Jenny was a friend of mine

Jenny was a friend of mine, until she to told me the cold, hard truth.

“What’s your blog about?” she asks with a puzzled face. “Is it about you or about Laredo? You talk about this, you talk about that. Sometimes, it seems to be all about your own personal life. It seems like your blog doesn’t have a focus.”

As she talks she moves her hands incessantly. Every so often she picks at her plate with her fork as she avoids eye contact. She sits across the table from me at the TKO tapping her fingers annoyingly on the table, as if awaiting an answer.

“I guess your not a fan of my blog” I finally answer trying to suppress a grin. “Not too many people are, and I don’t mind if it stays that way.”

I’m a bit hurt inside, but I’m not going to let Jenny see that.

“You’re right”, I continue, “my blog is unfocused. I want it to be about me. I happened to be from Laredo. Soy de Laredo and I write things that I encounter as I live in this city. My life is unfocused, hence my blog is just the same..”

“Oh come on…that‘s such a canned answer”, she cuts me off. “But, well, maybe you are right”, she says almost apologetically. “Hey its your blog; do what you want with it. Too bad its not as good as the BorderTown one” she says at the end.

I turn away in inner pain as if someone has just given me ten paper cuts simultaneously.

“I can’t compete with BorderTown”, I utter as I began to look for the waitress and ask for my check. “No dessert for her” I whisper to myself.

“All you need is to focus and decide. Is it going to be about you or about the city of Laredo”, she goes on and on like Elaine from Seinfeld. Her lips continue to move and I began to see that she is a littler chatterbox. “But your blog has potential” she tells me as she finally looks straight into my eyes.

I smile wide. Maybe Jenny is right. Maybe the blog does have potential. But the only thing I know for certain is that I won’t be seeing Jenny again. I don’t like the truth being so brutal. I prefer it in small doses.

“What does Jenny know anyway”, I think to myself as I leave TKO and walk out into the hot Laredo night. I turn up my Zune to some random 80’s beat as I drive down San Bernardo looking for trouble.