not at work

My day off Tuesday reminded me of a question I often ask myself. What's with all the activity around town during typical office and school hours? In retrospect, since I don't know the answer I am probably the wrong person for me to ask.

It seems any time I am not at work on a typical work day I notice a ton of people who are out and about going about their lives and not in the office. I know that a percentage of people are retired and a percentage are homemakers, but not everyone looks like they fall into these categories.

This is what struck me the most about how busy the library was on Tuesday. It was a time when most people are in work, but a large number of people were reading magazines or surfing the net at the library.

When I am out and I see people who I would assume would be in an office at that moment I start wondering. Are they actually working and I don't know it? Do they work weird hours? Are they currently out of work? Are they trust fund babies? Are they on a vacation? Are they full-time students? How is it that they don't have to be physically at work right now? I'd like to know.

livin' la library loca

I took the day off work yesterday and studied at the library for most of the day for my Accounting final. If you don't know what is coming next, you haven't been reading this blog for long. Here's my bulleted list of random thoughts and observations from yesterday.

• Before I went to the library I stopped by the bank to deposit that $20 reimbursement check I got a month ago. I ate breakfast in the parking lot at the bank and noticed that cars were going through the drive-through. I planned on using one of the deposit slips available inside the bank so I walked up to the door and found it locked. That was enjoyable, since several employees were able to watch me perfectly. Apparently, the drive-through opens an hour before the rest of the bank.
• When I got to the library it was about five minutes till nine. It was obvious that the library opened at nine because there was a large group of people (about ten) waiting for the place to open. I have to wonder about people who get up early in the morning and stand in the rain to get into the library as soon as it opens.
• As soon as the library opened, I got out of the car and walked for what was probably twenty seconds to get into the building. What was weird was that everyone in the library had the look like they had been there for a while rather that twenty seconds. It's hard to explain.
• There were posters up for National Hispanic Heritage Month. Two thoughts on that. First, it goes from September 15 to October 15. I'd love to hear why they didn't just pick September or October. Second, the posters were obviously aged, and one was specific to the year 2001. I wonder how many years' use they will get out of those posters.
• There are a ton of people who use the library in the late morning and early afternoon on Tuesday. I'd expect that on Saturday, but Tuesday?
• Two different groups reserved the same conference room at the same time. I got to witness the confusion. Good times.
• All through the test my stomach was making noises. It sounded like I was releasing gas throughout the test. That is definitely not what I was doing.
• My plan really worked out. Taking a day off to study helped me out a lot with my test.

spilled milk

Last night I ran out of milk in the middle of pouring a bowl of cereal. I don't really like opening a new bottle because the first little bit has a habit of dribbling down the side of the bottle, but I didn't have a choice unless I wanted dry cereal.

As I was pulling the plastic ring off the cap so I could open the bottle it stuck and the cap flew off spilling a bit of milk in the process. My immediate reaction was to get mad at the cap. I realized that was stupid, so I decided to get mad at the machinery that created the cap. That was more logical. After I spent a little time cleaning up I realized that even this was stupid.

Why is it that every time something mildly irritating happens my first reaction is to want to blame something or someone else? I think it is that it removes responsibility from me. I was aggravated that I had to clean up and I didn't want to be aggravated at myself.

I think this offers some explanation about how issues can escalate so quickly. If somebody cuts me off, I don't want to believe that it is because I didn't allow him the right-of-way earlier when I should have. I want to just think that the guy is a jerk. I am sure that a lot of other issues, both those with which I am involved and those I am not, would go away if people would stop and think through how stupid the anger is. That would take the fun out of being angry, though.

yankees, go home

I mentioned earlier that I have been a Detroit Tiger fan for a while. As a result, I haven't watched many postseason baseball games with much interest in my short lifetime. Not only have I watched my team decline from bad to worse over the years, I have also watched as some teams amassed all-star lineups for big bucks to essentially buy the World Series.

All this combined to make the past weekend, when the Tigers literally stunned and annihilated the Yankees, a very good weekend for me. The Yankees have a team payroll of just under $200 million dollars. The Red Sox, who are second on the list of how much teams spend, have a payroll nearly $80 million less than this. Because the Yankees have seemed so set on buying the World Series I have viewed the organization as the personification of evil in baseball.

Fortunately, of the top ten spending teams, only the Mets (number five on the list) have not already been eliminated. I'd like to see them go soon as well.

Now that the Yankee players don't have the postseason to keep them busy, here's a list of the top ten things they can do with the $200 million they made this past year.

10. Buy thousands of tokens for the batting cages at the local putt putt place to improve follow through.

9. Keep cable payments up to date so that they can watch the remaining postseason games that show on ESPN.

8. Pool together resources to hire a hit man to take out the pitching staff for whoever next year's postseason opponent is.

7. Increase payments to BALCO.

6. Start an advertising campaign to encourage Steinbrenner to spend $300 million next year.

5. Create own periodical so there will be at least one local newspaper that isn't calling for A-Rod's head.

4. Buy an endless supply of glasses with fake noses so as not to be recognized on the street.

3. Purchase the Detroit Tigers organization and rename it to "The Yankees" to have some playoff wins on the record.

2. Blow it on meaningless junk that will never make anyone happy.

1. Buy tickets to Mets games.

personal constellations

Pepi: "Tell me more! I want to know all the constellations!"
Homer Simpson: "Well, that one's Jerry, the cowboy. And that big-dipper-looking thing is Alan... the cowboy."

Like the above quote from The Simpsons attests, people like to see familiar things in randomness. Few of the constellations look anything like what they are supposed to portray, but that has not kept humanity from seeing fish, or scorpions, or twins, or bulls, or hunters up there. I am apparently no different.

Any time I visit the bathroom or I lay in bed and have the chance to look at a wall, ceiling, floor, or anything else that looks textured or dotted or splotchy, I see a face or animal or something like that. It is not voluntary. I assume most other people are like that, though I also assume that some people are more prone than others to let their attention be pulled to what might be seen in the texture of a wall.

I find it fascinating that, even though I might look at the same wall day after day I will see something different each time. I usually can't even find the face or animal that I noticed the previous time I looked at that patch of wall.

Sometimes I will be so intrigued about some new character that I noticed on the wall that I get spaced out and get lost in imagination about what that character might be doing in his or her current pose. A few days ago in the shower I determined that the Uncle Sam character that my mind had put together was himself lost in thought with his head turned away from me and leaning on his elbow. Kind of like a nonchalant cowboy.

sales strategy

Every time I visit the grocery store any more there is some group trying to sell me something as I enter. On Saturday it was a boy scout troop that was selling popcorn.

I usually am willing to buy a small item to help out the people trying to sell, because it is invariably a large group of kids with two or three adults. It's probably better that they are at the store than going door to door, for safety reasons if nothing else. I don't go out of my way, though.

Back to the story. I was given the typical, "would you be willing to buy..." line as I approached the doors. I commented, as I always do, that I prefer not to purchase items on the way in, but I might buy on the way out. I quickly forgot about the kids and went about my shopping.

On the way out I made sure that I had cash available so I wouldn't have to fumble with my wallet when asked to buy popcorn again. I usually like to make the process as quick as possible because, as far as I am concerned, I am still grocery shopping if I haven't left the parking lot yet. I don't like to shop for groceries for too long.

As I stepped out the door I saw two kids walk my direction. "Here it is," I thought. "It's time to buy the popcorn." Then, to my surprise, I noticed that the kids were walking not toward me, but toward a lady behind me who was trying to enter the store. The kids were apparently explicitly targeting people walking into the store rather than walking out.

What makes this story a little more humorous is that this is the second time in two weeks that something like this has happened to me. The last time I went grocery shopping some kids tried to make the sale on the way in, but not on the way out. Their loss.

klutz

I think I must have had an inner ear problem yesterday. Here's a laundry list of my mistakes on Sunday.

• I was trying to pick up NJ in Sunday School from under a table and bumped his head against the table. It wasn't a hard bump and he was already crying, but since it moved the table some people snickered. It didn't hurt NJ, but it probably made half the class think he may need to be kept away from his dad.
• At the end of class I tipped my cup up to finish my iced tea, and a stream ran from the corner of my mouth down my shirt. This amused several.
• To get a ladder out of the garage I needed to shift some stuff around. As I was moving the weedwacker in a hunched over position I didn't realize that I had moved under some shelves. The neighbors may have seen it because the garage door was open, but I think I was the only person around to get any enjoyment out of that event.
• Later in the day NJ was crying, so I grabbed him and sat down on the floor to give him some attention. As I was holding him I leaned back and banged my head against our rocking chair. NJ smiled, but I have my doubts that his smile was connected to my throbbing head.
• As we were leaving home groups I picked up the baby carrier with NJ inside and promptly banged it against the banister. NJ didn't react, but a few others did.

I'd say more, but I think it's safer if I sit in one location and don't do anything for a while.