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A Year in Books - 2009-12-27
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The coleslaw got served. - 2009-10-21
Probably a new job. But maybe not. - 2009-10-08

Yippie Skippie Wow, it's Delta Delta Tau.
2000-03-25 12:27:53

Busy day today. I'm doing some laundry, I've gotta make some phone calls, run some errands, and pick up D. at 2:30. Last night when he said he wanted to work some overtime today, I should have been glad. But I'd been operating on 5 or less hours of sleep all week (talking to people on ICQ till 12:30 or 1, then getting up at 6 to get him to work.) and I was really looking forward to sleeping in today. The only thing keeping me going last night was the thought of 10 uninterrupted hours o' sleep when I got home. So, instead of being glad that he was trying to get us extra money, I was upset.

Then, when he said why he was working the overtime, I got even more upset. Next week, he wants to go to Cowtown and spend a week hanging out with the Taus. This isn't really what upset me. I want him to go. I'm looking forward to being alone for a few days.

Background info: D and I both attended Miskatonic University. He flunked out after his first year, then lived either in the Tau lounge or with his parents for 5 years. While in school, we both became members of a co-ed frat called Delta Delta Tau. The fact that he wants to hang wit' the Taus 9 years after leaving school isn't nearly as odd as it sounds. (Though granted, it is pretty damn odd. I'll get into that later, though) At the time, Tau was the "Freak Fraternity." Very few members were bright-eyed and clean-livered enough to go to class regularly. A lot of Taus flunked out. A few of them stayed in the area, and quite a few more make frequent trips back to Cowtown to hang out with the ones who stayed. The week D. is going is the week between Activation weekend and Formal. These two weekends are the traditional biggest "Return of the Prodigal Alum" events for the House. I know of at least one other alum from our generation who is also staying the week in between, possibly as many as three. There are also four or five Taus from our generation who still live in Cowtown. So, D is going, not so much to be surrounded by 18-year-olds, as to hang out with people he's been friends with for almost 10 years in some cases, and doesn't get to see that often.

Now that I've explained why it isn't odd, I'm going to rant for a while about why it really bugs me. Besides the half dozen "old" cool people and three or four people who have become Taus since I left, the majority of the current Taus are freaks. And not in a good way. They go practically all of their classes. They only drink and smoke pot on weekends. (And when they do, they inevitably become "Whee! I'm so kewl! I'm an underage alcoholic REBEL! Look at me be wacky!") They think they're sophisticated and funny and grown-up, and they just aren't. They make me feel old.

When my sister started college, and decided to go to Misk. U., and inevitably became a Tau, it really started to sink in for me: It Is Time To Move On. I'm five years older than her. We've never had the same interests, or been interested in the same things at the same time. If she's hanging out with college students, I must be too old to do the same.

But D. never felt that way. It doesn't bother him at all to be 27 years old, and spending a week living in a dorm, and passing out on a couch every night for week. If we'd decided to stay in Cowtown after I graduated, he'd probably do it every night. So, he's going to spend the week. I'll drive him down next Friday, and drive home. I've asked off for the following weekend, so I can go to Formal and spend time with the Alums and the few current Taus I care about, and that's enough.

This is all old news. It's something I think about whenever the subject of Cowtown comes up, as it did when I started out to explain why I'm annoyed at D. Now that I've given you the background info, I can get back to the point.

After one too many incidences of D. going berserk every few months and spending his whole check on CD's or PlayStation games before I had a chance to pay bills, he agreed to confine himself to $100 out of every one of his paychecks. That worked well for a while, but two weeks ago, he asked for $150 instead, because he wanted to have money when he went to Cowtown I looked at the budget, and decided that was reasonable. (This was before my car self-destructed) Yesterday, when he got paid again, he said he really wanted to bring $300-$400, because this was going to be his "last shout" before never going to Cowtown again. In the last two weeks, he'd loaned me $40 out of his party fund, and spent $30 on who knows, so his current cash in hand was $80. He wanted me to give him $300, because he was tired of being the old guy who showed up and bummed alcohol and drugs off everyone for a week. After much discussion, I told him I could give him the remaining $200 in savings this week, pay all the current bills, and give him at least a hundred next week, maybe more, if he waited to go Friday morning, instead of Thursday night. He said maybe he shouldn't go at all. This was quite sane of him, but I really want him to go. If he thinks he needs $300, and it's at all possible for me to get it, I'd rather scrounge a little and get him out. This is probably not a sign of a healthy relationship, but I don't want to get into that right now. It's now about 10 minutes later than the time I decided I had to leave if I wanted to get anything done before I picked him up. Maybe I'll finish this line of thought tomorrow.

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