Campfyre Stories

I can’t be the only one who feels like the political affiliation labels that we have come to take for granted are more and more outdated and inaccurate with every passing election.  With the mid-term elections rapidly approaching, I have found myself subjected to more and more Republican vs. Democrat bullshit than I can really remember seeing in the past.

The problem that I have is this:  Once upon a time, within my lifetime, someone could say "I’m a Republican" or "I’m a Democrat" and you could quickly and easily gauge their overall beliefs, in a very generalized way.  Democrats were for larger government, social programs, and didn’t mind raising taxes to achieve their goals.  Republicans were more interested in less governmental interference, more state rights and less spending, which meant that with the social program cuts, they could lower taxes.  This isn’t really the case anymore.

These days when you hear Republican or Democrat you hear words and phrases like "wishy-washy", "corrupt", "pork barrel spending", "pro/anti War in Iraq", "religious", etc. which, to me, doesn’t really, or at least shouldn’t sum up what it means to affiliate politically.

There are a lot of people I know who call me a hippie.  I can only assume that they really don’t know what it means to be a hippie, don’t know me as well as they think they do, or judge my philosophical ideals based on the way I dress.  I am not nearly liberal enough to be a "hippie".  My mother calls me a libertarian, but honestly, I don’t quite fit that mold either.  I tend to call myself a Jeffersonian Democrat, which confuses and confounds people who think that it means Democrat in the 21st (or even 20th) century definition.  It doesn’t, it actually more means Republican in a lot of ways.  Look up what it was that Jefferson believed in terms of government.  I think there are a lot more people who subscribe to that than anyone would guess.

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… I chronicle the travels of others.

Sort of.

You see, I collect post cards.  This is the only "collection" that I’ve kept for any extended period of time and have been collecting them for over a decade and a half.  The only thing is that I collect postcards that are sent, specifically, to me.  I don’t collect old postcards sent to other people, that would defeat my whole concept.

People have a habit, when they go away (especially to exotic locations) to ask "Can I bring you anything back?"  I always answer with "Send me a postcard."  To me, this is cheap and easy, but not everyone thinks so.  It can be difficult to find a mailbox in an unfamiliar location and buying stamps is something a lot of people, oddly to my thinking, don’t like to do.  But most people do send the postcards, and then are a little surprised at how long it takes for them to arrive.

But, to me, postcards are a fascinating phenomenon.  They never arrive before the person gets home.  It’s like some cosmic postcard rule.  Even the ones that come from halfway around the world and are sent 2 weeks before the sender comes home will arrive the day after they do.  I don’t make the rules, but the postcards follow them.

My collection has personal rules to make it more interesting to me.  The primary one is that they must be postmarked.  It doesn’t have to be from the specific place where they were purchased, but it should be somewhere along your journey.  Sometimes people will send me postcards from their home base as well.  Usually it’s because they found one that made them think of me.  Those are *always* welcome.  I’ve even had postcard swaps with people I knew from message boards, because I knew they could get me places that few people would wind up visiting.  In return, I sent postcards of landmarks in my area with historical facts or personal stories to go along with them.

One of the more interesting aspects, I find, to postcards is what gets written on them.  There is no standard dictate of what *should* be there, and I’ll get varying degrees of depth and detail, and also varying sizes of letters, depending on how much the person wants to say - if anything.

The most amusing postcard I’ve ever received was blank except for the address, which was written in tiny letters.  Upon his return, the friend who sent it to me said that the people in the post office had given him the strangest look, but he wasn’t sure if I wanted anything written on it.  He was worried that might defeat the purpose.  It’s possibly, for that reason, my most unusual postcard in the collection.

Most recently, I received a series of 5 postcards, chronicling a trip a friend of mine took to the west coast.  She and the person she was visiting spent most of their time in the car, driving from point to point and seeing incredible sites.  Each postcard had a different short message on it and I have a feeling she started running out of ideas somewhere along the line because one of them just said "Hi Fyre!  Love Miz"  They ALL made me smile.

Most of the time, they come to my real name.  Every now and again, I’ll get a postcard addressed to FyreGoddess.  Either way, postcards are always well-received and I usually share them (with very few and rare exceptions).

And I always send postcards when _I_ travel, which has been rather rare of late…  and sometimes I send them for the simple cliched reason that a picture is worth a thousand words, with little more than "Thinking of you…" written on the back.

To me, just the simple gesture of a postcard is meaningful, especially in this technology-driven, information highway age.  A postcard requires fewer words than an email and it has that personal touch that few people are familiar with in their communication these days.  I suppose there’s an air of nostalgia for postal mail, but that’s not why I do it.  I do it because I like to get mail and firmly believe that other people also like to get mail.  And postcards are more fun than almost anything else, except maybe packages. 

This is why I’m not posting.  I’m annoyed, in general, with most everything.

This week and last week went by FAR TOO SLOWLY.  Last week I spent all of Friday morning saying "This is ridiculous, I should still be sleeping right now."  Really, right about now it should be Friday.  I really wish that I were able to sleep in tomorrow, since…

I haven’t really been sleeping these days, which may be because…

My entire body aches.  And I think the ache is moving around.  Right now it’s in my right leg, somewhere near the knee…  last night it was in the right thigh.  By tomorrow it should be my ankles and then it will move to a random starting point, like my shoulder.  It’s like it’s dancing through my body, but it’s more of a death dance than a happy dance.

I really don’t like this job, especially right now.  I already have a low opinion of people as a whole and this job simply reinforces those feelings.  I’m really getting tired of people asking me to do their job for them and when I refuse, assuming that I’m going to do it anyway?  The result of this is that two weeks after I say "No, I won’t do your job for you, but I’ll help you if you need it," they miss the deadline and then ask "So, did you do that?"  And because I didn’t, "Well now I’m in trouble!  How am I supposed to get this done now?"  Um…  you’re not.  You were supposed to get it done two weeks ago when I told you I wouldn’t do it for you.

I need to find a job where I can actually THINK about what I’m doing, instead of this mind-numbing crap of click, wait, click, select, wait, click over and over and over AND OVER.  I’m counting down the weeks until the contract ends.  Blah.

There’s this person that I know who I have come to believe is delusional.  I don’t mean in a joking "you’re crazy" kind of way, but actually, certifiably delusional.  Basically, this person thinks that there is this very specific way that life is "supposed" to be, and takes great pleasure in not fitting that mold, but this idea of normalcy is some kind of weird "Leave it to Beaver" reality this person thinks exists for most people.  I mean, how many times can you be told "You are not going to believe this!", only to have it turn out to be something so mundane that you, yourself, would never tell that particular story.  There’s not a lot of interest, it’s not a funny story, it’s just kind of like "Uh…  and what was the part I’m not going to believe?  Was it the part that you just told me this story for no reason at all?"

I’m also really tired of judgemental people who feel the need to say "I’m not a judgemental person, but…" and proceed to rush to judgement.  I know that I have a tendency to be judgemental myself, but I own up to that.  "I know I’m being judgemental, but I just have to say…"  For me, that blatant honesty and knowing what you’re doing when you’re being that kind of person goes a long way.

An opinion is an opinion is an opinion.  I don’t care who you are, you are entitled to your opinion, but incorrect "factual" assumptions are NOT opinions.  I don’t care who you are.  If it’s your opinion that Nixon was a good president, that’s fine.  However, if it is your opinion that Nixon was not a corrupt politician, then you’re WRONG.  This is just an example, but it conveys the feeling.  So he was corrupt, he was a criminal, he was convicted for the Watergate crimes and you can still think he was a good president, or that he did good things, but it doesn’t change the fact that he was a criminal and that he did some incredibly sleazy and corrupt things while in office.  Opinion DOES NOT EQUAL fact.  I don’t care if we’re talking about history, politics, literature or any other topic under the sun.  Holding an opinion does not equate to having the facts.  Learn the difference.  And, also, stop telling me that, while you don’t know anything about a particular topic, that your entirely uninformed opinion (which is really erroneous information) is as or more valid than mine, when I already told you that this is a topic I’ve studied!  In depth!  GAH!

Oh, and, just to make things even more peachy, I learned this morning that Mercury is in retrograde and has been for the past 2 weeks…  which explains a lot.  And I’m a Virgo.  So all you Virgos and Geminis out there…  you’re all pretty much fucked, too…  at least until November 1.  Which again, explains a LOT.  I need a countdown thinger for my website "Mercury enters retrograde again in XX days."  That would be helpful.  Or worrisome.  Maybe both.

But, because I don’t like being entirely pessimistic and down, the good of the now is that I have the Spawn this weekend - we’re only doing every other weekend now because he doesn’t want to take 2 buses to school, (don’t ask, I don’t want to talk about it.) and, as such, we are enjoying our time together a lot more.  I’m also down to 6 boxes of books (from over 20) and, while I only have one bookcase left, I think I’ll be unpacked as much as can be done by the end of the weekend, which means…

DECORATING!!!  Yay!  Hanging things on the walls always makes me happy, but it’s a little disconcerting to Spawn when I whip out the level to hang the pictures.  Hey…  with my drill and my level I am a happy Virgo decorator.  We’re almost there.  This is a very good thing.  It is the one thing that’s keeping me sane.

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I really never thought that I would be so thankful that so many of my plans fell through.  What with the unpacking that isn’t really getting done and the late nights, it’s a miracle that I am able to make it to work…  I was going to say "on time", but the reality is AT ALL.  Twice this week I almost just didn’t wake up.  Late and event-filled school nights will do that to you…

I’m amused in realizing that I’m not the only person (nor in a minority) who is out of school and still says "school nights".

There are a million ladybugs crawling on the outside walls of my building at work.  Well, not so much right now, in the rain, but yesterday…  They really liked the gauzy outfit I was wearing and I found myself bringing quite a few of them inside unintentionally.  I can’t think of a time when I’ve seen so many ladybugs at once - especially on me.  It’s strange the amount of creatures that I see in this downtown/industrialish area.  I’m consistently surprised.

All week long I was a day ahead of myself.  It wasn’t until yesterday morning that I got that horrible realization of "Oh, it’s only Thursday".  Which means even though (in my mind) it is supposed to be Saturday, it’s not actually.  It’s only Friday and I have to make it through this gray and boring day.  Blah.  Really, I should still be asleep right now.

Oh well, it will just make tomorrow all the sweeter…  or something.  I don’t know.

My intention, as of Saturday, was to spend the week unpacking and settling in.  Saturday and Sunday were devoted, almost entirely, to unpacking and getting things somewhat sorted out.

And then life happened.

Monday, as I was wandering around the neighborhood, taking my leisurely time, my mother called to find out if I wanted to go with her and her partner to see The US vs. John Lennon.  Knowing that I wasn’t going to find anyone else who wanted to go (at least not before it left the theater), I said yes and they immediately came to pick me up.  In a few days I’ll have a review up on the Firing Range.  I got home just in time for Heroes and went to bed.

Tuesday is my regular movie night with Princess, and has been for the past 3 or 4 years now.  We do dinner and a movie (not necessarily in that order) and this week was no exception.  I got home some time after 10, did a bit of light cleaning, took out the trash and went to bed.  Early that morning, I got an email from my mother telling me that there are things wrong with her computer and can I come and fix it.  I explained that I’m pretty booked up, but can look when I come to dinner on Thursday, but I need Wednesday to work on the apartment and try to make some progress.  She said that if I would feel her, RC2 and the Child of Chaos, she and RC2 would help me to unpack…  I’m sure CoC will "help", too, but whether or not she will actually be a help remains to be seen.  (It’s unlikely, she’s not even 3 yet.)

So that leads into tonight when I have to cook a meal and still try to unpack.  Thursday is dinner at Mom’s and fixing her computer.  Friday is (probably) poker.  As much as I really want to play, I won’t be heartbroken if the game gets cancelled…  Saturday is another movie, Spawn and I are joining Princess to see the Prestige.

So I’m *in* the apartment, but I can’t seem to get the time to really settle in.  I guess that’s ok, though, I’d rather be social and busy than bored and stuck in the house…  that tower of books will wait for me.  I’d just really like to get to the decorating part of things…

The actual move took about 4 hours, but we got everything.  Two adult men, two adult women and two teenagers.  All told it was much less obnoxious than I feared it would be.

Saturday night Spawn and I (with some help from RC2) got the living room in some semblance of order (although the tower of boxes of books will likely remain a tower for some time, since that’s a lower priority).  Sunday, Spawn had a friend over who busted his butt along with us and we got the kitchen mostly in order.  Sunday we also brought the cats home and they are happy to be there - much more so than I anticipated.

People keep telling me that unpacking is the hard part.  Personally, I find it the fun part.  Finding things I haven’t had access to, putting things up on the walls, figuring out where everything is going to go…  I enjoy that, and it won’t take too long.

The hard part, really, is figuring out what I don’t actually have, especially since I got rid of some very stupid things, like the bedframes…  the trash bin…  the dish drainer.  Don’t ask me what I was thinking, the reality is, I wasn’t.  I also have to stock my shelves from nothing, so all the things you don’t often have to buy, well, I have to buy EVERYTHING - all the basics.

It’s not too bad, though.  I’m enjoying the process of settling in and I think we’re all going to be happy here.

Now I just have to deal with all the administrative details…  changing my address, getting my mail forwarded correctly, getting the internet hooked up.  But I’ll get there…

A little background to start this off:

Up until maybe 2 years ago, the Irreverent Questions were a regular thing.  They were weekly for a while, then I had to scale back to monthly.  At some point I stopped doing it, in part because I lost interest, in part because I just wasn’t coming up with them as often as I wanted, but I think it’s time to get back into it.

(This one’s for the ladies:)

If you were walking down the street in 3" heels and one of them broke would you take both shoes off and go barefoot or break the heel off the other shoe and keep wearing them?

Keep in mind that there may be other answers than the two proposed.  Having asked this to 4 women so far, the answers I received were:

Barefoot.  Why?

Break off the other heel, of course.  You never know what’s going to be on the street - glass, crud, etc.

I would go to the nearest shoe repair place and get it fixed.  Why ruin a perfectly good pair of shoes?

Barefoot.  Unless there was nasty crap on the street, in which case I would take a cab.  Why ruin the other shoe?

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I GOT AN APARTMENT!!!

It’s gorgeous and ridiculously inexpensive and I can move in sometime next week! Woo Hoo!

I wrong a long, complainy post about something else, but scroot! I’m too happy about this to ruin it.

Maybe I’ll post that some other time. For now, I’m jumping up and down at only being transient for another week!