Another Encounter

I've not written here lately because I've consciously seperated myself from the downtown happenings that I've involved myself in for the better part of the last decade. This is an extraordinarily good thing for myself because when you decide to seperate yourself from something that has continued to make your blood pressure steadily rise throughout the night, then you sleep better, you feel better, and overall, things begin to look up.

But even if I've seperated myself, if only in my head, from the things that happen all around me, they're still there. I stand at the door and deal with the things I've written on here extensively about, and regardless of how much I bitch, there's still that one son of a bitch who doesn't get his way and pouts about it.

Three weeks ago I wouldn't let this kid and his girlfriend in after 2am. This isn't a surprise to those of you who read here regularly, or those of you who have some common sense and knowledge about downtown Athens. Bars close at 2am...why would you want to go into one after they're closed? Apparently this kid didn't get the memo. His response to my decision to not let him in? Stand approximately 6 inches from my ear at the door and scream at the top of his lungs to his friend whom he spotted inside.

I couldn't comprehend how in the world he would ever think he could scream over the blaring hip hop and rock music that deafens everyone on a nightly basis, but he thought he could. To top it off, there were a number of people trying to walk outside, and he was blocking the doorway, which made that difficult.

In part, he was making my life much more difficult than it needed to be.

"Back up out of the doorway, man. There's people trying to get out."

No response. No eye contact or awknowledgement. Only screaming.

"Listen," I said. "You can't go inside and I'm getting tired of you screaming directly next to my head. Just be patient and if your friend wants to talk to you, then she'll come out and do it."

This was the wrong thing for me to say. He only screamed more and now I realized he was only doing it to piss me off. It was working.

This ended with me threatening to smear him all over the sidewalk and his girlfriend tugging on his hand and pulling him backwards away from me, all the while cursing and daring me to do it.

It wasn't the fact that I could have done serious harm to this kid, or the fact that his lack of patience had led us to the crossroads he had found himself in...it was yet another example of drunk college kids getting what they want and raging against the unjusitices of the world when they aren't granted permission to break the rules.

Nailed to a cross and screaming "poor me", as one commenter put it?

Spot on, my friend.