My mom's uncle Rich fucked Johnny Mathis.

One of the dudes in the warehouse at work showed up so fucked up on pills they made him go home this afternoon. I thought that was kinda cool.

My dad recovered from his alcoholism and set his life in order. It took him a long time to admit he had a serious problem (all of twenty-two years). It wasn't only until he hit rock bottom that he grasped the magnitude of his illness.

He's been sober for almost a year. I'm very proud of him.

He tells me from time to time that he wasn't a decent father. He had his flaws, just like anyone else, but I remind him that he raised me to be a good man. So he must have been decent after all.

a married friend of mine is in love with me, and i her, i don't count this. i'm deeply in love with someone else.

My friends electronic band played before John Fahey shortly before he passed away. While David Grubbs was playing, Mr. Fahey turned to my friend and said "Looks like Dave is playing the top 40 out there."

My grandfather fought for the French Foreign Legion in Vietnam. His entire battalion was killed in the jungle. Only he and two other guys survived and fought themselves alone through the jungle. They appear in several books about the Vietnam war.

My other grandfather was a marine soldier in WW II. His boat was hit by a torpedo in the northern Norwegian sea. He swam in the ice water for longer than one usually can survive. They had to take one kidney out later.

His uncle had gone to America in the 1910s. He changed his name from Hans to John and founded an oil tanker company. That made him a millionaire. In 1929 everything collapsed...so did his estate... My father still has a bunch of stocks not worth the paper they are printed on. Damn Black Friday! I could be fucking Richie Rich now...

My aunt is a math and science GENIUS. When she was 14 she contracted Lupus, stayed in bed and missed school for 12 years, and still, after having had no real schooling for over a decade, got the highest standardized test score NYC had ever seen for a brief period.
Upon entering college, before the Women's Lib movement, she dealt with being harassed by her teacher every day, DESPITE being the most intelligent person in her class, so she finally quit. Without a complete college education, she was forced to take a job as an engineer, where she was also continually harassed. There, she met the one man who actually respected her, my uncle, but he made her convert to orthodox judaism and thus introduced her to a whole new community of people who would never embrace her / treat her like dirt for once being catholic. She also got to be locked up in the home as a homemaker for 20 years, raising kids!
I was once hanging out with my cousins, watching the film 'Tootsie,' which is all about women & respect in the workplace, etc... My aunt came in, saw the film, and tried to tell her kids about it, but they were pretty disinterested, ignored her completely, and she walked away dejectedly.

Here's the kicker: A few years ago, my uncle decided that my aunt should finally get a job, seeing as her kids had grown up. She decided to get a job at a hospital, giving x-rays. Because of the Lupus she'd had when she was younger, her body was particularly weak, and she failed the physical part of the exam. However, she aced the doctor's portion, and when the hospital saw her grades, then did some research on he previous grades, they realized she should be TEACHING doctors, not assisting them. They offered to set her up with a teaching job in New York, at Maimonides hospital no less, in a VERY lucrative position.
My aunt, being the good orthodox woman that she is, left the decision up to her husband, who, of course, said no.
And so, my poor aunt will be stuck inside her house for the rest of her life.

That blows, Ace.

lemur68 wrote:That blows, Ace.

Yeah, it's pretty miserable. I can't help feeling that everyone has a someone in their family with a story sort of like it though. My aunt is a case of someone who has suffered her whole life for absolutely no reason. The fact that she's also brilliant makes it worse, but I know there's tons of stories out there similar to hers.

my best friend chris auditioned for kodo (japanese drummer monks) & got accepted, but decided not to join. he's japanese-american (mom's side, 2nd generation), so it was pretty exceptional to be picked. i forget the story exactly, but the audition included alot of running & sitting on the floor for long periods of time in addition to playing the big ole drums.

i admire him even more because, in his words, he decided that his dream was a way of running away from his own life & he faced up to that & decided against it.

he's also the humblest guy i know.

thanks for the stories in this thread!