*I'm going to have to break down and clean my room this weekend. I have NO room for all my stuff and I can't bear to part with any of it.
*Anticipation of losing an hour of sleep Saturday night (don't forget!)
*Not knowing. Just, generally speaking.
*People who think they know everything, but really they just want to complain and point fingers.
*Friday
*End of the month, which means I tear off last month's page of my desk calendar which is full of notes and appointments and phone numbers by month's end. Starting a new month with a fresh calendar page is somehow refreshing - a clean slate, if you will. April's page has a cool picture on it, too.
*April means springtime, travelling, birthdays and Easter (i.e. the end of Lent)
*Feeling cheery in general
I used to have a strict one-book-at-a-time policy. Recently, however, I’ve developed the habit of starting a new book while I’m in the middle of another. In fact, I’ve been in the middle of as many as five books in the past months. I finished two of them this week and that’s what I’m here to blog about.
First, I finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which a quite a delightful book. This classic novel by Betty Smith is the story of a young girl growing up in a very poor neighborhood of Brooklyn in the early twentieth century. Though not really an autobiography, Smith said the story has many similarities to her own childhood, not exactly the way things were but they way they ought to have been. There’s not high drama or exciting plot twists, but it really is a moving story; I found myself crying in several parts of it (and this is Something because I’m not usually one to cry at books or movies).
The second book I finished* was Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. I loved this book. I wish I would have written this book. In fact, there is really only one problem with Eats, Shoots & Leaves and that is people. “People?” you ask. Yes. People. You see, there are two kinds of people in this world: those who will read this book delighting in the nuances of the Oxford Comma and, with the author, desiring to form a militant branch of The Apostrophe Protection Society. These people already know most of the rules of punctuation and though we acknowledge different interpretations of the rules, delight in the rules nonetheless. The other type of people are those who desperately need the instruction from this book, but don’t give a rip about the rules of punctuation, don't see any problem with a sign that says “Book’s For Sale”, and didn't even notice whether I put that last comma inside or outside the quotation marks, much less question my usage. In fact, this type of person has long since stopped reading this post, taking no pleasure in punctuation humor. Shame on them!**
*Okay, I haven’t actually finished the book. I have about 5 pages left, but I’m pretty sure there won’t be a surprise ending. I intended to finish it today, but the exterminator came and sprayed my house during my lunch break. He’s quite a talker, so it takes the whole hour for him to spray, so I wasn’t able to finish reading my 5 pages. It was all worth it though because I learned all kinds of things (non bug-related) from the exterminator which I can hopefully pass on in another post.
**This post is bound to have at least a few punctuation errors in it. It’s one of those things that always happens when one is writing about punctuation sans editors.
Free time eludes me these days. Between stacks of files, daily chores, and the occasional inter-personal relationship...oh, and of course, the soirees (how could I forget the soirees?): I barely have time to read and work out, much less to publish drivel on my blog.
And yet, here I sit.
And here are a few things that have been on my mind: first of all, what's the deal with Laffy Taffy? I'm not talking about either that ridiculous song or that delicious faux-banana flavor. I'm talking about the unbelievably lame jokes. They should stop letting random people submit non-funny jokes and just let me write them. Mine would be funny. I promise. For example - a Laffy Taffy joke: "What do you get when a dog walks across the sun?" The terribly clever answer? "A hotdog." See? Lame. Now here's mine: "Why does a chicken coop only have 2 doors?" Ready? "Because if it had 4 doors, it would be a chicken sedan." Go ahead. Laugh. Laff, I say!
Secondly (and I know I've asked before): can all the car salesmen puhlease stop yelling at me? You're making me crazy! Why don't you devote your voice to something more productive like yelling at the riff-raff who set the gas prices. Or at least have a shouting-match with the furniture salesmen.
And another thing: next time you see me, ask me how much I've been to the gym lately. I need some accountability, people.
Do you think I could work it out that I could get a themesong that would play whenever I walked into a room? It might seem weird at first, but I think once people got used to it, it would be endearing. And cool.
Fifth and lastly, an observation: I like it when I've lived in a place long enough to start seeing people around. I'm talking about random people, who I don't know, but I just happen to see at miscellaneous places. I don't know if that makes sense - I'm not a stalker or anything - I just think it's funny to talk to someone in line at Brookshires one day and then see them in yoga class 6 months later and see them at the mall buying a questionable dress a while later. I wonder if random people ever notice me like that.
I bet they would if I had a theme song.
I don't know if one can die from a head-cold, but if it's possible, I might do it. Even though I've already had my yearly sickness-that-is-bad-enough-to-make-me-miserable-but-not-bad-enough-to-make-
me-go-to-the-doctor, I've been stricken again. And can I just say: no amount of caffiene will adequately counteract cold medicine. Hopefully, this will pass soon. Either the cold itself has made me hard of hearing or (more likely) the sudafed-induced haze has made me unable to process the things I hear, so I'm afraid people thought I was not paying attention when they were talking to me this weekend, when in actuality, I just couldn't focus. This has not made me a productive employee today.
Sick or not, I can't pass up an opportunity to go eat crawfish, so I went out with some friends for a Louisiana good time. Crawfish season is short, so I have to get it in while I can. I usually consider crawfish to be kind of a low-class food, but it is apparently a delicacy now. There must be a shortage (hurricane induced, I'm sure) because the prices have gone through the roof. For what I spent on crawfish at a hole-in-the-wall diner, I could have dined at a five star restaraunt. Oh well, the crawfish were good, the company was good and I'll try not to let the bill tarnish the experience.
For the first time in several years, I watched the Oscars last night. Honestly, I just like to see the fashion, but the show itself was somewhat enjoyable last night. I always like a surprise ending, so I was happy to see the best picture upset. Crash was the only best picture nominee I had actually seen, so it made me feel slightly culturally literate.