The Long, Long Weekend

Well, as per our usual routine, Friday night we headed next door to Brandt's. The weather was still warm enough to enjoy a sunny spot on the patio, before we start feeling the effects of autumn fading in. We'd just received our drink orders, when Jim got a call on his cell phone. His buddy Rob just broke up with his girlfriend (of a month).

We've been promising to have Rob over again for the last few weeks, but haven't had the chance. It has felt like a fast n' busy summer, between working on the script and hosting other out of town guests. 

Rob lives in Vernon. A few short years ago he was diagnosed with MS, which advanced at a rapid rate. At 35, he now uses a walker, speaks slowly and is incredibly forgetful.  He often stops mid-sentence to ask you to please remind him of what he was just talking about. The slightest tangent off topic and he forgets his original point. 

It's pretty heart-breaking. 

However, even though depression and MS are said to go hand-in-hand, despite these challenges, Rob is an incredibly positive guy. He does not get upset or angry with his situation. Instead, he simply accepts everything for what it is.  He often says, "Stress makes you sick. So why stress about what I can't change? I'm already sick, so stressing over things will only make matters worse."

Makes sense, right? If only everyone could apply that same simple philosophy to their lives. 'Stress isn't good for you, so don't partake in any.'

So yeah, Rob doesn't stress in the face of MS. Nor does he stress in the face of financial burdens. He used to be a busy programmer and making decent coin. Now he relies on a meagre disability cheque that is ridiculously small! Rob is allocated only $325 a month for rent. In the Okanagan? 

For the time being, Rob is paying about $550/month to rent a tiny room in a crappy old house in Vernon. Rob's quarters are pretty cramped to say the least. He uses only a small corner of his bed because the rest is piled up with boxes. Of course, he doesn't bother getting stressed over this inconvenience. He likens it to sleeping in the small hospital beds.  "You just learn to sleep still," he shrugs. 

However, the one thing about his pad that Rob will complain about is the ceiling. Seems that when it storms, the paint on the ceiling blisters with water and drips down onto his bed. 

Well, that and the fact that his hillbilly landlord is apparently a racist, sexist redneck who doesn't hesitate to actually yell at Rob like some kind of cranky abusive father. Apparently the landlord once flipped out on Rob because his walker woke him up in the middle of the night as Rob was headed to the washroom.

Nice, eh? So very supportive and friendly. Well worth the $550/month. :P

The last place he lived wasn't much better. The people were absolute pigs. It was disgusting.We were trying to help him look into places then, but before we could find anything, Rob got evicted. He lost his wallet on the bus and could not produce the rent money. I think this might have been the second time this happened over the last year. He is always losing things. 

Anyhow, although neither accommodations are/were ideal, Rob tries not to spend a lot of time at home anyway. He knows that if he doesn't use his legs, he'll lose them. So he likes to go out and walk a few kilometers every day.  Part of his routine is to walk down to the mission, where he eats to conserve money -- AND, to finally get back to the original point of this story -- it was at the mission where he met his ex-girlfriend last month.  (Even though they had both promised themselves that they'd "never date any of the crack heads" they met at the mission. Ha.) 

So yeah, it sounded nice that he met someone in Vernon to spend his time with and get out of that little house... that is, until they broke up "at approximately 3:30, Friday afternoon", as he reported to Jim.

Because we didn't have any huge plans for our long weekend, except maybe the IPE, Jim invited Rob to come out to our place, since we've been meaning to have him over for a while. He jumped at the opportunity, and so Jim headed out to pick him up right after dinner.

 

Now, I'll be honest... I had kinda been looking forward to checking out Myrtle's Macrame Hut and Uncle Jeb's Ross Perot-shaped gourd, but I was willing to surrender a day of rip-offs at the IPE if it meant getting Rob out of that place for a while. Besides, no one would've gone on those midway rides with me anyway... and what fun is that to ride alone or with a stranger? Meh. I more enjoy my shits n' giggles in familiar company, thankyouverymuch.

So yeah, Jim picked Rob up after dinner, and I have to say, he was in a bit of a feisty mood, just comin' off the big break-up n' all. For a while there, I wondered if we should've just let him have a night to mellow out at home first, instead of hosting him while he was still licking his wounds.

Although for the record, he dumped her. 

Apparently she also suffers from a health condition which plagues her with a very poor memory. Because of this, she always interrupts people so she doesn't forget what she wants to say. 

Well, as I mentioned earlier, Rob speaks slow and is unbelievably forgetful. His girlfriend used to tease that he's the only person in the world who has a worse memory than her. Unfortunately, Rob's poor memory still didn't stop his ex from interrupting him.

Obviously Rob felt that she was being selfish. She knew he would forget sooner than she would, and yet she'd constantly interrupt with her two cents anyway, which always caused him to  forget what he wanted to say.

Rob has asked her to please stop interrupting him all the time, but it seems she can't help herself. Needless to say, the relationship wasn't working out for him. It's too bad, but I can see how that would be incredibly frustrating.

So for the weekend we hosted a chill zone, giving Rob some time and space to decompress... lots of blueberry pancakes, board games, movies, snacks, lounging, and red wine. 

I have to say, it really felt like a long, long, extra long weekend of doing absolutely nothing but hanging out from Friday night 'til Monday afternoon.

So someone please tell me why I am so exhausted? 

----

BTW, if you know of a good rental in the Vernon area that sounds better than the place where Rob is currently crashing, could you please let Jim or I know. We've been checking online for places, but there's not much coming up. 

And don't even get me started on the lack of housing services out there for someone in his condition. There's f*ck all. Seriously. One subsidized care center would only accommodate him if he had an IQ lower than 75 before he was afflicted with MS. WTF?! How does that matter now? 

Okay... I'm getting started, and I said I wouldn't, so I'll end this here.