The Hellhole

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Sunday I finished my housesitting stint and returned home around mid-morning. My house looks very small and shabby now, compared to the place I was staying. *sigh* I am only fractionally comforted by knowing they paid about $300,000 more for theirs.

I offered to take my mom out to lunch if she’d drive up with my dog, so that’s what we did. I was so glad to see the little fellow! He was offhandedly happy to see me too, although much happier to see his toys and the treat bowl. Mom and I went to lunch and then to BJ’s to buy yet another automatic litterbox, the existing one having malfunctioned past redemption during my absence. It’s the weirdest thing about those automatic litterboxes: the first one I bought lasted four years or more, so I didn’t hesitate to buy the same model and brand as a replacement. However, once I replaced the original, none of the replacements have lasted more than a few months at best. This is the fourth. *another sigh*

Yesterday I came in to work for a couple of hours but used ½ day of vacation to enjoy a gorgeous autumn day. Hey, I only have 26 vacation days left through the end of the year, better use ‘em wisely. Alan was off as well, so we had a nice lunch at Frontera, then hit Best Buy and Borders to spend a bit of my housesitting money. Although I bought a couple of books, I can’t report title or author because these were just items that looked interesting, not anything I’d been waiting for or a favorite writer, and I haven’t started reading either yet. We bought Shrek 2, which was the movie we saw on our first date, so we agreed that we should own it on principle, and Bubba Ho-Tep, which several friends have recommended as hilariously funny. I’ll let you know when I get to watch it...if I ever get to watch it - the holidays loom ever nearer and I have oh so much free time as it is. I don’t know what it is, exactly, that I do that keeps me too busy to read a book, watch a movie or play a video game, but I sure seem to do a lot of it.

I also bought 2 CDs: Flogging Molly and Papa Roach. I’d not heard of Flogging Molly previously but I figured I wouldn’t miss the $12 and they deserve royalties for that name alone. I listened to a good bit of it on my way in to work this morning. While I don’t dislike it at all, will listen to it again and probably check out future recordings, I have to say that I’d have been more impressed if I’d heard this 3 or 4 years ago. As it is, Flogging Molly just strikes me as 'rather more mainstream Dropkick Murphys plus a chick'. As far as Papa Roach, I like the video they’ve been playing recently on MTV ("Getting Away With Murder") and I’d LIKE to tell you what I think of the rest of the album, but I can’t. I took it into the office with me but when I put the disc in my computer, it auto-launches a video, "The Making of ‘Getting Away With Murder’" which maximizes my screen, will not minimize so I can work while I listen (it’s either on or off) and after that song it plays nothing else. Trying to access the tuneage - twelve whole tracks, or so they CLAIM - from Window$ Media Player, RealPlayer or Music Match gets me either the video, full screen and nothing else, or it locks up the program until I CTRL-ALT-DEL it. Stuff like that irritates me beyond all logic and proportion - I just want to listen to the frikkin’ music, for fuck’s sake, not achieve cold fusion. IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS DIFFICULT.

A moment ago I learned how dearly I will pay for my pleasant afternoon Monday, as I should have known I would the second I found myself enjoying something. I have to be at our office in Gainesville, nearly 2 hours from my home, at 7:30 tomorrow morning. Gee. What fun.

Cherry on top: I had some very bad news involving a dear friend earlier today and, while cheery sunshiny people would be quick to point out that such news ought to put my silly-ass problems in perspective, all it’s doing for me right now is affirming life’s extreme suckitude.

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