You know that movie with that guy in it who does that thing?

That was an actual comment from the Disabled Guy to me at Wal-Mart one day. He was going through the "2 for $10" DVD bin for old movies. We "converted" to DVDs several years ago and while there's no shortage of newer flicks, the old ones are harder to find. And of course, a DVD for five bucks is a heck of a deal. (We had hundreds of VHS tapes. We now have 650 DVDs and counting. And yes, we've watched them all.)

That day at Wal-Mart, I asked him what he was looking for and he replied, "You know that movie with that guy in it who does that thing?"

I replied, "Oh, of course, that movie." There was some random customer looking through the other side of the bin who chuckled at us. Sadly, I did know what movie he was talking about- but not because of any psychic connection or anything. We had been talking about what movies he was looking for earlier that day.

Now, a few weeks ago...

I posted this conversation over on the snopes board the day it happened. And, for some reason, that day, the board was acting peckish and sometimes not loading, so I copied my posts before the Interwebs ate them. Then I saved this conversation so I could share it with my mom, who thinks some of the stuff I put up with is funny. (and it is, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this blog).

I'm in a DVD club where we get pretty good discounts and free DVDs from time to time. I take the discounts on older movies and we end up getting them practically for free. So, I ask the DG (as he will be called in the future because I'm getting tired of typing it out) if there was any movie he wanted me to look for. He laughed out that reply (the title) and then said he was looking for an older movie with "that guy" in it. So, I asked, "What guy? What else has he been in?"

That usually jogs his memory to tell me the actor's name or if he remembers another movie, then I can figure out who he's talking about.

him: "Dennis..."
me: "Dennis who?"
him: "That guy, you know that guy?" (with a chuckle, going back to that time when he said, "You know that guy in that movie?")
me: "I need something else to go on."
him: *tapping his forehead with his fingertips* "You know, Denny-Denz-Denz-ill..."
me: "Den-ZEL? Denzel Washington?"
him: "Yeah, yeah, that guy... and Dennis..." (here he trails off saying "Dennis" a couple of times).

So, I start scrolling the Denzel Washington movies and saying their titles. And then he comes up with this:

him: "LA Law- Confiden... you know...?" (he held out his hand, palm up).

me: "L.A. Confidential?"
him: "Yeah, you know that guy who looks like that guy in X-men but it isn't him? (and before I could say Guy Pearce, he said) Not that guy, but the guy he's arguing with?"
me: "Russell Crowe? We have that movie- American Gangster."
him: "No, no- well, yes, we do, but no. The one where the guy is a computer guy."
me: "Virtuosity...."
him: "Yeah! That was cool."
me: "We just went through all that shit to get to Russel Crowe and you could have said: "The guy in Gladiator"?"
him: "Yeah, we did."
me: "Why didn't you just say Gladiator?"
him: *pausing for a second* "It wouldn't have been as much fun!"

So you see, sometimes, he "gets it". Some days he's on the ball and he knows his brain is working overtime on a simple task. And on those days, he's generally in a good mood and we all have fun and joke about it. Very rarely does he get so frustrated that he gets angry about his speech and comprehension. The times he gets upset and hard to deal with are more related to his physical limitations than the mental ones.

And on another note, I know I've posted three blogs in three days. I don't want to get your hopes up and make it a regular thing. I'm mostly just typing these out as they come to me. That kind of sucks a little because it isn't in a chronological order. You'll adapt to this weirdness... just like I did.