It is nice to have 'friends'... I guess...

Even if they want tit for tat....

I have been hysterical lately... which I do not like, fly off the handle, and so on.

It is nice to have friends, but risky if you do not know them all that closely. But even when they come through for you, and help you, they do expect something in return. And if you have little to give, it can be expensive and not what you had wished for.

Have been burned often enough expecting the best of people and getting 'shocked' when they do not live up to expectations. So I have been cautious lately.

You'd think I would be old enough to be that way, but I guess it comes with age.

My friend W. is a case in point. He has his hungarian spit-fire of a girlfriend, and more or less let me be. Except this morning, when he woke me up at 6 am, and said, 'Hey Eule, you awake?' (He calls me owl, not without reason. Am mostly up at night.) Could I come over and translate a couple of letters for him that needed to go out per e-mail. Reason? My German is better than his..... (He is very dialaect.)

And I said, 'hokay...' And went out and got them breakfast, returned the space heater they lent me, as I don't need it any more, and so on.

And when he heard about my dilemma, and everything, he said, 'We are coming over and clean up your place.'

Now how embarrassing IS that?

On a scale of one to ten it was fifteen.

His girlfriend is very funny. Wants to attach me to another 'man' she knows. Uh-huh. Maybe one date, but am really NOT in the mood to think of anything like that right now. But I can make her laugh whole-heartedly.

W. is your typical pedantic Aires person.

He means well. And he knew what he was getting into. Am just one big mess.

But.... day one went ok. And he met Peter, and all, because he wants to move into the appartment when Peter vacates it. Because the former 'Hausmeister' whom Peter calls 'Rudy-Doody' has been terrorising him for the better part of a year. You have NO idea of what that person is capable of.

And his wife looks harmless.... but she can knock your teeth out if you get on the wrong side of her. Tiny bitch....

Yes, I know that is denigrating, but some women CAN be the worst bitches in the world, ornery, mean, revengeful, calculating. So I make a wiiiiiddde circle if I happen to run into her, and just say good day, how are you, and such.

If there has ever been a poisonous couple... it is them.

Whatever, we spent the whole afternoon cleaning my appartment.

And there were jokes going back and forth... well not repeatable.

And W fixed my defective radiators. Turns out that the 'Hausmeister' had fixed two of my four radiators so they wouldn't fucking heat.

After all the trouble, and being 'nice' did.... I would like to throttle him for a little bit, till he turns fucking blue.

As for W. ..... He has come a very long way from when I met him 18 months ago. PTSD, very much so. Homophobic. So anti-American you could get cavities in your teef...

Now?

He loosened up. We can make jokes about things. He mostly lives on red beans, onions and potatoes and gets flatulent, for instance. He said his girlfriend makes him sleep on the floor when that happens. And I said, 'Hey, W. How OFTEN have I told you not to insult me by name, HUH?' A. just fell apart laughing.

Or if we are at the computer, and he needs to get by, he will say, 'why don't you just turn aside?' (Which I do, of course...) And say, 'Oh, you WISH.'

It is amazing to me on a mess of levels. The French Foreign Legion's motto is 'Fraternité, Egalité, Liberté' .

I guess I got the first two all right. And that was no small feat.

Am so glad I am not about to get bashed..... And it is nice to have a 'brother' who accepts who you are....