uncle Dewey, caused quite a rift!). My dad sounded sad when he called, but relieved that her suffering had ended. Also someone in the hospital--I'm hoping a priest and not a doctor--told him that she could hear and understand them as they said goodbye, which he believes or chooses to believe and seems to take some comfort in, so I guess that's nice.

Looks like I spend the weekend in Minnesota and maybe Iowa, mourning and writing a paper about porn.

[elpollodiablo]

[diesel_powered]

Bummer, dude. Condolences anyway.

[girl]

I'm sorry, Whit. Safe travel this weekend.