ol' bessy never had it this good

by mg at 11:51 AM on June 22, 2001

Ack. It is Friday and I’m still writing about last weekend! How pathetic is my life?

I just don’t want any of my friends thinking I forgot about them or that the time I spent with them was not important to me, because it was.

I’m also really trying to finish this story because I’ve been really lacking in follow through lately. I’ve gotten into this nasty habit of starting stories, and then never finishing them. Can you say, Transexportational?

I begin a story and say I’m going to finish it up, but never get around to it. There was a point a while back when I’d decided to devote an entire week to wrapping up all the ends I’ve left untied over the past 8 months, but did that week ever happen?

Anyway.

The weekend was split into two parts. The friends I had when I was with my ex-girlfriend and the friends I made after we had broken up (the first time). I like to call the friends from those periods in my life, Iowa-Peeps V 1.0 and Iowa-Peeps V 2.0. Actually, I’ve never used either of those terms before today.

The Iowa-Peeps V 2.0 crew includes a lot of people (including Snaggle), but most importantly it includes Jerry and Jamila. I met J&J in kind of a weird way. I was the President of the Student Union at University (yes, and you thought I was just a big slacker). J&J were two graduate students that I was (partially) responsible for hiring. I learned this weekend that when we first met, they were both scared of me. Strange. When they got hired, they became, essentially, my advisors, even though I was older than Jerry and only a few months younger than Jamila.

Neither of them talked to me for about the first four months we worked together. Which really sucks, looking back, because I would have liked to have another four months to hang out with them. Then, I can’t even remember why, we went out to the bar together one night, and then ended up on this string of closing the bars everyday for about two straight weeks.

I’ve never felt so instantly connected to anyone before. Once they’d actually decided to talk to me, it was like we’d been friends for years.

After that we hung out plenty. Jerry and I are practically the same person. We’d both be able to say the things that in other company would have people scratching their heads in wonderment. But we always knew exactly what the other was talking about, no matter how left field it was. Jamila, most nights would be the willing audience for our collective insanity. I’m not saying Jamila wouldn’t participate in that insanity, because she would. I think we brought out something in her that she wouldn’t let out around other people. I think among the three of us, we were all so very comfortable to be our real selves.

To relate thing back to Bad Samaritan, and really, what events in life don’t relate back to Bad Samaritan, Jamila was basically the one who helped me come up with the idea for the site. So, if there is anyone to blame for this madness, it is her. And Jerry, damn, Jerry. He brings out the Bad Samaritan side of me more than anyone else I know.

So, I was really glad to be able to see them last weekend.

I caught up with both of them at Snaggle’s party. Within about 15 minutes of being there, Jerry had a drunk and moody gayboy throwing beer in his face. All I can say is Jerry is much more patient than I am. If someone had thrown beer at me, I would have punched them right in the gut. He just laughed it off. Then Jerry and I managed to piss off this one girl because we were talking about the Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest. I’m guessing she was Jewish, or just really in a pissy mood (maybe on the rag), because she seemed to take offense at every thing we said. And sure, I do tend to make fun of people, and when I’m around Jerry, my Bad Samaritan personality tends to be more prevalent than my Michael personality, but I don’t think I said anything offensive. I could be wrong about that, though; I was pretty drunk by that point.

Jamila showed up a bit later, and we sidled on over to Thumbs, which I already talked about.

The next morning, J&J and I went out for pancakes. The end.

I will eventually finish up this damn hellish weekend wrap-up. Probably Monday. I still haven’t even talked about my ex-girlfriend or the rest of my Iowa-Peeps V 1.0. Damn. It never ends.