Well, it's been an interesting weekend in Chicago so far.
I'm at Screenz, a cyber cafe. Last night was...um...educational.
Well, I had contacted a few people about hanging out. One of them had given a definite yes. Two I hadn't heard back from. A fourth person, Rob gave a call to about hanging out.
This person, who I'll just call "rat bastard" for the purpose of this entry, had taken on a mooching quality as of late. This had begun around the time of the Coil show. He had accompanied us, under the premise that he would pay for his own airfare and the share of the hotel. He never did. He owed us somewhere in the area of five hundred dollars to Rob for this. Since they had been good friends for a couple of years, Rob didn't feel comfortable mentioning it. But it didn't stop there.
We got back, and more and more rat bastard would "forget to stop at the atm" when we went out to eat. Even worse, he would occasionally go out to eat with us and not bother tossing in his share. It was almost as if he had figured out that we wouldn't ask him for money if he didn't provide it so he simply took advantage of that.
Not only that, but we had mentioned a couple of months ago that we were going to buy tickets to the Van Gogh exhibit and invited him to join us when we did. He said that, under no circumstances, should we spend money on the exhibit because he had a couple of free passes. But everytime we met with him he seemed to forget the passes and we just kind of shrugged it off. Although we didn't care about the passes, he had promised them to us and we hadn't bought the tickets ourselves because of this promise. We finally made plans to go to the exhibit with him this weekend, and figured he'd just bring said passes when we go.
Since he had been a friend for some time, we tried to just ignore all the mooching as much as possible. But now that Rob didn't have a job, we had to be a bit more careful about it.
Rat Bastard came by our hotel room and we went out for coffee. We were almost to the coffeehouse when rat bastard did the "oh shit, I forgot to stop at the atm and there's none around here" routine. Now, this was within half an hour of Rob complaining about how he got fired and hasn't been able to line up any interviews yet. So, Rob said "That's okay. I'll drive you to one." and so he took him to an atm machine. We went for coffee. None of my friends had called me yet and I was a bit bummed out about this, especially since I had actually made plans with one said friend over AIM only a couple of nights before. Arrgh.
Oh well.
So we decided to head over to 950 and have a few drinks. As we left the cafe, rat bastard found a wallet on the sidewalk. There was no ID. He then counted the money. Two hundred bucks. He then took it.
He immediately started talking about all the places he was going to go to spend the money the next day. It became apparent that the museum plan was off. It was now too late to get tickets for it, so this meant that I didn't get to go to the Van Gogh exhibit--something I wanted very much since he is one of my favorite artists. Something I could have done if he hadn't made a promise he couldn't be bothered to keep.
We got to the bar and we ordered our drinks. Since he had just found all this money, and was out with friends, friends who had treated him on many an occasion, we figured he might buy the first round at least. Nope. No such luck. When Rob paid, he dug out a five dollar bill for his drink.
Wow.
We were both aghast.
I mean, here is someone who just found all this money, who we have taken out to dinner on many an occasion, who ostensibly got an all expense paid trip to New York on us...and he didn't even buy the first round!
Then, the bartender gave him his change. He got three dollars back. He took a dollar and put it in his pocket, leaving two on the bar. Then, as an afterthought, he took one of the other dollars back so he wouldn't leave a two dollar tip!
Oh.My.God.
Here is someone who just found two hundred bucks on the ground and he's being cheap with the bartender? Never in my life have I seen anyone so stingy!
So, we sat down, and I was doing shots like crazy just to numb myself enough to be able to speak with this guy. But he would not shut up about all the places he would spend his money.
Finally, I couldn't take it anymore.
I said to him,
"You should be sure to tip well. It's bad karma to find all that money then be cheap with it. Be sure you tip all the waitresses and bartenders *really* well."
Rat Bastard changed the subject.
So then Rob and I started talking about it again.
"Yeah, it's a really bad idea to piss off the gods. It can really come back and bite you in the ass!"
Still, he said nothing.
So we hung out for a couple of hours then dropped him off. He was barely out of the car when Rob said
"Have you ever in your life seen anything like that!"
"No, never!" So we went on about that.
I mean, even my other friends most guilty of mooching wouldn't stoop so low. If I had found that money, it would have been something right out of barfly "to all my friends!" but even if you aren't like me, you can at least share a little bit, buy your friends a couple of drinks, *especially* when the friends are *good* friends and especially when they've done a lot of really nice things for you.
I mean, I'm not the type to keep score but there comes a point when it's so flagrantly obvious that the person is using you, and really don't have any respect for you.
Wow.
Suffice to say, we aren't going to be hanging out with rat bastard any time soon.
Anyhow, so today we went to the art museum in a last ditch attempt to see the exhibit but no luck. We were right, no tickets were available.
So, we went back to the hotel and one of my friends who hadn't called last night wound up calling today. So that was good. We talked for awhile, then I invited him out to coffee. He wanted to go, but unfortunately was far too broke to be able to swing it.
Normally, I would have told him that if he could get to a cafe, I'd buy but with the current situation financially, that's not a possibility. So, we just resolved to hang out another time.
Now we're going to go look at the sublet I mentioned...it's way out in BFE but is pretty affordable, so hopefully that will work out...
Then Rob and I are going to attempt to forget the insanity of last night and celebrate our anniversary at Canella's.
My god but last night was disappointing. It really sucks to know someone for a long time and learn, belatedly, they aren't the person you thought they were...