You know how in life you encounter two 'special' types of person? There's those people that you can't do a thing wrong, you and them are just great company, you know, really friendly and all. And then there's the other type, where no matter how much effort you put into things, you cannot get along for more than an hour, if even five minutes. Well, I certainly have experienced my mix of these two people in the past 24 hours. There's someone I know (and anyone who knows me outside of this blog will know who I am talking about) who I simply cannot continually get along with. Don't think I haven't tried. I have, and I did for a long time, but it just got so tiresome and frustrating that I realised any value that friendship might have certainly wasn't worth the effort it required. So, quite simply, I gave up caring what this person thought or said or uttered about me under their breath and put them out of mind. I wouldn't go out of my way to piss them off just to piss them off, but I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to appease their every want and will (which, you may wish to note, would have been what maintaining that friendship entailed). I just gave up on the person because, all-in-all, they are a complete idiot, obnoxious to the world and oblivious to other people. They are self-centred and self-consumed and don't give two hoots unless the topic of conversation is about them. And, of course, they know everything, don't take advice, and never listen to a word they say.

So please, indulge me for a moment, when I relay the following scenario to you - plans are made, people agree to them, and someone 'calls in sick'. If plans are made, things have been planned around an event. If I need to, say, wake up at 4:30am to get to work (which I do of a Saturday morning), and I can avoid absolutely having to go out Friday night, then I will. But, if I've made plans to go out Friday night, I'm not exactly going to bump my friends for a night's sleep all because I can't be fucked going out. I'm not like that - if I say I'm going somewhere, and people have banked and made plans around me showing, then I show. But the person I'm referring to simply doesn't think about that, and even though they've made a commitment to show, they attempt to ultimately ditch the event. That might not make a whole lot of sense outside of my dark mind, but it makes sense to me, so I'm running with it.

Now, knowing full well that I care about as much as knocking over a glass of water as I do the friendship with the person who is prepared to ditch me and my friends, am I really going to hold my tongue, or go to an effort to appease, or try and forget that it ever happened (that I could have had a good night's sleep for my work and gone out Saturday instead) all for the sake of this 'friendship'? Hell no. In fact, I'm going to make sure that the person knows just how much I value it and say "Don't come tonight, I won't come any night". It's not an attempt to piss someone off, it's an attempt to make this person wake up and realise that they aren't the centre of the world and that if you make a commitment, you damn well better show!

End of that story is: they showed, tried to have a horrible night (while three others intended on having a great night) ended up having a good night, though for a majority of the evening, created a tension air and a grumpy mood between he and I. I couldn't care less - I went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean III, I had a good meal, I enjoyed the company of two people who were there and I got home and had some sleep. I doubt this person could say the same thing, but like spilled water, I don't care about it.

Now that's the second type of person who you (or I at least) just do not care to be around anymore. The first type, I have the pleasure of working with on the rare occassion. See, I work at a golf course, and even though people blow off the idea that I could have risen through ranks, I worked my way up from a lowly range ball collector to what is officially called a sales position, but in actuality, I run the course on Saturdays (the busiest day of the week as it is competition day) and, during the semester holidays, any other days I get called in. I'm left unsupervised regularly, have to deal with excess of 100 customers per hour, while coordinating around 200 people on a golf course at once. That's not an effort to make myself sound more important that I am, but just a very general description of what I do. I've been doing it for three years now (I've been employed by the course for four years and some months) and I like to think I do a good job at it. There was a dodgey patch some where in the middle when I didn't get along with one of my bosses, but they got fired because no one got along with them.

Anyway, enough about that crap. When the course got brought out, we had a new boss and he decided to keep on the original employees, while implementing new administrative roles (accountant and general business manager). The general business manager ended up being the new owner's daughter, Marie, who is a delightful and just a great person. At the time when she started, I was working there the most, and knowing that she was my top-boss' daughter, I thought it stupid to get off-side with her, or at least act a mindless drone around her. And, I won't shy away from it: I had just finished high school, and one of the things that was on my mind (after being freed from an all-boys school) was fostering the company of women. And I certainly wasn't adverse to my co-employees' company - she is very attractive, and has a personality to boot. So there might have been (well, it's pretty much guaranteed) efforts to 'impress', or at least be memorable. And things went swimmingly and, as much as I can suspect, we both managed to get something out of the friendship that we both wanted - she managed to transition into the place quicker, easier and had someone to work with who was a bunch of fun (because during the week it can get so damn boring at a golf course), and I managed to at least hold my own in the company of a female (which, again, for people who know me outside of this blog, would gawk at that idea - I'm not exactly the most sociable when it comes to male company, not even delving into the mysterious world of women).

Then I started university, I had my days cut back to weekends and sporadic weekdays, and after about six months, Marie decided she had had enough of the course (it's not exactly a perfect working environment, rather, a juggling act of working, customer relations and socialisation). So we never saw each other for some time. Then, the person who replaced her unfortunately got sick and had to leave. Now in between the (probably) good two years that went by between me going to university and when the replacement got sick, I saw Marie perhaps twice, when she was called in for emergencies or short-staffed days etc., but not in any capacity to catch up. So when the replacement got sick, Marie was called in. I was still only working Saturdays, but I was getting called in more regularly because, as mentioned, one of my bosses was fired, and every now and then I get called up to cover them. I have no problems, I need the money, so I agree, but I didn't exactly jump at the opportunity until I found out that Marie was back to working there.

Now, my train of thought had shifted over the two years from the reasons I was glad to be working with her before she left and the reasons I now am glad to work with her. Over the two years I went through a roller-coaster of wanting to be there, not wanting to be there, hating the place, enjoying the place, all these changes in emotions, until it sort of settled on "Well Thomas, the best way to enjoy working there is to enjoy the company you have". Now the golf pro that I open up on Saturday mornings with is real top bloke, and the trainee that I work with through the afternoon is just as good. Similarly, my new boss and one of my old bosses are great to work with as well. But the customers ... the customers ... the customers can just drive you to world's end sometimes. Well, not sometimes: every time. See, at my golf course, the members think they know everything, and a lot of them are like the first category of people I mentioned. Now don't get me wrong, there are some real characters and people that you have to enjoy the company off, and I have no trouble bending over backwards for them and going to efforts. But I have to do this for the people I don't like either, and that really ticks me off. I learned long ago that I have to keep all that in, but some weeks you just can't - whether everything goes wrong or in their eyes you can't do your job or they just complain about things to you that you have no responsibility over. There are a million ways people can give me a headache, and I don't expect I've experienced them all. But I make the best of the company I have.

So, from this, it's understandable why I would jump at the chance to work with Marie if I can. I don't have to make a effort to make the company good - she makes it good for us. Any conversation we have we both enjoy - and they aren't always silly conversations either. She's a university graduate and is interested in what I'm doing. I'm someone who likes to talk, so I'm interested in anything. Additionally, she thinks that I'm witty and funny - how she came to this conclusion I'll never know. But we both get a kick working with one another. I don't have as much fun working with anyone else across the span of the day as I would if I worked with Marie.

Of course, to say that I've entirely forgotten all of those reason I wanted to work with Marie would be a lie.

I'm not exactly sure, when I started this post, where I intended to go with it, but here's where I'm going to conclude: with these two types of people, you can see how they both affect you, and ultimately, which friendship you're going to put effort into and which one you're not. Funnily enough, the friendship I want to put effort into doesn't need any effort at all - it develops and flows by itself, and it doesn't exactly end when we don't see each other for long stretches of time. But the (former) friendship that required a lot of effort just taxes you like nothing on Earth, and eventually you just give up. Thankfully, now that I have given up on this burden of a friendship, there's this gray weight gone from my mind, and it's giving me a heck of a lot of time more time to think about more important things.

Things like refiling those glasses of water I might have split.

Thomas.