2002 PT 2

This is the second in a 2 parter. Not really edited so sorry about that. Also maybe you should read part 1 for this to make sense.

So were I left off C-girl my roommate had packed her shit and vanished. Or I watched her drive away with no idea why. I went in the townhouse and it was clear why. A couple pair of her shoes sat at the front door chewed to shit. I headed upstairs to her room and she had left more chewed items in the room and a small TV that was smashed on the floor. Those old 13" ones that people had. I assume some how Obie had pulled it down. I went into the basement where my room was. Nothing was damaged but the amount of dog piss and shit was overwhelming. SO I had asked a friend (Black we can call him, see old blogs if you want) to stay at the townhouse and look after the dog. He told me he would but while we were gone he changed his mind. Now he said he did come and take the dog out, which I believe as there was some new dog poop in the backyard but clearly he didn't do it enough and the dog went wild. I knew he had fed him and such as well cause the food was down but overall I don't think he much looked after him. C-girl would not return my calls so I knew I was living alone with my dog. In a year I went from a one bedroom apartment downtown for around $500 / month all included that I was struggling to pay, to a 2 bedroom townhouse for $1000 nothing included which for sure I would never afford. On the bright side July was already paid but when August rolled around I didn't even try to pay rent. So early August I got my eviction notice, out by September 1st. We will get to that.

Obie was a dog that had separation anxiety, for real. Not long after C-girl left I went to buy a hamburger for lunch one afternoon and when I got home I saw the screen on a second floor window was busted out. So of course I rush in to see whats up and Obie was gone. I panicked called my old roommate Shwa and her and her BF came over. We went looking for him and it was a neighborhood kid who came to me and said Obie is over here. Like I said all the kids knew him. He was hiding under a truck both front legs broke or at least fractured from his jump. We rushed him to vet and they fixed him up, I was so grateful he would be fine. The issue was I had no money, no credit so it went on Ditch's Mastercard and he wanted it paid, asap. Generosity isn't his strong suit, not saying I wasn't going to pay him but he didn't want the charge on the card of even a day. So I approached my boss and he was good enough to give me an advance. Which is great but put me even further in debt. I will be honest the last month and a half I lived alone there was not a happy time. On the bright side Obie give recover. He did have a limp after that but not bad and he was still my bud.

So far this year sounds like a shit show eh? It was but somethings were happening around me I didn't really pay attention to but would have massive impacts. I worked with Black and his older brother Cowboy as well. One of our regulars had hired Black to work in a warehouse he managed and then he hired Cowboy as well. He had hinted maybe I should work for him but Black said it was hard labor and early shift, so I was nervous about it and didn't apply. Also we hired TCM (again see old blogs if you want) a young tall blonde female in the kitchen. All the cooks hit on her. I admit I kind of did to. Not like a mature adult but like a school boy throwing olives at her. In general though was still stuck on a waitress. When Cowboy heard I needed a place to live he said I could rent a room in the rental he had. He was in the middle of a divorce, he had been renting a house but when she left he needed roommates, so me and a guy named Porno Jay moved in. Well Jay was already there but I moved in September 1st. For a day or two I felt great! Had a new place, new roommates and then we got an eviction notice. To this day I am not sure what happened. I know I paid my part but Cowboy and Porno each pointed the finger at each other.... I didn't really unpack, I would need to move in a month. One morning I woke up went upstairs and a bottle of dish soap had been left on the steps. It had a note, clean this place! So I got to it. I guess Cowboys mom had stopped by. Surprisingly a couple days after that, Cowboy said if I wanted I could move in with him. Back at his parents house in Namao, so it would be me, him, Black and his mom and dad. I said yes, not really wanting to move in with parents but needed something.

So that month was interesting. Porno worked for the company that books strippers in Edmonton and Northern Alberta. On my nights off I would ride around with him. We went to strip clubs, I have no idea what he was actually doing. A couple times we ended up sitting at tables with Hells Angels and talking with strippers. Yes at 21 I thought this was awesome. If we went to bars and we did, spent a lot of time in the old Essies Porno handed out his card to hot young ladies. Some of them ate it up. Side bar about strippers.... Once I lived with Blacks family, Porno once and awhile would have some strippers come to the house if the parents were away camping or whatever. Both myths about them can be true. Yes some are crazy, I offered one a rye and coke and she thought I meant blow. Another said she was almost done stripping and would be an electrician soon. Sure..... But it was true, a couple months later she was in the warehouse buying stuff and excited for her new job. At that point I wondered if her pubes were still shaved into a heart like when she was on stage. Anyways, during that month I spent a bunch of time with Porno and for a year or two after we still talked, no idea where he is now. I know EPS took him for a chat one day and identified him as a hang around or something for the HA and he was so happy!

Black started dating this girl and I met her a couple times with him. Then one night we all went to Essies as per normal. She danced with another guy, I didn't see it but Black blew his top and they broke up. She didn't drive, didn't have any money and lived in Millwoods. He refused to drive her home SO I said she could spend an night at our place and I would drive her home when I was sober. (September before we moved in with parents) Nothing happened that night, in fact I had Obie sleep between us on a tiny futon. However for the next month or two she did become a booty call, or maybe I was a booty call IDK. A few nights a week when I closed the kitchen I would drive down to Millwoods, drink and well spend the night. Let me be clear I was a total loser. She lived with her grandparents. In the late morning, early afternoon, whenever we would come out of her room to chilly glares, I would get in my car and get the hell out of there. Looking back I can only imagine what they thought of me. Ill get back to her....

This is a moment that really is life changing. October 1st 2002. I moved in with Black and Cowboys parents. Saying that wasn't for dramatics but it was true. At that point I had 3 options. 1) I could have tried for another shitty apartment in a shitty neighborhood. I wouldn't have lasted long because I wouldn't have been able to afford it, I was starting to drown in debt. That would have been a stupid and poor choice. 2) I could have went home. I already said I had been home and felt so happy and so loved. Probably would have been a good choice. However my life would be nothing like it is. I can't say would it be better, would it be worse? I can never know but what I can know is I wouldn't have the amazing memories and life I have and have had. I know I wouldn't have the love for Vancouver Island I do have. I might have gone to Cuba, maybe not. I wouldn't have been in a luxury box when the Kings won their first Stanley Cup ever. I wouldn't know 97% of the people I now consider friends. I wouldn't have been to Disneyland kid free and had a blast! I would not be married to my beautiful wife and have a life goal of travel. Probably wouldn't have seen Italy, Greece and Paris. So again it could have been a good choice but my life would be very different. So the third choice was move in with their parents. It had only been 2 years away from home but it felt like a lifetime, I wasn't pumped about parents. Here is the thing, not once did they try and parent but I still felt like I should act like a good kid. If I didn't go down to Millwoods after work I drank less and went home early. I tried to help out around the house. Worked on being polite and respectful. They conversely where great people to me. They treated me the same as their own kids. Like I said they didn't parent but they were good at the disapproving face if I was being an idiot. Like the time I started day drinking at 10AM and drunk went to the local convenience store and told them I was the emperor of Namao. This was way before Johnnys was a hipster joint. So yes with no drama at all, this was one of those big choices in life that really changed the future. There was something though that was heart breaking. I had to give up Obie. Black and Cowboy had dogs, so did both parents and none were small dogs. 

I don't regret a ton in my life but this I do. I have done a bunch of stupid shit and moved on, but not a lot of bad shit that I regret. This however is one thing I do regret. No dog owner ever wants to give up a dog. If there had been a way to keep him I would have but that was the one condition I had. He went to a farm, no for real! I got a call a few years later about him but that is another story. You see these posts about never giving up your dog. Now as a person living a secure life I agree.  I wouldn't give up my dog, but then I had no place to live. So it was a fucking terrible choice but I gave up my dog, to a farmer who had just lost his wife to cancer. 

Anyways I moved in October 1st. Like I said I started living like a normal person again, keeping better hours, drinking less except occasionally having a booty call. From what I can see Thanksgiving was Monday October 14th. That weekend Black and I went to Grande Prairie to give up Obie and we stayed at my parents place. I took him out to the bars there. I didn't really talk to booty call that weekend or the next week but the weekend after when I called her, she had her own apartment! This was going to be good! No, no it wasn't. I went over one night and the first thing she tells me is in a week, she needed to get laid so had slept with someone else. So of course we got drunk, had fun and I never ever talked to her again. Years later I saw her and Black were friends on Facebook. It kind of made me laugh, he hated her back then but I guess he got over that.

So back to TCM (Women were a constant issue for me it seems in 2002) She started hanging around with us more and more. We took her out to Essies one night, I ended up doing whiskey shots with her. Then she said she was going to walk home. It was literally a block, she would have been fine. I told another cook, Red Seal to walk her home! He was into her and I told him he would look like a white knight. Maybe I am a bit dumb, pretty sure she did want someone to walk her home but it wasn't Red Seal. 

In the first week or so of November the guy who had hired Black and Cowboy to work in his warehouse and I got to talking. He asked me what I made, I told him $6.50 / hour. He asked me if I wanted to make $10 with a buck raise after 3 months. I said I would but Black said it was hard labor and I probably couldn't hack it. He laughed and said if Black could do it I could. So the next day I put in my two weeks. Weasel prick gave me 2 shifts in the my last two weeks. It should have been 10 shifts. I should have said fuck it and just went to the warehouse but I didn't. Although the last two shifts I had I did get completely hammered. I would come in and grab the Jack Daniels bottle that was supposed to be used in the BBQ sauce and just drink it. Both nights I had to stay in the city and not go to Namao because there was no way I could drive. So ended my time working there. To be fair it wasn't totally over. I still picked up delivery shifts for a bit and then ended up doing some weekends in the kitchen but for the most part it was done. This in reality was the end in a chapter in my life. It is its own culture. I have blogged about that kind of life. Hell they make reality TV about it because it is for real its own lifestyle. I was done with it. 8 years, 14 - 22 and it did shape who I am, in 2002 that part of me ended. It is kind of sad. I have called her the bartender. She was maybe my best friend at that point. But was it real friendship. Yes we hung out all the time, BUT we never did have any deep talks. I never did tell her I was depressed with my life. So we were friends but was it a deep friendship? Also 95% of the people who at that time I hung around with I don't see anymore. The people that remain my circle to this day, I was about to start meeting. So that was another big part of '02 moving on from being a cook. Don't get me wrong, the restaurant life is a great life when your young. I had a lot of fun. A kitchen is a pressure cooker and its hard but fun work. IF I could make the same money I do now and have roughly the same hours, I might think of going back to a kitchen but the reality is in that world the owner makes the money and the rest work themselves to a slow death.

I started in a warehouse on the week of their inventory. SO I spent my first week pushing a broom with two guys who barely spoke English. We worked OT every morning and night and most of the weekend. My first two cheques blew my mind. I was making not quite double and getting OT. It was great!! This job changed everything. 23 years later and I am still there. Yes I moved up, but I moved into a job I dreamed of. Outside sales, in the territory I wanted, northern Alberta. It took awhile but I got most of what I wanted and I make decent money. 80% of the people I call friends now I met through this job. I haven't always like it. I have wanted to quit and almost did but in the end it worked out. Without all the other crap that happened this year getting this job alone would make 02 one of the more important years of my life.

So I will end with TCM. Black was crushing on her hard and he asked me to come to St Albert to be his wingman one Friday night in December. I honestly wasn't into it. I was still hung up on that waitress. It didn't help her friends still told me she was still into me and not happy with her boyfriend BUT I caved and went to be Blacks wingman. The next morning I woke up and TCM was curled up in my bed. We both had all our clothes on, I realized my room was covered in signed stripper poster which was probably super classy and I could hear the entire family outside the door "He's got a girl in there" Black was mad at me for a day and said that's two now.... I guess we were even for him ignoring Obie. Red Seal didn't talk to me for 2 years after this.... Black moved on though, for a hairy little man women loved him. TCM and I would date for just over 9 years. I could write about each of those years and a lot of adventures but that's maybe for another time. 90% of the people I am still friends with we met together during this time. A marriage came from it and to this day we still all get together for Friends Xmas or Thanksgiving or whatever. Clearly we didn't end up together but we are still great friends, to this day my wife takes her shirt off for her. She does her acupuncture pervs. This is all the beginning of my life, putting aside being a twit and moving on as a man. Now I did fail a lot, I made poor choices, I got in debt. I think that's a part of the human experience. It was also an end. I really didn't go into them too much but these people from the restaurant up until this point were my surrogate family. NO I didn't open up to them like I would people later on but they felt like my best friends. The Bartender hell she was my best friend. Most of these relationships vanished once I moved on. Sure still FB friends and you like a post now and then but in reality I have no idea what they are all up to now..... Life started and certain things ended.

OH one last thing, one more stupid. That Christmas I was driving back home to see my family and all of a sudden my engine just dies, car slowly edges to side of road and hour outside Grande Prairie. Thank god my uncle was not far behind and picked me up in the freezing cold. Change your oil folks. Not once had I gotten an oil change, the engine was destroyed.  I can tell you this, I got one hell of an earful when I got to the house....