Man out of time

[gaussianslur]

I don't necessarily mean that I'm running out of time (or that I'm a man), but rather that I'm outside of time. Time is a subway train, and I'm a bum on the platform comfortably ensconced in my urine-encrusted Peter Pan complex. I do realize that part of my temporal displacement is due to having not yet moved, but I wonder how much my attitude

Comments

[nattydredz]

Nathan loves you.

[lessthanpleased]

It's the city, man. I mean, you are, of course, partly culpable in that you are letting your environment effect you, but there's something about this city that is incredibly safe. It inspires me to do nothing, because then I'll fit in.

After all, what else is there to do in Baton Rouge? If I leave it, then I have to become something or somebody and give up my essential apathy and laziness.

My girlfriend always asks me how I can stay in Baton Rouge and not need a break, and I always ask her why she needs a break from the city at all. It takes a lot of energy to go somewhere else or do something else, and it's just easier to stay at home and watch TV, or, alternatively, to go out to dinner, come home and watch TV, and have sex.

Achieving mediocrity here feels like greatness would in other places, and I guess that's the appeal for me.

-neal

[gdnghtswtprince]

Neal's right. It's the city. The majority of the city's residents over 25 are trying to pretend that Baton Rouge will turn into a magical art-infused metropolis that will have businessmen bleeding from the face just to start the next fortune 500 company somwhere downtown. Either that or they're busy watching football with their 8 gun-totin' kids.

But every city's different. Many of you may recall a certain flat woolen cap that i wear. Here, in Scarborough, people are constantly commenting on this cap whenever i wear it. Not comments like, "i like your hat," or "you look like a jackass," but comments like, "my grandfather wears a cap like that," or "my dad wears a cap like that when he's working in the garden," or "you look like an old man. and a jackass." Here, i'm the old man. With the typical college crowd, i'm the old man. They want to go to clubs and dance and get pissed off their face. I want to sit in smokey pubs and read about the Prague Spring and its aftermath (and get pissed off my face). Every afternoon, my

[lessthanpleased]

Katie, my girlfriend, once told me that she's terrified that I'll decide to move away from Baton Rouge without her, before she can go with me. Or that I'll cheat on her, because she sees that I have ample opportunities to do so.

Then she realizes that I am too lazy to do either, ultimately. When left to my own devices, most days I won't leave my apartment unless I have to. I'm a homebody to the nth degree.

-neal

[ex_rosealia]

hey, come back here so we can be old people together.
and then LEAVE and be old people somewhere else.

[stuckinla]

"I am more comfortable with people almost a decade my junior than with people my own age."

At least that doesn't only apply to you. Of course, my girlfriend is 8 years younger than I. An odd statement a friend made a few years ago struck me kind if hard. The friend told another friend off-handly, "Yeah, Joseph is the most mature 14 year old you'll ever meet." That was supposed to be a jab, but somehow it made me realize there isn't an age I am supposed to be. I can only be who I am, and until 20-25 year olds stop coming up with interestimg things to do and say, I am still going to gravitate to that.

[theestevez]

I will take your despair and turn it into a compliment for me.

[crazedandabused]

No, its you. Its always going to be you no matter where you go. But the town is certainly not helping. And wouldn't it be more fun to work on you with better scenery?