Good News/Bad News

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I stopped in Goodwill yesterday to pick up my check and I looked at the schedule for next week, and I'm not on it. Today is officially my last day at Goodwill!
The bad news is that, when I stopped in to get my check, I stuck the check in my back pocket and a little while later when I tried to take it out it was gone. We had already left Goodwill, gone to a grocery store and were pulling out of the parking lot when I discovered it was missing. So, naturally we went back to the parking lot we had just left and walked every inch of it. Then we went back into the store. Then we went back to Goodwill, where the manager helped me look for it, even though they were completely bombarded with customers. No luck. The manager said that she would call me if they found it. So I spend the rest of the day being pissed/stressed about it and wondering what I am going to do if I can't find it. Then I get a call from Goodwill. When I saw their number on my phone I was just so incredibly relieved! Then the manager tells me that some woman found my check in the Shop N Save parking lot and that she left her contact information so I could call her and meet her somewhere to pick it up. We were out of that parking lot for literally two minutes before I noticed that the check was gone! If she had just not picked it up, I could have gone back and gotten it and everything would have been fine. Now I have to call some random person and make plans with her just so I can get my fucking paycheck! And I have to pretend that I am grateful to her for picking it up. I know that I should be grateful to her for picking it up, but I'm not. Now I have to go through this awkward social interaction with her to get my check instead of just reaching down and picking it up out of a parking lot. I am a shitty human being.

I Totally Forgot!

I just realized that I completely forgot to write my annual, angry, vengeful, Thanksgiving post. Many of you may not know this, but I have had multiple different blogs over the years; all of which have ultimately been left by the wayside. Wherever I happen to be writing though, I have always managed to write a post condemning Thanksgiving, every year. Somehow, this year, I just forgot to do it. I didn't do anything for Thanksgiving this year and neither did either of my parents. So it really just seemed like any other day. I also didn't spend much time online yesterday to see all of the Thanksgiving Facebook posts. Then today I woke up and thought "Shit! Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I didn't even take the time to bitch about it!" So basically, you guys got off easy this year. Don't expect it to happen again.

Fuck Thanksgiving and everything that it pretends to stand for, but doesn't really! 

It's Funny Because No One Died

So, a few days ago, I almost set the cat on fire. Yeah. That could have ended very VERY badly.

Here's what happened; I have this candle that my mom gave me. It's some kind of aroma therapy thing that's supposed to make me happier or something. I don't know that it actually works, but it does make the house smell better which I suppose makes me a bit happier in and of itself.

Anyway, instead of blowing the thing out, like a normal person, I like to pinch it out with my fingers. Well, the other night, I put the flame out and a piece of what I thought was ash stuck to my finger and I flicked it off without even thinking about it. I didn't see where it landed and I didn't really think it mattered so I just started to get ready to go to bed. Then I looked down and noticed that Impala was laying on the floor right under the candle. Then I noticed a tiny glowing, red dot on his fur. I thought to myself  "What the fuck is....OH SHIT! OH SHIT! OH SHIT!" He didn't even seem to notice that he was slowly catching on fire. I did my best to talk very calmly to him and carefully reached down and picked the small ember out of his fur without him ever figuring out what was going on. This was an extremely lucky thing because, if he had figured out what was going on, he would have no doubt gone tearing through the house setting everything around him ablaze and I NEVER would have caught him. It would have been a complete and utter disaster that would have most likely ended in tragedy for him and crippling guilt for me. Since no one got hurt, it's just kind of funny.

I imagine he would have looked something like this, minus the swim fins. 

Conflicting Emotions

Do you ever find yourself hopelessly torn between hoping that something does happen and hoping that it doesn't? I was supposed to be at work right now, but I called off because it snowed and I just couldn't see risking my life and, more importantly, my mom's car (yes, I actually was more concerned about the prospect of fucking up my mom's car than I was of dying) for a job that I am only going to have for a few more days. Anyway, everybody knew there was supposed to be this huge storm coming. I hate snow, hate it with a passion. Yet, when I heard about the storm I was excited because it would mean that I had a good excuse not to go to work. Plus, for the first time in months they had actually scheduled someone to work with me, so if I didn't show up they would still have a cashier. I ended up having this weird internal argument between the part of my mind that wanted the storm to happen and the part that didn't. It went something like this;
"Yay! There's a big snow storm coming!"
"But we hate snow!"
"Yeah, but if it snows we don't have to go to work!"
"But we should go to work because we are quitting and we need the extra money."
"Oh bullshit, we don't need the money that bad. Plus we hate that job."
"We do need the money that bad, and the snow will be just as horrible as going to work."
"Nothing is as horrible as going to work."

And that's how the part of my mind that wanted it to snow won the argument. 

 

My New Favorite Book? Perhaps.

I just finished reading the Hyperbole and a Half book (thank you Rachel!) and it was just so fucking perfect. I highly recommend that everyone read it. If you don't want to invest in the book, at least read the blog. Allie Brosh manages to take all of the terrible things in life and make them hilarious. She is also brave enough to say all of those things that we all think and then hate ourselves for thinking. The sections on Depression and the ones on Identity are incredibly insightful, while still maintaining the irreverent, sarcastic, amazing humor that Hyperbole and a Half is so very good at. Basically, what I'm saying here is "Read it!"

Seeing the Patterns

I have a compulsive need to find patterns in things; to find some sort of meaning in the chaos. This sort of ties into my other post about empathy and trying to understand people's behavior, but it goes further than that. I look for patterns in everything, not just people's behaviors.

Now that the CD player in my car is broken and I have to listen to the radio (grrrrrr), I sometimes notice that two or three consecutive songs will have common themes or very similar lines, and I wonder what that means. Then I realize that it's just a fucking radio and it doesn't mean anything. But I can't shake the feeling that I'm supposed to get something from it. I think I have mentioned before how I tend to have the same ideas, or images pop up in my life over and over again. I'm sure it's just that, once I've noticed it once, I'm more likely to notice it again. But it doesn't feel like that. It feels like it should mean something.

That's one reason I get so invested in different TV shows. The patterns (usually) actually do mean something. I get such a thrill from searching for the meaning in mundane events and trying to predict what they are going to bring about. Often times though, I end up reading into things even more than the writers intended. Then I get disappointed when no one acknowledges the fact that three seasons ago someone said something that relates to that thing that other person mentioned this season. Battlestar Galactica has been both perfect and terrible for this purpose because they make it seem like everything is significant but never actually explain why. The whole time we've been watching it I have been analyzing everything and predicting what those things are going to mean. We are now into season four and I have still received absolutely no confirmation whatsoever.

You have no idea how much time I have spent thinking about why they used All Along the Watchtower. I have read over the lyrics about a hundred times and come up with some sort of relevance for every one of them. I would be willing to bet that it doesn't mean even half of what I think it does. 

Happy Anniversary!

I almost had to write a post about the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, didn't I? I mean how could I not? How often does one get to experience an event like this in a society where everything is designed to become obsolete after a short amount of time? I watched The Day of the Doctor during the global simulcast and it was such a strange and wonderful  feeling to know that at that very instant there were millions of people all over the world watching, and feeling, the same thing I was.

Anyway, I am going to attempt to pay homage to the show and the episode while avoiding spoilers as much as possible, for anyone who didn't get a chance to see it. I have found that the writers of the show always come up with new and exciting ways to confuse the fuck out of their audience while making the experience so much fun that the audience doesn't mind being confused. This episode was no exception. It was a great episode and just as fun and crazy as always.  I was so happy to see Ten again! I had almost forgotten how much I loved him. Almost. I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction between the three doctors in the episode as well as all of the references to all of the past doctors. I think the John Hurt character showed us a new side to the doctor that we had never seen before, and I loved his complete bewilderment at seeing his future selves. Overall, it was an excellent episode and a fantastic way to celebrate 50 years of other excellent episodes. I can't wait to see what sort of changes we will witness in the Doctor's personality in the future now that he has a bit less reason for self-loathing (see there was almost a spoiler there, but I reined myself in).

Also, I absolutely loved Billie Piper's wild, post-apocalyptic look!