Man! The past few weeks have just fucking SUCKED!!
We’ve got all the crap going on in the US right now which has left me feeling like I want to cry most of the time (fortunately, I’m usually pretty good at putting on a happy face and carying on with daily business…). Several other bummers happening in my personal life at a really bad time…
And just a few minutes ago I got a call from Astrogirl… she went out with her co-workers last night, and during the course of the evening, lost her wallet somewhere. That’s a bummer, but what’s even worse is that when she lost the wallet the engagement ring that I gave her when I asked her to marry me about a year ago was in the wallet! I feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomache…
Things were going pretty well a month ago, and now things suck! WHY?? Stop it, dammit!!
Don’t worry too much about it. An engagement ring is nothing more than a lump of dead star with a bit of fossilized bog plant in it. It’s the love that’s important.
My family has a long tradition of having horrible things happen to wedding/engagement/family rings… There was my aunt whose ring accidentally got washed into the garbage disposal, resulting in a quite expensive piece of shredded metal. I believe she’s on her third ring now, but hasn’t had to replace her husband yet. My father’s wedding ring once unexpectedly cracked in two, although a jeweler managed to repair it. My mother didn’t get an engagement ring at all until she was married for twenty years… a short time afterwards, the diamond fell out.
You guys, of course, are right… it’s just a damn ring! A fairly expensive one, mind you, but still… just a ring.
It’s just that this morning, when I posted this, I was already having a BAD day when AG called me to tell me this, and she sounded SO upset about it… she appologized to me(!) about 20 times, and sounded like she was crying…
The loss of the ring was a kick to the crotch (not because of the money factor… I could give a damn about that! But because of the sentimental factor… This was the ring that I got down on one knee, asked her to marry me, and offered to her… she thought I was kidding around, and it took me about a half-hour to convince her that I was serious and that it was a REAL ring… and now it’s gone… fuck! Let’s be clear: NOT her fault! Shit, I’ve lost stuff before! Such is life.), and the woman I love is very upset (trust me, that’s something that I would kill someone to avoid!), and I just don’t need that right now…
Add in the fact that my country is in a huge crisis that I can’t do anything about, and my students (for the most part) could care less, and some are even holding anti-US protests in front of my classroom (what?? WE are attacked, and WE are the bad guys? Can someone fill me in on what the fuck I missed in THAT equation?)…
Too much shit happening now to bring me and AG down, that’s all. Just a few weeks ago I really enjoyed being alive, and now I don’t.
I just want life to go back to the normal cluster-fuck that is usually is, that’s all!
Ah, fuck… I’m gonna go get drunk now! Please keep this in mind when reading any posts I make in the next few hours…
Don’t you mean that your students couldn’t care less?
My sympathies are with you… the last few weeks have been terrible for me too. Watching 6000 people dying in fires and 'plane crashes started it off. Then being stuck in the U.S. for ten days using up all my holidays so I won’t get to see my family in winter. Coming back to Europe to find my own best friends saying things like “America deserved it”. (“America” deserved it? What the hell?!) My uncle dying last weekend. Getting into trouble at work and finding out that I was lied to by my boss. Having nightmares about terrorists and falling buildings.
I think there must be some bad karma going around or something.
Maybe someone will find the wallet and ring? Or we could start a get-a-new-ring fund on this message board and then you can do the whole getting on your knee thing all over again? It might be even sweeter the second time…?
Man, Astro, I’m thinking you’ve got bigger problems on the way. But I’m a suspicious bastard who has never heard of a woman removing an engagement ring to place it in a wallet while on her night out.
Oh, Astroboy, it will, it will. I’m reminded of a time a few years ago when Mr. S and I were in a similar funk. Some ugly things had happened in our life, we were both jumping from one illness to the next, nothing seemed right. We just held on to each other and the thought that the bad things couldn’t last forever. We just had to ride it out, and we did so, more grateful than ever to have each other. And what do you know, after a few months the sun came out again. Just like we knew it would.
Come on Astroboy, just wait, maybe even tomorrow you’ll have an Astrobambino on the way…then the fun really begins.
I was the butthead that lost my wifes engagement ring one really drunken new year’s eve. I dropped a cosmetic bag and didn’t notice although she was the one that took off said ring and put it in the cosmetic bag. What’s up with that? Who the hell does something like that. Ring’s are meant to be worn. Needless to say, I’ve never heard the end of it. Luckily, I didn’t have to replace it – she made me buy a new house instead.
Astroboy, I’ve mentioned this on another thread, but I guess you might have missed it.
I’ve been in Korea for almost a year now, and I have yet to see any evidence of anti-Americanism. Granted, I’m Canadian, so I wouldn’t exactly see much of it, but most people on the street think I’m American anyway. If anything, the few people I’ve spoken to expressed their horror at the events of September 11th.
So, I guess I need to ask: in what part of Korea are you living? It just strikes me as odd that we’re having such different experiences.
Zaphod, I don’t live in Korea, but there seems to be a small number of people everywhere who are criticising America’s “haste” to declare war on Afghanistan, so maybe this is the case in Korea too. My friend lives in England and told me that “everyone” in England is anti-US these days. Well I got really depressed and posted a question about this in another thread and I got many replies assuring me that most people in England are really sympathetic towards the U.S. right now. I guess there are just dissenters everywhere - on some of these threads you can even find American people talking about how America is the biggest terrorist of all, etc.
Besides, from what I’ve observed here, most Korean women don’t wear wedding/engagement rings. It doesn’t seem to be a part of the culture. Many of them own such rings, but they don’t wear them.
Ooops… a post got in there before mine. My previous post was in reply to the quote from Barbarian.
Penylane, I understand your point. I merely asked that question because in another thread, Astroboy painted a picture that made it seem like all Koreans were feeling anti-American. I guess that does remind one of what you just said about people in England. However, I’m finding it hard to relate to Astroboy’s assertion, since I have yet to see one single instance of a display of anti-Americanism here.
I wouldn’t take anything said by college protestors as an indication of Korean feelings in general. Most people I know here in Ulsan, and I’m sure it applies to Seoul as well, feel sickened by what happened in the US. Those protestors don’t have a fucking clue about the real world. That aside, it can’t be helping Astroboy’s mood any to be hearing them on a daily basis…
Astroboy, what are you doing for Chusok? If you could make it down here you could join our family dinner at Umuni’s house. We’ll play that game with the four sticks, eat lots of food, then go out to a noraebang with SES and SJW. It’ll be fun.
Try to relax and take your mind off things. Immerse yourself in a hobby, or do some more editing of your manuscript. Or, go to www.streambox.co.kr and try to find a copy of that new Britney Spears music video that jarbabyj is talking about…
Don’t worry. You’ll get back to cluster-fucking soon enough.
Hi Astroboy–if AG has homeowners or renters insurance, she may want to give them a call. If her wallet was stolen, insurance may cover the cost of the ring. Hope things start looking up.
I too have noticed an unusual bout of bad Karma. Not just for me, but alot of my friends, all of New York, all of this Country, and all of this World really.
Obviously people aren’t tipping well enough.
That’s a tough break about the ring. I find that life is a bunch of really great times broken up by periods when karmic tornado’s drop into the Kansas of our soul. The only way I’ve found to beat those times is to take a deep breath, center yourself, and be glad you get to experience anything at all. It’s always worked itself out. Times will be good again.
Damn I’ve lost alot of wallets in my day. Gave up on em a long time ago. . .
Astroboy, sorry to hear that life is sucking, but it will get beter. you may be minus a ring, but you still have AG. Chusok chukhahamnida and have some * songpyon* for me.
I’m feeling a bit better this morning… haven’t talked to AG yet, but I hope she is also feeling a bit better too!
Regarding the issue of why she wasn’t wearing the ring: Booker hit it right on the nose… her 'rents don’t know that we’re engaged, so she usually takes the ring off and puts it in her wallet so her 'rents don’t see it… guess that won’t be an issue any more, however.
Zaphod, most Koreans have a bit of common sense and see this event as an attack against not just the US, but against the entire civilized world (let’s not forget that there were about 20 (I think) Koreans killed in the WTC, as well as hundreds of people from England, Germany, etc.). However, there is a small, but very loud and obnoxious group of Korean university students who will take every opportunity to protest against America (while they wear western-style clothes, and live their western-influenced lives, in their country that wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the west… but I digress.)… maybe they haven’t been protesting where you are, but I invite to to visit any university campus in Seoul, and I guarantee you’ll see what I am talking about (they were protesting in downtown Seoul last week, but that seems to have died down a bit… the campus morons are still active, however…). Normally the anti-American protests don’t bother me much (I can’t think of anyone who’s opinion I care less about than a Korean college student! Can you say “naive”?), but right now it fucking hurts!
Anyways, I have to post this on the fly because I am late!