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!

 

There are, as of this little bit of nowhere, about six days left before school begins. Between then and now, children shall lament; parents will secretly rejoice; and wallets will sob in agony over the price of scholastic supplies (let alone the cost of overhauling one's entire wardrobe, because last year's clothes are, like, so last year!). And somewhere along the way, hundreds of parental units are sitting there thinking, "Gee, only six more days left before they get shipped back off to class and I finally get some peace and...six more...holy crap, I've got six days left to get all their things?!"

This happens more often than you think.

The last week is, in an event that can only be described as "not surprising in the slightest", busy as all hell. Families will swarm our stores over the next less-than-a-week, pillaging and ravaging our merchandise in a desperate bid to get everything their kids want (and sometimes--gasp!--what they actually need) in a single, last minute spree. We will be spending most of our time running around in a mad bid to answer questions, clean stock, process transactions, clean more stock, restock the displays and, dammit, I just cleaned that bunk of lunch boxes and had my back turned for just ten seconds, so which of you ungodly little urchins do I have to skin in thanks for that?!

And I'm rather enjoying it.

Certainly, it's leaving me quite exhausted at the end of any given work shift (and those vastly outnumber the very select few days I have off), and my deader-than-toast shoes are not helping at all. But with the departure of She Who Shall Not Be Named (But Is Still Quite The Royal Bitch), I've discovered something I'd almost forgotten and as a general concept find quite disturbing: that work can, in fact, be almost fun.

Not the running around part, of course. But now that I have the chance to look back, I realize it's been a loooooong time since I went into work begrudging what I was about to do (hey, it's retail, so it's a gimme) but not at all dreading it. I feel a lot more relaxed and enjoy more of my shifts, and more than anything the atmosphere in the store has dropped back to its old, relaxed feel. This is a good thing. This must be continued.

In other news, recent influxes of money due to me had me smiling. An inordinate amount of cash I'd been expecting finally made its way into my account, and for a moment I was fiendishly rich. Then I paid off all my bills (phone, credit card, rent, et all), set aside a large chunk for Shady's impending check-up and vaccinations, set aside another large chunk for future Christmas purchases (and oh, will I need it), and bought a suit for Mel's sister's wedding in September Because, apparently, jeans and a "the flying hamster of doom rains down coconuts on your pitiful city" shirt are not proper wedding attire. (I tried to argue that I was starting a new trend. Then Mel threatened me with a lack of sex. Then I stated that trends are overrated and sometimes the old, tried & trusted ways are better.)

Suddenly I found myself staring down at a somewhat pitiful sum of money, comparatively, but impressive enough to allow me to go out and buy something expensive I usually wouldn't otherwise buy. Did I buy manga and start collecting another series? Did I nab an anime box set? Did I nab any DVD box set?

No, when the time came to make a decision, I went with...interior decorating. One very nice multi-picture frame and a 2-tiered laundry trolley (that's a whole lot friggin' larger than the box made it out to be) later, and I had to sit down. In a month where my shortlist of just-released DVDs was at an all time high, I went with apartment acoutrements. The thought of buying movies, manga or anime barely even registered in my head.

The hell?!

Had I suddenly become one of those dreaded, no-nonsense "adults" when my back was turned? Was I in fact on the verge of ranting about, "when I was your age, we didn't have this high-fangled Internet, we had to sell off our organs to buy a pen and paper in order to send paper airplane messages to our friends across the street, and when that didn't work we had to walk two miles, naked, in the snow, uphill both ways, in order to drop off the gorram paper airplane." Was I about to inexplicably turn anal-retentive and stick my nose up at even the merest thought of staying a child at heart?

Then I looked back at the multi-photo frame I bought, and at the collection of postcards from the Last Exile box set that were nestled within it, and smiled.

On a related note, I also recently found myself looking at the fall selection in various clothing stores, and became sorely tempted to make a few purchases or at least try the items on to see how they looked at me. I'm thinking of combating this disturbing development by buying a pair of boxer shorts with the words "It's sexy time!" written all over them. (Because with my ass involved, anytime is sexy time!)

Now if you'll excuse me, there is laundry to sort...

Today's Lesson - the following combinations do not mix well together in the slightest: a sandwich brimming with tzatziki sauce, chips with onion dip, two cans of Pepsi, and a consumption time of 11:30pm (not an hour before going to bed to boot.)

Labels: back to school, growing older but not upwards, sexy time boxers, sometimes I can go an entire blog without mentioning pants so there

posted by Phillip at 8:55 PM