August 2, 2004

  • Maybe my uncle suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).  He drove me to work again this morning, since I'm still not 100%, and he immediately started with asking me if he should try to get his job back with his previous employer, Pride Industries, or if he should just try to apply somewhere else.  I guess it would be appropriate to say that this was the very last thing he spoke to me about last night.  Although every time we speak it's more like he is lecturing me. 


    Then he went on to talk about lola and how if she goes to the Philippines, and if she gets sick, health care is really expensive there, because the doctors will "make a remedy" and "not heal you right away" because they know you once lived in America.  He kept on going on about how it will be better here because she gets Supplemental Security Income.  I want her to be happy.  If she'll be happy in the Philippines, that's better than being miserable here.


    Of course, a conversation with my uncle wouldn't be complete without him bringing up me marrying Princess, that girl in the Philippines, and how I won't be alone because we'll have two kids and she'll petition her parents to come to America.  He mentioned how being single is the same as being married here in America because you spend just as much.  Not the most precise statement in the world, but that's what he's gone through.  He said if you're single, you'll go out and hang out with friends and spend all your money, and "your friends will beat you."  I don't know exactly what that means, but it's fun to figure out.  He lectures me about this and doesn't give me a word in edgewise.  Then again, it's not like I would take it.  I pick my battles, and I am rarely in the mood to aggravate him the way I could.  I just tell myself that he means well.


    There are certain themes that constantly repeat in my uncle's world.  "Make a remedy" is one of them.  Like I mentioned earlier, he was talking about how doctors will "make a remedy" and "not heal you right away," in an effort to take advantage of the fact that you may have money since you came from America.  When we're working on a car or what not, and I'm having a hard time, he immediately goes to this "make a remedy" phrase.  It's general enough to apply, but not specific enough to be effective, except in a moral sort of way.


    Another catch phrase the my uncle seems to go to is "in life, everyone will ..." and you can insert the appropriate verb at the end.  He constantly says that "in life, everyone will die" especially pointing out that my mom died.  Today, he said, "in life, everyone will marry."  An interesting observation, but completely false.  However, it does partially explain why he's constantly talking about me marrying that girl that I've only met once.


    Although not a catch phrase, he was talking about how it's not good to be too ambitious, I think in an attempt to avoid future "failures."  I put failures in parentheses, because my idea of a failure is seemingly different from his.  My idea of ultimate failure is not trying at all, which I liken to his ideology of not being too ambitious.  Of course, we can have small failures on our road to our ambitions, but it's not until we quit that we've ultimately failed.  That's just me though.  We are all entitled to our views.  And everyone is entitled to mine.