When I am walking in the mall in the mornings, I have noticed a guy either in the Barnes & Noble wing or the Bloomingdale's wing, standing around and playing the guitar. I have also seen him sitting in front of the Lord & Taylor, doing some sort of writing. So a couple of days ago, I went up to him and said hello. He introduced himself as Steve, and he told me a little bit about himself: he is a recent convert to the religion of a friend of his named Randy, and while Randy is without a car, he is helping him out by giving him a ride to and from work, and Randy is helping him understand this religion; Randy, according to him, is leading an almost monastic life (my words, not his). He also told me that he did performances in the mall for the children.
I did a little bit of checking, and this guy is none other than Mr. Knick Knack, who performs at malls in the area. I also found out that the Randy in question is the same one who I invited to hang out with sometime. Now I understand why he didn't really want to. If he is leading a simple, moral life, I guess he doesn't really need the company of a somewhat flamboyant gay man. I don't know how he interpreted my invitation, but in no thesaurus would "hang out" be synonymous with "come back to my place and fuck like crazed weasels in heat".
I saw Steve again today, and he and I got to talking, and he said that by giving Randy a ride, he was trying to give a gift to someone and be unselfish. I told him that he was already giving the gift of entertainment to children. He then started to talk about although he sometimes performs on autopilot, he was more sincere than other children's entertainers.
I mentioned that I had seen Rocknoceros at Dulles Town Center, and asked if he was familiar with them. He told me the story of Rocknoceros. According to him, one of their members was, in his words, a failed adult musician, and he saw the crowds that Steve was bringing into a music club near Tysons, so he and two of his friends decided that they wanted in on this money as well.
Mr. Knick Knack clearly has some jealousy issues. I never knew that this kind of rivalry existed between kiddie music acts.
But Steve told me that he waits at the mall until Randy gets off work, and then takes him home. He said that he studies his religious materials while Randy is at work. My question is twofold: first, does performing at shopping malls make him enough money that he can sit all day and study in the mall? And second, he is the one with the car; why doesn't he just go and do something else, and then pick Randy up when he gets off work?
But Steve's arrangement with Randy is none of my business. And as long as I don't have to discuss religion with him or have him try to convert me, I have no beef with him whatsoever.
Topic Number Two involves a text message I got when I turned on my cell phone this afternoon at lunch. It was from none other than the phantom ex-boyfriend, Justin. It was pretty simple: "What up? I work till ten. We are remodeling". Bully for you, Justin. I didn't bother responding.
Then, I turned on my cell phone when I finished work for the day, and another message was there: "How you?" I didn't respond to that one either.
What am I going to say? How about, "Hey Justin, you lied to me during the entire time we were dating, you ditched me to go to Florida with next to no notice and no goodbye, called me almost daily after you arrived there, hit me up for money twice, sent me two sexually explicit photos via email, came back into town to throw your new boyfriend in my face, who, in spite of not even knowing me, decided to verbally slap me in the face and was the catalyst for an episode of near-suicidal late-winter doldrums, then even though I was nice enough to send you back home with a snack for your return trip and loaned your stupid boyfriend a CD which I'll never see again, you still stood me up for lunch that Monday because you were all pissy that I told your boyfriend about your stupid antics? FUCK WITH ME!!!!!!"
Unfortunately, my text messages are limited to 160 characters. So I might have to edit that down a little bit.
My back is still bothering me in the mornings, but I have been able to use my weights with walking during the past couple of days. I had an indulgent day today, but I also did a second walk with Cleo tonight. So I hope that balances out. But now, it is past eleven o'clock, so it is time for bed.
Eric Out.
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