Mea Culpa

Normally, I would be the first to assail my dear roommate, Mr. Ng, for his libelous earlier post, but frankly, I have been responsible for quite a few bad ideas in my day. A particularly interesting one, especially from Mr. Ng's perspective, is what I will discuss in this post.

It was October 2006 and my roommates and I had ventured to the local bars to meet up with friends. After some time at the Haight, we moved onto another bar, wherein Garett invited his dear friend, who incidentally happened to have a huge crush on him. I noticed right away that she was giving him more attention than one might a simple friend, and immediately informed him of as much. Now one thing you all must know about Garett is that he is a very modest individual; he hardly ever acknowledges positive aspects about himself, and this situation was no different. He simply refused to accept that his friend might view him as more—much more.

Exercising what I thought to be my one good idea (of 10, or maybe 100), I encouraged Garett to spend more time with his friend. Relunctantly, Garett took my advice and boy, did the sparks fly! I lost track of Garett that night and did not see him again until he wandered in the next morning, still wearing what he had worn the previous night.

Now, you might be thinking this is anything but bad, but I haven't yet finished my story. Whatever happened between Garett and his friend that night—I'm not one to judge—was anything but good. Perhaps there was some temporal value derived from the interaction (if you know what I mean), but what value there had been was quickly squandered when Garett's friend suddenly began calling repeatedly. Apparently, she had mistook an intoxicated blunder for an overture of commitment, and now, Garett, who had subsequently moved on to (or onto?) other, younger women (specifically, the type that frequent Stonestown), was left with the rather unenviable task of extricating himself from a situation gone awry.

The phone calls started on his cell phone, but soon, they were coming in our house line as well (how she got that number, the world will likely never know). To this day, Garett continues to suffer harassment from his former friend and it's all my fault. Who knew one bad idea could have such a long lasting impact. I'm sorry, Garett. I really am.