First of all, I promise I will never ever write another post this long!
I’ve been really bummed out about something that happened yesterday. I got an email from a woman who I thought liked me. She invited me to go boating with her and some girl friends this week but also asked me to “brainstorm ideas” regarding some help she needed with her website. I happily accepted but when I told Rip where I was going he was adamant about my not going ~ which I thought was odd. He thought of every reason that it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to go but still, something was amiss in his tone. Finally, after some arguing he told me to sit down because he had something to tell me that he had hoped I would never find out.
A year ago I purchased a wedding gift for this couple. I’ll call them Barbi and Jeff because, well… those are their names. They always claim to be free-spirited, hippies who love funky artsy stuff. They say they hang-loose but the truth is, let one thing interrupt their mystical fun-loving vibe and their up-tight asses are suddenly shittin’ diamonds!. …Ah yes, everyone knows that this couple, is all about Peace Love and Pie! They are constantly trying to cram this stupid phrase down our throats like it’s gonna catch on one day and make them famous. I digress, I honestly didn’t feel this way about them until today.
Anyway the gift I chose was from an art show, a large two-piece patio wall sculpture by a local Florida artist; 3-D stylized representations of the Moais figures found on Easter Island, South Pacific. The medium was a complex combination of fiberglass, acrylic paints and wood. It was designed as patio art since it is impervious to the elements. I honestly felt this was a fantastic gift as everyone else seemed to be giving impersonal gift-cards to chain restaurants and chain retailers. I honestly thought the style went well with the many botanical/tiki items surrounding their pool area. In retrospect, and knowing what I now know I should have just given them a Home Depot gift card . (Ggrr)
Little did I know, they both hated our gift; not just a little.. ALOT! So much in fact that Jeff w
ent to great effort numerous times in the courtyard of their employer, (Jeff works with Rip) and in the company of other employees to let Rip know just how awful and hideous he thought they were! Not only did they hate them but also put one out in the yard in a lawnchair free to the first person who happened to drive by. ~then Jeff took the liberty of photographing it and emailing it to Rip. From what I understand only one of the pieces was given away (perhaps everyone else hated them too).
Holy crap! I was stunned almost to tears when Rip told me this. How can people be so freakin’ mean? Who does this kind of hateful thing and then emails a picture of it to the very one who gave it? I would never do something like this regardless of how bad I loathed a gift, it’s just not cool. To top it off, he asked Rip not to tell me. Rip was furious with Jeff but knew this infomation would break my heart so he thought it best to spare me the details; no doubt stirring up a huge amount of stress that Rip could’ve done without.
ZZZ Rewind to last month… Jeff was in the hospital with a potentially serious problem but in the end it turned out to be a benign issue. When he was discharged from a 4 day hospital stay I drove 7 miles in the torrential rain (with no top on my jeep) to deliver an entire meal to this couple, salad to dessert. Little did I know that I was already the butt of their cruel form of entertainment. At that time they managed to look me in the eye and pretend to be my friends. Of course, the joke was on me.
As recently as yesterday Barbi has the audacity to continually ask favors of Rip. She’s emailed numerous times and asked Rip to call Jeff or stop over to visit him to offer moral support in his effort to stop smoking etc.. Basically it’s like she’s begging people to be his friend. In fact, when Jeff went into the hosptial she sent out a mass email asking everybody to stop by the hospital and visit. Rip laughed out-loud! It was about this time that I began to really get suspicious of Rip’s sour attitude everytime I mentioned their names. Until yesterday when the truth was finally revealed and yes, as Rip suspected~first it broke my heart but later I got pissed. These hypocrites are not my friends. There’s no way they can make this right at this point. I don’t expect to hear back from them again. I mean, what could they possibly say? Here’s a start Barbi and Jeff:
“We are mean people and we suck!”
Last month Disney’s California Adventure opened it’s brand new night-time extravaganza, World of Color! This awesome hydro/pyrotechnic adventure launches it’s spectators into another dimension with it’s trippy special effects. The massive production utilizes 1200 fountains each shooting water 200 ft up into the air, fire nozzlers shooting flames 50 ft into the air and gigantic Disney characters dancing in front of your eyes all possible with the help of a 380 ft long mist-screen. Throw in Disney music and suddenly it’s a 27 minute kaleidoscope of fantasy and imagination! Take a backstage look at what it takes to pull off a production of this magnitude in the video below, then watch the first 10 minutes of the actual show. As always here at Trippin’ with Rip, maximize the video for optimal viewing pleasure.
Pay attention blog-buddies! I’m going to tell you two things that you don’t already know about me. What’s that you say? You can’t wait to hear more about my boring life? Well read on… I ran across a cool website recently, one that will analyze your writing style as it compares to the styles of famous authors. Now I don’t know how accurate it is but it sounded kinda cool, and I tried it out. What you do is simply paste an example of your writing style into a text box, click “analyze” and the statistical analysis tool does the rest.
