WEBVTT

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I like the rain, the wet streets, the cars passing by, the funny noise tires make rolling over a bridge.

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I like the people in my old neighborhood, the old brick houses, the twisted old trees, bent over old Polish women who scrubbed their front stairs.

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Don't know English, I don't think, but they still smiled when I passed and said hello.

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I live there with Randy.

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A cute little second floor walk up with a few problems.

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I worked hard to fix it up, my apartment, fix the space heater out of my own pocket, would have fixed the stove if I had the money, the fridge.

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Call the landlord every month, October, November, December, telling him, asking him would he please fix it.

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Said he would, never did.

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About halfway through the lease, Randy lost his job.

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He hated it anyway. They were assholes, he said.

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He started drinking again.

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I warned him.

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That was it.

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We parted friends.

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We hugged before I moved out.

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He said we were still friends.

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Randy begged me to stay, or at least to keep my name on the gas bill until the lease was up.

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And the phone, and the electric.

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He promised to pay.

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I said, okay.

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I didn't know he was planning to move to Oregon.

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He wanted a new life. He told me this on the phone, he started to cry.

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Just before he moved, I came over to clean up.

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The lease was up, so I didn't care.

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I found a pile of gas bills under the cushion on the couch.

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Phone bills, electric bills.

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I'm like, what's this?

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Oh, it goes. I was wondering where those went to.

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I was kind of mad, but then it dawned on me I could use a security deposit to pay them off.

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I know about utilities. You can't fight them.

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Once a friend of Randy's from college was visiting.

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He said he was going to stay a week. He stayed like five weeks.

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He made all these calls to like friends when I wasn't home.

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I got the bill for like $200.

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I told the phone company I didn't make those calls.

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I didn't owe them the money, but they said no.

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So I refused to pay.

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So they cut off the phone. So I paid.

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Chalk it up to experience.

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My sister Mare says experience is lessons you don't want to learn.

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Anyway, I asked my landlord for my security deposit back.

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He said no. Someone had to clean the apartment.

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I said I cleaned it, every room, even the hallway.

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Plus for a year, I told him I asked him and asked him and asked him to fix the stove, the fridge, and he didn't do a thing for a year.

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Then he got real mad.

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He was a young guy, only a little older than me, but his face got all red like my Uncle Pete who had the stroke.

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And he told me to leave, that we were finished here.

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I left and called that office in the city that's supposed to help tenants get their deposits back.

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But they said they were backlogged and they couldn't take my case for three years.

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And even then they couldn't guarantee anything would happen.

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If you don't believe me, give them a call yourself. They'll tell you the same.

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So there I was.

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They kept my money.

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I like these abandoned places.

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Overgrown fields, the open sky, the wind.

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Look at those tall weeds. They look so wild.

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Not like the city parks.

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The parks are too tame, too manicured.

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I hate grass when it's cut too short like on a golf course.

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I like places no one else goes, so I can be alone, so I can think, so I can dream.

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I kind of miss Randy and the funny things he used to do.

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He used to do the scam with the old paper bus transfers.

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This was before they put the machines in.

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He knew how to take expired ones and cut and paste them together so they looked like they were still good.

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He was always begging people for their used transfers, even complete strangers.

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And when we went to the movies he would call the theater and pretend he was a manager from some other chain and ask for two complimentary tickets.

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And he would get them, most of the time.

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So he would take them to the movies, ride the buses on his transfers, and then after we'd go out to a restaurant and eat and he'd make me pay since he paid for the bus and the movie.

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For a little time we had a joint checking account.

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I felt sorry for him. He was broke, always borrowing money.

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I don't know, I feel kind of stupid talking about this.

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Once he gave me some very expensive perfume for my birthday.

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Very sweet. Until I got my canceled checks.

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Turned out he bought it with my money.

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Can't say I've done any better lately.

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Last guy I went out with, things were nice.

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We were having a nice time listening to a band at Doubledore.

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And suddenly he goes, we have to go to a quiet bar, someplace somewhere so we could be alone.

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I'm going, hey, this is nice.

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So I take him to that little place on North Avenue with the jukebox around there I used to go to.

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What's that place called?

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I don't remember.

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So what's the first thing he does when we get there?

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Takes out this palm pilot and checks his stock options.

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It's kind of hard these days.

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Rents are high.

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They want an extra $300 for my cat.

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Health insurance, forget it.

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They want over a hundred bucks a month.

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Car insurance too.

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Can't afford a car on minimum wage.

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I used to have a car once.

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An old Opel.

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Randy parked it in front of these new, she-she townhouses around the corner.

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It was only there two nights and they towed it.

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By the time I got the $200 together, there were storage fees.

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I now owe $400.

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The fees like doubled every few days.

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So I gave up and let them keep it.

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Last year was not a good one, shop-wise.

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I didn't even make enough to get Bush's tax refund.

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I waitressed for a while at this restaurant on State Street near the police station.

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They only gave me 30 hours a week so I didn't get any benefits.

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No health insurance, no paid vacation, nothing.

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I was a part-time student then at Columbia College.

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The week before New Year's, my boss told me he was throwing a private party in the back

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and I was going to be the waitress.

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I go, I'm going out that night.

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He's like, if you don't work that night, forget it.

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You don't have a job.

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So I worked until 4 a.m. serving his party.

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I close up and he gives me no tip, nothing.

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I quit the next week.

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Look at the little dog.

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I wonder if he's a stray.

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He's got a collar.

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But his owner abandoned him.

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He needs someone to take care of him.

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But he's a runaway.

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He won't be any trouble.

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Come here.

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Come on, boy.

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Come here, boy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.

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Come here, Randy.