“Gee, Mr zone, you should know these threads never go well for you.”
“Quiet, you! My knee has me barely able to walk, the lady at the DMV let me think I was going blind in my left eye by not telling me the vision testing machine is broken, and the leads at work are shit so I didn’t make a dime in commissions today. I’m in the mood to complain and complain I will!” :mad:
Cases drawn from my own daughters’ lives.
Case 1: Oldest and her boyfriend have lived together for a couple years. Their lease is up in August, so she’s been looking for another place where they can keep two dogs and three cats. She started telling him about it when he said, “Oh, I just signed a lease in Town X.”
“You signed it without me? And how am I supposed to get to work?”
“It’s just for me. I need some time to think. But we can stay friends and go out sometimes and see what the situation is when my lease is up in a year. I’ll take the dogs we’ve both raised and you can have the cats, but don’t put Kitty in a shelter because she may freak out and die. She nearly did when another cat I had died before I knew you.”
So: A guy who has never been stylish recently dyed his hair and got a hipster haircut. Not all that suspicious behavior by itself, but naturally suspicious people like Wife and I raised a collective eyebrow. He is dangling her along with hints of getting back together so he can keep her on hand for booty calls. They will continue to live together until the lease is up because they “aren’t really breaking up.” He’s taking their dogs and ditching their cats, including an old and fragile one he’s had for many years, without a discussion or a by-your-leave. His apartment hunting must have started weeks ago but he didn’t mention it and let her continue to look for a place for both of them. This is what pissed her off. The rest she’s taking philosophically. I think that’s called “being a doormat.”
Case 2: Thing One (she and yet another daughter are twins and we named them Thing One and Thing Two when we saw their ultrasounds) was sorta seeing this guy quite a bit older, then he got a girlfriend who moved into his house in Town Y. Thing One and the girlfriend get along very well (but not like THAT, she says) and he has suggested she move into his spare bedroom and keep his girlfriend company when he’s on business trips. And she can stay for free and he can put her through college and wouldn’t it all be marvy? (Is this scalable? :dubious: I guess not. Imagine it much bigger.) She thinks this is a good idea. :rolleyes:
So: he’d be making a substantial financial commitment with no strings attached. It could happen, and I might believe it if I were a mooncalf like she, but suspicious ol’ Wife and I see it instead as a not-the-least-bit-clever way to keep his next girlfriend parked in the spare bedroom for when things don’t work out with his present one.
Wife and I are experienced in the Ways of Love and tried to raise them with a healthy skepticism of the motivations of others, so we can’t help but be embarrassed by those two. It’s as if the moment a cute guy claps his hands their brains switch off. And yeah, I know guys [del]can be[/del] are idiots, but how are they supposed to get smarter when they can get away with anything that enters their pea brains?
