Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Romance without Finance is a Nuisance

You know how sometimes you'll have a song stuck in your head and you can't get it out until you sing it in the shower or hum it all day at work?  Such is the case for this.  When I ran in to you last you mentioned how you shifted from film finance to finance.  At the time I realized how odd academia is to me, like how arbitrary it seems.  Almost immediately after I was reminded of something I hadn't thought about for a long time.    

Many years ago I worked at this motel in Flint.  It was on the North side.  Just like bars, there are different types of hotels for different types of clients.  This motel wasn't for travelers.  It was for residence of the North side to do business.  There was alot of people out from eviction, out of jail, prostitution, drug preparation and sale.  Off the hook parties with gold plated guns.  Half the time I worked second shift and half the time I worked third shift.  I saw alotta crazy stuff, talked with alot of people.  There were alot of characters, I could write a novel about it really, but I keep thinking of this one guy I havnt thought about in a long time.      

It was in the summer and I was working a third shift, waiting for my shift to end.  The sun was up and I had already brewed a pot of coffee in this kraft that I don't ever remember washing.  This coffee was the nastiest coffee ever... I never drank it myself, but these characters... they would.   So on this morning this guy comes down to hit up the coffee and strikes up a conversation.

There's something about being painfully tired and watching the golden morning sun come up, I remember that now.  It's kinda a sickly sweet thing, I remember that now.

But anyhow, eventually I ask this guy what he was doing in town when it had be mentioned that he was from Detroit.  He told me that he was in town for the county fair.  "Man, I'sell'dat" he said.  The type of shit you'd expect to find to win or by at the Genesee County fair, I already picked up on that but he elaborated.  "Man, Bugs Bunny in a Jordan jersey- I sell that.  Taz on a mirror- I sell that.  Puffy on a t-shirt- I sell that"

I know it kinda sounds silly but really, this guy got my respect.  As he told me about what he did and why he did it- he had a son and a baby's mamma.  "You gotta make deals to buy spinner wheels" (this was apx. '03) As he talked to me about this he sipped his coffee (as if it was good coffee, didn't even make a bitter face) and look out the lobby window in to the sunrise.  He did it like any other man greeting any other day would have.  

Ghetto/white-trash looney tunes is kinda funny, kinda... low, I guess.  But this dude did not give a fuck, he was making deals.  Then he went on about things in general.  There were many things said but there was this one thing that always stuck out and because of "finance" I keep thinking about it.   He said "Young blood"  I was much younger than and that's a... I dunno, kinda like a black prison/thug thing, so it was ment to be endearing.  After asking me about life and women and if I had kids  he felt it nessisary to spit some wisdom.  He said "Young blood, let me tell you.."  And there was a pause as he looked in to the sun rise and then turned to me, staring at me with the same intensity as the sun, "Romance" he said the word clearly "with out finance" the two sounded contradictory the way he paired them... "Is a nuisance"    I keep thinking of that, the way he said it "Romance with out finance is a nuisance" It's my song stuck in my head. This isn't a thing that makes me think about love and romance so much as it is something that makes me think about how true things can come from any of the many crevasses in the world.  I really don't know much about love or money but I know what he said was true because it was so catchy.    

I guess I'm writing this because it is my way of singing in the shower.  Also, I think, maybe you could use that chestnut in the future if you're going to be dealing with finance and whatnot... Or even if you fall in love someday, it should be something you're willing to sell knock-off bugs bunny murch for.  In a broader scope, I think this is just a good example of why you should listen to somebody even if you are really tired and don't care to talk to anyone.  Yeah, life is funny like that, sometimes, if you listen.

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