Of shoes-and ships-and sealing wax-of cabbages-and kings,
And why the sea is boiling hot-And whether pigs have wings.
from Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
And why the sea is boiling hot-And whether pigs have wings.
from Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
My friend accused me the other day of somehow attracting wierdness. Now I don't deny that I personify all that is wierd, but I'm hardly responsible for the myriad strange things that happen around me. I agree that I seem to be witness to more than my share of the strange, but I submit that its just that I'm more sensitive to the bizarre. Or maybe my life is so serenely calm most of the time, approaching mind-numbingly boring, that I tend to find strains of the unusual in even seemingly normal and commonplace situations.
Like just a few weeks ago when an acquaintance of mine invited all her wellwishers to join her on Thursday for a TGIF drink (as in Thank God the divorce is final). I'm never one to pass an opportunity to support someone, no matter how little I know them, especially when there's drinking at an Irish bar involved. So come Thursday, I toddle around to the Rula Bula to lift my elbow in moral and spiritual support. The first thing I perceive is my friend at a table with an engineer I know from other forums and two other guys I didn't know from Adam. not for long!
My friend, Jane Doe (for want of a better alias) intoduces one of the strangers as her ex-husband! It lucky that no one was swinging a feather around my person at that moment, for it would assuredly have floored me. I've heard of amicable divorces before, but somehow I never pictured the divorcees sitting around toasting the end of their union. And what a toast - the rule was that each newcomer add a line to the toast. As best as I recall it went "To old endings! Building bridges! (That should've been my contribution, but someone end snaffled it so I played yin to the existing yang with) New Beginnings! (yeah, I'm brilliant! It continued with) To seek new life and new civilisations and to boldly go where no Jane has gone before! Prost! The worst that could happen is that you emerge charred but enlightened (I think that was it...and then when someone suffered mind block I gave him my other suggestion) Mazel tov!"
The other guy who was there when I arrived was the old college roommate of the ex-husband. This guy was interesting, dressed in a flashy style, with his shirt unbuttoned halfway to his belt and a eye-searing (faux?)gold chain. Sometimes guys like that think they are God's gift to women, but this guy was not like that at all - I suspect that he may have seen himself as God's gift to men, though, if his conversation was any indication!
When we had been there an hour or so, a newcomer showed up and unlike the others came and planted himself between Jane Doe and myself. Now I know that this was not the best man from Jane's wedding since he was on the other side of table. The best man refused to add to the toast on the very logical arguement that he had made a pretty good toast at the wedding years ago and he hadn't bargined with having to drink to its dissolution. But back to the guy beside Jane. As a staunch elitist, I was immediately prejudiced against him for the simple fact that he was wearing a Kevin Federline like wifebeater tee and no shirt. The fact that he could not think of anything to add to the toast did not improve my opinion of him, but I was kind of unaware of him, until a chance remark revealed him to be Jane's current boyfriend and completed my journey into Wonderland.
Now I plead guilty to having driven several women clearacross the continent, simply by asking them out for dinner - once! - (the last one but recently
) and I agree that I have adopted a plethora of strange handles, including Mad Hatter, Slackator and J Lo - but surely anyone would agree that in the strange stuff that I've outlined above, I'm nothing but an interested spectator.
We also enjoy, who stand and sardonically watch!
Like just a few weeks ago when an acquaintance of mine invited all her wellwishers to join her on Thursday for a TGIF drink (as in Thank God the divorce is final). I'm never one to pass an opportunity to support someone, no matter how little I know them, especially when there's drinking at an Irish bar involved. So come Thursday, I toddle around to the Rula Bula to lift my elbow in moral and spiritual support. The first thing I perceive is my friend at a table with an engineer I know from other forums and two other guys I didn't know from Adam. not for long!
My friend, Jane Doe (for want of a better alias) intoduces one of the strangers as her ex-husband! It lucky that no one was swinging a feather around my person at that moment, for it would assuredly have floored me. I've heard of amicable divorces before, but somehow I never pictured the divorcees sitting around toasting the end of their union. And what a toast - the rule was that each newcomer add a line to the toast. As best as I recall it went "To old endings! Building bridges! (That should've been my contribution, but someone end snaffled it so I played yin to the existing yang with) New Beginnings! (yeah, I'm brilliant! It continued with) To seek new life and new civilisations and to boldly go where no Jane has gone before! Prost! The worst that could happen is that you emerge charred but enlightened (I think that was it...and then when someone suffered mind block I gave him my other suggestion) Mazel tov!"
The other guy who was there when I arrived was the old college roommate of the ex-husband. This guy was interesting, dressed in a flashy style, with his shirt unbuttoned halfway to his belt and a eye-searing (faux?)gold chain. Sometimes guys like that think they are God's gift to women, but this guy was not like that at all - I suspect that he may have seen himself as God's gift to men, though, if his conversation was any indication!
When we had been there an hour or so, a newcomer showed up and unlike the others came and planted himself between Jane Doe and myself. Now I know that this was not the best man from Jane's wedding since he was on the other side of table. The best man refused to add to the toast on the very logical arguement that he had made a pretty good toast at the wedding years ago and he hadn't bargined with having to drink to its dissolution. But back to the guy beside Jane. As a staunch elitist, I was immediately prejudiced against him for the simple fact that he was wearing a Kevin Federline like wifebeater tee and no shirt. The fact that he could not think of anything to add to the toast did not improve my opinion of him, but I was kind of unaware of him, until a chance remark revealed him to be Jane's current boyfriend and completed my journey into Wonderland.
Now I plead guilty to having driven several women clearacross the continent, simply by asking them out for dinner - once! - (the last one but recently
) and I agree that I have adopted a plethora of strange handles, including Mad Hatter, Slackator and J Lo - but surely anyone would agree that in the strange stuff that I've outlined above, I'm nothing but an interested spectator. We also enjoy, who stand and sardonically watch!
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