Ever notice how it's the little things in life that amuse us so much? More to the point, ever notice how it's the silly little idiocies in life that amuse us more than anything else? Well, this is not as much ''the little blog that could'' as it is ''the blog that enjoys going up the down escalator in your local mall.'' Will it have anything of real importance? No, probably not. But enjoy the ride never the less!

 

I am an avid Harry Potter fan. Not to the scary-obsessive level, mind you, but I remain nevertheless an avid fan. I've got all the books thus far and have read them numerous times. I've laughed at the infamous Nekkid Quidditch Match. I've written a couple of Potterfics myself, and am trying to finish a challenge from Nightbreak before the month is out. I own the currently available three movies. I won that Griffyndor scarf from Ginny because, dammit, I really wanted it (and my chibi-Cthulhu was cold and really needed the extra insulation from the winter drafts). So imagine my surprise to have just learned on Sunday, that Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire opened this weekend.

How the hell did I miss that?!

Also, it's raining pencil boards (Hallelujah?), which means I have to buy more Stickytak. Currently, Lain, Bakuretsu Hunters and Fushigi Yugi have fallen victim to gravity. Given the season and changing humidity/temperature, I expect more to follow shortly. Now my mighty wall o' shitajiki has holes. This distresses me...almost as much as the fact that I know which pencil boards fell based on where the gap in the wall is.


Today's Lesson: 24-hour grocery stores are your friend. Especially when you discover at 12:34am that you are out of toilet paper. (Not that it happened to me, mind you...)
posted by Phillip at 8:14 PM

 

Midnight is nigh. Mel's curled up under the covers in the bedroom, catching up on sleep and still in a fight against a cold--one she's slowly but surely winning. And here I sit with a glass of Malibu Rum & Coke, some tracks from the new Depeche Mode CD playing quietly in the background, and the snow gently but steadily falling outside.

If this were a movie, there'd be some sort of philosophical monologue or voice-over going on right about now. And then there'd probably be zombies. No special reason for the zombies; it's just felt like that sort of day.

Yet another long day at work, filled with more backlog paperwork I have now almost completed. Ideally there's one more shift to go, and I'll be caught up to the point where I may yet stand alone in an empty store and think, "Wow...I have absolutely nothing I could do right now." I don't think such a thing has happened in such a long time; I'll probably panic and eat next week's schedule (just in case I'm captured) when it happens.

This evening was spent finally getting to a week's worth of backlog dishes, and then later admiring how white our countertop was when it wasn't covered with pretty much every plate, bowl, pan and piece of cutlery we had. Well, there was still one lone, brave fork daring to remain in the cutlery drawer before everything else was washed...

The last few weeks have felt quite surreal, and despite the fact that we've cooked and eaten a lot of dinners at home (as the now-disbanded army of unsightly dishes once attested to), it feels like we've barely been spending any time at the apartment. I feel a stranger in an otherwise familiar place. I also feel like I've been neglecting a lot of the things that matter, and what my job is more or less paying to support: Mel, Shady & Chance, the apartment (and its current lack of "clean"), and especially myself.

Hence the creature comforts. It's been a while since I've sat back and been surrounded by quiet; I've spent so much time lately in the company of unwanted noises and vast quantities of people. Perhaps too much time. It's one of the unique differences between Mel and I: she thrives on the social interaction, even after having to deal with customers all day long, and I would rather be left alone to my own private universe.

The chance to forget about the rest of the world at large, even for just a short while, is how I unwind. Writing is one outlet that allows for me to achieve this. But especially now, the need to write isn't as strong as the need to have that "quiet" time. It helps reaffirm my belief that, while all may not be right with the world, I can still survive in it for a little longer. On a related note, I'm starting to appreciate the tranquility of those Zen Buddhist temples.

Wow...this really did turn into a sort of philosophical monologue. Which can only mean the zombies aren't far behind. Yeah, that's going to ruin the peace and quiet. But as Resident Evil has proven, blowing the crap out of zombies is also a good way to unwind and relieve tension.

Oh, and the mall started playing Christmas music yesterday. The betting pool is now open as to how long Mel (and any other poor sot stuck working out in a corridor kiosk) will last before the constant barrage of carols drives her insane and causes her to strangle the first customer to cheerfully remark," Don't you just love hearing all these Christmas carols?"

Mel's giving herself 2 weeks.

I'm impressed; I only lasted 9 days.


Today's Lesson: I don't care how many scarves are loaded onto one of the kiosk shelves. Scarves are light. Your children are not. Those shelves are NOT loadbearing shelves.

(And yet you'd be surprised at how many people are stunned when they set their kids or their full weight on said shelves, and the brackets get ripped out of the walls and the shelf goes tumbling down...)
posted by Phillip at 8:47 PM

 

There's a line from the Econoline Crush song "Flamethrower" that I think would best sum up the last few weeks so far, especially yesterday:


posted by Phillip at 5:33 AM