This Was Not Life as I Knew It

Things in my life were really different and I was the only one that seemed to be affected by it.

I walked up the street from my house. I was headed downtown to the bar that I used to frequent the most. I was hoping to run into some friends, other barflies, that could help me make sense of all the new things I was experiencing.

Today was September 10, 2008 and it was the weirdest days of my life so far. I couldn’t stop thinking about it as I walked to the bar. Today, I got a phone call from my boss saying there wasn’t any carpenter work for me this week.

Then, I found out I had a new neighbor, but really we have been neighbors for at least two years. Then I found out I owned three dogs, used solar power to power my house, collected rainwater in a large tank in the front yard, lost my job two years ago, lost my truck, and to top it all off; I quit drinking two years ago.

The weirdness doesn’t stop there. The Berenstien Bears was now the Berenstain Bears and the creator of the Peanuts cartoon strip, which I did a report on in junior high, no longer had a “T” in his last name. What could make today even weirder?

When I saw, what I thought was a typo, that Charles Schultz was now Charles Schulz this morning; I just blew it off. I just rolled the paper up, put it in my back pocket, and left the store.

I stopped in the city park in the downtown area and retrieved the paper from my back pocket. When I unrolled it, the front-page news caught my attention. It said the presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, was going to easily win the 2008 presidential election.

I remembered that Hillary Clinton lost the democratic primary to Barack Obama. Everyone was sure he was going to win because he promised free healthcare and to put the citizen first.

The last eight years with a republican president was cursed with problems that hurt almost every American citizen and everyone was ready for the change that Obama promised. This is how I remembered it anyway.

According to this paper, the one I was reading, Hillary Clinton was promising free healthcare for everyone through a plan she called Clinton Care. She promised there was going to be some big changes in the White House and they were all good for the American people.

The paper went on to say that the American people were ready for change and wished the government would take better care of its citizens. They said that her presidency was going to be a record because she was going to be the first woman president and her vice-president running mate, Barack Obama, was going to be the first black vice-president.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. This was not how I remembered it at all.

I mean, the part about how the country went through a terrible recession because of the greed of big business owners and the banks, was true. When that happened, many people lost their homes to foreclosure and many big businesses did or almost did go bankrupt.

Our republican government found a way to bail out the banks and big businesses, but they did nothing to help the citizens keep their homes. This left a lot of people unhappy and it is why people were looking to the government for more piece of mind and the promise of change was so inviting.

This is how I remember it happening. This morning it seemed that the recession had finally made it to where I lived and now there were no more new homes to work on. I was out of work for the first time since 2003.

But, I just found out this wasn’t true either. According to my neighbor, I lost my job two years ago… What was going on? My head was starting to hurt.

I tossed the paper into the trashcan and walked across the street to the bar. Finally, something that looked familiar. I could already taste a local dark beer on my lips.

I walked in and set down in my usual spot. “What are ya having,” I heard a familiar voice ask.

“I will take my usual,” I responded.

“And what would that be,” asked the voice.

I looked up and saw that it was Mark, the bartender, talking to me. He had a new haircut. Where once was long dreads that went to the middle of his back, now there was a short spiky hairstyle.

“You know, Mark. The darkest and tallest local beer you have on tap,” I said cautiously. It didn’t seem like he remembered his biggest tipper.

“I got ya,” he replied and in one quick movement, he grabbed the tallest beer glass they had and started filling it with a local brew as dark as Guinness. Once the head went down and he finished filling it, he slid the beer over to me.

I noticed some of my barfly friends throwing darts and talking, but they didn’t seem to recognize me when they came up to the bar. Things were really different and I was the only one that seemed to be affected by it.

During my second beer, I finally asked Mark if he knew me. He said he didn’t know me personally, but he had seen me walking the streets with a silver backpack for the last couple of years.

“I have never been in here before,” I asked with curiosity?

“You came in here a couple of times and asked if we would start an open mic show. You even brought your guitar. You had a show for about a year, before the bar across the street shut down. So yes, you have been in here before.” He looked at me like I was crazy.

“Now, everyone just sees you walking the streets with your backpack. You don’t talk to anyone anymore. Everyone thinks your weird and right now, you are proving it to me.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was antisocial? I didn’t talk to anyone? This didn’t sound like me at all. It would have been fun to host an open mic night, but I had never done it. I was too busy partying and spending my money on booze and tips to host anything but maybe a bachelor party.

My head wasn’t feeling any better, so I asked to pay my tab before I walked out of there. I handed Mark my debit card. I wrote in a big tip like I always do, well… I always did before, and left the bar feeling worse than I did when I walked in there. It was a completely new experience.

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