TheBanyanTree: Drunk as a Skunk

[Margaret R. Kramer]

We had a few quick downpours in the morning of my Friday day off from work.
I was going to go for a run, and if I was a truly dedicated runner, I would
have gone anyway, rain or shine.  But I’m not dedicated, except to eating,
so I spent some time juggling around the possibilities of the day, and
decided to go to the garden center and buy flowers before the weekend hit in
earnest and the place was filled with wall-to-wall people.

The garden center was crowded, the parking lot was almost totally packed at
9:00 am in the morning, but I found a spot, and began cruising through the
rows of plants and flowers.  It wasn’t so crowded, however, that I couldn’t
step back and really think about what I needed, instead of hurrying through
and grabbing whatever in order to get out of a congested situation.

I did spend way too much, but I didn’t feel too bad about it, because the
flowers and plants made sense and would work in our garden.

By the time I got home, the rain clouds had moved on and the sun was shining
and the grass was green and the sky was blue.  I unloaded the plants and
then got to work building a fire pit patio.  We had some cement blocks at
the back our garage, remnants of a dog kennel.  I moved those blocks to form
a patio for our fire pit.  Then I moved some more blocks to begin creating a
little walkway through our yard.

Ray got home from work and then we got to work planting the garden.  We
finished just in time for lunch.  Our yard has truly come to life and is
almost ready for summer.  We’re going to make a few more garden beds, one
along the side of the massive garage, one along the back of the garage, and
then a sweeping fern bed in the deepest and darkest part of our yard.  But
the basic garden is in and looks wonderful.

The day warmed as the afternoon waned.  I spent the afternoon cleaning out
junk from my computer.  It was so nice to have the day off, almost like a
lazy summer day with no pressing requirements.  We ordered pizza for dinner
and watched the ballgame.  The Twins smoked the Brewers.

Around 8:30 pm, the phone rang and I looked at the caller ID.  It was
someone I used to work with.  I didn’t answer right away, because I hate
talking on the phone.  It rang and rang and then stopped with no message.

I thought about it for a little bit and then I decided to call Sue back,
just to be nice.  I feel kind of bad for her, because her long-time
boyfriend died of cancer a year ago, and I know Sue is like me, an
introvert, and probably has a difficult time reaching out, and I’m sure she’
s lonely.  Russ was a drunk, a loser, someone no one else would put up with,
but he was SOMEBODY.  And sometimes a SOMEBODY is better than NOBDOY.

But, notice I haven’t reached out to her.  I feel bad, but I don’t want to
spend time with her, because she is so cheap.  She keeps her house barely
above freezing in the winter in order to incur the lowest fuel bills.  She
dresses like a bag lady in order not to spend money on clothes.  I’m sure
she has several million dollars stashed away, because she absolutely refuses
to spend money.  But her refusal to spend money limits her, too, it’s her
excuse for not growing personally and professionally.  In other words, she’s
a whining bore.  And a drunk bore.

So after guilting myself out about it, I decided to call her back.  And man,
was she drunk!  Gosh, she was almost incoherent.  She wanted to know why I
stopped sending her email.  Well, I send funny stuff to a list of people,
but I haven’t seen anything funny lately, so I stopped sending anything.  It
had nothing to do with her at all.  But when you’re drunk, everything is a
crisis.

She rambled on for a bit.  I know that trying to have a conversation with a
drunk is a waste of time, so I cut it short by saying, “Let’s talk when you’
re not so loaded.”  Then I hung up.  Yikes!

I had gone out the night before to my son’s hip-hop show.  I had a drink and
couldn’t even finish it, because my stomach started rocking and rolling.  I
really can’t drink anymore.  And I couldn’t even imagine sitting around by
myself pouring drink after drink down my throat.  But, of course, I eat,
that’s my thing, and I have no trouble eating bags of chips or candy or lots
of cookies.

I felt guilty because I don’t have any friends except Ray, and I called a
“friend” back, and she was stinking drunk.  How do you like that?!!!!!!

I think that’s why I don’t have any friends, they’re just not worth the
trouble.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
margaret.kramer at polarispublications.com

Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever
to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
~Elizabeth Stone