THE Meeting
Well... while this is still fresh in my mind, I figured I might as well let you all know about it. As I approached the store, I noticed Andrea sitting outside with a Police Officer. The officer told me to take a seat. I did. He then said, "I understand that you have a temper"... to which my face must have gone "huh?"... because he said "I'm here to tell you that you're fired." He then went on: "I hear that you said you were going to break someone's ribs." This is where our story gets interesting... I did, in fact, mention something about breaking his ribs. In fact, I said "well maybe I'll just break his ribs" while on the phone with Andrea. The reason I did this was that she HERSELF had broken his ribs during an argument to get her way. This was supposed to be a jab at her own temper, but it was later (obviously) used against me. Big point to the Johnsons (Which we'll call a "bitch point," because it's a punk-ass bitch thing to do). He then proceeded to tell me to just "move on with my life" and to "not come into the stores". When I nodded and stood to leave, he asked me politely to sit again. He then asked me if I had keys... and I said "oh yeah"... and proceeded to lay the keys on the table. I then remembered that I had to get Robert some stuff, so I reached into my backpack to get it. It was at this point that the police officer unholstered his firearm. Yep, that's right... he was treating me like I was crazy. I then backed away from my backpack and put my hands up. He reiterated that I should just "move on" and I asked him if I could get some papers out of my bag, which he then thought was fine. I placed the papers on the table saying "These are for Robert", zipped up my backpack, thanked the police officer (even shook his hand), stood up to leave, noticed ANOTHER cop standing behind me the whole time (that I hadn't noticed before), and walked away. Since that time 40 minutes ago, I've let Stephan, Brian, Adam, Robert, and the AD Nate know that I've been canned. The tragedy here is that, to all the "outsiders" I appear crazy... and to everyone who actually knows me, I'm something of a folk hero who was "wronged" by the "evil empire." It's weird. I feel upset, wronged, calm, relieved, scared, and excited all at once. I'm totally upset that Andrea would do that to me... we used to be friends, and good friends. I feel wronged in that all my hard work has probably gone to waste. I've told Brian that I'll probably use him and Stephan as references... perhaps even Nate the AD would be a good reference. But I certainly can't use the Johnsons. I feel calm in that I finally don't have a million responsibilities... I can actually use my time to write and pursue my acting. I feel relieved that this bullshit is all over. I'm scared because I don't have a job and looking for a job is always a big pain in the butt... I don't even know where to start (I'm thinking Best Buy would be nice... or Circuit City... or maybe even trying to intern at Second City?). Maybe this is the time to go back to school. I've been thinking about going to Northwestern for sports broadcasting... or any good school for teaching (I don't know what I'd teach, but I'd be a professor of something!). My dad has also started to push a bit for me to go to law school. He even said that he'd pay for school if I got into a good law school like Notre Dame or Wisconsin. I'm also excited because this is a good opportunity for me to re-focus my efforts and do what I want to do with myself.
We'll see what all this adds up to in the coming weeks. The good news is that I'll be able to have a great vacation this weekend in Albion. I hope everyone treats me nicely, because I'm really really hurt. (Adam Traum is taking me to Dave & Busters tonight... that should be fun)