We Fall

I woke to my phone this morning and was surprised ro see the name on the ID. It was a dude that used to come to meetings. We had begun to hang out together in the beginning and I have done a lot for the guy.

He used to sell coke and I met him when he first came to meetings. He was just like me early in this thing (I was and am still early but this is about beginnings). He was stand-offish, and uncomfortable. He used to carry a piece 'just in case' concealed in his waistband.

After a bit he started getting into NA ans made meetings every day. Something was off about him though. He was talkin' a lot of phony shit (sharing stories that he had heard the night before as his own).

After a couple months he started displaying lots of nice things (iPod, fancy coats/scarves, etc.)

We knew he was back to slingin' that shit (he even admitted it to a friend of mine).

He started working at a shady bar and in no time at all he disappeared.

He called this morning and, to tell the truth, I have no idea what the nature of his call was about.

He was telling me that he already had two mixed drinks in him (at 8:30am) and that he started drinking about a week ago and he had no plans on going to a meeting but knew he was fucking up.

He then confessed to me that he had started selling again after he got his 30 day keytag and at the moment he had a half ounce, $600 and two side-arms on his love seat.

He was talking about how hot his ex girlfriend was and how she was the reason he started drinkin' again. He then started bragging about how he's 'fuckin' all kinds of bitches' and that he had two girls last night (dude is an ugly motherfucker). He confessed that he knew it was the drugs he was sellin' that got him laid.

WTF? Was he trying to impress me? (I wasn't)
Was he reaching out for help? (he didn't here a word I said. Too busy talkin' about himself)
Was he lookin' for a new customer in me? (FUCK THAT! If I go out I'm goin' out with the GOOD shit that is on any of three corners in the city. Not what I presume is garbage in a clear bag from him)

I dunno...

Later that night I was driving to pick a friend up to take her to the hospital. We had just gotten about two feet of snow and the roads had those tall barriers of ice formed from the snow plows.

I saw a guy walking along the side of a busy road holding a stick with one of those heart baloons attached. He was holding it carefully as he tried to maneuver the ice.

It was inevitable in those conditions. He slipped and hit the street and ice HARD.

In the past, I would have laughed at this person's pain and misfortune.

I felt bad for the guy and hoped that whatever was attached to that heart ballon he was carrying so carefully wasn't damaged.

Dude got up with difficulty and continued walking.

I witnessed two separate instances of the same thing today.

Sometimes we just fall.

 

From the sounds of it, he was geeked and wanted to talk to someone that he remembered as being friendly, yet a fairly new acquaintance. He just needed to talk, and wasn't in the frame of mind to listen. It's unfortunate, but it sounds like he's not ready to give up that lifestyle yet.

Heh, it is rough walking around before you get your 'winter feet'. Especially if you're in a place in the US where snow is rare. On one hand, I get a bit annoyed at the people complaining about all the snow, but I have to remember that it really is unusual for most of those places to get that much snow, or indeed snow at all in some cases. I don't know what it's like temperature-wise right now, but I'm guessing that it gets just above freezing during the day, and below it at night? That makes EVERYTHING so horribly slick. Are people putting coarse sand or fine gravel on their sidewalks? It makes for a mess when the thaw comes, but it really helps with traction when you get constant mini-freeze/thaws.

Good point overall though. No matter what, we all fall sometimes. Regardless of how we fall, or how far, at some point we have to pick ourselves up and move on.

 

I get annoyed as well when people panic about large amounts of snow. I mean, c'mon... snow melts, it won't be an inconvenience forever.

I am glad that I'm not getting high anymore because it would have been impossible to get to Philly during those two days. Its only 20 minutes away but the side roads that people sling on would have been untouched

You're right, though. Dude just wanted to talk but I still can't figure out why he would think I would be impressed by him. Oh well, to each their own

Oh... we typically do the rock salt thing around here. Not sure about sand and gravel which makes perfect sense BUT this area I live in isn't very sensible