Okay, let's get you up to speed...
Ric has historically had limited patience when it comes to people owing him money..especially me and what he perceives as fair rent.
(This post also chronicles a brief rundown of the events of Koyaanisqatsi after my failure to maintain my livelyhood at Sears, voluntary repossession of my car, collapse of my credit cards and braking my lease at not only the apartment complex I had been at for more than 2 years in an upscale, gated community, but also the small studio I rented in Cassellberry for 2 months before fleeing to New Orleans to live with Jay and Regan. A more detailed and composite timeline will be filed on this blog...once this damn phase is over with!)
In summer 2003, I came back to Florida from New Orleans and stayed with Ric for only 2 months and paid him the agreed rent but was late for 2 weeks when he gave me the ultimatuum that I would have to move out. All because the sleazy telemarketing job I was doing was not paying me what was owed and I quit without telling him. (It turned out, as I presumed, that the busniness closed very soon after) I was looking into alternatives when he threw the gauntlet down. I awkwardly moved in with my father as my mother lay dying in the hospital and moved to New Orleans (again) to get my life together after my father had me removed from his house by my lesbian-coke-snorting-suicidal-bigtime-alcoholic-two-faced-lying-bitch-of-a-sister after I downed a quart of vodka, several of his prescription medications and puked all over his bathroom floor.
In 2004, I was in my own apartment but on the verge of eviction, rather than offer a temporary safe haven to get back on my feet, Ric suggested I go back to New Orleans, so I did (even though, in essence, it was his sobbing request I come back to Orlando from New Orleans in late 2003 to help support him emotionally through Gary's impending death).
Ric's fate turned a bit for the worse again in late 2004 with his arrest for his most recent DUI as noted in several posts, and so in Fall and Early Winter 2004, he was hinting and eventually invited me to live with him (again!) during our phone conversations while I was doing kinda okay in New Orleans.
I decided to move back and after waitning for an Amtrak train that never came, on January 1, 2005, I flew back to OIA from Louis Armstrong International, took a long busride and subsequent cab ride to Lake Mary, and though we moved down the street and "up" into a condo, I am still here.
Ric and I go way back, much farter than the Koyaanisqatsi timeframe and we have had our arguments over the years...even came to fisticuffs back in 1999 when we were living together on Lee Road at Rosewood Apartments (aka "Roach"-wood Apartments...eek!). Ric even called Orange County Sherrifs office as a domestic violence...(well, in fact, there had been more than just fists, including flying shards of framed artwork glass and kitchen knives...oh yes, we got into it!)
Which brings me to the current situation.
Ric has yet again caught his virtually annual sinus infection/flu/cold, and the symptoms are making him batty. Remember he had undergone surgery last January to eliminate this but the chronic illness persists. Well, you don't have to tell me how agravating chronic illnesses are!
So he gets on this "I'm going to focus my discomfort ant anxiety onto Michael" kick...common in the drinking days, prior to the Pod Person replacement, but virtually unheard of in the last 6 months!
So I was a little unprepared for his abrasive attitude wanting to know what, exactly, I was doing to work towards paying him his 2 week late partial rent payment of $300. I blew him off since I had already told him this would come from my last CNM check...I myself have been in a "ill mood".
I get this message on the dry-erase board today:
"I have given you plenty of second chances. You need to pay me $800 by April 1. I have put up with your lies and excuses...blah, blah..."
He mentions that I have not thrown out all my empty cans into the dumpster the day I consume the beer (because he's afraid the probation office will do a home inspection).
I will, of course, be concilliatory. Here's what I am writing on the board tonite:
"Um...ok...like, wow!"
"I'm sorry if I said anything to offend you..."
" I also apologize for not quickly discarding my trash..."
"And eating your ice cream, which I replaced."
"I have several very good leads which I am diligently working on. I will definately have the $300 I am 3 weeks late on and the $500 not yet due but will likely be late...by mid to late March...I thought we discussed this...no?"
"I hope you feel better soon, 'cause you seem a bit (depressed)."
But my evil side thought of a more ominous (yet, considering the circumstances, quite plausible) response:
"Ric,
Sorry to inform you but infact, you will actually now be allowing me to live here rent-free for the next year.
You see, if you don't agree, I'm afraid I will be forced to finally report to Seminole County our recent dysfunctional relationship.
I will have to sobbingly admit that the bruises on my body and the black eye are the result of a violent exchange with you as I was trying to get you to stop using drugs and alcohol.
[It is implied that I would administer these bruises, which I easily would, myself to frame him, of course]
I would need to call 9-1-1, have them come over and they would discover the empty Coors Light beer cans and the crack smoking paraphenalia on the kitchen counter."
[I think Ric knows that I know that he still has a crack pipe in his locked briefcase under his bed in his room...has for years. That I would force open the briefcase and expose his dirty habit, I bet he never concieved it could be possible.]
I would indicate that neighbors like Charlotte downstairs and the folks living on the first floor at Sun Lake, as well as neighbors at Reflections would all attest to his loud behavior after a drinking binge. [Which they would as they have mentioned it already]
I would admit that Ric was quite well known for his loud and abrasive attitude when drunk at our neighborhood Uno's (which he was barred from permanently), Thirsty Whale (which he was barred from temporarily) or other bars like Friday's, PR's, Smokey Bones, Chili's...as well as, of course, the past establishemnts that know him well: Jax 5th Avenue in College Park, the Ale House in College Park, Brother's Pub, Hank's, Firestone, Full Moon Sallon, and the Parliament House. Oh, let's not forget Cactus Club where he was barred because he threatended to slit the bartender's throat.
Oh, and outside Hank's, he was arrested and tried for assault. Yup. He plead no contest, was adjudicated guilty and had to undergo a penalty of a fine and anger-management classes.
I have 2 DUI's, but nothing violent. And the affidavids of both my arrests report an obsequious, compliant prisoner.
Not so with Ric's history...during his first DUI, he was forced into a solitary cell naked because he threatended to kill himself. During his second DUI, he repeatedly screamed he was a police captain's son and needed to be treated better. I don't know what "drama" went on during his third offense, but I bet it had to do with the impending hurricane.
BTW, since he is on probation, the above mentioned "evidence" would certainly get him arrested and placed in county jail. But...he has enough credit to post bond. So, it would be unlikely I would create such havoc, other that to use such a scenario as a "deterrent".
But in truth, dear reader, I couldn't really do this to him. His message to me is a result of his recent cold and subsequent grouchyness. I will let it roll past me.
As for the super-realist in me, who knows he owns this place and could replace me lickety-split...okay, I'll bring home my version of the bacon...enough already!!
Ric has historically had limited patience when it comes to people owing him money..especially me and what he perceives as fair rent.
(This post also chronicles a brief rundown of the events of Koyaanisqatsi after my failure to maintain my livelyhood at Sears, voluntary repossession of my car, collapse of my credit cards and braking my lease at not only the apartment complex I had been at for more than 2 years in an upscale, gated community, but also the small studio I rented in Cassellberry for 2 months before fleeing to New Orleans to live with Jay and Regan. A more detailed and composite timeline will be filed on this blog...once this damn phase is over with!)
In summer 2003, I came back to Florida from New Orleans and stayed with Ric for only 2 months and paid him the agreed rent but was late for 2 weeks when he gave me the ultimatuum that I would have to move out. All because the sleazy telemarketing job I was doing was not paying me what was owed and I quit without telling him. (It turned out, as I presumed, that the busniness closed very soon after) I was looking into alternatives when he threw the gauntlet down. I awkwardly moved in with my father as my mother lay dying in the hospital and moved to New Orleans (again) to get my life together after my father had me removed from his house by my lesbian-coke-snorting-suicidal-bigtime-alcoholic-two-faced-lying-bitch-of-a-sister after I downed a quart of vodka, several of his prescription medications and puked all over his bathroom floor.
In 2004, I was in my own apartment but on the verge of eviction, rather than offer a temporary safe haven to get back on my feet, Ric suggested I go back to New Orleans, so I did (even though, in essence, it was his sobbing request I come back to Orlando from New Orleans in late 2003 to help support him emotionally through Gary's impending death).
Ric's fate turned a bit for the worse again in late 2004 with his arrest for his most recent DUI as noted in several posts, and so in Fall and Early Winter 2004, he was hinting and eventually invited me to live with him (again!) during our phone conversations while I was doing kinda okay in New Orleans.
I decided to move back and after waitning for an Amtrak train that never came, on January 1, 2005, I flew back to OIA from Louis Armstrong International, took a long busride and subsequent cab ride to Lake Mary, and though we moved down the street and "up" into a condo, I am still here.
Ric and I go way back, much farter than the Koyaanisqatsi timeframe and we have had our arguments over the years...even came to fisticuffs back in 1999 when we were living together on Lee Road at Rosewood Apartments (aka "Roach"-wood Apartments...eek!). Ric even called Orange County Sherrifs office as a domestic violence...(well, in fact, there had been more than just fists, including flying shards of framed artwork glass and kitchen knives...oh yes, we got into it!)
Which brings me to the current situation.
Ric has yet again caught his virtually annual sinus infection/flu/cold, and the symptoms are making him batty. Remember he had undergone surgery last January to eliminate this but the chronic illness persists. Well, you don't have to tell me how agravating chronic illnesses are!
So he gets on this "I'm going to focus my discomfort ant anxiety onto Michael" kick...common in the drinking days, prior to the Pod Person replacement, but virtually unheard of in the last 6 months!
So I was a little unprepared for his abrasive attitude wanting to know what, exactly, I was doing to work towards paying him his 2 week late partial rent payment of $300. I blew him off since I had already told him this would come from my last CNM check...I myself have been in a "ill mood".
I get this message on the dry-erase board today:
"I have given you plenty of second chances. You need to pay me $800 by April 1. I have put up with your lies and excuses...blah, blah..."
He mentions that I have not thrown out all my empty cans into the dumpster the day I consume the beer (because he's afraid the probation office will do a home inspection).
I will, of course, be concilliatory. Here's what I am writing on the board tonite:
"Um...ok...like, wow!"
"I'm sorry if I said anything to offend you..."
" I also apologize for not quickly discarding my trash..."
"And eating your ice cream, which I replaced."
"I have several very good leads which I am diligently working on. I will definately have the $300 I am 3 weeks late on and the $500 not yet due but will likely be late...by mid to late March...I thought we discussed this...no?"
"I hope you feel better soon, 'cause you seem a bit (depressed)."
But my evil side thought of a more ominous (yet, considering the circumstances, quite plausible) response:
"Ric,
Sorry to inform you but infact, you will actually now be allowing me to live here rent-free for the next year.
You see, if you don't agree, I'm afraid I will be forced to finally report to Seminole County our recent dysfunctional relationship.
I will have to sobbingly admit that the bruises on my body and the black eye are the result of a violent exchange with you as I was trying to get you to stop using drugs and alcohol.
[It is implied that I would administer these bruises, which I easily would, myself to frame him, of course]
I would need to call 9-1-1, have them come over and they would discover the empty Coors Light beer cans and the crack smoking paraphenalia on the kitchen counter."
[I think Ric knows that I know that he still has a crack pipe in his locked briefcase under his bed in his room...has for years. That I would force open the briefcase and expose his dirty habit, I bet he never concieved it could be possible.]
I would indicate that neighbors like Charlotte downstairs and the folks living on the first floor at Sun Lake, as well as neighbors at Reflections would all attest to his loud behavior after a drinking binge. [Which they would as they have mentioned it already]
I would admit that Ric was quite well known for his loud and abrasive attitude when drunk at our neighborhood Uno's (which he was barred from permanently), Thirsty Whale (which he was barred from temporarily) or other bars like Friday's, PR's, Smokey Bones, Chili's...as well as, of course, the past establishemnts that know him well: Jax 5th Avenue in College Park, the Ale House in College Park, Brother's Pub, Hank's, Firestone, Full Moon Sallon, and the Parliament House. Oh, let's not forget Cactus Club where he was barred because he threatended to slit the bartender's throat.
Oh, and outside Hank's, he was arrested and tried for assault. Yup. He plead no contest, was adjudicated guilty and had to undergo a penalty of a fine and anger-management classes.
I have 2 DUI's, but nothing violent. And the affidavids of both my arrests report an obsequious, compliant prisoner.
Not so with Ric's history...during his first DUI, he was forced into a solitary cell naked because he threatended to kill himself. During his second DUI, he repeatedly screamed he was a police captain's son and needed to be treated better. I don't know what "drama" went on during his third offense, but I bet it had to do with the impending hurricane.
BTW, since he is on probation, the above mentioned "evidence" would certainly get him arrested and placed in county jail. But...he has enough credit to post bond. So, it would be unlikely I would create such havoc, other that to use such a scenario as a "deterrent".
But in truth, dear reader, I couldn't really do this to him. His message to me is a result of his recent cold and subsequent grouchyness. I will let it roll past me.
As for the super-realist in me, who knows he owns this place and could replace me lickety-split...okay, I'll bring home my version of the bacon...enough already!!