Crying Over Spilled Beer

“Don’t cry over spilled milk. It could have been beer.”~ Author Unknown

Last night, I traveled to Waco, Texas because #1- I can and #2- I was invited to attend a show there which headlined the band, P.O.D.

There will be a full blog post about my travels and experiences about that much later.

I wanted to focus on a group of people that I had the unfortunate displeasure to have crossed paths with.

Although as they say, when it becomes a thing of the past and you look upon it then you will just laugh and laugh and laugh.

I ain’t laughing yet….. that much!!!

As I was familiarizing myself with the venue, I had the sorrowful duty to attempt to manage to get myself around as best as I could while dealing with rather THICK carpeting.

I had turned the corner and hadn’t been talking, hadn’t bothered anyone, and I passed up a group of gentlemen.

Suddenly, my arm and chest and all the way down to my hip felt wet and very cold.

These “gentlemen” were a group of friends and were involved in a serious match of horse play when one of them spilled their beer all over me.

Now I realize that they didn’t simply just THROW it on me or DUMP it on me, nevertheless the guy’s glass was empty in a fraction of a second and I was dripping with the contents of that glass.

Suddenly their incessant giggling and immature shenanigans came to a most abrupt end and conclusion. So much so that they pretty much kept to themselves quiet the rest of the night…. even after I had moved.

I looked at my coat sleeve as it dripped of nasty and cheap beer from the forearm to the hand and down the fingers to one side of my lap.

Looking up slowly, I saw three or four faces frozen in shock and in horror. And best of all: fear.

I didn’t say a word. Not even a grunt or a peep. I turned away from them and kept moving on.

The rest of the night, the guilty party continually came up to me after it was all said and done, apologizing, begging for forgiveness, and apologizing some more. I continued to stay quiet. 

Here’s the inside scoop on this story and probably the REAL reason as to why they were so adamant about being sorry and letting me know about how sorry they were:

The photograph of the jacket is called a “BDU” in the military.

I was wearing one. My brother got one for me while he was serving in the Army.

I had my name across it. I had military patches and other insignia up and down the sleeves. It looks legit even though it is not. Because I am not a Colonel, nor enlisted in the United States Army. I do however, like the insignia and symbol of the rank of Colonel.

Eagles, anyone?

These guys convinced themselves without any help of anyone else of the outside world, that a beer had been spilled upon a member of this country’s military veterans.

The next thing I know, they were offering to buy me drinks the rest of the night. They were wanting to take me out to eat. They were willing to purchase expensive band merchandise. They even offered to bring me to the next big show and pay for my ticket. All of this, without my consent or approval.

I honestly believe that these people were fearing some kind of massive retribution on my behalf as a consequence for their immature actions. And they were attempted to mend the wrong with showering me with gifts, to ensure that retribution would not be received.

The sad part is that people are going to believe what they want to believe. It does not matter whether or not you attempt to right their mistakes, they will do and believe what they want. No matter how many times I tried to tell them to just drop it… they insisted. And no matter how many attempts that I gave to explain that I was not in the Army, and that it was just a jacket… they believed what they want.

Am I former military? NO.
Was it okay for them to have done what they did? NO.

So, there’s fault on both sides. And it appears that both sides were stuck with attempts to right the wrong in vain.

Chances are… I’ll never see these guys again. That’s just the way the world works. But I literally had these guys scared to death the entire rest of the night up until the time that I left the venue to return home.

This could be a lesson for people as well.

Of course I could have screamed and cursed and attempted to pick a fight with these guys. I would have been justified in doing so because of what had happened. But I think the best retaliation was to let them stew in their own individual minds about what they were doing and what they did do and what had happened, to punish themselves about it the rest of the night.

Are they thinking about it now-today? I doubt it. But they sure as hell thought about it last night.

Pub & Grill Owner Kicks Hornet’s Nest In South Carolina

“I have a love interest in every one of my films: a gun.” ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger

Let me tell you a little story about a small Pub & Grill in South Carolina.

The establishment or at least the owner made a decision to not allow concealed weapons inside. So the owner created one hell of a sign for his business and promptly displayed it in the window.

You may read about it right here:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/18/sc-pub-sparks-outrage-sign-calling-gun-owners-lose/

Now I do understand that this is still a hot issue to discuss but I don’t think that it matters what side you are on about guns and gun control and whatever. The fact remains that the sign calls those people who wish to carry a concealed weapon a loser…. as well as a douchebag.

Uh oh… I smell trouble. He done gone and did it. And pissed off a majority of those who own guns and who decide that carrying a concealed weapon is their Second Amendment right according to the United States Constitution. And basically his First Amendment rights of expressing how he feels on the topic went out the window right after he started calling certain groups of people names. Had he not called them a loser and a douchebag, then this wouldn’t be getting as much attention as it is.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/backstreets-pub-and-grill-clemson?start=40&sort_by=date_desc

So as you can see, people are extremely pissed off. And I think it has more to do with the public display of insulting name calling rather than the Second Amendment issue of whether or not to carry. After all, it is his choice of whether or not he wants concealed weapons inside of his pub. But there are proper and more official signs that this owner can get hands on instead of being this passive-aggressive person.

Yelp is flooded with unhelpful comments and negative reviews. This business is probably going to go down in flames pretty fast, if the owner doesn’t either change the signs to a more official sign or publicly apologize for their actions.

People on the Internet are deeply, deeply cruel. These people will not relent I am sure.

Let this be a lesson to everyone out there who runs or owns a business. Adding insults and name calling will only cause you more anguish and hardship. Its just not worth pissing off your future customers. Because its the general public that you are pissing off and its the general public that will decide whether or not they want to go spend their money at your place.

This guy is probably going to go down with the ship.   If it survives, then it survives based on the business given by people who share the same opinion and viewpoints about guns.

But still, what a pity when the mouth opens and crap flies out!! 

A Plea To The World

“A man who has never made a woman angry is a failure in life.”~Christopher Morley

In my youthful age, I have been fortunate enough to pay attention to certain things that would to most, seem mundane and minimal. I thank my lucky stars to have the common decency and sense to remembered things that would later serve a purpose in life, no matter how large the scale.

I’m talking about the treatment of pregnant women by men.

And therefore I send forth my plea to men… PLEASE STOP PISSING OFF PREGNANT WOMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that by now, men in general realize not to mess with a woman who is dealing with her period. But there really can’t be much said for those who know not to, and still do it. These men are beyond help.

But it’s recently come to my attention that the hormones in pregnant women…. well… guys seriously, there’s no other way of putting it. If you mess with a pregnant woman, you’re gonna get tore up.

So now I give you the TOP FIVE incidents that I had personally witnessed to of men messing with a pregnant and the disastrous consequences thereafter. Of course, I believe this kind of thing happens every day, and it shouldn’t. But these are the ones that I am aware of.

Here we go!!!!

#5 – Little Rock National Airport. Mid-1980’s. My grandmother would often visit my family from Michigan. She would fly to Arkansas and spend what seemed like to us at the time, almost an eternity. But once the entire family went as we were giving grandmother a ride to the airport so that she could return home. She unfortunately had missed her flight. So she was made to wait for another flight to leave. And the family stayed. Meanwhile, there was a couple that was sitting directly behind my seat and I could overhear their conversations. Mainly because they were being loud and obnoxious. Ahh, young love in the 80’s!!!

So the woman told her lover/boyfriend/whatever, as she began to weep, that she went to her doctor and found out that she was about a month or so pregnant. To which the response out of him was “Ohhh thank God!! I thought it was you who was stealing my fuckin’ Star Crunches out of the pantry. Baby, I didn’t know how to tell you, but your booty is starting to get large.” 

About this time I did glance back behind me, only to find the woman’s hands around the guy’s throat as the man was drooling and slobbering on himself, gasping for air before airport security escorted both man and woman away, and in different directions with the assistance of local police. 

#4- Sedgewick County Zoo, Wichita, Kansas. Late 1980’s. After being at what I could gather was some random conference for teens, to learn about the dangers about teen pregnancies and what not, one female participant had apparently been feeling guilty because she was pregnant with her boyfriend’s child. The teen couple had taken the summer day off to go to the zoo and they happened to be at the tiger exhibit at the same time I was. To which the girl confessed that she was pregnant with his baby. (I could only make such a theory based on the t-shirts they both were wearing at the time.)

The boyfriend then did that stereotypical macho garbage move and told her that when they had left the zoo, that they were going to buy a home pregnancy kit. And if it came to be that she was in fact pregnant, that he was leaving her.

After a few seconds of cursing, religious blasphemy, and swearing, I was quickly moved on to the next area of the zoo for my own safety.

Later I would get ill from eating something bad at the concession stand at the zoo and would be still awake after my supposed “bedtime” and long enough to be awake for the late night news where it was then reported about how a young teenage girl was arrested for attempting to throw her boyfriend into the tiger cage. Luckily for him, the tigers were sleeping and didn’t notice anything.

#3- Wedding Reception. Rhode Island. 2008. During the time that I was with my last girlfriend, I as the “boyfriend” was swiftly taken away to the New England states in order to attend the wedding of my girlfriend’s older brother. It was a most uncomfortable scene as I was very much made aware that my girlfriend’s ex-husband was best friends with the groom-to-be and was going to be in attendance.

I did not see him at the wedding ceremony itself though. I’m getting off track here. Back to the reception.

At the reception, was a young newlywed couple of probably no more than five years. And the woman was pregnant and showing. And her misguided husband attempted to take the role of food patrol for his wife, very publicly announcing to her that she had “had enough” wedding cake to eat. (In reality, was only a second piece since the first one was so thinly sliced.)

Saying nothing to her husband, she handed him the cake and he turned away to look for a place to dispose of the unwanted pastry. Only for others there to have been there to witness the wife standing up, folding up her chair that she was sitting in and proceeding to beat the living shit out of her husband with it.

As I was given to understand, the ink on the divorce papers were dried and served. Evidently she had cleaned him out and took the children with her by the time I left my ex LESS than a year later.

#2- Fundraising sporting event. Austin, Texas. 2010. This one, I should admit to not witnessing…. but rather reading about it. And then speaking to someone who was actually there. But it was later reported to be true in the news.

After paying $50 a piece to see a baseball game that was going to be played by “local celebrities” and other noted citizens to battle cancer, a pregnant wife was having trouble getting up into the stands where her seat was, as was printed by her ticket. Her husband was nowhere to be found for assistance and she had to rely on the kindness of strangers to hold her by the hand so that she could walk up to her seat.

During the game, her water broke. And where was her husband? Chatting it up with a local FEMALE news anchor on the other side of the field, doing and talking about who knows what. She had sent her husband a text message to alert him that her water broke and their child was on the way to be born. To which the answer by her husband was “But the game isn’t even over yet. And I’m way over here. What do U want me 2 do about it??”

By the time the other spectators had helped her down the stairs from the stands and escorted her to her car, she took the keys herself, and drove over to the general location of her husband. But she was not there to pick him up, but to mow him down while the natural flow of things continued to ruin the husband’s vehicle’s upholstery on the driver’s side. Narrowly missing her husband, taking out a news camera that was standing on a tripod to record film of the game in progress and side-swiping her husband’s newly found company before driving off to the hospital alone. 

#1- Lunch Out at Applebee’s. Austin, Texas. 2013. So by now a few people who have been reading this blog know that every once in a while, there will be an activity of going out to lunch with my neighbors of the apartment complex. And they also know that some of the neighbors love to pick on me because 99% of the time, I will order a dessert. And they just sit there eagerly awaiting to see what sugary delight I am going to order at the end of the meal.

The demise of the day: Triple Chocolate Meltdown.

And for once, someone ELSE overheard me talking and from that had based their decision that they too, wanted dessert. It was a pregnant woman who was sitting at a booth off to my left.

The man that was with her, presuming it was her husband or boyfriend. Or at the very least the father of her unborn child, he questioned her decision and asked her if whether or not she thought and felt that she was getting big enough. The reference being her pregnant belly as he pointed to it.

The expecting mother reached across the table to slap him, knocking over his iced tea in the process that splashed all over his nice work clothes and neck tie. So in a sense, a double whammy. First the slap, then the spill. Growing up, we used to call them “two-fers” because two things happened in one instance.

The man got up and looked at her wondering why in the world she would do something to him like that and yelled “What the fuck is your problem?” and then proceeded to freak out about his clothes and whether or not he was going to make it to his rather important meeting after they had finished with lunch.

Why do people seem to think its okay to scream obscenities at the top of their lungs when in public???? I’ve never understood that.

So anywhoodles… the pregnant woman ambled her way to her feet and straightened herself out before lifting her leg behind her and putting as much force behind the swing through. The result was that she had kicked him square into the testicular regions, where he had lost all fortitude and then said back to him, “Just order the goddamned dessert and shut the fuck up. Its because of YOU that I’m like this. Remember that!!!”

Needless to say that I took an alternate route to leave the restaurant as I did not want to feel any kind of residual wrath that may be lingering. The man just sat there in silence with tons of sweat pouring from his forehead as his face turned all kinds of colors in his face, but he never said another word for as long as I was sitting there.

I honestly could go on, but these are only FIVE examples. The history of the world is flooded with these kinds of things happening because someone said something to a pregnant woman. And honestly………. its not that difficult, WATCH WHAT YOU SAY!!

This is why some women get away with murder. I’m just saying!

A person should watch what they say in the first place, but especially around pregnant women. Because much like a woman who is experiencing her “time” of the month, you never really know what’s going to set her off and what she is capable of doing.

So this is basically a Dambreaker PSA for you. I AM PLEADING…. STOP PISSING OFF PREGNANT WOMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guarantee you– you will live much longer.

You’re Not Listening!

“Yeah I called her up. She gave me a bunch of crap about me not listening to her, or something. I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention.” ~ Jeff Daniels as ‘Harry’ in “Dumb and Dumber” (1994)

You know, every once in a while the bite of reality clamps on to my butt and hangs on the for the long haul. Just when I thought that I knew someone well enough, they go and they prove me totally wrong!

What is it about people and their apparent inability to listen? Are there people really that bad to the point where they just won’t listen to anyone?

This ‘chick’ as I shall call her at the moment came to me asking my opinion about a specific online forum that she had an interest in, that was in common with what I enjoy. I gave my opinion and told her both about the pros and the cons of joining such a forum. Realizing that I would not honestly be able to tell her not to join or whether to join because I am not her father. Nor am I in any position with regards to her on telling her what to do.

So the cons were that there were specific members of this forum that I warned her very specifically to stay away from because they’ve had a history of causing some bad blood amongst their members, particularly newer ones who join. Trolls or creepers, whichever term you prefer.

She joins the forum anyway. I brushed it off. Not even a full 24 hour period went by when I had heard from a third party that she had joined the forum, does she come crying to my side… totally freaked out about those members in which I had previously warned her about staying away from.

You insenstive cow! You did not listen to me!! And now you got your feelings hurt and you feel that you are being stalked because you made the choice to connects with these idiots on a personal level by handing out your personal contact information.

This is MY fault? HOW?????

I’m not the world’s best professional on giving out advice. I mean, I’m not getting paid for it. Neither am I getting paid for offering my opinion, because you already know what they say about people and their having an opinion.

Yet I would think that with some of my closest colleagues, they would trust and have faith in what I am saying and telling them what is true. Apparently she had to find out for herself… which is fine. Sometimes, I am that way too. But she had been warned. Now she can’t get rid of them. And this is “all because of me”.

Maybe next time she’ll pay attention. But it won’t be to me as I have removed myself from her situation in any and all regards.

If you’re not going to listen to me, well that is your choice. But keep in mind that whatever happens, whether good or bad, is also your consequence and not mine. If you choose to ignore my words/thoughts/feelings, then so be it. But do NOT dare return and place the blame on me for something that went wrong. And perhaps you’ll think twice about asking or seeking my advice to begin with. You asked, I gave. Then you ignored, and got burned.

Your choice, your consequence. I am not the guilty party here.