{"id":7798,"date":"2011-11-03T09:43:32","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T07:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=7798"},"modified":"2011-11-03T21:53:24","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T19:53:24","slug":"how-some-people-live-their-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=7798","title":{"rendered":"How Some People Live Their Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=right>by Ron D&#8217;Alena<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=center>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6TJHJOZzpX8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n[filmed at <em>Howiees on Front<\/em> in Medford, Oregon]\n<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nDecember: a good time to be indoors.<br \/>\nI\u2019m two stools away from men hunched over beers, conversing in low tones. Work my lighter against a cigarette; watch Jenny push a bottle of Miller to a man wearing an Oakland Raiders cap.<br \/>\nShe\u2019s talkative. Loves holidays. Loves to eat. Then comes January\/hell: no beer, no fried food, lots of water, 115 lbs by summer. It\u2019s a ritual. Doing it nearly a decade.<br \/>\nShe\u2019s talking up a storm.<br \/>\nBut she\u2019s a good listener too.<!--more--><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nBeen searching for some nerve to ask her out.<br \/>\nTwo months of tug-of-war about it.<br \/>\nWaited too long, I tell myself. Waited too damn long<br \/>\nand now the timing is rotten.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nJenny cuts limes into small wedges.<br \/>\nWipes her hands on the front of her flimsy tank top.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nI wobble over to the happy hour table pushed against a wall spruced up with Marilyn Monroe posters. Scoop the last piece of lemon chicken onto my soggy paper plate,<br \/>\nhold the plate with both hands,<br \/>\nthumbs curled over the edge.<br \/>\nCrescents of dirt under cracked nails.<br \/>\nSan Francisco is new to me. Traffic. Crowds. Melting pot. I miss N. Dakota.<br \/>\nBut you have to go where there\u2019s work.<br \/>\nYou know what I mean?<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nPut down the plate without eating.<br \/>\nGo across the room.<br \/>\nLean over the juke, drop eight quarters into the slot, return to my stool.<br \/>\nJenny works a dishcloth across the bar top.<br \/>\nNo, she\u2019ll never go out with me now that those sons of bitches knocked me for a loop.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nFor no good reason I think about this wrinkled woman I saw earlier in the supermarket parking lot. Hunched in the rain over her license plate.<br \/>\nPutting on registration tags.<br \/>\nUsing Kleenex to flatten corners.<br \/>\nLooking at the police car in the adjacent slot.<br \/>\nChrist, how some people live their lives.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nJenny comes over.<br \/>\nSo, heard about what happened today at the construction site.<br \/>\nYeah. Nailed five of us to the cross. Blamed it on the economy and the people in Washington.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nPush red flannel sleeves to elbows,<br \/>\nwithdraw rectangular piece of pink paper from back pocket.<br \/>\nPut the paper on the bar.<br \/>\nStare at it.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nJenny reaches over,<br \/>\nwrites a string of numbers in the pink margin.<br \/>\nWell, if you ever need to talk or something just give a call. Okay?<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nPut the rim of my beer bottle against my lips.<br \/>\nHide my smile.<br \/>\nShe changes the blood flow underneath my skin.<br \/>\nMy heart wallops.<br \/>\nOkay\u2026 you bet.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nShe leaves me for the other side of the bar.<br \/>\nLooks up at the TV hanging from the ceiling over the refrigerator.<br \/>\nStands on a stool.<br \/>\nMen drinking beer notice her short skirt.<br \/>\nShe pushes the channel selector.<br \/>\nStops at some kung fu movie.<br \/>\nSteps off the stool.<\/p>\n<p align=center>*END*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Ron D&#8217;Alena &nbsp; [filmed at Howiees on Front in Medford, Oregon] &nbsp; &nbsp; December: a good time to be indoors. I\u2019m two stools away from men hunched over beers, conversing in low tones. Work my lighter against a cigarette; watch Jenny push a bottle of Miller to a man wearing an Oakland Raiders cap. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[794,77],"tags":[1155,1123,803,804],"class_list":["post-7798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-33","category-english","tag-egophobia-33","tag-english","tag-ron-dalena","tag-videopoem"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-21M","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7798"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7801,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7798\/revisions\/7801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}