The Kid That Became A Guy Part XI: Married Life

Having embarked upon a new way of life based on rigorous honesty, I couldn't sneak around and cheat on Dawn. Heidi had agreed that I would move into her house on the strength of one date, after which I felt pretty bad having cheated. I had made it 43 years without getting married, not by choice so much...it was just that nobody had asked. Let's face it, I'm no Brad Pitt and women don't customarily chase me around. I've done alright, but nobody had pursued me with such vigor...so I figured, what the hell. Dawn was an ok person, she was just crazier than a shithouse rat. She was brilliant, she had gone to MIT at 15 on a full scholarship- but she was crazy.

So, I went home from work one day and laid it on the line. Basically, I just told her she was insane and I was out of there...and I wished her well and hoped she house broke her kid before he started getting his ass kicked at school. I packed up my shit and was gone.

Heidi was a lot younger than me, like 21 years. It wasn't a problem, not then at least. We did have one problem, her husband. She was married but separated and this guy started dragging his feet hoping for a reconciliation. I told her I could make him change his mind, but she didn't want me to hurt him, he was the father of her kids. Well, finally he got the picture and we got married...she was already 4 months pregnant. Heidi was from Michigan and was getting homesick. I had some money socked away so I figured we could live until I got a job there. We moved up there and I got to meet my in-laws...they were 2 years older than me. I got a job baking at a grocery store that had just opened and after 6 months got laid off. Our baby was born just before we left Phoenix, a little girl we named Danielle.

I wanted to adopt the boys, Zach and Garth. I don't believe in stepchildren, having grown up with no family and all. Her ex started dragging his feet again so I told him if he signed the papers, he wouldn't have to pay child support. He jumped on it. Work was hard to find...if you're looking for work, Michigan is not the place to go. I had applied for a job selling advertising for a radio station. Now I always put on job applications that I was a high school graduate- nobody checks that shit anyways. This guy checked! I couldn't fucking believe it. I go in for a follow-up interview and the guy tells me that the high school I had put on the application never heard of me...I wonder why? Here we were, no job, no prospects. Heidi suggested I go to school and get my GED. We had to sign up for welfare- a kick in the teeth to me. I enrolled in adult-ed. I couldn't believe how easy it was. I had never even been in a school (except for breaking in to steal a vacuum pump for my meth chemist). After a month, I was grading papers for the teachers.

I signed up for a class in literature. We had to read all of these short stories. One of them was by Jack London and I can't stand the guy. I went to the teacher and begged to read something else. No go. I told her I was reading a book of stories by Kafka at home, let me do a report on him... Hell, let me do three. Once again, no go. "London is an important author," she says. "He sucks," I tell her, "all he writes about is the frozen tundra. Places that I wouldn't even consider going" She was adamant. "I fucking write better than he does," I tell her. "Oh, you write?" she asks. "I tell you what," she says, "bring in some of your stuff and we'll see." Well, I was fucked. I didn't have anything, so I went home dragged out my wife's typewriter and went to work. I knocked out three stories that night.

The next day I brought the stories to school. She read them and said, "These are really good. Can I send them to my friend at CMU?" I told her why not. In about a week I get a letter from this professor saying that they were really good and I should go to school at CMU- college, me! I had never even been to grade school and they wanted me to go to college. Heidi thought it was a great idea so I got my GED and applied. I had to go for an interview with an admissions officer. He was a pretty cool black guy. We were shooting the shit and he told me his hobby was investing in mutual funds. I had read an article about this fund out of Boston, CGM (Capital Gains Management) that was paying some terrific dividends. So I told him about it. He grabbed a newspaper and looked. He said it looked pretty good. Well, he told me I was in, I was officially a college student. I asked him if I didn't have to take some kind of test or anything and he said no, you'll do just fine.

We packed up and moved into married housing. By this time, Heidi was pregnant again. I was kind of scared about this college stuff. My total educational experience consisted of three and a half months of adult-ed and a GED and here I was going up against America's best and brightest. That's how how I looked at it. Boy, was I wrong. What a bunch of idiots. I couldn't believe it! How did these kids even tie their own shoes? I'd say 90% of these kids shouldn't have passed Jr. high school. The professors weren't much better. I was kinda disappointed. There was one professor that was really good, Dr. Bertonneau. I had signed up for four 100 level classes and one 300 level, just to see how I would do. The 300 level one was Science Fiction & Fantasy, an English class taught by Dr. Bertonneau. We got to be pretty good friends. One day at coffee I mentioned to him that I had met maybe 3 people in my life whose intellect I found intimidating and he was one of them. He told me he felt the same way about me. I was shocked. He asked if I ever had my IQ tested. I asked if he was shitting me. He made the arrangements with the Psych Dept. and I got my IQ test. I was fucking shocked! My first semester I got 4 A's and an A-. I went to the prof to see why I got the A- and he said he grades on a curve and by the time he got to me all the A's were gone.

I signed a Political Science major and minored in Philosophy. I was pretty much the same age as most of the professors and I mostly hung out with them which was helpful. Oh, the guy that wrote me the letter turned out to be a real idiot and I couldn't stand him. I took him for one class and that was it. One day after class I was telling him that most of the students didn't belong there and he started yelling at me "You're an elitist, you're erudite!" I told Dr. Bertonneau and he laughed. "I thought erudite meant scholarly," I said. "It does," he said. "Some insult," I laughed.

I went to school year round, taking a full load in the Summer too. One Poly Sci prof, I'll call Dr. Smith suggested that I write a paper on NAFTA, from a Mexican perspective. "You can write 25 pages, right?' Sure, I told him so I went to the library and read about everything they had on Mexico, about 3000-4000 pages. Then I started writing. Dr. Smith was kind of a mentor. He arranged for me to present my paper at the Michigan Association of Political Scientists and then at the APSA (American Political Science Assn) conference in Washington. I wound up getting it published. I was a Sophomore and I was already published. A lot of professors hadn't published. It was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it was great for my future, but on the other there was a lot of professional jealousy from the faculty. One day Dr. Smith called me into his office and asked if I knew who the Council of Foreign Relations was. Of course, I told him. He said they would give me any Ph.D program in America that I wanted. What's the catch, I asked him. You'll have to give up your family, he told me. They would hold you back. Fuck that. My family was why I was there in the first place. Plus, I knew all about the CFR and I didn't like their politics.

I finished up my under-grad with a 3.82 GPA and went into the Masters program. I decided on Econ because a degree in Political Science is about as useful as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. I finished that in a year and a half. The whole thing took about 4 1/2 years. We decided to move back to Phoenix so we packed up the kids (there were four by now) and left. My Freshman year, Heidi gave birth to Irina, our youngest and last child. I picked up a job writing magazine articles. I had tried to go back to selling ads, but that's something you can only do for a while before you burn out. I was burned out. Heidi went to work doing data entry for a large department store and I worked from the house and watched the kids. One of my clients was the Maricopa County Deputy Sheriff's Assn and I got to interview Sheriff Arpaio every so often. I really liked him, he was a dedicated and very genuine person. After a couple of years, Heidi wanted to go back to Michigan. Phoenix had changed drastically since we had left.

We got an old mobile home way out in the country. Before we left Phoenix, we had taken the kids out of school and I home schooled them. The educational system in this country is a joke and we wanted the kids to be educated. Heidi, worked at a bank and I taught the kids and worked on a book during the day and I picked up a job teaching at a Community College nearby. It was the happiest time of my life. I had never known what love was. Until we had our family, I was dead inside, but now I felt alive. But, like all good things, this too came to an end. After 11 years of marriage, Heidi decided she wanted to be single again and hang out in bars and date other men. She had begun drinking pretty heavily. I was devastated. I should have known better. My life was never very good for any extended length of time, but I really didn't expect it. So, I packed up and moved in with an old friend from College.

Next: Back To Ft Smith
https://steemit.com/story/@richq11/the-kid-that-became-a-guy-an-autobiography-of-sorts-part-i
https://steemit.com/story/@richq11/the-kid-that-became-a-guy-part-ii-uncle-arthur-and-back-to-boston
https://steemit.com/story/@richq11/the-kid-that-became-a-guy-part-iii-sonny-patty-and-uncle-sam
https://steemit.com/story/@richq11/the-kid-that-became-a-guy-part-iv-vietnam
https://steemit.com/story/@richq11/the-kid-that-became-a-guy-part-v-haight-ashbury-and-the-hippie-life
https://steemit.com/story/@richq11/the-kid-that-became-a-guy-part-vi-the-businessman-i-go-to-work
https://steemit.com/story/@richq11/the-kid-that-became-a-guy-part-vii-i-hit-the-road
https://steemit.com/story/@richq11/the-kid-that-became-a-guy-part-vii-arkansas-and-beyond
https://steemit.com/story/@richq11/the-kid-that-became-a-guy-part-ix-phoenix
https://steemit.com/story/@richq11/the-kid-that-became-a-guy-part-x-lemonade-out-of-lemons-the-kid-becomes-a-guy