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Sex and Stretch! - August 29, 2006

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When I was seven, I got a Stretch Armstrong after much begging and cajoling of the parental unit. I think Santa had fucked up that year and given me a sweater or something, so I whined and stamped until my parents, out of guilt or exhaustion, finally conceded and allowed me an off-season present. They even agreed to chauffeur me to Toys R' Us, my childhood mecca.

kenner_stretch_armstrong.jpg

In his glossy box at Toys R' Us, Stretch Armstrong looked like the answer to all of my action-figure needs. In retrospect, his black bikini briefs, golden locks, muscular physique and malleable rubber body made him the paragon of steam-bath-loitering Chelsea queens, but at the time, I thought he was salvation. My GI Joes were in bad shape. They had all lost their fuzzy little afros and their patented Kung Fu grips had been reduced to curled and lonely index fingers. The Joes were starting to look like post-Nam vets working at saw mills. But no worries, Stretch Armstrong--with his blonde coif and fresh polyurethane smell--was going to remedy all of that. He would be the toy to end all toys.

Although I usually tried to milk my parents for all they were worth whenever we entered a Toys R' Us, this time I only had eyes for Stretch. I grabbed him off the shelf and bee-lined for the register. I didn't even ask for one of those bouncy "superballs" that I would always desperately want and then get home and throw against the floor and instantly lose under a couch. Nope, I was on a mission.

I marched to the checkout line and my dad gave me a $20 bill so I could make the purchase all by myself. I think it may have been the single greatest moment of my life....

About three weeks later, that sucky shit sprang a leak.

Thick jelly started oozing out from his armpits. It was red and syrupy and smelled like dead frogs. Rips started to develop all over his body: his kneecaps, his groin, his shoulders. Like a white trash MacGuyver, I tried to duct-tape the tears in the rubber. It wasn't very effective; it just looked like Stretch had been held hostage and beaten with a lead pipe.

StretchArmstrong3.jpg

I continued to try, in vain, to make him do superhuman stretchy things, but he just wanted to lounge around and bleed through his Speedos. I eventually (and begrudgingly) put him in the bottom of a wooden crate that would end up serving as a sarcophagus for the relics of many of my childhood disappointments.

When I think about some of the women that I fell for who ended up disappointing me, I experience almost the exact same blend of wistfulness and remorse with which I recall those childhood moments. Stretch Armstrong was no different. I won't make an analogy about "a tear in the rubber," however. I'm too terrified of getting a woman pregnant - shit, sometimes I pull out during phone sex!

I actually think Stretch Armstrong was my first heartbreak. I don't know what's worse: the fact that my first heartbreak came when I was seven, or that it came at the rubbery hands of a gay doll.

You never get your heart broken like you do when you're a kid, but my last heartbreak feels pretty close. In some ways, it's a similar story.

I met a girl and, after a year blissfully anticipating our life together, she moved in. She lived with me for 2 years, and I gotta tell you - it felt like 2 minutes...UNDERWATER!

Shortly after she moved in, there began a period in my life I like to call the "What did I do wrong NOW, honey?" phase. But the constant apologizing and persecution anxiety weren't the biggest problems in our relationship. Our problem was a little more...intimate.

See, there's this widely-held belief out there that once you get married, your love life is ruined. I'm here to tell you that's one big misconception: you can ruin your love life just by moving in with your partner.

You don't need a big to-do with cake, preachers, and drunken uncles. All you really need to do is share a bathroom on a daily basis. It's so much cheaper than a wedding! And, you don't need to rent a stupid poly-blend tux.

When I lived with her, entering the bathroom every day was like a different episode of "Forensic Files." There would be blood and hair everywhere, weird goopy evidence rolled up in clumps of toilet paper in the waste bin. She'd sashay out grinning and wearing makeup, looking like an angel, but often she would also be out of breath with a hint of perspiration on her brow. On those days, the bathroom would smell suspiciously like perfume and Glade -- clearly a weak attempt to cover up whatever heinous crime she had just committed in there. I was almost afraid that one day I would walk in there and find a chalk outline of a vagina on the floor. I imagined going in to brush my teeth only to have Ice-T slam me against the wall and call me a "Punk Ass Bitch!"

Ironically, it seems, too much closeness just creates distance. I mean, once your girl starts peeing in front of you, you might as well put your balls into storage. Not that communal urination is such a weird thing, but it's the gateway to the more frightening bodily functions.

First, it's silent peeing with you in the room. Next, she feels comfortable enough to converse with you about things like "work" and "shoes." Pretty soon, she won't be able to urinate without yelling through the door to you whenever any inconsequential thought passes through her cranium.

Okay, that's still fine, but here's an interesting fact you may not know: women can be in the middle of a stream, and suddenly decide, Hey, since I'm here, I might as well take a dump! I'd hate to throw away this opportunity for a two-fer! Women love bargains. It's a scientific fact - go to WebMD if you don't believe me.

I discovered this one night when my ex started talking to me in the bathroom as I stared in the mirror wondering where my youth had gone. She was on the standard rant about how work sucked and her shoes were killing her when she paused and said, "Could you please leave the room right now?"

"Why?" I queried, examining my hairline. (I'd recently declared jihad on my receding hairline and was checking to see how the war was going.)

"Leave before it's too late."

"What?... LORD BABY JESUS OF BETHLEHEM! ARE YOU...?! UGGH! That's terrible!" It was gag-inducing. I think the first time she did it, it made my nose bleed a little.

Now, I don't know exactly how pee/poo "switch-hitting" works. I imagine there's some sort of hinge mechanism involved, but I was never really good at structural engineering or Theoretical Physics, so who knows? However, I do know this: I have never been taking a pee and suddenly thought, Let me just turn around right quick and UNLOAD in this here urinal.

Anyanus, after a few of these episodes, combined with the anaphrodisiacal effects of getting to actually know someone, our love life diminished. That's a gross understatement -- if there were a sound effect to describe our romance, it would have been the sound of Pacman dying.

A month passed without any sexual intimacy. Two months passed. Still nothing.

I didn't know what to do about it, so I met with a Dominican friend of mine who had been happily married for 24 years to get his advice. I asked him, "How have you kept your sex life going after all these years?"

He responded, "I'm Latin, man!

"What does that mean?"

"I cheat!"

I swear to God that's what he said. For the record ladies, not all men cheat, okay? All men just want to cheat. Excessively.

Being neither Latin nor completely unscrupulous, I bypassed his advice and decided to get creative with our sex life. Nothing too crazy. It's not like we wore gimp masks and sock puppets, or tasered each other in the nipples. But, at my urging, we did try a little role playing. You know, like the white trash folks do in the HBO "Real Sex" series: Doctor/patient, Lawyer/client, Pizza boy/Pizza eater.

It looked like we might be able to get things spicy again... for a minute.

Then one time I came home from work. Wait, I don't have a job. Okay, I came home from... outside, and she jumped out at me in tiger-print panties proclaiming, "Rawr! I'm a TIGER! Rawr!"

All I could think was...Uh, who wants to fuck a tiger?

I sat there motionless, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. Finally, I said, "Rawr! I'm also a scary tiger! Rawr!"

She got annoyed, "No, I'm the tiger, you retard, and you're the tiger trainer! RAWR!!!"

So I took off my belt, snapped it in the air like a ringmaster, and said, "Well, you better quit stinking up the bathroom, tiger... or I'm going to fuck you?"

She got even more annoyed. I half-expected her to bite my skull, piss on the bed, and jump through the window.

It was pretty much over after that. We walked around silently, almost ignoring each other, like college roommates in an "I can't believe you ate my leftovers!" fight.

People recommended therapy, vacation, a semi-break... but the writing was on the wall and we both knew it.

Within two months, she packed up her belongings in a matching suitcase set. We left our mutual memories in a dozen duct-taped boxes - sarcophagi for the relics of another adult disappointment.

Three years earlier, when I'd met her on a blind date, she was in a Valentino dress with smiling eyes and legs that looked like the answers to all my questions. Her blonde coiffure and new woman smell were going to remedy all of my previous heartache. She was going to be the girl to end all girls.

Too bad that shit sprang a leak.

Posted by Bill Dawes at 6:45 PM

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Comments

well, if that ain't a bitch. first your lifelong joy broke. and then your woman pretty much broke. you should of just thrown her in with the stretch armstrong and hoped to god one day when your lonely. shed jump out with those tiger choneys and want to bed wrestle.

Posted by: Thomas at August 29, 2006 05:02 PM

Seriously, the tiger bit almost threw me off my chair. Jesus.

I once tried to spice things up and pretend that I was a stripper doing some drunken Shakira like performance but then I fell over because I had too many J&C's to see straight and well, the fantasy was kinda gone after that. *Sigh*

Posted by: Tarah at August 29, 2006 05:07 PM

OMG! That was hysterical.

My brother had one of those Stretch Armstrong toys. I used to try to see if I could stretch it around his neck.

Posted by: Bettie at August 29, 2006 05:14 PM

I lost it at "hinge mechanism".

Posted by: peri at August 29, 2006 05:20 PM

PS - Watching you do the tiger "Rawr!" in your stand up may be more priceless than this full story.

Posted by: peri at August 29, 2006 05:23 PM

I can't count the times I've lolled on my (nauga hided) sofa flipping through the channels and bleeding through my Speedos. Wait, sorry, I was channeling Shirly McLaine for a second.
Is there anything worse than a childhood toy failing to measure up to expectation? Other than your SO excreting yesterday's dinner in front of you, that is.

I think not. A child stacks up ideas and dreams about what that toy can do and WILL do once it falls into his or her deserving hands. By God, I once had my action figure astronaut's course to the Moon already plotted only to find out he "flew" by means of a spooled cord in his jet backpack. I didn't even do the math, I knew there wasn't enough cord to stretch between Texas and the Moon. Hell, if they couldn't get Apollo XIII an extension cord, what chance had I?

Anymerkin, sorry to hear about your time living with the wet blanket. It's good to see you've not only escaped, but thrived (copyright Kaiser Permanente).

Posted by: JD is too busy to write at August 29, 2006 05:26 PM

Bill... you left me and came here!!! I'm so proud of you. I have to be honest though for the first couple paragraphs I thought you lost your nuts but then I saw the "anyanus" and I knew i was home!!!!

Posted by: Lynn at August 29, 2006 05:37 PM

"if there were a sound effect to describe our romance, it would have been the sound of Pacman dying."

I think that is the funniest thing I've ever heard. Keep up the great work, you are a real gem of a writer.

Posted by: jb at August 29, 2006 05:37 PM

I do a pretty good tiger "Rawr," don't I?

Posted by: billdawes at August 29, 2006 05:53 PM

All WebMD had to say on the subject was that women... ok you didn't seriously think I went there did you?

Posted by: Randy at August 29, 2006 05:58 PM

if there were a sound effect to describe our romance, it would have been the sound of Pacman dying.


My favorite part!

Posted by: Hau Ab at August 29, 2006 05:59 PM

My brother and I used to hold wrestling matches between his Stretch Armstrong and my Stretch Monster. Yes, I had the badass Stretch Monster that resembled the Kraken from Clash of the Titans. Which, incidently, I saw in the theater when it first came out. Three times in a row.

The wrestling matches came to a halt after I tried stretching the arms to ridiculous lengths by stepping on it's chest and tugging as hard as I could. While outside on our gravel driveway. Stretch Monster looked like he took two barrels of buckshot at three paces. He bled clear goop through the Snoopy band-aids I tried to patch him up with. My brother laughed at me so I cut off Stretch Armstrong's left arm with a pair of garden shears. Patch that motherfucker.

Posted by: sillylittlefreak [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 29, 2006 06:12 PM

Two clicks my ass cabron.

Anyhow, fuck stretch Armstrong. He got an M-80 jammed inside him.

Posted by: Don_Italo [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 29, 2006 06:18 PM

Ah, Bill.

Wait until you get married. That is, of course, if you can manage to apoligise long enough to decide she'll accept your apologies forever.

My wife hates sarcasm now, and seven years ago, when we were starting, I was fucking hilarious.

Now, crickets. And a sound I can't quite hear, but still raises what's left of my hackles. I'd like to think that as a comedian, you're not familiar with the phenomenon, but I know better.

Posted by: Brett at August 29, 2006 06:18 PM

What I want to know is, how do guys have the uncanny ability to not smell their own shit and farts? Also, how do guys seem to be able to fart at will? The vietnam vet comment did make me laugh however. Are they paying you to write this shit?

Posted by: Elizabeth Who? at August 29, 2006 06:26 PM

OMFG I never knew......I will never pee or poo infront of my man again but alas...what do you do if he is the one always comming in there?? anywho....I was on the floor laughing at this bill you are too much!

Posted by: Sherry at August 29, 2006 06:34 PM

What do you mean you don't pee in front of your man, Sherry? That's impossible, if you ask me...

Posted by: billdawes at August 29, 2006 07:06 PM

I am all for closeness, but that is just one thing people might be best off keeping to themselves...

If you don't want to be thinking about that...aroma....during foreplay anyway. That might kill the mood a little.

(As in disembowel it and shove it under your grandmother's dog)

Anyway, entertaining story as always, keep up the good work!

Posted by: ThePandaBiatch [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 29, 2006 07:36 PM

Fucking AWESOME ending. Loved it. I can't decide which is my favorite line, but it's definitely between:
"However, I do know this: I have never been taking a pee and suddenly thought, Let me just turn around right quick and UNLOAD in this here urinal."

-and-

"All I could think was...Uh, who wants to fuck a tiger?"

Posted by: Janet at August 29, 2006 07:57 PM

Anyanus??? I agree with JD, that's a good one.

I think the opposite happened with me and my ex.....I got so sick of seeing a full grown man SIT on the potty and pee and poo, I wanted to smack him when he was helplessing sitting there doing it with the door open. I didn't, but Ew...that's just gross. He did both, SITTING!!!

Anyway...or Anyanus......I didn't have any bothers. I had/have two sisters.....I didn't know stretch Armstrong ripped and bled. Ewwwwwwww. You poor baby. I have two daughters... I never had to deal with that kind of catastrphe. I've had fluffy stuffing poking out of stuffed animals....but NurseMommy could always perform a lifesaving surgical procedure and stuff the stuffing back in and sew things up... good as new. I even managed to sew a Barbie head back on without too much trouble, after her neckbreaking dive from the balcony with her disfucntional fairy wings in place. Whatever......

Maybe the fact that you had brothers and no sister is why you have problems with women and their bodily fluid excreting functions....ORRRRR, perhaps the women you chose was a ......well....kind of a slobina.

A slobina is what my mom would call me and MOSTLY my sloppy sisters.....when we were sloppy in the bathroom. We were taught at a very early age to shut the door and HIDE THINGS out of sight in case we had company ......AND.....so our poor gagreflex prone father could manage to survive living in a house full of women.

As for the tiger/trainer role playing...LMAO.. I can't even imagine doing something that weird to a guy.

I think you might be one of those men who would be happiest with an older woman.......so.......

;)

Posted by: Joahna aka Ladybug at August 29, 2006 08:05 PM

Oh.....maybe that was Lynn who laughed at "anyanus"....the commenters name is on the bottom?? lol.

We'll figure it out. Anyanus....That was funny.

Posted by: Joahna aka Ladybug at August 29, 2006 08:10 PM

about that bleeding stretch. my memory is a little dim here. i thought maybe it happened to me, but perhaps in some version of a freudian reaction-formation i actually only remember it that way to assuage my guilt and i did it to you. anyway, one of us definitely knifed somebody else's stretch one night after we had a fight and left him bleeding in the basement.

Posted by: jim at August 29, 2006 09:32 PM

My stretch arm strond leaked green gooze weird?

Posted by: sfgsg at August 29, 2006 09:45 PM

As a contortionist I was quite excited about the title of this blog ... luckily it was still really funny. Kudos.

Posted by: Ashley [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 29, 2006 10:44 PM

I think Febreze just released the New Woman Smell in an aerosol.

I snorted no fewer than 5 times while reading this. Thanks....I think.

Posted by: sweet&blonde at August 29, 2006 11:55 PM

I was in a serious car accident with my boyfriend about a month ago. Well, serious for me: my car was totaled and I had to have emergency surgery. He got a scrape on his elbow. So I was in the hospital for nine days, which was just great fun. It was also a teaching hospital and I had tears in my intestine.

What that amounts to is tubes in my stomach that drained my stomach acid into a little clear container for easy viewing - it's a nice bilious green color. Not only that, but twice the night nurses didn't connect the tube properly to the wall and we woke up to see me LYING in a POOL of my OWN STOMACH ACID. Not only THAT, but after they took me off the IV and put me back on solid foods, they warned me that my... functions would be unreliable for a few days, and they were. I'm sure I don't need to paint you a picture.

Surprise ending - instead of breaking up with me, he proposed two days later. So that's all happy and all my friends were like "aww, that's so romantic," etc. But I can't help but be worried. He has always seemed normal, but I feel that a normal guy's response would be more like yours. I'm hoping I don't have to deal with any golden shower fetishes... or worse... in the future. Or that he is not clinically insane.

Posted by: R at August 30, 2006 01:32 AM

that's really sweet. you should marry him. he seems like the perfect guy to spend the rest of the next 4-7 years with.

Posted by: billdawes at August 30, 2006 03:26 AM

That was hilarious.
I had a Barbie and a Sindy when I was little, but they just had sex following my radical cut-and-dye job on Barbie's hair. Then my brother got an action man; you pulled the string out the back and it would say things like "I'm going in"... (sounds like the perfect toy for you, Bill).
As to the pee/poo conundrum; peeing is acceptable. ANYthing else, NOoooo.

Posted by: susannahbanana at August 30, 2006 04:46 AM

Haha, "Uhh..who wants to fuck a tiger?"

I smell a BillDawes.net t-shirt.

Funny stuff.

Posted by: DrunkBlogger [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 30, 2006 04:54 AM

That was so relentlessly funny I think I may have ruptured something.

Posted by: backwards7 [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 30, 2006 05:42 AM

After (sorta) stalking you on Myspace, I've come here, and unsuprisingly, laughed like a black hyhena or something. Good job.

Posted by: Lewcifer at August 30, 2006 06:28 AM

OK, I followed you here and I'm leaving a comment. If I get a bunch of spam I'm gonna be pissed.
That said, cool story, and Rawr.

Posted by: TJ [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 30, 2006 01:38 PM

Tiger outfit = no go. Got it. So is the My Little Pony costume a yea or nay?

Posted by: Fender at August 30, 2006 04:52 PM

That was pretty bad. It read like a bad stand up routine.

Posted by: Jamille at August 30, 2006 05:50 PM

Oh and I suppose you sell like roses???????????
There's a reason for his and her bathrooms my friend.

Posted by: Lesli at August 30, 2006 08:42 PM

***** Declared jihad, did you??? ...lol

Posted by: "Love" at August 31, 2006 02:18 AM

Oh Jamille you comment like a hata.

Posted by: billdawes at August 31, 2006 04:24 AM

I feel ya brotha! My kung fu grip G.I. Joe killed my pet goldfish Tricky Dick!

Posted by: randy at August 31, 2006 04:43 AM

I could never understand how someone could get that comfortable in a relationship...My fiance and I have been living together for 2 1/2 years...We have seen each other pee probably a total of ten times...Not once have we seen each other pooping...I have never even smelled it...We have kind of an unwritten/unspoken policy when it comes to BMs...If u do have to do it then shower afterwards...It doesnt leave a lingering poop smell and ur ass will be completely clean...You dont want skid marks...

Posted by: bishoujo at August 31, 2006 10:24 AM

You know, Bill, leading up to the launch of this site, you were wildly enthusiastic about having an editor and spoke very highly of the editorial abilities of the folks at Rudius. I guess someone up there didn't pass fifth grade English, however. You don't end on interjection with a semi-colon.

In related news, I am a pedantic jackass who misspells words in the middle of sentences I write excoriating the technical editing abilities of others.

In a similarly related story, I am a lonely, lonely virgin.

Posted by: El Supremo at August 31, 2006 12:03 PM

Wow, ES. I've never been more turned on in my life. Can I put my finger in your butt?

Posted by: Fender at August 31, 2006 01:53 PM

Our Stretch Armstrong leaked a thick sticky green goo!

Posted by: Caz at September 1, 2006 08:56 AM

I almost passed over this site-- Glad I didn't. That was disturbingly funny.

Posted by: Strugglin at September 3, 2006 09:26 PM

Your hilarious and a very talented writer, I've read both your blogs and was very entertained. Can't wait for the next one. keep it up

Posted by: Shenanigans at September 4, 2006 07:54 PM

The fact that each of these major disappointments have to do with the leaking of internal goo is not lost on me, Bill. You seem preoccupied with fluids, man. Get a grip.

Kidding, kidding. You are always hilarious and wise, incidentally. I attribute the fact that my beau and I are working on our eighth year together to the fact that we have never once seen each other pee OR poop. Only vomiting, belching and the occasional fart (with the accompaniment of embarrassed chuckling) are permitted.

Posted by: Fire Bitch at September 6, 2006 09:59 AM

So I took off my belt, snapped it in the air like a ringmaster, and said, "Well, you better quit stinking up the bathroom, tiger... or I'm going to fuck you?"

I love you.

Posted by: Nick at September 7, 2006 10:52 AM

You were supposed to say, "You're a bad little pussy, aren't you? But you want to be tamed, huh?All bad little pussies want to be tamed."

At least, um, that's what I heard you're supposed to say.

Posted by: Nina at September 15, 2006 11:49 PM

One of my favorites. Even better when acted out in person.

Keep 'em comin, Bill. :)

Posted by: Phil Derner Jr. at September 20, 2006 04:28 PM

I choked on a pretzel when I read the tiger part.

Posted by: Colin at December 7, 2006 02:19 PM

I choked on a pretzel.

Posted by: George W. Bush at January 8, 2007 03:36 PM

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