Jessica who? June 1, 1985

 

So, what do we know about Jessica anyway – the woman that has dragged Pauly over hot coals?

First, we know she is 22 years old, the same age as Suzanne when I first met her at college five years ago. The same age as Fran, when I met her a few years later. The same age as Louise when Louise and I broke up well over a decade ago.

Maybe there is something about that age that is significant, something that causes a disruption in our lives, full of decision and pain.

We know Jessica is pretty – not quite beautiful. Her mouth is a little too wide, and she lacks the petiteness so popular with Madison Avenue advertisements.

While she may never get fat, she has big bones. She will always stand out in the crowd.

She is dominant: a fault and an attribute. She does not seem to function well in an emotional or confused state.

But she has a lot of Gaul, like many people her age, assumes she knows it all or has a comment on any subject broached.

She reminds a lot of Pauly during his younger days when he could twist facts and figures into making any argument he wanted or needs to verify his arguments.

Unfortunately, Jessica lacks the talent to twist facts the way Pauly could, and often contradicts herself.

She is very materialistic, and Pauly, during our conversations, has tried to defend her.

“She has to look out for herself, you know,” he tells me.

Her attitude irritates me. She seems to care about nothing except for herself.

This week her store reported a disaster when decided to go to lunch rather than wait for the truck to make deliveries, screwing up orders for two days, leaving gentlemen Tony to handle the customers’ complaints when the rolls they dropped off for development weren’t picked up and the pictures they expected to pick up were delayed.

She flatly says she doesn’t care.

Bob, the area manager, said he might have to fire her, Pauly or no Pauly.

It’s difficult to see how her attitude will benefit her as she gets older. It really hasn’t worked that well for Pauly, who people tend to love or hate or both at the same time.

I don’t know what she really wants. She said she wants to work in design. While she has talent as an artist, it’s hard to imagine her starving on her way to fame, the way Pauly has.  She wants everything up front. She has ability, but no vision.

She has four years of college under her belt but looks to go back to some film company which is more assembly line than creative, and she going through the motions like a robot.

I keep thinking she needs a lesson in humility, something that might shock her into some new way of thinking. I suspect it may never happen.

Pauly says she’ll grow out of it, and claims she’s suffered a lot over the last few months.

He sees things in her I don’t. Jessica is not Jane. She has neither Jane’s heart or brain, and as far as I can see, Jessica is doomed to a life of misery and disappointment, and perhaps won’t even know she’s ruined her life until it’s too late.

 

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