Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Still no word from Stacy

I guess I should explain the whole story...

Stacy is someone I've known since about 1994-95, I guess. She and I were introduced by a mutual friend at church and became fast friends ourselves. Eventually, we became roommates as well. We had our ups and downs together, but we were two peas in a pod and it was obvious to anyone who saw us together. This was back when I lived in Sarasota.

Stacy fell into hard times at one point. Her job was all the way down in Venice and she had no car. My job was literally 5 minutes away by car. So I let her use my car to drive back and forth to work and I took the bus to work. This should give you an idea of how much her friendship meant (and still means) to me. I also let her use the car to see her girlfriend in Tampa on some weekends. I was enabling her, but to me it felt like loving her. One day, she got into an accident with the car. Given the age of the car and the damage done, it was almost a total loss. But I couldn't be without one, didn't want to trust another used car and couldn't afford a new one. So I ended up taking out a loan to get the car fixed. Couldn't even get the paint job the same. The car was silver and gray originally... now it was silver and gray with a gold hood and left fender.

I was seeing a shrink at the time. After tell her all this, she got... irritated with me and began to show me how I was enabling Stacy. That Stacy was not growing, not doing anything for herself because I was doing so much for her. My shrink felt this was the perfect time for me to change the relationship and help Stacy regain her self-reliance. I needed to tell Stacy that she had to find a place to live closer to work because without a car there was no way for her to get around. It initially put a strain on the relationship between us.

Time and distance changes relationships. My boss in Sarasota decided to be a dick and let me go for prejudiced reasons. I spent about three months looking for a job. Found a couple that changed their minds AFTER hiring me for the same prejudice. Then I talked with Bill Marshall of GCS. He took me in right away, tripled my exit salary at ASI within 2 months and treated me like people should be treated.

Within a few months, Bill decided he needed me to move to Orlando where the company was. I agreed, but that meant leaving all my Sarasota friends and starting over in a new town. As time went on, Stacy and I spoke less and less simply because of life's business. It's hard to stay in touch with people sometimes when you can't just drive over to see them. However we did still keep in touch and eventually she got herself a car and started to get her life back in order. We started see more of each other whenever she could get time off work and come to Orlando.

Recently, Stacy mentioned that she wanted to come and see me again. She has vacation time all this week. Her plan was to come last weekend and stay until this weekend. I was excited about getting to see her and hang out with her again. At the same time, there was a plan here in Orlando with my Orlando friends to go to a party at Mindchime's that first weekend. I told Stacy I had plans for that weekend and she said that was cool.

This plan changed, of course (as they do), when Mindchime never returned calls about the party. So, instead we all decided to hang out here at my house that Saturday night. Stacy called mid-week and said she couldn't make it because of financial reasons. I said I understood, but I didn't like it. I called her Saturday and asked how much she would need in order to come stay here with me and not affect her budget. She said, $30 to $40 dollars. I thought, that's ridiculous. Come and stay with me, I'll front you what you need. She agreed and said she would leave Sunday morning since she doesn't like driving at night and usually gets tired early in the evening anyway. I said great! Problem solved! Yay!

So later Saturday, she calls me back saying "who am I kidding?" She says her bags are all packed and knowing she's going to get to see me she won't be able to sleep anyway and that she was getting ready to leave right then. I told her that maybe she should stick to the plan because I was going to have a house-full of people she didn't know that night. I didn't want her to feel uncomfortable or walking into a situation where she would have to deal with a party going on while she tried to get some sleep. She said she understood and that it was all cool.

Sunday rolls around. At 12:30 I started getting nervous since she said she would be here at noon. I called her cell. No answer. At 1:15 I started getting more nervous and called again. Again, no answer. I then called her house phone and the people she lives with said she wasn't at home and didn't think she was coming because she unpacked all her bags the night before. I was like... WTF? So I tried calling her again that night with no answer. Sent her an e-mail too.

After not hearing anything still, on Monday I called her cell again, left another message. Caller her house phone and left a message with them. E-mailed who I think is her mom asking what's going on. I still haven't heard. I don't know if she's mad at me or if there's something seriously wrong. It's not normal for her to completely ignore me like this and it has me very worried about her.

I may take a drive to North Port where she lives this weekend to see what's going on myself. This really upsets me. I hope she's alright.

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