Bad Luck Week

So many things have happened since I wrote last. So many things to talk about. For an attempt to change my way of life, which was essentially non-existent, I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Let’s see if I can build up from start to end in an organized matter, starting with why I’ve been horribly inactive with my online activity.

About around the point of my last entry, I’ve been quite depressed with the progress I was making. I couldn’t do anything, the places I’ve sought help for (Job Corps) were determined to make it as much of a struggle for some kind of self sufficiency as they can, which only further demotivated me from trying. I’m not really sure what I was doing at that point- I think I just decided to get distracted from online games and wait for something to happen.

Cue event one. Someone had responded to a personals ad I put up online looking for people to hang out with. Because I had nothing else going on and figured I didn’t have much else to lose, I decided why the hell not (note to kids: Never EVER meet strange people without a friend or someone you know with you. And never meet on their terms- always go to a place with plenty of people around, or familiar enough that you know were you can get help, just in case. I broke both those rules that night.). He and his friend wanted to go hang out at a bar and then at a party afterwards, and sent his friend to pick me up since he apparently lived closer to me. And they all seemed like a cool bunch, if only because they acted a lot like people my own age, and people with active social lives. I didn’t feel like I had to prove something to them, so for the first time, I actually enjoyed myself. The guy that had picked me up was especially nice that, after telling him my job problems, he was actually willing to help me. I didn’t think anything of it- a lot of people all say the same thing and I never hear from them again, so I just nodded and went on home.

Cue event two. He actually calls back the next day and offers to take me around places to look for work. We visit a bunch of his mates who point us to a few places, and end up going to see different parts of the island. This went on in the course of a few days, which I felt were the best times I had since I got on Guam. Not just because I had someone actually willing to finally show me around, but willing to help me, and I felt I was actually making some progress somewhat. I spent a lot less time at home, that much I can say proudly. He trusted me enough (somehow) to drive his van when he started working (although I can only assume that because his van is so shoddy and beaten up that if I bump it into something, it wouldn’t really make much difference), so I had plenty of time to practice and get used to driving, though admittedly it was scary at first hulking around a big sized van on my own. Eventually, I fell into driving quite comfortably without freaking out, and progressively got my job requirements done.

Cue event three. Just when I thought everything was going right for once, bad luck decided to rear its ugly head and give me the whipping of my life. It all started when I was going to an interview at a gift shop at one of the fancy hotels down town. It wasn’t a very far drive from my place, maybe ten minutes at best. Still, I got caught along the main street by police passing through the nearby mall, and I panicked. I don’t know if I made some traffic violation or anything because I wasn’t really paying attention and just driving as normal. I stopped at the side of the road and they directed me to go to a parking lot in one of the nearby condos. Now, me getting caught by the police was NOT a good thing, mostly because I didn’t have the license to be driving on my own. Due to the most retarded law I’ve ever heard, I’m not allowed to get a license until I’ve held a learner’s permit for six months. Even when I’ve already been through all the school requirements (which was also dumb), have a state permit and already fulfilled those hours, technically meaning I won’t be getting a license till next year at –best-. And while I was in the driver’s seat, shakily trying to find the registration and insurance papers they were asking for, I asked why they had pulled me over, if I had done something wrong. What they told me wasn’t something I expected- it wasn’t anything I did; they just noticed that the tags on the van were expired. No big deal. At least it shouldn’t have been, but they found out that I didn’t have the proper license to be driving so they scolded me on that. I was also in trouble because what papers I did find were not under my friend’s name, but under the former owner of the car. As it turns out, he never updated the registration and insurance of the car, so as a result, they had to confiscate the license plates and have it towed someplace until I can get that done, on top of paying for the citation ticket they gave me for driving a vehicle without those things (it was either because it was my first violation or that I was crying horribly that they decided to waive my violation of driving without a licensed driver). Needless to say, it wasn’t a good day for me. I never made that job interview.

Cue event four. So we spent the rest of the day figuring out what to do- me, my friend and his cousin that was living with him. In some diabolical twist of fate, what would have been a simple task of getting everything sorted out and the van back and running within the day turned far more complicated than it should have been. For one, it turns out my friend had a bench warrant for his arrest sometime in the past (not sure if that was when he was on island back in ’98 or something more recently), and, as his cousin warned, going to the DMV to get the registration would cause them to find his record and get him apprehended. His cousin apparently can’t do it because he was currently on probation for an earlier assault charge (a different story on that, but trust me when I say that it was probably worth it), and I couldn’t do it because- OHSHIT- I need a fucking driver’s license. Sigh. I’m not sure if they called friends or not, but apparently none of them were either eligible or willing to help. My friend probably decided that no matter what he tried to do, he’d be screwed either way, because he needed that van to get to work. Which probably prompted his very ill-advised decision to go out the next day to get the registration and insurance anyway, despite the risks his cousin warned about. It probably wasn’t risky enough, because he decided to drive the –van- to do it (the car we were using previously decided to conveniently break down and become unusable). It wasn’t a good decision at all, since it was a Saturday at the time, and most of the places he’d needed to go to were closed for the weekend. I’ll…let you figure out what happened next, because it was all too obvious.

Cue event five. So I spent the rest of the weekend stressing over the van, because we left it back in that town and I was having problems coordinating with his cousin and the towing company to get it back home. I had been asking my relatives at the time if I could borrow their cars but there were always excuses. “I need to go to a part time job”, even when he never left the house to do that job. “I need the car to work” even when she stays indoors in the hotel for the entire day straight and would have no feasible use for the car whatsoever, even letting my cousin exchange his car for hers. “I need to take them to Chuck E Cheeses” when I asked him again about the car, saying that taking my cousin and her kid was far more important than me trying to get my things done. At some point, my friend’s cousin managed to finally get his car fixed and we finally managed to retrieve the van, and thus began the long week of trying to convince my aunt to help me get it registered. Because that’s all she needed to do- have her get the insurance and registration, which would cost her no more than maybe a few hours of the very small sliver of time when she is actually not working (she works morning to midnight), since me and my friend would be paying for everything. But at every instance she protests on some reason or another why she would be unable to, even when I CONFIRMED at the DMV and the insurance company themselves that there was no problem whatsoever with her registering as long as I provided the payment and papers, which I have. I don’t want to believe my aunt is as dense as she’s making herself to be, which makes me assume that she doesn’t want to help me for some reason. Which makes even LESS sense since helping me would be helping her get me out of her house and being able to finally get a job, some work, and maybe even help pay off her rent, which she has been complaining about it rising recently (and blaming me on that one day I decided to wash the clothes my friend left in his van because I would rather not have the place become some kind of biohazard when most of the reason her water prices are going up is because her daughter in law uses the washing machine almost every other day.)

So…that’s my week in a nutshell. In retrospect, I remember a black cat had run across the street one time when we were driving. I did remember saying that I wasn’t superstitious. But now…I feel like shoving my foot where my mouth is. They say in times of trouble is when you know who your real friends are, and I have to say I am quite disappointed at what I’ve come to find out about that. I’ve always accepted things as they come and never bothered anyone for help, but help is most definitely something I need right now when people ironically are unwilling to give it.

~Taddle