I am NOT a nice person. Some of you think you may know me, and that while I seem all crotchety and shit, I'm actually friendly and kind and other stupid attributes. Well, it's not true. I am an asshole. The things you'll read here might finally make you realize this.
Wednesday, after going to my barber's for my weekly trim and shave, was when I reached the realization that I am indeed an asshole. I walked into the barber's and immediately noticed that my usual barber, Raul, wasn't there. I asked the owner where he is, and she says, "Oh. Well, he's in the hospital right now. They found out that he might have lymphoma."
"That's horrible," I said. "Who's going to cut my hair and shave me?"
She gave me a slightly strange look. "Natalia is going to do it today. So, about Raul. Would you like his phone number? Some of his regulars are checking in on him and sending flowers or something."
On the inside, I'm thinking furiously. What the fuck can I say to that other than "Okay"? I don't want his fucking phone number – I'm not going to call my barber who might have cancer and make small talk! Maybe I'd send him something at the hospital, if he wasn't just my fucking barber! But there was no real answer I could give that would get me off the hook, so I shrugged and said "Sure. Maybe I can send him something."
Two days later, and I still haven't sent him something. If he doesn't die and actually comes back to work, I'll ask him if he got the nice arrangement that I had sent up, and when he says, "No," I'll blame the hospital and the old lady volunteers working the gift shop. But, in the end, and this is the REALLY asshole thing, I'm almost hoping that he doesn't come back so I don't have to worry about it.
So that got me thinking about some of the other things I've done in my life that qualify me for A+ Asshole status:
- Dumped gasoline into a koi pond, killing all of the fish.
- Walked past a homeless man, and when he said, "Spare change?", answered "No thanks, I don't need any" and kept walking.
- Broke up with a girl right after prom because she wouldn't give me a blowjob.
- Rang up $400 in 900-number calls at my friend's heavily religious grandparents' cabin, and then blamed my friend.
- Videotaped several nights worth of the senior class's tradition of streaking the Colonnade during my senior year of college.
- Gave the homeless guy who was selling merchandise in the middle of the road in Saint Louis $1.00 for a huge stuffed animal and promised him I'd come back in an hour with the other $9 he wanted. Avoided that intersection for the next three years of law school.
- Spread rumors that a professor was a pedophile because I didn't like his attitude that he was smarter than me.
- Seduced my younger sister's friends when they would come over to have sleepovers with her.
- Pretended to put change in a tip jar.
- Saw two kids lighting and throwing firecrackers out their car window as they drove in a residential neighborhood. Followed them, pulled them over as a citizen, and got them arrested by the actual police because they were really, really ugly.
- Ruined the ending of a movie for someone who really, really was excited about it. It was the Sixth Sense.
- Told a child that there was no Santa Claus.
Still like me now? Didn't think so.