Last night I went out with my old roommates to see a band play that they knew from high school and while we were sitting at the bar a guy came up to me and started talking to me like we knew each other. Apparently, I had met him maybe a year ago at a party or something… but I had absolutely no recollection of it whatsoever. It was pretty awkward. I am so terrible with remembering people and especially their names. I laughed it off and blamed it on alcohol for not remembering..even though I don’t think I’ve ever blacked out from alcohol…I really just used it as an excuse…seriously. Anyway, the guy…is it terrible that I still don’t remember his name after last night?!…started asking me how my semester was going. Now, I know that he didn’t know that I was taking the semester off from school and living at home, so I could have easily said something like “It’s good, how about yours?” But noooooo, I had to tell him that I was taking the semester off from school and living at home. And then I had to go and tell him that I was taking the semester off for “health reasons” when he asked me why. He was a complete stranger. I’m not supposed to talk to strangers! I shouldn’t have even said anything!

I’ll preface the rest of the story by saying that normally I tell people without hesitation that I have arthritis. I don’t think twice about it. It really isn’t that big of a deal to me and I’m kind of like, I have arthritis, so what? I didn’t choose it and it sucks, but it’s the truth. And, I am a true believer that if more people were open about having arthritis, I wouldn’t have had this reaction:

He kind of looked confused when I said “health reasons,” so I decided to explain myself by saying I have arthritis. Just like that. And do you know what that no good-backwards-baseball hat-wearing butt hole did? He laughed! He didn’t just laugh and then awkwardly stop and say, Oh, I’m so sorry that must be terrible. Nope. He actually continued to laugh for about 30 seconds while I sat there and looked at him. Well about halfway through his laughing fit I had time to turn back to the bar and take a drink of my vodka soda and turn back around. I have a response prepared for people who don’t take me seriously when I say I have arthritis. It goes something like this, “It’s called juvenile rheumatoid arthritis…I got it when I was in 6th grade.” Usually that puts people in their place if there was any question at all to my seriousness, but this guy…this immature ass… said “What…so do they like put the arthritis in jail…like juvie?” Hilarious. No, actually it was. I laughed. Then I got up and walked away.

Now I am going to tell as many people as I can that I have arthritis. Watch out world who doesn’ t think people under the age of 60 get arthritis.