Tenants and the moderately education-impaired

God. The weekend. Finally! (Unfortunately I need to study for exams and fix cars while in the freezing cold. Some break from work this will be.)

Ok, to begin with I'm going to say something about how FedEx Amy and I haven't been getting along this week. Like at all. Tonight started off well, but ended up really, really ugly. I'm hoping it's just because it's that time of the month for her (it really is; I'm not one to accuse a girl of that on a guess), and not that she really is as sick of me as she seems. Why would she be sick of me? Well, because apparently I have this way of like talking down to people and implying that I'm better and smarter than others. Of course, I don't realize I'm saying something like that until it's too late, generally. So I'm working on that. But she also dislikes the way I'm stubborn and argue my point/side of things. Granted, I do that a whole lot, but tonight we were talking, getting along well, and she said something about they could have been rich if her dad had patented some thing he invented. The way she said it, it sounded like a little machined part (he's a machinist) that wouldn't make any difference to the majority of the population. So I pointed out that patents don't usually seem to make people rich. For example, Kylen's dad didn't seem to have gotten completely insanely rich off of his first patent. Or maybe even two. Or even the single one of his that he's made the most money with. (I don't know for sure about how much money Kylen's dad makes off his patents, but I got the idea that with as little usage as it sounded like Amy's dad's part would get that it wasn't something to get rich about.) She took offense that a) I assumed it was a small, relatively meaningless invention (which was solely based on the way she talked about it; for one thing, she couldn't even tell me what it was or did when I asked that), and b) that I _had_ to insist that patents don't generally make people rich. Now, I didn't consider this anything to create a huge argument about; I just thought it a normal counterpoint in a conversation. So I wish she could realize the difference between argument-inducing things and regular counterpoints. I mean, how long can a given conversation go on without the use of a counterpoint to keep the discussion going?

Now for a moment I'm going to talk about this issue about me "thinking I'm so much smarter than everyone else." (or at least my coworkers) It's not that I inherently think that just for the sake of thinking that. I just know how much education I have and how much education the average one of them has. I'm almost certainly more educated. I can't really help that, now can I? This wouldn't really be such a big deal, except that sometimes I have to be careful what I say around certain groups. I try not to delve into topics that are over people's heads (honestly). But if I have to censor my thoughts based on your level of education, that carries at least some meaning. Something that bothered me a little though was Amy's reaction when I asked her if she knew what a Mobius strip was. Of course she did not know, but she automatically got defensive and said something along the lines of "Why the hell would I even care what the fuck a Mobius strip is?" (not an exact quote, to be sure, but you get the idea)

So that brings me to my real rant, which involves the friends I have here. None of the three of them are really anywhere close to having the educational level I have. That doesn't automatically make them bad people, or even no fun to hang out with. But I've noticed that the more educated someone is, the more I enjoy hanging out with that person. That's why I really like my Nashville friends. I don't have anyone here I can hang out with and stretch my mind. I really only have one friend here who I hang out with regularly anyway, and she's probably the least educated of my three Memphis friends. That's not so bad, but it's a little thing that constantly comes up (at least in my head; I don't express it) and annoys me somewhat because I can't really say all the things I want. I've got to think about it first and make sure it's not something she won't get. And I still screw that up at times. In contrast, I went out for coffee the other day with the most educated of my Memphis friends. I really had a good time. We talked about school, etc. But as a specific example to juxtapose with the Mobius strip thing, we talked about how she's not really a math person. We talked for a minute about my DE class. Imagine explaining what a differential equation is to someone who doesn't know what a differential is, all without turning it into a math lesson and ruining the social experience. It really wasn't that bad though, because she was open to the idea of knowing what a DE is and what a differential is. And that kind of thing is really what matters, I think.

To shorten three paragraphs, I'm not saying I expect (or even want) people to get a bunny-O-bunny joke, but I would like to feel free to make a witty comment at will and actually expect someone to get it. That doesn't happen often enough here. So basically, someone tell me how to find educated, open-minded people in Memphis who like crappy humor and need a new friend. :) (All of this over a damn Mobius Dick joke....)

Now, as a humorous and appropriate addition to all of this, I'm going to post a copy of a letter my dad got yesterday from his tenants in Alabama (with all the spelling, grammar and punctuation errors intact). It's that much funnier if you keep in mind that they're living in a trailer in Alabama on a farm.

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Dear Mr. Whittington,

I would like to thank you for allowing me to rent the trailer from you for the past year and a half. I have had a wonderful view and have been surrounded by great neighbors while living their. [I was going to stop reading at this point because I thought it would be lame, but that made me grind my teeth and unfortunately I had to keep going.] Cliff and I have purchased a trailer of our own and will no longer need to rent the trailer from you. We will have all of our stuff out of the trailer by December 31, 2005 I will have the carpet cleaned professionally and everything back in order as I found it when we moved in. I had a security light installed and will call the power company to make sure that they disconnect it once we leave I will also make sure that we have paid the December and January power and water bills. Please let me know if there is anything else you would like for me to do.

Once again I would like to thank you and your wife for giving us the opportunity to rent the trailer from you it was perfect for us this last year and a half and I could not have had nicer land lords.
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So now that I look, spelling doesn't seem to be a problem. So I assume there was a spell checker involved. (The first thing that really surprised me was that this letter was typed and not handwritten.) To her credit, the format is very good for a business letter. The date, block paragraph format, and other things are just like they should be. I have to wonder if she used a template. I also wonder if grammar check was off, didn't exist, or was set to the special Alabama mode. I'd like to know where I can buy the version of Word that has Redneck Grammar Check (tm) included. And I wonder how much of this stems from having the name "Ammie."

Oh, P.S. We have a nice trailer for rent in rural Alabama. You get fresh air, two fishing ponds, cows for neighbors, and a nice place to live. I'm thinking about going there myself, actually. Holla at me if you're interested.



Ok, so Maybe FedEx Amy and everyone else is right. I guess I pretty much am a stuck-up asshole.