Another friend

I have another friend who thinks I must be crazy to want to walk the El Camino next year.  It takes about 2 months to walk it and she asks me "Why do you want to walk it, you're not a Catholic", I reply you don't have to be Catholic to walk it, people of all faiths walk it, it's a meditative, spiritual walk and she just says "You're weird".  Right then I wanted to break her off as a friend.  I have another friend who has now passed away whom I caught up with after losing contact with her for many years and we talked about the spiritual side of life and she said that if she discovered I wasn't on the same wave length as her spiritually, that she would not renew our friendship and that she was so glad that I was.  Anyhow the friend who said I was "weird" to want to walk the El Camino (from Le Puy France across Spain) is probably (I gotta think hard now) 75% nice and very intelligent and 25% fucking annoying and a bitch and ignorant about some things, it's really hard to discount the 75%- that is the only reason I've kept her as a friend, that and I've moved across the bay away from her so don't see her as often.  Years ago we were driving into town to go shopping and she talked the whole way and when we got into town 1/2 hour or so later and stopped at a light I said "do you realise that everything that has come out of your mouth since we left, has been negative"- she was shocked to hear that.  She then started to tell me how both her parents were alcoholics and that if anyone in her family had the potential to be an alcoholic it would be her sister, but I think it would be her!  What do you do with friend like that?

A Friend

I have a friend going through hard times right now.  She's 62 years old, been laid off from her job about 3 years ago and been actively interviewing and searching for a new job the whole time and been unable to get anything, due to economy, due to age....whatever.  She's eaten through her 401k, then she went onto unemployment and now that's cut off.  Why do they cut off unemployment for those who are really trying and really cannot get a job, they really don't care if she winds up on the street which she is one step away from.  I try to help her with bits and pieces when I can and recently her Aunt sent her some money.  My friend is her grandmothers favorite granddaughter and before she died she said she wanted to make sure my friend was taken care of.  My friends Aunt has been executor of the estate and my friend has never received any money from the estate until 2 months ago when her Aunt called her saying she had a nightmare that Grandma was really mad at her and told her she has to give my friend money so she sends my friend a cheque for $1000.  The Aunt was in town and saw my friend last week and said to her "you must really be having a hard time not working, I'll give you some money, would $3000 help?" "My friend said "that would help alot" then the Aunt says "Oh but wait I've just bought a $100,000 Mercedes" and then something about having to pay a fee for something or other so says to my friend "so I dunno".  My friend says her Aunts always like that, brings you up then drops you down.  Well my friend called that she got a cheque in the mail for $2000 from her Aunt and a note saying "sorry that that's all I can send you right now".  I told my friend she needs to get a copy of the will and get all her damn money!

My Brother-In-Law

My brother-in-law is over every day.  I wish he'd get a girlfriend, he hasn't had one in a while, I don't know why, there's nothing wrong with the guy.  He did make a comment once that "a girlfriend is a liability", the guy plays the stock market and has done well enough that he dosn't work anymore, I guess he's just protecting his "assets".  He comes over every afternoon and walks our dog for us and then if I'm cooking that night, he gets to eat with us also.  It dosn't bother me that he's eating at our house and walking the dog everyday, I'm half Polynesian so I get the family share/closeness thing, it's just that if my husband and I squabble a little, he'll run in and say "What's going on?" so I feel I can't have a relationship with my husband without my brother-in-law refereeing.  If he had a girlfriend, I know he'd be over less and she'd be cooking for him so my husband and I could finally eat alone by candle light or something (I'm just fantasising now).  My brother-in-law figured out how to eat on $1 a day and I was kinda proud of that until my friend said "YEAH....that's because he eats at YOUR house everyday", daaah, what's wrong with me, how come I didn't figure that out, I think that's because I'm always a glass-half-full kinda person, I always look for the best in everyone and focus on the positive because I'm a great believer in the law of attraction. 

MoGin

My blog name MoGin, I have a friend that's been a struggling writer for years, kinda comedic sci-fi stuff, she shortened both my names and voted me person with a name that has the most potential MoGin (as in more Gin (alcohol).  She always has that fast at-ready wit, the kind I wish I had, that kind of stuff dosn't come to me 'til maybe 12 mins after everyone else.  My husband likes to say that the joke was too subtle for me, he always tries to say something like that to try and push my buttons...get a rise out of me, but I tell him I was raised with 5 brothers to prepare me for you and your brother so that kinda stuff goes right over my head...in one ear and out the other...it just dosn't effect me anymore! Huh!  My husband is Chinese, born and raised in San Francisco, can't speak a lick of Chinese, sometimes we go to a Chinese restaurant and the waiter will say something to him in Chinese about the menu and he nods with such enthusiasm "Yeah, yeah, we'll get that!" and as the waiter walks away I say to my husband "you don't even know what he said!" and he just says "So!  It all tastes good in here anyway".  One time about a year after we started dating, a waiter asked him "Are you ABC" and he said "Yeah" and Iater I asked "What's ABC?" and he said "American Born Chinese", I thought how cute he's ABC... one of my favorite Jackson 5 tunes!

"Potential to be an old lady with a lotta cats"

......That's what my husband said to me out of the blue one day, "If I didn't marry you, you'd have the potential to be an old lady with a lot of cats" and he says it like he's saved me or something, I just replied "...so what's wrong with that and anyway why do you even think that!  Since I've met you the most cats you've seen me with is 3 and 3 is the most I'd ever want at one time"

     My husband loves film noir, sometimes I think he pretends he's one of those old detective guys with a fedora who saves Veronica Lake.  Not that I look like Veronica Lake....far from it, I am half Scot and half Maori which looks far from Veronica Lake.

     People ask me sometimes "where are you from?  I hear a little accent, where are you from?"  I reply "New Zealand" and they go "Oh ok, are you Maori? (and they mostly pronounce it wrong)" and I say "I'm half Maori and half Scot" and they have a kind of quizzical look on their face so I say "Did you see the movie The Piano?" and they say "Yeah I did, good movie, that was in New Zealand right?" then I say "Yeah, well, I'm a mixture of those 2 people, the Maori and the Scots" and they say "oooohhh yeah wow interesting"...as I drift off to the that scene in the movie of Harvey Keitel....