Life Lessons On The Loo

Money Spent - 2$ (for the jukebox)

There I was, using the urinal in a very, very sleezy bar when I notice there is a dude, also using the urinal, looking at me, obviously quite drunk by the way he is squinting. I nod to him. He slurs to me, 'Sind Sie herum Zwanzig Jahre alt?'. I say back to him, 'Sprechen Sie english?' (I will say this around 30 times a day to people who talk to me in Swiss-German, and at this point my prononciation is almost perfect).
'A little bit...' He says, 'Are you 20 years old??'
'Close,' I respond, 'I'm 19.' He looks at me, nodding, gathering his thoughts. He says to me, 'You know Kinder, you need to be careful when you are 19.'
'Careful? Why?'
'Because,' he says 'You live your life and live your life and then maybe one day you wake up and you are 51 living like you are 19.'
'Oh... How old are you?'
'51...' He manages to slur, 'I'm a grandfather.' At this point I'm trying to lighten the guys spirits.
'Hey but you know,' I tell him, 'I cant wait to be a grandfather. I'm really looking forward to it.'
'No no no.... I hate my life... I hate the way I live and the person I am.'
I blink a couple times... 'Uhh, well, yeah but man I mean, when you are a grandfather, its really not about YOUR life anymore, its about the lives of your grandchildren and your children, you know?'
He kinda nods sadly. 'Yeah... I think I could learn alot from you, but Ive just smoked a pack of zigarretten and I am very much drunk, so, goodbye.'

He leaves the bathroom, and I walk back to the table to my friend Saskia, stunned... You know, somehow that really struck home for me, and as me and her were sitting there drinking beer, surrounded by every form of crackhead, junkie and drunk, I'm somehow relieved that every so often one of them can walk up to you and sort of give you what little advice they can, and offer a sort of candid view of what my, your, or anyones life could be if you don't make the right choices.

Wow.. Deep.

And to think by the time he had finished talking I hadnt even finished my piss.