I used to work at these comic shows because I needed the money and it's a good excuse to travel on the cheap, but the thrill is gone. Very, very gone.
All my old friends seem like they're being crushed under the weight of adult problems-marriage/mortgage/children/infidelity/addiction/divorce/arrests- all while being immersed in an industry that can, at best, be called 'Juvenile'.I feel awful, worse than before I left.
Imagine seeing an old friend, someone you truly love and admire, for the first time in years-petty cool, eh?
Thirty seconds into the reunion, he drops a Nagasaki-scale confession(about his girlfriend) on me and eventually asks me for advice on how to deal with this issue( i'm not sayin').
I can give advice about setting up your stereo, NFL teams to bet on or how to cook the perfect omelet, but never ask my advice on relationships. Anything I could say would be wrong.
This went on and on- even this girl at the pizza place I was grabbing subs and beer at told me about her problems. Her boyfriend worked there , so I gave him a free pass to the show and he 'comped' the food/bev. I love the barter system!
As I write this , it strikes me that she just really needed to talk to someone who was completely outside her circle of friends and family,yet gave a shit. It was kinda touching (i can be a sappy guy sometimes)and made me feel like I helped put a little good into the world.
I was planning on writing a sarcastic account of the Comic Show, but I don't feel angry or cruel ;I feel drained and conflicted.I used to vent my aggression on the buying public and they would buy tons of stuff. This year I told my boss I was leaving early. He was ok with it. He has a high threshold for insubordination.
2 comments:
I find that people talk to me about their problems often because I don't have advice. I listen, I reflect, share a story if I have one, and when I had a car I would simply fill the CD player with music that I thought related and drive for hours. Often without a word, just singing along to the parts that hit home. But even that, would take its toll and I found that it was difficult to try and turn the tables. Nobody else would let me sulk in misery, they all wanted to fix things, make it better, tell me how great I was... and I just needed to wallow for a bit. I don't know how much any of this relates at all to your post, but it's what I thought while reading it.
Well, that and "WOOHOO, Allan's back!" For what it's worth, I missed you.
That's worth a lot.
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