Had a pleasant visit to PoCo to see Bryn and Jamie's lovely new condo yesterday afternoon and evening. T'was good to see everyone (and many people's parents).
Strangely felt incredibly weak all day yesterday. Shrugged it off as nothing. Then had NIGHT OF HELL. Some kind of fever that Angela gave me. I practically coughed up a lung before bed. Then as I tried to sleep, every joint and bone in my body was in terrible pain. After a night of waking up every hour in horrible discomfort, Angela gave me a pair of Advils around 5AM (as much for her own sanity as mine). I was out like a light until 9AM when I awoke drenched in my own sweat.
Feeling better today, albeit terribly sore, especially in the chest.
1) Make quiche
2) Eat quiche while watching Mythbusters and drinking red wine
3) Get bored when Mythbusters ends
4) Quickly decide to make drunken blueberry pie
5) Coincidentally receive delicious French blueberry liqueur as belated birthday present from Jen.
6) Eat delicious homemade pie with friends
7) Rejoice
So I figured I'd give you an update on certain aspects of Jesse-life. I'll break things down into sections:
Frivolous Gadget Purchases
Roomba: No regrets here, believe you me. I purchased my Roomba, Cavil, in July. It provides a cleaning of the living room carpet (something frequently needed) when I'm lazy and/or busy (something frequently true). It picks up tons of junk, also works in the kitchen (if I move the chairs out) and forces me to keep the living room floor uncluttered and generally tidy. The Roomba is the future and you should buy one, perhaps from Linens 'N Things, since they're going out of business and selling everything off.
iPhone: One day Canadians will rise up and smite the telcos charging us such unreasonable rates for our service. Until then, I'm just going to try to enjoy my super-useful phone. Data usage is a non-issue, so I can use Wikipedia on the road to identify that exotic and tantalizing fruit or vegetable that just appeared at my local produce market. Maps are also extremely useful. On the downside, it needs to be rebooted every couple of weeks or it starts dropping calls and acting wonky. But I'm used to rebooting computers once in a blue moon to solve stability problems, so that's something I can live with.
General Jesse Facts
Sun: I'm feeling pretty miserable lately, and while fall sniffles are minutely to blame, the big problem is the lack of sunlight. The time change certainly didn't help either. All my free time during the week is spent in the dark. I'm starting to think that I'm going to need to invest in some kind of sunlamp to avoid feeling like I just want to curl up and die all winter.
Pie: Last night I baked an apple pie. I came up with the recipe for this pie while drinking and watching the Food Network. A dangerous combination, I know. I'm close to perfecting the recipe and it shall be known as "Uncee Jesse's Drunken Apple Pie". Who could resist with a name like that, huh?
Work: Its generally slow and we still have no idea where we're moving. Yay.
Christmas: Ugh. I've barely started yet and I can tell that it's going to be a hellish shopping experience for me going forward. Wish me luck.
That is all.
UPDATE: I changed the layout of the ending, I have no idea what I was thinking. I have also completed a huge percent of my holiday shopping in one fell swoop. I feel accomplished.
Her voice was shaky; she'd clearly been crying for a while. The conversation was awkward: me trying to veil my contempt with politeness, her trying to keep it together. She wanted to get together and talk over some coffee. I was hesitant, I said it was already getting late and I had to work the next day. But she was passively insistent, so I consented. Grabbing my coat, I headed out the door and down the street.
"You're looking well," I said after we'd settled down at our table, completely ignoring her red, teary eyes. She was, honestly, looking better otherwise. As I regarded her, a pregnant silence ensued. I fingered my teacup absentmindedly, clinking the porcelain cup against the dish. After a time she broke eye contact, and the silence.
"Let me just be frank," she abruptly put forth, "I made a lot of mistakes... bad choices."
I felt a lump in my throat; there was very little to say. "Yeah," I croaked.
"...And it couldn't have been easy for you," she continued, "I know that I hurt you. But I want to make things right with you."
"You still friends with Braga?" I blurted out, more venomously than I'd intended.
"No," she shook her head sincerely, "I haven't talked with Brannon or Rick in a long time."
"Good."
"I've got new friends now. Ones more in tune with who I really am. I've had a lot of time to think. I've realized that I was never really in with that whole 'Go-America', 'Coalition of the Willing' crowd. I know now, that's not who I am... and... I'm hoping that you'll give me another chance."
It was as if a vice had gripped my heart. I struggled to speak, "God... Star Trek, I don't know..."
"Please," she strained, "I want things to be the way that they were between us."
Then she grasped my hand, and as I looked into her eyes I knew that I couldn't say no.
"Well," I struggled, "it's been four years. Things can never be the same as the way they were..."
The title of today's blogpost is "INCONCEIVABLE". Meaning, "not capable of being imagined or grasped mentally." On that word, we have two news items to go over today.
Firstly INCONCEIVABLE is the fact that the employees of Canada Post could not have known that they were kicking CHRISTMAS directly in its decorative holiday balls when they decided that RIGHT NOW would be the perfect time for a postal strike. It is INCONCEIVABLE that these VERY MINOR GRIEVANCES did not exist several months prior, or that they could not wait for two more months to be dealt with.
No. Rather, the UNION OF POSTAL COMMUNICATIONS EMPLOYEES have chosen the most hurtful possible time to strike, so that they could twist the knife and say, "Hey everybody who isn't us, FUCK YOU! We have a problem with our employers regarding short-term disability and sick leave policies, and so you're all going to hear about it! We're well-coddled employees who haven't been coddled quite enough, so little Jimmy isn't going to get his present this year! TAKE THAT."
Well done MAIL-TROLLS, well done. You know, my father has been busting his ass in small manufacturing for the better part of 40 years. He's a craftsman of extraordinary skill, but he doesn't get the cushy benefits or vast overpayment of unionized employees. He has to start work at 6AM and bust his ass under a rather out-of-touch management because he has a family to help support. So when I hear about people who dig trenches or lick stamps or mop floors whining because they're not satisfied with the deductibles they have to pay on their comprehensive employee family dental plan, I just want to say FUCK YOU. I'll always remember my blue-collar roots, but as far as I'm concerned, unionized employees are nothing but spoiled whiners who have forgotten what it really means to BUST YOUR ASS FOR THE MAN.
Well, now that I've set myself up for a targeted mob hit, let me move on to my next beef: PIRATES.
Now before I piss off a whole new group of people, let me clarify that I'm not talking about those dashing, Georgian-Victorian era, rum-drinking, Jack-Sparrow-and-friend-esque novelties. NO, SIR. I'm talking about cutthroat Somalis who would feed their own grandmother a live hand-grenade to make a quick buck.
And so it is INCONCEIVABLE that in this modern age, a ragtag group of Somalis could overrun and hijack one of the largest and most advanced oil tankers in the world. It is further INCONCEIVABLE that this unprecedented and brazen attack, which stole ONE QUARTER of Suadi Arabia's total daily oil output, seems to be going completely ignored by the United States of America.
Yes, we seem to be readily able to send thousands of young Americans TO THEIR DEATHS and spend BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in a naive attempt to secure a U.S.-friendly outpost in the oil-rich middle-east. But apparently we can't send a few navy vessels out to slaughter a few dozen pirates who, (unlike random Iraqi citizens unlucky enough to be caught in some crossfire) deserve to be slaughtered, because they represent an ACTUALLY GENUINE threat both to global security, AND the primary energy source of the United States.
Are the big governments of the world really going to let this go unpunished? Soon enough, pirates will look at this incident and say to themselves: "SHIT, SON! We can get away with ANYTHING." If governments know what's good for them, they'll send some elite ops agents in under the cover of night to slit some throats and save the hostages.
There's childhood of course. And adulthood. But there is also that in-betweeny stage often known broadly as "YOUTH". That is, the point where your body has matured to adulthood but your mind is not quite there yet. So to be honest, most of us turned thirty a while ago. We became adults with husbands/wives, with kids, with careers and/or serious career aspirations.
Thirty really is just a number. Your youth only ends when you decide its time.
Thanks to my wonderful friends for indulging one of my fantasies and throwing me an actually-very-surprising surprise party. I feel very loved.
Special thanks are due to my darling Angela for getting the ball rolling. I love you honeybunny. :-)
Posted at 08:23 AM
11-05-08
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Don't wake me up.
Jesse Jackson is openly crying tears of joy. A huge crowd is cheering in Chicago. The streets of cities are filled with people honking their horns and cheering. This feels like a dream; a wonderful, impossible dream that any moment will fade into the wakefulness of cold, repressive reality.
I said it this morning, and Andrew said it of me when he saw my face today, without any prompting: it feels like for the past eight years a huge weight has been on my mind, and today that weight has been lifted off. For the first time since the beginning of this decade, I feel hope for the world. I feel as if the future holds peace and opportunity instead of war and dystopia.
In my more fanciful moments, I've thought myself an empath. That is, my mind is inundated by the emotions of those around me. Whether supernatural or simply perceptive, the sense other people's emotions is constantly with me. Sometimes I just need to be alone to block it all out and have my own, private feelings. But last night, and this morning, I feel this enormous upswelling of love and hope, like a warm glow all around me. I feel like the human condition is something to be proud of, not ashamed of.
It takes a unique elixir of elements to create this kind of worldwide excitement about a politician. First, it pretty much has to be a U.S. president. The U.S., though waning, is still the dominant superpower in the world. They, as a nation, are an entity around which so many other nations can rally. They're the leader of the western world, of democracies, and of the modern time.
The second element is unfortunately a negative one: it takes a strongly disliked predecessor. I won't mince any words: George W. Bush was the worst president of the United States ever. There is no president who in modern times has done so much to harm the security of the world. There is no president who has done so much in the recent era to make democratic nations dislike and distrust America. There is no modern U.S. president who has presided under such an infamous banner of war, torture, fear, and Orwellian erosion of civil liberties. And there is certainly no president who has come so close to turning the secular United States into some sort of Christian oligarchy. Whether you are a liberal or a conservative does not matter, these facts remain. Were George W. Bush the leader of any other nation, he would be facing war crimes trials and impeachment today. But being an American president carries a certain amount of immunity.
The last, and most singularly important element, is that the politician be a great leader, and a great human being. President-Elect Barack Obama is both of these things. He tries to challenge his citizens instead of oversimplifying or dumbing-down discussion of the issues. He talks about engaging the population in politics and getting people out to vote, regardless of their political stripes. He talks about representing ALL Americans, not just the ones who voted for him. He talks about earning back the trust of other nations.
But most importantly Barack Obama embodies a very special idea. Not just through his eloquent words and indomitable spirit, but through the very colour of his skin. It is the idea that if we put our minds to something, if we fight long enough and hard enough, we CAN make our dreams a reality; we CAN change ourselves for the better; and we CAN make the world a better place.
Congratulations to PRESIDENT Barack Obama and hs amazing, well-deserved victory. This is truly the beginning of a new era of openness and peace for the entire world. The first INTERRACIAL president of the United States. Let me not me the first, nor the last, to say: YES WE CAN.
As for President George W. Bush, it's been a long eight years. FUCK YOU. You will NOT be missed.
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