Subject: 3cc of baby snot, 10 times daily
Date: 15 Feb 1999 00:00:00 GMT
From: temujin9@yeti.prodigy.com (Nathaniel Eliot (Excommunicated))
Organization: Illuminati Online
Newsgroups: alt.slack
You have no idea how much squeamishness you lack until your child
catches his first cold. Or, at least, I didn't.
Spawn of Nathan[1] caught his at day care Friday, and has been pretty
sick since early Saturday. For most of the day he did okay, although
he was a little clingy. He napped from about 9 to 11 in the morning,
and then at noon decided (after playing for a while) that he really
wasn't happy unless I was at least in the same room with him. Which
was okay with me; he didn't need my interaction, just my presence. I
was tired from the previous week, so I grabbed the nearest convenient
stuffed animal for a pillow and relaxed. At maybe 12:30 he decided
started fussing just a little, and when I picked him up a laid him on
my chest, he didn't even keep his head up. He squirmed a little, then
decided even that was too much effort, and fell asleep right on my
chest. We both caught a couple of Z's that way before I put him in
his crib. Slack.
At three we (me, Charlott, and Spawn) went to see a play my brother
had written and directed, as part of a bunch of HS student written one
acts. My dread for these things was only increased by both my brother
*and* a good friend horribly panning the other plays. I had already
read my brother's play, which was the only reason I went. It was
smart, funny, had the makings of a really good satire, and (above all)
included a SubGenius minister as the main character. It was dedicated
to and based on me, which gave me much more Slack than it should have.
Of course, it wasn't perfectly done; I had given him a critique of the
script he gave to me, and he had agreed, but said that it was too late
to confuse the actors with script changes. Even the signboard was
screwed up: "The world will end tomorrow", with a TINY subscript "and
you may die". No Dobbshead anywhere, either. Nonetheless, it was
good, and I am now inspired to make me a big old signboard.
As fitting something with the blessing of Dobbs, it came in dead last
in the popularity contest, behind a bunch of namby-pamby, easy access
morality tales and a really pointless speech about how success is
making others happy. After that speech, I was about ready to jump up
stage and start ranting, an impulse that has been coming over me a lot
lately. I didn't though, because despite the speech I kinda dig the
speaker, and didn't feel like being mean to her.
After that I went down to Mom's, and had some smoked food. There is a
slight irony in the fact that the person who has bugged me the most
about smoking nonetheless shoves smoked POTATOES at me to eat. Smoked
beef was okay, as was smoked sausage. The potato idea wasn't so hot.
But Pat (my stepdad, and the guy with the smoker obsession) is a nice
guy beside all that, so I didn't mention it. I left Charlott and
Spawn there, and went to work.
Oh, yeah, work. One of my concessions to the fact that SOMEbody has
taken all my plans, all my dreams, and tossed them on the floor
because she wants the boxes to pack HER life into. Of course, I held
out for quite a while, doing temp work and then web design[2]. But
the money was becoming tight enough that, at least for a bit, I have
gotten an actual job: pizza delivery. Its actually pretty good; I get
$10 an hour guaranteed for the first month, if I don't make more in
tips. Since they can't tell exactly how much tip I got, I usually
fudge more than a little bit. I like driving for some odd reason, so
it's actually pretty slackful work when I'm doing a delivery. I can
smoke while I'm driving, and I have been listening to books on tape.
For the record; Kurt Vonnegut's Timequake is potentially very
dangerous road reading[3].
Of course, this is balanced by Slack theft; when there aren't orders
going out, I get given all sorts of shit work to do, emptying trash
and sweeping. I, however, have the upper hand; since I am not
planning to mention it at any future jobs (i'll just say I was doing
web design the whole time), I don't have to worry about my job
performance.
So, work. I got there right about at six, walked in the door, and
looked at the dispatch screen[4]. There were already two drivers on.
Then I heard Brandon (bosshole number one) and Christine (bosshole
number two) talking about me. Apparently, Brandon didn't relay the
message to Christine that I would be coming in, although he never said
as much. So I was there for no good reason. I gave him the evil eye,
added him to my mental "needs SubG hazing" list, and left.
To get out some frustration, I went and played Soul Caliber, the
newest video game at the mall. I started playing Mitsiguru, the only
one I've ever beaten the game with, and beat the game. Then I
switched to Lizard Man, the newest character, and (a little less
easily) beat it again. Then I switched to Ivy, and beat it again. Of
course, it turned out that the level had been turned down, but it was
fun anyway. Then I went home, to try getting some work done. Just as
I was getting out of the car I thought "well, wouldn't it suck if
Charlott paged or called me or something right now?" I hate
self-fulfilling prophecies.
He had a pretty high fever, and was screaming. When I got there,
though, he calmed right down. Charlott continues to attribute this to
her bad luck, even though it's no longer a tendency but a definite
pattern. She has already started trying to discipline him for stuff,
most notably withholding food if he drops some. She's a classic type
A parent, just like her mother and my father.
And that, more than anything else, is what pisses me off about this
whole situation. Not the baby snot; that's just bad luck on Dylan's
part. Not Dylan; I genuinely can't resent him, because he didn't have
a choice in it. Not the horrible job (the shit that happened TODAY is
grounds enough for a whole new post). Not the apartment building I
have to run, or the school I can no longer afford to attend, or the
dreams that are mostly far out of reach now. What pisses me off, more
than anything, is that every bit of rebellion that I saw in her was
bullshit just like it was in my father, and that deep down inside she
is no better than her abusive, ignorant, trailer-trash mother. And
that Dylan will have that for a mother for the rest of his life,
because she was too morally lazy to make the choice that she even
admits "I should have made her make".
-- -- --
Anyway, I purposely didn't do anything for Valentines Day. I have
already told her we aren't getting back together, but she hasn't
gotten the hint that I meant it for good. She has convinced herself
that the play was my Valentine's Day present, at least as far as
telling her friends is concerned. I can't see kicking her out of the
apartment for now, because she has no place to go and no way to get to
work, but I have to kick her out of my bed.
Because you know its time to get out when you like being covered in
baby snot more than you like the kinkiest, nastiest sex.
Nathaniel Eliot The Former Reverend Imposter Eliot
temujin9@io.com (AUTO-EXCOMMUNICATED)
1) Actual name: Dylan. The nickname came from one of Tim's friends
Jim, and annoys Charlott to no end; she's convinced that having
squeezed him out, she should get more credit for him than I should.
2) In fact, Pat's website is up at www.io.com/~temujin9/cardiff/, for
all you freaks who might be interested in boomerang art. Please,
go check it out, or, even better, send me work. I know CGI, CSS,
Javascript, image editing, and even a little HTML.
3) The quote that almost ran me off the road, from memory:
"These new 'camouflage' uniforms are absurd; there isn't a place on
earth that they would actually blend in. Its as if the leaders of
the free world are convinced that World War Three will be fought in
a giant spanish omelette."
4) Neat little aside; the entire store, including three screens for
delivery orders and dispatch, two more touch sensitive screens for
ordering, at least six order printers and one laser printer, are
all controlled by one computer, at best a 286, running on some form
of UNIX. Lets see MS do that.
Nathaniel Eliot The Former Reverend Imposter Eliot
temujin9@io.com (AUTO-EXCOMMUNICATED)