Astrology is silly, but I’ll go ahead and waste a few minutes to ring in The Year of the Rat. Why? It turns out that in addition to being a Pisces and a little grey duck, in Chinese astrological terms I’m also a Rat.
So, this should be my year. Cue megalomaniacal laughter.
(This is post number who can count that high? in a series indicating just how feeble my memory really is.)
I was doing such a good job today. I remembered:
What did I forget, then?
I forgot to grab the piece of paper from Wendi which would enable to me to get my taxes done. It looks like I’ll be waiting another week on that, then…
(Eerie aside: I put the new batteries into the clock at almost exactly the same time of day that the old batteries failed yesterday. Spooky, or something.)
I should lead off by saying that I just got home from a wonderful evening out with Kyla and Lyse during which we tuckered into the tasty, tasty chow at Black Bear and then wandered semi-aimlessly through Uwajimaya out in Beaverton Land. Monday daytime may have been a loss, but the after-dark portion made up for it.
But then, we’re the sort of silly folks for whom a simple shopping excursion can be the high point of the week. And there’s nothing wrong with that, I say!
Anyway. Stupid people. It’s what you came for, it’s what you get. We’ll start with an open letter.
Dear sir: That stupid muffler you attached to your almost-pink VW sedan makes it sound like the mating warble of an adolescent Wookie. I hope that was your intent, because otherwise you wasted a fair bit of perfectly good money. The next time you want to throw cash away for no good reason, look me up. I can help!
But wait, there’s more!
When I walked in the front door of my home tonight, The Ratboy was flipping channels and happened to land on an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. Our winning bit of mind-numbingly stupid dialog for the day occurs as the Supposedly Hot But Mostly Just Reptilian-looking Chick is plying One Of Our Heroes with foodstuffs. She hands him a bowl and says, I kid you not, “This is the closest we could come to water.” No, no it isn’t, you have spaceflight capability, I’m 100% certain that you can create dihydrogen monoxide! Sloppy, sloppy writing!
Okay, now I should get to bed. Tomorrow I’ll be visiting the rugrats. I hasten to point out that they are most assuredly not stupid. Just so you know.
Two unusual things happened this morning.
I stopped down, after I caught up on my forum reading, to make some long-awaited changes to AEIOU. Scheduling isn’t my strong suit so things tend to get done when I happen to have a bit of free time and I actually remember things need doing.
I remembered, upon getting into the shower, that this isn’t a workday and I don’t need to rush through things quite so much. I forget that, most weekend mornings, and just run on autopilot. Instead, this morning’s shower took as long as I felt like taking. I feel not only clean but also relaxed and rejuvenated. What a change of pace!
And that’s enough about me being naked for one journal post, isn’t it?
There’s a nervous, frantic quality to most of what I do. Already a naturally high-strung individual, in the last couple of years I’ve become too focused on either The Task At Hand (winding up) or The Fun I Can Have (winding down). In between those extremes is where we find the incidental but important tasks, and if we don’t remind ourselves to slow down a bit then we’ll miss some of the good stuff entirely.
I used to be the guy with the power of perspective. Now that I’m finally shaking off my years-long depression, it’s high time I regained that power. Also? I need to slow down more often. Not to sniff the roses, really. (My sense of smell verges on nonexistent.) Just to give myself permission to “waste time” taking care of myself and the incidentals that often fall through the cracks of a normal day…
A normal life, even a moderately decent life such as I’m enjoying lately, isn’t always the sort of thing you write about much.
I just wanted you to know that I’m still here; life is treating me fairly well, all things considered. I just haven’t had much to say. Nor have I had much in the way of free time during which to assemble coherent material. This is an improvement, mind you, over the last couple of years during which I had plenty to say but no energy or willpower to put words on the screen.
Same results, different causes. I find this amusing.
A weekend like this makes me feel almost rested and cheerful enough to manage the upcoming workweek:
And now, I think I’ll enjoy a few minutes of rock music before I go to sleep. Rock on, y’all.
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