Juxtapose (in all it’s forms) is one of my favorite words; it joins a list that includes serendipity, juggernaut, and onomatopoeia. They all just roll gracefully off the tongue. The juxtaposition of two seemingly incongruous things fascinates me.
A few weeks ago I found myself engaged in two conversations at once, with two very different people. I snapped to full attention and declared the moment an odd juxtaposition! I was talking (verbally) with TJ the maintenance man, whom many of you may remember from my last Schooling Andy episode, and chatting (digitally) with my friend who runs a sex toy business. Her and I were contentedly typing away about dildos and sex toy parties, when TJ waltzes into my office, Swiffer in hand.
“Morning, E. Don’t mind me, I’m just going to dust.”
I followed his advice, and finished my sentence without looking up. I tell her that I now have company, and that I might have to pause periodically.
“Dammit, is it a student?” she types. “Get rid of him. Don’t they know you’re busy? We have a party to plan!”
“No, it’s not a student. It’s the maintenance man…he’s Swiffering my office.”
“That sounds sexy!” she sends a laughing emoticon.
“Yea, you know, Swiffers are soft…I rubbed one on my pussy once, just for the sensory experience.” I couldn’t resist teasing her.
“E, do you know why God made me a maintenance man?” TJ started his monologue. I looked up, curious as to where he was going with this. “I mean, I’ve done a lot of different things in my life. When I took this job, it was because of all the nice people. It’s important to go into work every day with people to talk to, you know. But then as I’m cleaning one day, you see, it occurred to me things always dissolve into a mess that needs fixing…there will always be dust!” he waved the Swiffer around to punctuate.
“What’s he doing now?” she typed. “I was just wanting to tell you about this new lube that I tried last night.”
“That’s true, TJ!” I said, while replying “Go ahead!” to her.
“And here’s the thing, ” he continued. “It doesn’t bother me that the dust always comes back. I can count on it…hell, I actually enjoy it!”
“I really enjoyed it!” popped up on my screen. She was referring to the lubrication, he was referring to dust. They both serendipitously made the comment at the same time.
“That’s why God made me a maintenance man.” He finished Swiffering as he uttered the word “man” and walked out of my office. I returned to the sex party plans.