Loyalty

There aren't a whole lot of times in the course of a friendship in which you are able to prove, without a doubt, that you got your friend's back.

One I remember was at a party a few years ago. We were all standing around outside, drinking beer and having a cig break from the noise inside. Two guys started fighting about some BS, something about one being Mexican and one Brazilian, and they got all macho on each other and started swinging. Tere got popped in the face, and my first reaction was to jump on the guy who hit her. P grabbed me, picked me up and carried me inside where B was getting ice for her face.

Now I understand that B wanted to take care of his girl, it's sweet really, but I wasn't about to let someone walk away without getting hit back for punching her like that. And I didn't care if it was an accident, I didn't think, I just reacted.

Last night was another one of those nights. P got into an altercation with a restaurant manager. The manager started shoving him around, and without thinking my first reaction was to jump in the middle of them and try to get the guy off my husband. P was trashed. He wasn't thinking straight enough to defend himself, and none of his "boys" were doing a damn thing either.

The manager shoved me out of the way, grabbed P by the neck and pushed him down an outdoor flight of stairs. So I, in all my unthinking glory, jumped on the manager's back, holding onto his arms so he wouldn't go after him again. P was stumbling to get up, and the manager was a lot stronger than me and shook me off. He shoved P again, knocking him into a table and he tripped over a chair and fell. I grabbed the manager's face and was shoving him away from P, the guy kept raising his hand to hit me, and I dared him to do it, knowing he'd never make it out of a crowded bar alive after hitting a female in front of a bunch of drunk men. Finally some big guy from the bar came over and held the manager back while I calmed P down who was ready (haha) to kick the guy's ass.

And I was pissed. I couldn't fathom why in the fuck all these guys would stand around and let P get beat on, knowing how drunk he was, and not even stepping in when I was the only one trying to break up the fight. I don't want to be racist, but is it a thing with only minorities that we will defend each other no matter what? I knew P probably provoked the guy, but I also knew P couldn't fight him off, and I think his friends knew that too, but they would have let him get his ass kicked.

I wasn't even drunk, because if I had been I might have started swinging on the manager, which is not the right thing to do. But since I had stopped drinking probably 3 hours before, my only thought was to protect him from this guy who was raging. I'm so disappointed not only in how P was acting, but the lack of reaction from his friends. And maybe it's misplaced anger, but I would hope that my friends would jump into a fight with me if they thought I was getting my ass kicked. At least step in to help break it up.

And I'm not talking about high school, hunting some chick down and jumping her for some stupid reason. I'm talking about seeing your friend in a situation in which they could potentially be seriously hurt (like being shoved down a flight of stairs) and not remaining a bystander.

But whatever. That's how I feel about my friends. I'm loyal. Even if you've pissed me off recently, I'm still going to be the one to jump into a bar fight with you, or lock you in the trunk of my car so the police don't get you while you're still drunk. And I'll be the one to admit to the police that yes, I jumped in. So if you're going down for assault and battery charges, I'm going right with you.

We Do What We Can

How do you help a friend who's hurting? Besides smacking your husband in the mouth and telling him to shutthafuggup about how much he wishes they would get back together already (My Love, it takes time. We all want them back together, but if things doen't get worked out first, this is bound to happen again).

I didn't really smack him. At least not in the mouth.

So P and I did what P and I do best. We opened some wine, bought a couple packs of cigarettes, and distracted her as much as possible, for as long as possible with assinine trivia, Yahoo! News stories, and planning our Living Will. Or Trust, whatever. It's not written yet, but she had excellent insight in some things to consider.

And then we clogged her arteries with Burger King at 11:30, which slyly encouraged her to go to sleep soon after. And because we got her sloshed on day-old Sangria and two liter bottles of White Zin, she gets a day off work today! And maybe being busy would have been easier, but I'm hoping the time to focus on herself will be just as fulfilling.

And of course, after she slept we had to stay up and discuss more ... randomness, so I don't remember what time I went to sleep, and P was up later than me, but he actually got himself up and showered and to work. Poor guy. While I sit and blog, drinking my coffee in my PJs and contemplating which novel to dig into, he's probably at work now, uber-starving with the post-drinking BGs. Hehe.

But I'm sending my good juju to my Buddy today, and hoping that last night helped just a little bit. I'm so sorry I can't do more for you.

Shorts

I have these thoughts tumbling around my head, and really, none yet warrant an entire post to itself, yet, because maybe later I'll have the insight to delve a bit deeper, but for now I just need to get them out so I hav emore room in my brain to plan T-Boog's birthday.

1. Peachy Crap?
I think it's just me, but why on earth would someone want their restroom to smell like peach and shit? The aerosol here at work has been flowery or peach for ages, and it's gross. I quite enjoy peach lotion, or the smell of peach pie, but peach as a cover-up to a foul odor? Not the best idea in my book.

2. Ghetto-fied Hamilton?
Sometimes even cool folks have ass-inine ideas. Like my uber-awesome neighbors who commented yesterday that they wouldn't send their kids to Hamilton school because of all the people from Vallejo who moved into the rentals nearby. First off, whatever. As if having non-Marinites in close proximity to your children is such a bad thing? Because really, having intergrated schools is not the end of the freaking world. And yes, I get that you want your kids to have a good education, but isn't education about more than just book learning? Isn't it important for them to see that not everyone is middle-class white people, and to learn to interact with people from different ethnic and social classes? And besides, as a teacher, you of all people should be aware of the detrimental affect of moving white kids out of certain schools so that the funding follows them instead of staying where it started and helping people of color get a good education too. But damn, I forgot. You teach at Marin Catholic, not Novato High.

3. Speaking of Neighbors
The Great Dane People who live near us have evidently pissed off most of the neighborhood. I was completely unaware that their dogs are so disruptive to nearby residents because my ass is usually knocked-out and sound asleep until 5:30am when T-Boog decides she wants to nurse while she listens to the Early Birds sing to the worms. But I was advised yesterday that the neighbor between us gets super-pissed that they let the dogs out at 4am, unattended, to do their duties (which also means the shit is not getting picked up) and then let them howl and bark outside the front door when they are ready to come back in. Eck. I already got issues with the guy, his wife is cool, but he seems to be completely oblivious to the fact that parking a monster boat on the street, with two monster trucks nearby is a pain-in-the-ass to the rest of us blindly backing out of our own carports in the morning, let alone the fact that they park an extra car in the handicap space (not that we have any disabled folks living nearby, but if we did...) and whatever. I'm washing my hands of them.

4. Got Grass?
P has decided to grow us a lawn in back of our place. The way the condo is set up, we have a little 8 by 10 foot sheltered spot right outside out living room window that was, until yesterday, covered in drought-resistant bushes. So while I was washing/blowdrying/curling my hair last night I smelled the BBQ going and thought P was just making dinner. Turns out her was slash-and-burning those poor plants to clear a spot that he plans to roto-till and grow some grass. I'm trying to figure out if it's for the dogs or Taryn. Maybe both? And I'm just hoping the HOA doesn't get all vindictive on us and make him re-place the stuff he tore up if we're found out. But if they do find out, I'm blaming the Great Dane people or the gardners. They are the only ones who go back there besides us.

5. On Family
Yay! Two of my aunts are coming to visit next week. I'm stoked, especially so they can see Taryn and hopefully the weather will be nice for them. Too bad I probably won't get an RDO while they are here, but maybe I'll happen to be sick so I can get a long weekend. Heh. Heh.

6. Little Overborad, Doncha Think?
I have the attendee list for T-Boog's birthday, and oops. From the people I invited we have 5-7 infants, 8-10 children, and 25-31 adults who will be there. Which means we'll have to feed and entertain enywhere from 40-60 people that day. Damn, I'm so glad I didn't decide to do it at my place. But double damn, I have to FEED all there people! 'Cept the babies of course, not my job.

Wasted Day

And I started it out wasted too.

We went to Cache Creek last night. Or this morning. Whatever. Had dinner at Moylan's around 9, on the road to butt-fuck I don't even pretend to know where by 10:30-ish.

Wait, rewind. Beer at Moylan's. Cazadores at Teresa's right after. More Cazadores at the gas station while P bought water and B filled up. More Cazadores when we arrived at Cache Creek. Some gambling, a margarita, and more Cazadores. Then a late dinner (I think we sat down to eat at 3:30am? Maybe 4?) and headed home to arrive back home at 6am.

Ohmigoodness. My head was pounding. I can still feel the monkey in my brain beating my skull to get out. Didn't get anything done, and wasn't I just saying this is exactly why I don't go out partying much anymore? Fun times though, and I'm glad we got to have some sort of celebration for our birthdays.

I'm going to slepe now. Hopefully I'll be sober by tomorrow morning.