Was it all a lie…?

Jeneine wants to hear the rest of the story. I actually doubt that I’m going to be able to complete the biography in this one posting; but one never knows, does one? Anyway, I will at least continue the story. Jeneine, this one’s for you!

As I have written, I was living in Florida - Boca Raton, Florida to be exact. I found myself in a rather bad situation as I had just lost my job and was having a very hard time with life, in general. I lived in Florida for exactly one year. When I moved down there, I was hoping for the best. What I was confronted with was far from that. The job – the culmination of a hell of a lot of rather difficult schooling – sucked (as I believe I explained earlier). I ended up, after a year, becoming unemployed and basically friendless living in a place that I really didn’t like. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that many people thoroughly enjoy living in Florida (take the EDS guys, for instance); just not me. It’s way too hot for most of the year, they really don’t have seasons – it’s either a hot summer day or a warm summer day all year round, you’re basically surrounded by a bunch of old New Yorkers that moved down there to die and I was nearly missed by at least three hurricanes in the short period that I lived there. No, I was no fan…

Amazingly enough, I received a call from an angel. Sandy will most likely never realize exactly how important that random call she made to me was. It may have saved my life…

When I informed my parents of my decision to move to Colorado rather than return back home to Michigan, they were very supportive. Yeah, I’m sure that they probably thought that I had gone mad or something; however they have always stood behind me on any half-baked decision I have ever made. All I can say about them is that they are good people – very good people. I’ve heard countless stories about people not doing something that they really wanted to merely because “It would kill my parents”. It wouldn’t, of course. It might upset them, but if that’s the case then I think the actual problem lies with the parents. I think a lot of parents out there really need to give their kids (once they’ve grown up, that is…) more than enough rope to hang themselves with. You don’t learn life’s lessons if you don’t take the course…

My parents, as I have said, understand this. Not only were they supportive in conversations; my father (along with his long time friend, Ron) actually flew down to Florida to help me move. This time I had no large corporation willing to front the bill to have all my crap moved for me – I had to move it myself. I couldn’t even image what an ordeal that would have been without the help of my father and Ron. Thanks, dad!

We rented a truck, loaded it up with all my crap from the apartment and started the drive from Boca Raton, Florida to my new home in Longmont, Colorado. Ron and my dad took turns driving the truck (at a top speed of 55 MPH thanks to the stupid limit switch) and I followed behind in my Z28.

We made three stops (well, actually four, thanks to the limit switch breaking right in the middle of BFE, Kansas…) on the way to Longmont. On the fourth day we arrived at my new home – the first of the many apartments I would be living at in Colorado for the next few years. Sandy was there to greet us.

The truck was unpacked and my father and Ron hopped on a plane back to Michigan. I, of course, stayed behind. I was now officially living in Longmont, Colorado. I was still unemployed but that really didn’t matter much to me. I had just recently gotten back in touch with an old dear friend and was somehow now sharing an apartment with her in Colorado. From what I had been informed by this friend, finding a job wouldn’t be too difficult. Hell, I was still young. I had my whole life ahead of me. I also had a close friend living with me that I could lean on. Or so I thought…

You see, the truth of the matter was that Sandy had a boyfriend. Whether I knew this or not before moving out to Colorado I really don’t remember. It seems to me that I wasn’t aware of this, but who knows? It was about ten years ago… Whatever the case, she did have a boyfriend.

What this meant, of course, was that I actually was not living with Sandy. Yeah, she was paying half the rent; but if I were to add up all the days that she was actually at the apartment during the six month lease that we had, it would total far less than one month. She was never there. This really didn’t bother me too much because whenever she was there she almost always had the creature with her.

If you couldn’t tell, I did not like the guy that Sandy was dating. To be honest with you I really don’t know what Sandy saw in him either. Oh wait, I take that back. He was a large guy – I really don’t remember … something like 6’6” or so. Not only that, but he was rich – the kind of rich that was born into it. He apparently worked at his father’s company basically slacking off until the old man kicked the bucket and he inherited it. Now I realize that I am making some rather broad generalizations here. Who knows? Maybe he was a good worker? All I know is that he had the personality of a jack-ass. Perhaps that was just around me, but from some of the things that Sandy later told me, I’m pretty sure that that was just the way he was…

Heck, I remember a few months into it when they either broke up or were going to break up – my memory is a bit cloudy on the details… What I do remember, though, is that the next thing that I was told was that they had gotten engaged. Engaged! I mean come on… How text-book is that? This jack-ass needed to face the possibility of losing Sandy before he made the desperate move of asking her the marry him. Yeah, there’s a marriage based purely on love… What I still don’t understand is that Sandy actually said yes. This will always be a mystery to me… I had apparently been a bit mistaken about Sandy for all the years that I had known her. The Sandy that I thought I knew would never do that. The real Sandy did…

Now here’s the rather painful part. You see I was stupid enough to tell Sandy how I felt. That was a bad move… The creature found out about this (well I’m sure Sandy told him) and Sandy was then forbidden to hang out with me anymore – ever… She was basically given the ultimatum that she either cut off ties with me or with the creature. She cut off ties with me. The last time I ever saw Sandy was when she stopped by my new apartment (the one I moved to after the lease was up) to pick something up that she had left at the old apartment – I think it was an ironing board… Few words were exchanged. She took the item and left.

Oh wait, that’s not true … I did see her one other time. It was at the Pumphouse (this brewery/bar in Longmont). I was upstairs playing darts and Sandy was there. The creature, however, wasn’t. She was actually with some other guy. Who this guy was I did not know – never saw him before. May have been a peer from work… All I know is that it definitely wasn’t her fiancé (or husband – whatever the case would have been at the time…). Yeah, I didn’t know Sandy as well as I thought…

So that was it with Sandy. Did she ever get married? Was it to the jack-ass? Where is she living now – still Colorado? I don’t think these questions will ever be answered. Hell, that was ten years ago. The way I figure it, if she ever wanted to get back in touch with me she would have done it by now. It’s sad really – this woman may have saved my life and now is no longer even a part of it.

Well, this seems like a good place to end my ranting for today. I actually didn’t cover very much more of my life; but there is always tomorrow. Yes, there is always tomorrow…

bis später,

Coriolis