Endings

Ending Number 1 - La Pooch:

She's fine. Late yesterday morning I finally was able to speak with my brother - he wasn't angry, said I handled it perfectly. They checked the dog when they got home but saw and felt nothing, and assume she worked whatever it was out of the pad of her paw while she was home alone. You know next time I see her I'm going to look at her paw to make sure I see nothing, but Whew!

Ending Number 2: File Clerk's Boyfriend:

I hate when people don't say "what happened" or "how it turned out" so even though I'm not working there any more, I feel compelled to share with you how it ended.

So I told you Joseph was old. What do old people have? That's right - even older parents. Joseph's mother croaked. FC went with him to the wake, and back to his sister's house - they both missed work for it. FC said it might have been the single most uncomfortable day of her entire life. Everyone there was old, she was young. They're all very wealthy, FC is dirt poor.

A week later, File Clerk's birthday came up, and Joseph brought her flowers at work, that he proudly marched through the halls and presented to her. FC didn't really want people at work knowing they were "dating", mostly because she was embarrassed, which obviously speaks volumes about whether or not she should have been dating him at all. But whatever, it's hard to say things sometimes.

Also for her birthday, Joseph had gotten tickets to some jazz festival thingie. Said tickets were very expensive. FC was feeling the pressure - knowing she was essentially using somebody. So as she left work that day, right before she and Joseph were supposed to go to the festival, she pulled him aside and told him she couldn't go. Yes, on her birthday, she broke up with Joseph.

File Clerk genuinely tries to be a nice person, so she didn't want to say "I'm breaking up with you because I know it's wrong of me to date someone I'm embarrassed to be seen with", and instead went with the "I'm just not attracted to you that way, and feel like it's wrong to go on."

Joseph was very, very upset, and they parted. Apparently Joseph went and stood for hours outside the festival trying to sell the tickets, to no avail. He then went home even more upset and called FC, crying and screaming. He demanded FC pay him back for one of the tickets, even though it'd been a birthday present. She laughed and said she didn't have the money to do that.
Very harshly, Joseph told FC he wanted a book back that he'd lent her. Things were tense between them at work that week, but it wasn't a big issue since they worked on different floors and didn't actually have to "work" together at all.

That Friday, Joseph marched into FC's file room, and told her he couldn't stand it anymore, and that was his last day. It was too painful for him to work in the same office she was in. When FC told me this she was almost in tears. She felt HORRIDLY! I told her not to, that he had a history of behaving immaturely, and this was the same thing.

Not even an hour later, FC e-mails me that we should go take a break to get hot chocolate across the street. As we meet in the hallway, her face is completely lit up. We don't speak until we're in the elevator. FC turns to me excitedly. "Dennis just told me Joseph was FIRED! They were going to do it last week, but held off a week, because his mom had just died. But he's not quitting because of me. He was fired. He LIED to me!"

So in a mere two-week span, Joseph's mother died, then his girlfriend dumped him, and then he got fired. What a terrible month for the guy!

Yesterday when I was leaving a day-time yoga class, I stood at the corner waiting to cross the street. Slightly in front of me was a man wearing what I can only describe as train-conductor overalls. With a plaid shirt, and a train-conductor hat over his bald head. The man was shorter than I was, and had Joseph's build. Holy crap, was I standing behind Joseph?! What would he be doing here? He doesn't live anywhere near here! But no, it wasn't him. Just some dude who likes train-conductor overalls.