Hunh. Happy Birthday...

...to me! Bwa ha haaaa!

Anyway, it's weird. The older I get, the less I care about my birthdays. They just don't really matter anymore. I mean, it's an excuse to go to Kanab and visit my mom, get a good, home-cooked meal and have birthday cake. All good things, but I can get most of that any time I want. Except for birthday cake. But if I asked, I'm pretty sure Mom would make a cake if I asked for it.

Yesterday I got a $20 tip at work. I didn't feel like what I did really deserved it, but I wasn't going to refuse 20 bucks. All I did was go into a hotel room that had already been vacated and locate the guest's billfold, which he had thrown in the trash. It will get mailed tomorrow. He was grateful, I was grateful, it was a grateful-fest.

I've avoided them for a long time because of my last name, but I'm getting addicted to the music of Crosby, Stills and Nash. I don't know about Young. Maybe later. Most of my coworkers have a passionate hatred for the music that plays in the lobby, but I enjoy it. I don't like every single song, but the overall mix definitely plays to my particular tastes. Sometimes I start singing along, get self-conscious, then realize there's nobody around and I keep singing.

Also, I need to purchase The Lost Room on DVD. It's a six-episode miniseries that was put out by SciFi in 2006, before they became stupid SyFy. It's a show about objects from a mysterious hotel room. These objects all have powers that change when they are used together. Good character work, as well. Worth watching. I'm so addicted that I'm dreading the end of the sixth episode. Hopefully it will tie everything up, so I don't feel like I'm missing something.

Hooray for new shows!

Non-Adventures of the Graveyard Shift

People often tell me, "I don't know how you can stand to work a graveyard shift."

To tell the truth, I enjoy working this shift. I often feel like the only person in the world. At least from 1AM to 6AM.

The only issue I had was a little trouble sleeping in the evening. I need a near total darkness in order to sleep well, and that's hard to achieve at 3PM. I covered my windows, but there was still light entering the room.

My solution? It's a common one, I know, but it's a first for me.

I bought a sleep mask. Best $8 I've ever spent. The two evenings since my purchase I have slept amazingly well.

It's comfortable, adjustable, doesn't get in the way (I'm a side-sleeper), and a little sexy as well. No, really, I put on the mask and I don't know what's going to happen to me. Gives a little sense of fear, but more sexy. Supposedly fear is sexy, too, but I've never experienced that and I just don't believe it.

I really, really enjoy having a sleep mask.

And working the graveyard shift is great. I have cleaning to do, and other responsibilities later in the shift, but I usually end up with four hours to myself. I can do homework or mess around on the internet.

I love demotivational posters, by the way. Hilarious. Oh, and the webcomic Amazing Superpowers is, well, amazing. And laugh-out-loud funny. Good thing no one's around to hear me laughing in the dead of night.

By myself.

This Weekend...

I have some fun plans for this weekend.

Tonight I'm going to go to the SUU production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown." I went last week, and really enjoyed it. I can't wait to see it again.

Tomorrow, Saturday, I'm going to go to the gymnastics meet. Really looking forward to it.

I was going to go to a Superbowl party on Sunday, but that...didn't work out. Probably for the best. It will allow me to get caught up and ahead on some homework.

It's a good thing I have some fun planned, because I've been a little depressed the last two days, and this will help.

I think.

New Poem!

Others will be coming soon. I think. I just wanted to post this one real quick-like. It was a fun poem to dream up.


Gastronomic Tour

I start in Sunnydale, California where I need
to stay in at night, but
I support the local school by buying some fund-raiser chocolate, then
I'm off to Seattle, Washington where I break
my fast eating waffles in Der Waffle House.

I stop for a whiskey in Deadwood, South Dakota,

but the unruly atmosphere quickly
sends me on to Ottumwa, Iowa, where I accept
a Grape Nehi from a young man
who knows what I want, almost before I do.

Food and drink aren't allowed in
the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., but
they're hardly needed, as drinking
the history contained within sates my thirsts.

In New York, I buy a Cosmopolitan
for an attractive woman I meet.

I end up in Crabapple Cove, Maine, drinking
a martini so dry,

it blows away on the wind.

-end poem-

So, what do you think? I like it.

The Sense of Smell...

I've lost my chapstick, and that's probably a good thing. It was your normal, black label, Chapstick brand chapstick. Nothing special about it. However, every time I used this chapstick, I thought of Amanda.

Amanda was the first girl I ever kissed. After that scary, exciting night of the first kiss, whenever she wanted to kiss me, she would ask if I needed any chapstick. She would then proceed to apply said chapstick to her own lips. Then she would share that chapstick with me. It was fun.

When I purchased the chapstick that I just lost, I had no idea that it was the same brand that Amanda used. In fact, I had not thought about Amanda in quite some time, except to refer to her as "my psycho ex." And she was. But that's not the point.

Every time I applied that chapstick to my lips, I could smell Amanda. I don't use chapstick all that often, so it wasn't a constant reminder, but it was irritating all the same.

Stupid smell/memory response.

Defying Gravity, Again...

"I'm through accepting limits
'cause someone says they're so.
Some things I cannot change,
but 'til I try I'll never know."

Just re-watched a scene from an episode of Glee that aired two weeks ago. It features two voices I really enjoy listening to; Rachel, a soprano, and Kurt, a contra-tenor. They both audition for the lead in a group performance of Defying Gravity, from Wicked. As the song plays, it cuts back and forth between both performances, creating one musical number. I hope that makes sense. If not, it's not the important part, so no worries.

I don't know what it is about this song, or even this particular performance of this song, but I just started crying. The kind of crying that is deeply emotional. Cleansing. Cathartic.

Well, at least it would be, if I could figure out why it affected me so strongly this time.

I know that I tend to tether myself, trying to be more practical than dreamer. I try to find the happy mediums, the goals and dreams that I can accomplish; ones I can see the way to achieve.

But I don't think I'm having issues with being able to dream. I'm taking steps to accomplish some things I really want to accomplish. I feel like things are happening for me. I might wish sometimes that they would happen without so much effort on my part, but I don't mind making the effort, either.

So why did I get all emotional listening to Defying Gravity? I have no clue.

Beauty and the Beast...

Friday my computer contracted a virus so bad that I had to do a complete system recovery. It kind of sucked.

Now I have all the work of getting a new computer to where I like it, without actually having a new computer.

On the plus side, even though the system recovery deleted iTunes from my computer, it didn't delete my music files, so I haven't had to do any work as far as recovering my music library. That's nice. Of course, I still have to go through and redo my ratings for songs and find album artwork for many songs. That's kind of a drag. Oh well.

Money has been kind of tight recently, and I've been trying to watch what I spend it on. Of course, when money is tight, this is when Borders sends me 40% off coupons in my email. That's the one coupon I can't ignore. It's just too good a deal. On top of that, I recently earned $5 in Borders Bucks, which I would need to use by the end of the month anyway.

So I went book shopping.

I didn't really expect to find anything I really wanted. I was wrong. At the Borders at the north end of University Avenue I found the Starman omnibus. A very nice hardback collection of 17 issues of the very highly regarded Starman comic book series published by DC Comics. I've wanted to read this for a while, and with my two discounts I managed to save $25 off the cover price.

Now I know what I'm going to be spending my "extra" money on for the next while. I know there are at least 3 volumes out, and a total of six planned.

This is an absolutely beautiful work of literature. And I haven't ever used the word beautiful to describe a comic book before. I don't think I've even used it to describe any sort of book before. It's that amazing.

Normally, when I read a book, I blaze right through. I read really fast, and it annoys me sometimes. With Starman, I find myself slowing down, savoring the words written on the page. Enjoying the emotions. I haven't been moved to tears, but it wouldn't surprise me if that happened a couple times down the line.

How's that for a jump? From something I've never read to being my favorite comic book series.

I can't wait to read more.