chapter 8

In order to get properly acquainted to Mr BooHoo, I would suggest that you start from the beginning, in case you haven't been through the previous seven, plus a paragraph, chapters. Never you mind, none of them is too big. Don't be a lazy donkey, if you don't begin at the start you will not get the whole picture. Just scroll down and find chapter one. If, on the other hand, you are a familiar visitor, well then, cheers. Sorry for the spelling mistakes.

Chapter *(8): anger

Mr BooHoo was feeling angry. He filled his bathtub with hot water, added a handful of colourful plastic ducks and a clockwork turtle, of whom his friend was to get particularly fond of, and got inside. His bathtub was neither antique nor beautiful. In fact it did not even have a bathtub plug and he had to use the lid of a glass jar instead. still, as long as the lid fitted and stayed put it was no skin off his nose. The ducks kept flowing up-side-down with their heads in the water. No matter what he tried they seemed due to stay like this. He did not mind this either. He left some gas and watched it go up in bubbles. The smell reminded him faintly of cooked beetroot, not to mention cabbage or cauliflower. He occasionally took small sips from a rather small glass filled with a rather translucent liquid. He looked at an old envelope he had used as scrap paper and noticed that there were some funny stuff printed in a small square at the bottom right side of it, titled "return (in his language)/retour". Under this there were options with smaller boxes on their right side so as to tick in case you would like it unopened to the post office. One of these words, in his native language, meant "unacceptable", although the sense in which it was used there might be "unaccepted". It sounded rude and evasive and it almost amused him.

After he was half the way through his drink he felt the anger subsiding and numbness spreading from the back of his head to the rest of his body. His mind became misty- as the opposite of clear- that was a good thing because at that point, clarity of thought combined with the negative feelings invoked by dusk and tiresomeness would probably make him angrier and stressed. He thought shortly on another option from the small square; it said that the letter was undelivered because the person to whom it was addressed to had "left without leaving a forward address". Most likely, he would not become this person for multiple reasons, cowardice among them.

His mind returned to the feeling of anger. To the biggest part, it was other people's attitude that made him angry. Trusting people with jobs that never got done in time, having to ask people for favours, people that would only do him favours so as to ask for something in return, being in the need of people, loosing control over things and in the end he was the only one who got hurt. Perhaps he paid too much attention to what people thought of him. The worst part was to have to ask twice. Also, people who were loud and cocky made him vexed and people who thought they were brilliant just because they had once succeeded in academia but were bloody morons in real life situations, big people who took his turn in lines and the list could go on and on and on. (Bosses that refused to pay their employes, arrogant school-teachers, violent boyfriends and girlfriends, manipulators, spoiled single children,  political figures, narrow-minded people, new-hippies, new age religious freaks, in one word idiots. Bad guys).

Once, trying to asses his psychological drama, he read about a behavioral disorder that pretty much matched his then current condition. A specialist was giving some oversimplified examples of people who, on certain occasions, sunk into self-pity, where-as anger would have been a more appropriate and "normal" feeling. He remember thinking that it was a pile of literary dung he had come across, because self-pity can be a more dignified state of mind than anger. Definitely safer for the rest of the world. The feelings of self-pity and self-loathing can be irksome but in an explosion of anger there are bound to be innocent victims of violence. In addition, he could not figure out how he could ever look at himself in the mirror if he knew he had hurt somebody so much, physically or mentally. Not that he was a saint, he had sent plenty of people to s"d off, but this was as far as it went and it still bothered him from time to time. He was further annoyed when he thought of all the times he must have insulted or hurt people that had not brought it upon themselves and had forgotten all about it. At that period Mr BooHoo was sinking into crisis of self pity, during which he disliked himself so much that he almost turned to religion. He still carried fragments of this and always expected a new outburst.

As it has been mentioned, though, lately, he was getting angry. Of course, he would restrain from expressing himself verbally, but he spent so much time in his time re-fighting lost battles and telling people off. So much that he started finding it silly and mocking himself for transforming into a vengeful super hero, with abilities similar to Hulk's, in his imagination, while remaining a (not always so) silent mouse in real life.

Squick.

The small people shall rise (again).

After three miniature glasses of transparent liquid he was not angry at all. Slightly numb, perhaps, and ready to go hide under his new handmade quilt. He had made it almost 950 fabrics short to be enchanted and thus did not expect anything he would dream under it to come true. This was a soothing thought, especially since not all his dreams were soothing.            

Chapter 7

This is the seventh adventure of Mr BooHoo. I would suggest to any reader that is unfamiliar with his issues to start from chapter !(1). Scroll down, then!

Mr BooHoo, chapter&(7)

Mr BooHoo got up at half past eight. It was nice. The sky had the lovely blue colour it has sometimes after it has rained the previous night, and the day before it had rained for the first time after almost a month. Autumn had arrived, officially. He decided to watch television while having his morning cup of coffee. Television lately felt like a bearer of bad news, so he avoided it. The only safe programme was a telemarketing show about sneakers with curved soles that could lift your breasts and help you loose 2 kg per week. After looking at it numbly for approximatelly 20 minutes he realised it was playing on a loop and that he had already watched it two and a half times. Still, there was nothing better to watch, apart from a pre-school show with an ugly panda.

The rest of the channels had early morning talk shows, on which they debated if the country had been bankrupt and this was not being announced to the public, or if the economy would smash within a month. He pondered on the idea of finding imunity outside the economic system by moving to the countryside, as people do in case of war, and if there were the potential for dignified survival under the circumstances. First things first, though, and the first thing that Mr BooHoo needed to have done was to solve his physical health issues (the psycological would have to wait). Since he had had a couple of negative experiences from the public health system, he had resolved into going to a private clynic.

He thought that politicians should be forsed to go to local public hospitals. This should be their punishment for not providing the people with decent  public health care. It didn't feel right to need a loan so as to get well.

If he managed to get through all these he might reconsider leaving the city. There was warfair anyway. It just hadn't been "announced to the public", yet people were pushed to poverty and starvation. The funds on education and the arts were constantly dimimished. There was strong propaganda and people's mental safety was in peril.

Back from his thoughts on current affairs, he decided it was time to go to the loo. He brushed his teath, kissed his friend and dog goodbye and left for the bus station. He would go to the enemy's lair; the tax offices at his hometown. He would have to face the beast and get his things done. It was a bright, sunny day. He was feeling uncomfortable but he had started getting used to the feeling. 

Mr BooHoo, chapter 6

Mr BooHoo is an imaginary character and this is his imaginary diary, so if you are not familliar with him you'd better start from the start. Scroll down to find previous posts.

Chapter ^ (6): sleeping and baking

The alarm clock started making the usual, unfriendly, beeping sounds at half past eight in the morning. Mr BooHoo pressed down the snooze button. The sound would stop for just five minutes, a joke of a time that would be enough for a joke of a slumber. It went off again and Mr BooHoo thought of pushing the button again. He knew he was able to do this for a couple of hours, until he would have slept for approximately eight hours.

After having carefully observed pattern behaviors in canines, he had come to the conclusion that the only animals that liked to get up early in the morning are the ones that have to go to work. Further more, since the human kind had been given the gift of electricity and artificial light, it was nothing more than a silly, nasty, habit to have to get up so early in the morning. It also made him miserable and angry to be forced to wake up after less than eight hours of sleep, especially when the climate was not extremely dry.

As it has been mentioned before, Mr BooHoo is a day-person. Or, to be more accurate, he felt much better in his daily self. This doesn't mean that he didn't enjoy as much sleeping in the morning as well. It felt so good, to let the outside world happen and stay inside his safe, cosy bed.

Thus, on this particular morning he decided to do the small extra gesture that would ensure the alarm-clock's silence and he went back to sleep for another one and a half hour. He opened his eyes again at ten o'clock. It looked like a fairly nice autumn day, probably the first day of autumn, despite the fact that it was already the 20th of September. The sky had a bright white color and it looked gloomy. Mr BooHoo liked this sort of weather. He wished for a cup of coffee. His friend was in the loo already.

Mr BooHoo walked into the kitchen hoping that his coffee had not gone lukewarm yet. Alas, there was none. Just a half-cup of watery lukewarm cocoa. He put some water to boil and started doing the dishes. His friend was still in the loo, a place that Mr BooHoo was becoming desperate to visit, too, for he had drunk almost 750 ml of water before he had gone to bed and now it wanted to come out. For a little while he even flirted with the idea of urinating in the kitchen sink, but thought twice and decided against it.

The morning was going well. He had spent the last four days making a stupid (and somewhat ridiculous subject-matter-wise) painting with oil-colors that looked better than it did the previous night and therefor he declared it finished. As far as a work of art- to speak of-can be declared finished; to be honest it was more a "to hell with it" definition of finished than completed. He would not occupy himself with it any more, at least for now. He took his medium cup of steaming coffee and sat on the couch to doodle around the internet. After spending some unnervingly futile time on social networks he decided to do something more worthwhile. He had some cooked beetroot from the previous day in the fridge. He would make some cake!

At this point it should be mentioned that Mr BooHoo was a fairly good cook, but a not so proud pastry-chef. Unfortunately this was about to be confirmed. A friend of his that was an excellent cake-maker had explained to him once that the issue was the incompatibility between the intention to make something healthy and sweets that tasted good. In other words, that he should not expect to make a nice cake without thin all-purpose flour, sugar and lots of butter. He seemed a bit narrow-minded though and tried a healthy recipe with whole-grain flour and honey. He also did a mistake and put only one cup of honey instead of one and a half as indicated in the recipe.

All the ingredients were mixed, the baking trays were put in the preheated oven and he took the dog for a walk. It was remarkably hot outside for the gloominess of the day. This was a bad thing, for Mr BooHoo was fond of chilly weather. When he returned to his house he smelled burnt cake. His friend had forgot to check on it. It was not so badly burned though. The cooking was almost all right but the recipe sucked so badly! It was not sweet at all. It had a bread-like taste, almost salty. His friend told him it had too much soda or/and baking powder. Further more, it had a rather ordinary orangy colour while he had expected it to be pink. What a turn-off.

The bad results of his baking brought to his mind more thoughts about his unsuccessful living. He could not get a proper job or put his life in a straight line, totally unable to take decisions and feeling like the biggest talented looser in the world. His birthday was approaching. ""ollocks. He would wait for a little longer, so as to get the results for jobs he had applied for and then he would apply for some more. Wednesday, the day to come, would be a big day. He had lots of things to do. So, he might just as well take Tuesday easily. Anyway, there was still a meal to be prepared and it would go much better. Mushrooms was something he could control.  And the day was still gloomy. It made him sleepy but he liked it non-the less. Perhaps things would work out and someday, he might even bake a cake that would make his friends proud!   

M BooHoo, chapter 5

Mr BooHoo is an imaginary character and this is his imaginary diary, so if you are not familliar with him you'd better start from the start. Scroll down to find previous posts.

Chapter % (5): momentary lack of luck

Mr BooHoo has been doing very well. He's had his ups and downs and he has been to some scary places. (For example, on the previous day he went to take care of his insurance issues. The place where he went was totally miserable. Initially, a clerk told him that he should have an appointment and that this would be a whole month later. Then he probably pitied him and eventually they started the process. When he was about to see the last clerk, a large toothless blond woman was blocking the door  and she would not let him in before her for nothing. She wouldn't let anyone in. Thankfully, the first clerk came out and let him in. He was given a protocol number and was told to phone them at the end of the next month to go and pick up his official booklet. Then he could have insurance. Not that he planed to use it because public hospitals are miserable and dirty. Mr BooHoo has spent some time in them and has decided he never wants to go there ever again. This is rather improbable though. In addition to all the previously said, every time he is in a public hospital he thinks he will catch some new random disease, so he avoids them.)  

Apart from the above, as it has been mentioned he is doing well. He has found a new house and his friend and him are refurbishing it. At the time they are painting the walls and cupboards. Tomorrow they will finish painting and start cleaning and then they can move in. Painting today went well. The bedroom will be light mint green and the corridors will have the colour of the water-melon. The doors will be scarlet! This particular colour provides the basis of today's thrilling story of unsuccessful living.

Everybody knows that painting a house is not an easy task. Yet, Mr BooHoo did not complain one bit about this. When he had finished painting his part of the walls -he is a ... vertically challenged fellow and he is afraid of heights, so, since he does not have a steady ladder he painted the part of the walls he could easily reach while standing on the floor. The higher part were done by his friend.- he was feeling fairly tired and he knew that when he felt as tired as he did things usually start to go wrong. The only thing he could do was start painting the doors in the previously mentioned scarlet red. The paint he used was oil-based. He took a screw-driver and opened the can. The lid popped and landed first on his hand and then on the floor. At this point it should be mentioned that Mr BooHoo has sweaty hands and he managed to get a blister between his thumb and pointer. This blister had broken and this is exactly were the lid of the oil-based paint landed. Firstly he found it amusing. It looked like blood, so red that it was. Then he went to was it. He should have cleaned it with whiter spirit in order to get it properly clean, but that would hurt his blister a lot. So he tried washing it with with shampoo. It hurt a little but not really.

So, so far, most things were all right. After painting a few parts of the door with a brush, he decided to pour some colour on a tray and use a paint-roller to finish it. He tried hard not to spill any more paint on the floor and then.....he poured a tone of it on his hurt hand, again!! This was unfortunate. His hand was so sticky! He swore loudly, as he was ricing it unsuccessfully, it hurt more. What was worst was that he could not really clean it and he would have to stay with this sticky hand.

Eventually, it became too dark to continue working (there are no lamps in the house). He returned home, tired but sort of happy. Now, he would go out with friends for a couple of drinks. I think he deserves to relax for a little while, don't you?       

Mr BooHoo, chapter 4

If this is your first time here I would advise you to start from the beginning. This is not here. Here is the fourth chapter about Mr BooHoo, a disturbed but charming fellow. The original text is in my larger notebook.

Chapter $ (4): meaningless tasks

One of the things that make Mr BooHoo feel sincerely low is the heat. This particular summer, during which our story is taking place, was not so hot and his house was rather cool. Otherwise, Mr BooHoo felt ...ucked. This was because Mr BooHoo had so many things to do that were not fulfilling at all. If anything they were the complete opposite. All his energy was sucked from him as he was obliged to perform meaningless and not creative bureaucratic errands. As if this was not enough all these things stressed him to his limits. He was feeling that he was loosing his marbles. What was odd about Mr BooHoo and his marbles was that he had plenty of physical ones. People just gave him marbles. It might have been because he had an expression of great joy and admiration when he looked at these small orbs. Yet, it was his mental, or symbolic, or theoretical marbles he was getting worried about.

On a not so warm morning, and after he had just returned from a fairly nice weekend by the sea, he left the tranquility of his house to go out and get a few things done. First he had to go by a service where he would get a certificate about his family (marital) status. Most of the clerks were on vacation. Luckily there were not many people there waiting to be served, either. He took a ticket and waited. His turn came and after getting an official round stamp on a photocopy from one desk, he went to another one to take his certificate that should have been there on Thursday, but it wasn't and now it was Monday and it still wasn't there... He asked when he should expect it to arrive and a woman behind a glass window lifted her shoulders and prolonged her face instead of speaking like a civilized being that would say "this information is not available to me" or simply "I don't know".

Mr BooHoo left this place slightly annoyed. On his way to the next public service, his friend bought two kilos of honey! This was supper-cool! While waiting in line for the next bureaucrat his friend found out that the honey-seller had given him extra change. They considered for a little while to return and pay them back, but then they decided that they might as well try to repay them the next time they would be there to buy honey, if it was good enough.

The good friends returned to the house and relaxed for a little. Mr BooHoo was doing well and he was feeling proud of himself! He was not exactly cheerful, but he was not panicking and  neither did he found it hard to breath! After all, spending a weekend away had done him great good. Before leaving he had made an agreement with himself that he would seriously try to relax, stop thinking so much about ugly and harmful things, stop being under so many unnecessary self-imposed rules and in general to "stop worrying today about something he had to do tomorrow". He seemed to have brought all this "positive thinking" back with him, along with the nice little pebbles he had collected from the beach. He had really tried to reach this state of mind. He had taken with him only the absolutely essential and had not triple checked the kitchen and the boiler to make sure they were turned off, as he usually did before leaving the house. (This had caused him some trouble sleeping but it was still a small step towards improvement.) He told himself "I am leaving everything as it is and I shall expect them to be where I left them because this is how it usually goes for most people, most of the times". Now he was back and everything was all right. The black cloud that was usually above his head was further away.

And then his phone rung. It was his landlord. Mr BooHoo had decide to move to a new house. One that would be brighter, with less cockroaches an no mice at all, if possible. It had taken him a month to find one. This meant that since the new month had just started his rent was due. He would not be staying in this house for the whole month though, so Mr BooHoo did not appreciate the fact that he might have to pay the total sum of money and in addition to this, that he might not even get his deposit back. His landlord had been all right so far, so this story too might have a happy ending. He would just have to wait and see. Instead of getting all blue he decide to prepare a light meal and chill in the afternoon. He was determined to start feeling better. Things would just have to wait.            
 

Everybody deserves a happy weekend

Mr BooHoo's life was not constant boos and hoos. For example, during a dreadful summer he went on vacation, by the sea! He still had some trouble sleeping at night. The forest and the dark made him feel uncomfortable, but during the day he had left all his troubles away! His solemn worry was that the sea might take his flip-flops. Actually this was because on the first morning the sea took two forks, one tea-spoon and four peaches, while he was cleaning his breakfast cutlery. His friend managed to save a metallic cup and a small saucer, that were the most important things. He did not have any more forks or spoons, but he still had enough so as to manage. Being with friends, out in the open, listening to the cicadas and occasionally chatting with his temporary neighbors was adequate to keep him calm and happy.    

the continuous story of mister BooHoo, chapter 3

The third chapter of the story of Mister BooHoo was written this morning in the previously mentioned notebook. If it the first time you are visiting this blog I would advise you to scroll down and start from the beginning.

Chapter £ (3) Distress

Mr BooHoo was feeling uncomfortable. He had found himself in a tight spot. Something had gone further wrong. What was worst was that he was not sure if he could fix it and he didn't have anyone to ask either. He was sitting with a friend, taking small ships of some transparent liquid from a very small glass, when his phone rung. It was his father.

Like most creatures Mr BooHoo has a father. He is also a BooHoo. Sometimes Mr BooHoo wondered if he would be less of a BooHoo had his father been a different person. Mr BooHoo had grown to accept the fact that this was who his father was and there were little he could do about it. They did not talk or meet that often , anyway. So the opportunities offered to Mr BooHoo's father to make him feel like boohooing were, luckily, limited. Occasionally, Mr BooHoo would think of all the times he had felt that his father had lied to him, insulted him and caused him harm in various ways but he had made an agreement with himself not to get too beaten up over it, neither to think that this was the source of all his problems. Since he had come to this conclusion he was feeling slightly better.

Most of the times Mr BooHoo could tolerate his father all right. Also, he seldom shared his thoughts with him (his father had told him that he made him feel bored because he talked too much when he was little and after that Mr BooHoo kept all his thoughts for himself when he was around him. Now that he was a grown up he did speak a little bit more, though.) Yet, something came to him and he explained his situation. His father responded with vulgar language, telling Mr BooHoo that he was pretty much ....ucked.  This came as a surprise. Mr BooHoo had the tendency of thinking of the worst case scenario but being told the above without any further explanation of what would be the consequences and the course of action broke him. He thought things were about to get better, not worse. Big, salty tears filled his eyes and then they started running on his cheeks and he was ashamed to be crying among all those people and he made a nearby napkin soaking wet. He panicked. He did not breath properly or think clearly. He felt very much like looking for shelter in a closet.

When Mr BooHoo was small he had a brilliant idea. He wished he could shrink on demand. Then he would not need money, as his clothes and food would cost nothing and definitely somebody would like such a sophisticated pet. If only he could become small enough so as to fit in a pocket. But this was only wishful thinking...

Mr BooHoo experienced all these situations as personal failure. Apparently he had failed to fit in the grown up world. He kept changing. He constantly changed houses, friends, places, underwear (this was a good thing). Having spent the first seventeen years of his life in a more or less stable environment, the next ten years of constant flux had start getting on his nerves. A routine is what he looked for. A routine where the changes would come from inside, as choices, because it seemed that lately they were just imposed on him. Further on, whenever things did not go as smoothly as he would like them to, he felt like the biggest looser due to his incompetence to cope. It has been mentioned that Mr BooHoo was not stupid. It was confidence he lacked and not wit. So, panicking over things brought shame upon him. Mr BooHoo needed help. He wished he died and re-incarnated as a dog. Perhaps his dog-loving friend would adopt him.

Mr BooHoo stopped crying after some time. Discussing about his feelings had helped him slightly. Also the bottle that contained the transparent liquid had turned dry and he was slightly numb, that was an improvement. At home his nice bed would wait for him. A rather scary day had come to an end. He would be safe for a little while, he might even dream of something nice. His eyes eventually closed and the morning would be there in a few hours. Things always looked better in the morning.