Moon Over Shoe Carnival

Do you like soccer

For the second time in three months, one of our cars has been broken into. Luckily this time there was no actual breaking*, as the lock that doesn't freeze fell out (that's right) and the lock that does freeze does so to the point where you actually, literally cannot get into the car, and your damn wife ends up having to drive you to work, and by extension has to get ready in 3 minutes instead of the 15 she would have had if she had been allowed to have been about 20 minutes late. Right. So, we hadn't been locking it.

The thing about this that is the worst, worse than the knowledge that someone can just help themselves to the inside of your car, and worse than the knowledge that once they do so, they're not interested in stealing your kickass clear umbrella, kickass telescoping snow scraper, or loose change, is knowing that these damn people got NOTHING out of it. Well, okay, today they got the face plate to a 2.5 year old cd player, which I hear fetches a bundle on eBay.** But, believe it or not, I did not have a whole bunch of narcotics in my back seat (surprise!) and it turns out that it's pretty hard to rip that particular type of cd player out of the dash.

For some reason the person decided to keep the face plate of the cd player, so we're at least going to have to get a new one of those, if not a whole new player. As you can imagine, though, a car that's having its locks*** fall out is not a new or healthy car, and so I'm thinking maybe it wouldn't be good to put more money into it. This subject has to be broached carefully, though, because I have already been accused of being "against" the car. Which I am not, but I'm trying to be practical. That is how it works - one of us gets to act out our sentimental attachment and the other has to be the realistic one. We take turns.



*as opposed to LAST time, when I was bumbling my way to the car and realized that for some reason there was a fist-sized hole in the window.

**no I don't.

***the other side's lock fell out and got re-installed last winter

Workthought

Isn't it funny how throughout your childhood, you mom said at least twice a day not to sit too close to the tv, but we're building a global economy in which everyone spends at least 8 hours a day 14" away from a computer monitor?

I freakin love alpaca.

How much stuff must I order from LLBean and dislike before I stop ordering things from LLBean? Hopefully two. I ordered what appeared to be a great sweater for $25, and it turned out to be a crappy sweater for $25. (Oh, man, was it awful - I think it was made out of yarn spun from asbestos, packing peanuts, and fishing line.) (Of course, it cost $25.) Then, last week on a whim of freezingness, I ordered a vest, because this friend of mine lent me hers for a couple hours and it was nice and warm. Turns out this vest is much shinier and whispier in person than it appeared on the website, and so, while wearing it, I feel like the personification of Dentyne Ice. For it is light blue. But it is also warm, so I am keeping it.

I feel bad for having to swear off the Bean. I feel bad for speaking ill of the Bean in public. But right now I'm also grappling with that perennial problem of the stiffness of the zipper that, when sitting, makes it look just out as if there is a metal spike sticking out of my abdomen, and that look isn't really in right now.

Park?

Yea many months ago (6) when I was still underemployed and was not certain that I still had health insurance and was harboring the pipe dream that I could support myself on my creative endeavors, I got an account at Associated Content dot com. I submitted one belated (for I live in the middle) reading (not really review) of Broken Flowers, which was rejected. Then I got a job. I didn't bother to unsubscribe to Associated Content dot com, because you never know the inspiration for a story about ten ways to lower your taxes on speculative real estate in Colorado would strike.

Then I got an e-mail from Associated Content suggesting that I sell old academic papers to them for a pittance - for what use? I can only guess for resale to the same type of mentally lazy student which had so recently populated the very classrooms I had since fled, thus resulting in my underemployedness. That was when I said to hell with Associated Content.

But then, as is my wont, I neglected to unsubscribe myself from their mailing list, and then today I got an e-mail with the following advice:

"While there isn't a lot of content out there relating to "TS Eliot's objective correlative," it is also not something many users would seek out. Think: consumer-driven content."

TS Eliot's objective correlative didn't go over so well in my classes, either. So, because I don't really want to write stories for $5 a pop about who has the best tits on "Dancing with the Stars," or whatever other "consumer-driven content" would sell, I am hereby upgrading my "to hell with Associated Content" to a big old: "Hey Associated Content: Go Fuck Yourself."

I get enough reminders of how not in line with the consumer-driven mainstream I am without a two and a half-monthly reminder courtesy of Associated Content.

sunrise