Obsess much!

Have you ever known anyone who when you talk with them they talk about the same shit every time you see them. I am in that nightmare as I am writing this. For those of you who don't know already I work for the Department of Youth Services. I basically work in a jail for kids. I, historically, have worked on second shift and have worked overtimes on the first and 3rd shifts. Approximately six months ago a guy began working on the overnight who reads a series of books that I also read. These books are called The Forgotten Realms and are very Sci-fi convention fantasy adventure stories. Real nerd stuff.

Now I have no qualms with myself. I am somewhat a nerd. I like star wars and star trek, I play video games, I like comic books (but haven't seriously read one since high school. Yet am considering starting back up again) I watch movies about anything, I like Harry Potter, etc. But I don't get too serious into things like this. You will never find me at a convention for any of the above mentioned geek activities (although I find myself secretly wanting to go to them). This guy found out through the kids at work that I read the same books as him. I had worked a couple of shifts of overtime with this guy and had talked with him briefly about these Forgotten Realms books. In doing so I found out that he is way more into these books than I am.

You see these books have many different authors who write about all kinds of characters and stories which are based on role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons (see more dork stuff). Well, I happen to like one particular author, R. A. Salvatore, the man has written over 20 books for this Forgotten Realms and I have almost read every book by this author in this series. Yet this guy reads almost every book by every author in the series.

Now getting to the issue at hand. This guy began talking to me about these books one night on the overnight and talked to me for three straight hours (as opposed to 3 gay hours) regarding the books that I read and he began to talk to me about all of the other books in this series of books. THREEEEEEEEEEEEEE HOOOOOOOOUUUUUURRRRRRRSSSSSSS! I mean what the FUCK! The man didn't even take a breath. It was an informative discussion and he made me interested in some of the other authors but it was three hours. Did I mention it went on for three hours.

Now, I think of myself as a nice guy, so I listened to the man speak and for the most part I was interested in what he had to say. And when I wasn't interested anymore at least I pretended to be interested. But......the ever dreaded but...... recently I was hurt at work. Don't worry I'm ok. I just sprained my shoulder. But it caused me to have to work on the overnight shift for at least two weeks. I will be working with this man 3 days each week. So far I have worked with him for 2 straight days ( i was gonna use that gay joke again but i don't want to kill it, have I used in a previous blog entry?) each week. So far he has had the same conversation about these books that we had the first time (3 hours long) Both nights! I have even tried to change the subject about something else that I am interested in and he would talk about it for a few minutes and some how he draws me back in to a conversation about these damn books.

Now there are some things that you need to know about this man. He is deaf. He wears 2 hearing aids and when he is not talking about these books and every nuance and intricacy involving the books and the stories. Now also his two hearing aids make some intolerable noises as he speaks to me. It's as if someone has put a microphone near the speaker and this horrible feedback is coming out. It is this annoying hi pitch squealing noise that aggravates the piss out of me. It makes talking about these books that I like so much harder with the guy who could can recite ever story in every book.

I don't know if I can' make it a week never mind a few days. I will try not to hurt anyone. I will sign off for now. knowing that I probably made all of you feel like I'm not a nice guy. But if you think about it I am a nice guy I keep listening for hours on end for this guy to stop talking about the books. It's crazy but somebody has to do the job and somebody has to listen to this guy speak about books.

I mean this guy goes on for hours and focuses on this stuff. He is one of those guys. Some of you know my friend nate he gets obsesive about stuff too but at leat he obsesses on different things from week to week. I guess i am afraid of having this conversation over and over again night after night on the over night.

Well, that's all my complaining for now,

Ben