We went to a place with years of tradition.
The IHOP that we've been visiting since Brendan turned 21. It was there that we realized what a fun sleepyhead he was. We went at 3 am, and he couldn't stop being silly. He turned the syrup into water, and the water into syrup, and had very wet pancakes and very sweet sweets to wash them down. It's only he who suffered.
That's not funny. He made believe he was the statue of liberty and told us all about what it was to travel to Ellis Island in a boat as a piece of metal. Metal gets to see some funky things, like all the fun funk music they'd play down there and dance to. He showed us the dance that 1000 metal-transporting sailors do. It had a lot of hopping and several body rolls. I was a little surprised that body rolls were so common in... 1913? No. 1820? Probably not... Whenever we got the Statue of Liberty. He said it was 1901. But you can't trust Brendan when he's sleepy. He'll make things up.
When we'd finished at the IHOP
Because he never got the chance to change.
That's why we still go there. Brendan was always the goofy one, and we all expected him to stay that wa. And because we foisted our expectations on him so avidly, he never changed. He never even had the chance to change, and so, every year for his birthday we go to the IHOP on Roosevelt and Brendan gets very sleep and eats too much sugar and then starts to get even sillier than he usually is. I tell him "it's fine" but he one got quoted in my big book of quotes, and now he's chasing the dragon. He's very worried that he's actually a dull, ordinary fellow, and so he's constantly trying not to be. He's just surrounded by extraordinary people, so comparisons that show him in a good light are hard to come by. Folks are sincere and smart and hard-working and ambitious, and he's... some of those, but not as much as he thinks other people are, which is endearing, but frustrating. And frustrating for him.
He's not got a head start on any projects at the moment... I digress, this is about the IHOP.
He looks around the IHOP today and he sees things he wants to change. The menu shouldn't be so extensive and incomprehensible, but it should have a little something for everyone. There shouldn't be such a variety of basically the same thing
What the hell for?
He asks me. He doesn't feel like trying is of any use. Lots of people fail lots of times. And sure, the world is easier for a lot of people, and the best ideas don't always succeed, and the worst ideas sometimes do. If the world were like a game, we'd all be better off, but it's not, or if it is, it's an indecipherable game that definitely is unbalanced and often not fun. That's why we make games, to show god how it could have been, so he can improve the game for next time, and we can have a lot less of this misery. But it is how it is.
And so, despondent and standing on a rainy bridge, he cries out his barbaric yawp to an unfeeling world. I stand nearby, across the bridge a bit, watching him. I think he likes this image. It feels very cinematic to him. He wants to live a cinematic life. There's a lot of unforeseen cinema. What does that mean?
Oh, name-calling, yeah, you're a jake. A Jacob Schweringer, with your unearned success. You spend two years basically fooling around, and they make you a partner, and I spend 2 decades working hard, and they ignore me, and then you rub it in my face by building a house next to mine that's bigger and classier and your grass is always greener, and I just can't stand that you're my boss now. WE WERE RIVALS. How dare you? From the
For https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/eptwf-the-weekend-freewrite-part-3-the-dramatic-twist