I’m leaving for Book Lover’s Con tomorrow, and one of the forever weird things about jumping on a big jet plane to go somewhere new is the day before. It’s always a combination of regular ol’ Tuesday and OMG I HAVE TO GET ON A PLANE TOMORROW. So when something odd happens in the course of regular ol’ Tuesday, it sticks with you.
There we were, Bob and I. Bob is my walking buddy–he’s got a dog named Dude who is sort of my spirit Chiweenie. Dude and I have the same look when someone wants us to do that extra lap around the park, if you know what I mean. -.- THAT look. Anyway, we were wrapping up our walk and I was telling him about hating airport shuttles with a passion. I usually have a story to pull out of my… ear, and I found myself talking about getting off the red-eye, running to catch the shuttle, and ending up in traffic because President Obama was going through New York that day and almost fainting before I got to the hotel because NO FOOD.
I was saying this as we wrapped up our walk–we went the extra half-lap today to avoid the ecstatic Rottweiler chasing the sprinklers because sprinkler day is the BEST DAY EVER, so we were skirting the parking lot as we neared my car. (Bob takes the thruway into the nearby neighborhood–this, people, is how all suburbs should be built. With a GIANT FRICKIN’ PARK in the middle.) Anyway–about the time I got to, “Yeah, Obama was in town that day,” somebody heard us.
The guy was scrawny and tattooed and working on a beater car with a million dents, and normally that’s my candy, but apparently this candy was batshit crazy. He picked up on the word “Obama” and was off and running about how Obama was the reason the country was currently spiraling into the end times and we were all assholes for voting for him and… you get the picture.
Now, Bob is a Never Trumper–a Republican, but actually very pro-choice, pro-civil rights, pro LGBTQ–he’s about 10 years older than I am, and I think the Republicans were just the people who helped you make money back in the day, and he liked to play the stock market. What matters here is he thought Obama did a decent job, and this batshit crazy vehicular resident was NOT speaking for him or anybody he knows.
We met eyes you could read the mutual decision. Do not, repeat, do NOT engage with the psychopath screaming about how Obama caused the gas prices to go up and that’s why he was doing drugs in a Subaru in the park. (I mean, seriously. He was TWO PRESIDENTS ago!)
So we made polite conversation until we got to my car and then I made to leave and he said, “See you next week. Have fun.” He gave the Tattooed Screamer a sideways look. “Don’t talk to crazy people.”
And sometimes, that’s the best advice a friend can give.
Have a good week everybody!
