Real Talk Yo

This won't make much sense if you haven't read my first and second posts about Jack.

UPDATE: There has been a major change to this post, the following section is the original, which I no longer agree with. The update follows.

I've reached a turning point in my relationship with Jack. I still enjoy the quotes he spouts off all the time when he is in "battle mode" but I'm starting to understand him a bit better during his more lucid periods. I had failed to "imagine others complexly"and had reduced him to what I had learned in a short time. He's still kinda nuts, kinda paranoid, and I have still have nothing in common with him, but Jack and I had a conversation last night that made me respect him a lot more.

Jack came into the room and was obviously distressed. I learned that Jack had encountered someone who apparently was so much crazier that Jack became self-aware of his own craziness. Jack was also concerned that this other guy might be suicidal and talked with me about what he was doing about it. He apologized for involving me in his problems but proceeded to have an intelligent discussion on the topic.

"Yo man, I know I'm crazy sometimes, and that I freak you out, but this guy was messed up. I know you don't know if I'm a good guy or not, but I know I'm a good guy. This guy....I don't know."

We talked for a while and I discovered that behind the jock exterior, the crazy, manic rapping, and the bizarre turns of phrase Jack has the same "big" thoughts that everyone has. It was eye-opening.

The rest of this post is what I was going to post until Jack and I had our little bonding moment. I expect that "Living with Jack" will become less of a feature on my blog soon because of the newfound respect I have for him.

UPDATE: Annnnnnd I just lost any respect for him I might have found. He came into the room a moment ago and told me that "his troubles were over" and that he didn't have to worry about that "crazy" guy anymore. Last night we had talked in the abstract, Jack hadn't told me anything specific about the person he was afraid of. Today he told me something more specific and it just floored me with its shallowness.

"80% sure he's gay. I mean, like, really gay. You know how gays are just looking for attention. I think that's all he's doing. 80% sure that's all the suicidal thing was about."

So I was right, sort of, I haven't been imagining Jack complexly enough. He's a complex enough person to be able to make me at first think he's crazy, then think he's crazy but has a lucid, thoughtful side, and then BAM, I find out he's a bigot who honestly believes that because a person is gay all they are looking for is attention, even when they apparently mention suicide. I'm a bit more than annoyed with Jack right now.

I guess imagining someone complexly doesn't mean you have to like them. Living with Jack will still probably feature a lot less, but not out of respect for him.

Also, for those of you who may be worried, Jack has insinuated that he truly does not believe this other person is suicidal, and has cited more reasons than "being gay." He doesn't seem inclined to offer any more details and I have no intention of asking for more.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.

I came back from classes a couple days ago. and started cleaning up my side of the room a bit when I noticed my bed looked a little odd. The post of the footboard, made from three pieces of wood joined together, was split open. The big staples holding the pieces together stuck out about an inch from the wood. I looked at the other post of the footboard to find it suffered from similar damage.

At this point I should note that Husson does not want to pay much money to furnish dorm rooms. That said, the furniture in my room is quite old, but it is built to withstand the beating of a thousand college students.

It is NOT, however, built to withstand the beating of Jack wielding a baseball bat.
As one of my friends and commenters on this blog, Red Wolf, so eloquently put it,

"He isn't named Jack for nothing."

I would like to point out that he broke BOTH posts with ONE swing. This means that he hit the frame with enough force to twist it, forcing the other post to split.

I asked Jack about my bed when he returned to the room a bit later.

Me: Do you know what happened to my bed?

Jack: Oh yeah man, sorry about that.

Me: What....did you do to it?

Jack: I hit it with my baseball bat. I was taking a couple practice swings and slammed it pretty hard. Don't worry dude, if they charge for it it's on my head.

Me: Well.....thank you for being honest.

I would also like to point out that the images I have provided were taken AFTER Jack did his best to fix the damage.

Our conversations are still very humorous on the whole but not as quotable so I rummaged around and found a conversation I'd written down the night after Halloween. As usual there were random people yelling in the parking lots near the dorm. Jack started talking about how he always got worried about them, thinking they might try and get in, and I started jotting down notes.

Jack: It's just…whenever I hear something going on outside….

Me:  They're just messing around.

Jack: One of these times it's not gonna be someone messing around.

Me: We're in Bangor Maine, nothing ever happens in Bangor Maine.

Jack: I was ON THE WATCH DUDE!

Me: Why? Why?

Jack: Dude! You should feel safe! I have this place on lockdown!

I pointed out to him that it might in fact be worse to be locked down with him than to worry about random people outside.

Jack: DUDE THERE'S HOLES IN OUR SCREEN.

Me: Nobody is gonna crawl through the screen without us noticing.

Jack: In the imaginary world where zombies…were not real….but people were imitating zombies on Halloween and the people that were imitating the zombies on Halloween were the freaks of the freaks... which is true... and so they're like (in zombie voice) "Yeah, whatever." If they end up in our window…they're REAL people, dressed as zombies…

Me: (cutting him off) But that's not gonna happen!

Jack: If somebody who was dressed as a zombie was trying to get through my window that would mean they are trying to kill me.

Me: Nobody is gonna try to kill you!

Jack: It's not gonna happen. I understand that, I get that………but in the event that it were to happen I was ready.

Me: But WHY worry about it?

Jack: Cause they COULD!

Me: Well, the world could end tomorrow…but it's not gonna.

(Jack got very somber here)

Jack: I legit thought that the world was ending last night. I thought everybody knew. I was with a couple of my buddies. They were being all cold and….it was just because they were tired….that's when it hit me…. it was all over and nobody knew how to tell me. Nobody even cares to tell me because…..the news….the news was so weird the way they were broadcasting it....

He trailed off.

Jack: I act like such a warrior dude… I'd run.


Well Jack, we finally have something in common. In the zombie apocalypse....I'd run too.