FUNDAMENTALLY WRONG . . .

At first I thought it was just because he was a guy: he'd spill food or drink on my carpet and instead of apologizing and/or rushing to the kitchen to get a wet paper towel to clean up his mess (like ALL of my other guests ALWAYS do), he would mush the spot around with his finger a bit until the stain had spread over a larger area, dissipating the saturation of the stain colour a bit. I tried to be nice and patient, so instead of pointing out his messiness in front of everyone, I would make a mental note to myself to return and clean that spot up later. I did not attribute to him any sort of selfish lack of awareness, or meanness, or anything other than the fact that perhaps his mother doesn't make him clean at home, and so he simply doesn't know how to.

But I know better now. For in doing some house-cleaning, I discovered a piece of window hardware hidden behind a bit of clutter. An important piece of window hardware. A piece of hardware that keeps the window open and prevents the window from FALLING INTO MY ROOM WITH ANY GIVEN GUST OF WIND. I knew immediately what had happened: he had opened the window and had allowed this piece to fall out and had not replaced it, for after he left that room way back when, I had noticed that the window was propped up with something else. The window was so stubborn and tight, it had NEVER needed propping up. But now, it will ALWAYS need propping up -- at least until I spend a lot of money to pay someone to come and fix my window structure -- because this important piece was allowed to drop out and was not put back in.

And the worst part is this: HE DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME. At least have the decency to say, "Hey, I'm sorry, I broke your house." At least leave me with SOME ability to give you the benefit of the doubt and SOME room to think you're a good guy at heart. At least be HONEST. At least offer to HELP fix what you broke. At least PRETEND you care about people other than yourself. At least leave me and others with the impression that you're not a selfish, self-serving, lying infant who not only can't clean up after yourself (in SOMEONE ELSE'S HOME, no less!), but also can't take responsibility for breaking things that DON'T BELONG TO YOU.

Actually, it gets worse: he likes to criticize others for not living up to his standards of what he thinks they should be. BUT AT LEAST OTHERS DON'T BREAK MY HOUSE!

ARGH.

(Post-script: he hasn't been back to my place since, and I'm not surprised. If I broke someone's house and fled without saying a word, and it was pretty clear that I was the culprit, I would feel too ashamed and wretched to show my face too.)

***

FOCUS . . .

Driving home this morning from running errands, I drove past two maroon-coloured vans. They were going kind of slow, so I had the time to read the gold print that ran along their sides. After I passed the first maroon van, I almost slammed on my brakes, right in the middle of the highway. I was so shocked, because I thought the lettering read: "Great Communism Church."

WHAT?!?!?!

I quickly recovered and revved up a bit to overtake the second maroon van, driving a bit in front of the first one I had passed. I HAD to have a second go at it, you know?

Thankfully, my curiosity was satisfied in a much less shocking way: "Great Commission Church."

Phew.

My first-grade teacher always did tell me I read too quickly for my own good ....