Campfyre Stories

It’s just a blah kind of day.  Rainy and grey and while it’s exceptionally warm outside (you know, for mid-JANUARY), it’s still just kind of blah.  It doesn’t feel like a Friday, but thank gods tomorrow is Saturday.  I intend to sleep.  A lot.

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My free time for the year is already started to get sucked up.  In addition to the two weddings that I know I will be attending (in March and May), I’ve been asked to plan for a few other things already this month.  None of it I mind, but it’s strange to watch my free time for the YEAR rapidly diminish, especially since I vastly prefer to be much more last-minute about things.  Will I attend the breakfast the morning after the out-of town wedding?  Um…  I don’t know.  Do I really want to get a room and spend the night in Mass?  I’m already planning to rent a car and, of course, buy a gift…  I have no idea now…  I can’t imagine I’m going to have any more of an idea by the deadline.  I hate having to make these sorts of decisions so far in advance.  I’m thinking about saying yes primarily so that I can give my brother my apartment for an overnight. 

In about two weeks, I’m going to have a car for 5 days.  I’m already finding that my time that weekend is disappearing rapidly.  A trip to the Salvation Army to get rid of the things that have been accumulating is top on my list, but also I’d like to do something with my niece, like the planetarium (is 4 too young for that?) or something else that’s both fun and educational.  There goes that time, all for having a vehicle at my disposal.

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Finally, FINALLY people are starting to talk about politics.  It’s starting to get loud and I love it!  So let me tell you what I’m looking for…  I am an Edwards supporter, as many of you already know.  I spend a lot of time speaking against the other candidates, with reasons why I don’t support them (both Democratic and Republican) and less time about why I support Edwards.  So I want people, I REALLY WANT for people to tell me why not Edwards.  Of all the conversations I’ve had, the only negatives people have given are either superficial and personal attacks ($400 haircut, ambulance chaser) or are just plain wrong and lies (he’s from a privileged family, doesn’t speak about the working class from a personal perspective - too far removed from it).

I’m really looking for people to show me the downside and the reasons that he is not a good candidate.  Not necessarily on the blog, in the comments, but email me, talk to me, but give me reasons that YOU don’t like Edwards…  and make them not be superficial.  I can do it for any one of your candidates, my challenge here is that someone, ANYONE do it for mine.

And please explain to me why his campaign is getting virtually no media coverage.

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It’s really hard to get back into the swing of things after the holidays.  After two months with many 3 or 4-day weeks, it’s difficult to readjust to 5 days a week, every week.  Not only that, but at the moment there is little to no work to be done in the division where I work, let alone for me specifically.  Being bored sure doesn’t make the day go by faster.  I would so much rather be productive…

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…and with too much time, my mind starts to wander.  Over the past couple of days a song has been writing itself in my head.  The real problem I have with this is that it sounds like a show tune, and I’m wondering, should I really consider writing a musical to accompany the song that is attempting to be written?  I have, after all, been intending to write a screenplay of sorts to submit to a short film contest later in the year…

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I think this coming weekend is going to be the last one I have truly free for a while.  I intend to not do anything and enjoy that I have that luxury for two days.  However, I am prepared for popularity, just kind of hoping against it, since I’m sure I’ll get my fill very shortly.

But I think I’m going to spend most of the weekend actively working to keep healthy, since so many people around me are getting sick.  Plenty of rest, lots of juice and maybe a couple of movies (for the *mental* health part )

I get a kick out of doing nice things for people I don’t know.  I remember when the concept of "Random Acts of Kindness" came out, but I’ll be honest, my acts of kindness to strangers aren’t as random as all that.  In fact, they’re not random at all.

Last week, after having the worst day ever (so bad I didn’t even blog it) I was on the bus when a woman with a baby asked me if I had change for a $5.  I didn’t, so she started to pack up her baby and take her off the bus into the ridiculous cold and bitter winds.  She was apparently heading to the store across the street to get change, so instead of watching that happen (and her missing the bus and have to wait 15 minutes in the wind and cold) I gave her a dollar.  It’s a small thing, but it made a difference and, had she actually gotten off the bus with her baby, that dollar would have been a much bigger thing than it was in the moment.

It was not random.

People often ask for a cigarette.  Sometimes they offer to buy it, but, either way, as long as I have enough, I’ll pass one on (and decline payment).  Most people who bum a smoke have fire, but I always ask.  Yesterday a woman came up to me to bum a *light*, she had smokes, but no fire.  Well it just so happened that I have a lighter that’s going to die soon.  Soon enough that I really shouldn’t be carrying it anymore, and I’ve since restocked my fire supply.  Instead of just giving her a light and going on my way I said, "Oh, wait, this one is close to dead, you can have it".  She checked, saw that it worked and thanked me.

It was not random.

That same woman came out of her movie just as we came out of ours.  Tears were streaming down her face as she had just seen Atonement.  I asked her what movie she saw, then gave her a tissue.  It was a little thing.  It was a kindness.  It was not random.

Holding the door because you see someone coming, letting someone pass you because you’re not in a hurry, smiling, saying "good morning"…  these things that we do, these are not random.  They are kindness, but they always happen for a reason.  One Christmas my brother and I bought a couple of cups of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and gave them to homeless people.  The only thing that was random was which homeless people got them.

These are calculated acts of kindness.  They are designed to not only help someone else out, but to give us a boost for a moment because we’ve done something good for anyone at all.

I think that "random" acts of kindness don’t really happen.  For it to really be random it would have to be pretty spontaneous.  I don’t know if you could go into a situation saying "I’m going to do something nice…" and still consider it random.  It’s random, maybe, on the receiving end, but not on the giving side.

But, you know, I think that the calculated acts of kindness are even better because they get passed around.  Not always directly, but in some way.  I do something nice for a stranger and either that person passes it on or someone who witnessed it will be affected and be generous, helpful or kind in their own way.

I think I’m not going to consider them random anymore, though…  unless, of course, one of them *happens* to me.

The 2008 Presidential Matching Quiz.

And the top *viable* candidate is the one that I’ve thrown my support behind.

Finish Reading »

Outside, it’s a beautiful spring day.  Sunny, 50ish degrees.  Oh…  wait…  it’s early JANUARY!  Tomorrow is supposed to be 62!!!  Of course, I had to oversleep *last* Thursday and walk in bitter wind and cold, but SIXTY-TWO in January, in the Northeast?  There is something not right about that.

Meanwhile, on the left coast, the winds are so high that they’re closing down the bridges because of safety concerns.  Apparently, it’s so bad that vehicles were literally being blown over!  They’re also getting snow in a number of places and much of the state is without power.

Meanwhile, in the Nevada desert: there was a massive flood, which then FROZE.

I looked at the national temperature map and it looked reversed…  like the east was getting the typical weather of the west and vice-versa, but I have to admit, it kind of scares me.  For all the denials of "global warming", you really can’t deny the fact that the climate is changing, and in very bizarre ways.  As much as I appreciate a few days of warm, spring-like weather, probably enough to melt the accumulation of snow, I also know that January is not supposed to be like this.  I also know that the desert is not supposed to flood, then freeze.  I mean, seriously. 

I don’t know that there’s really any answer to it.  Even if it is a human-caused problem, fixing it is going to take a whole lot longer than the next couple of winters, for sure.  Not that I’m not going to enjoy the "thaw", but at the same time, it’s tempered by concern for the longer-term prospects.

YAY YAY YAY!  I found a list of all the movies that were released in 2007.

Here’s the game:

Below the jump you will find a list of ALL the movies that were released in 2007.  BOLD all the movies you’ve seen, with italics for the ones you intend to see again (or to own, or have already bought or seen more than once).  Strike through the ones you wish you hadn’t seen and place an asterisk (*) next to the ones you intend to see (either in the theater or on DVD).
Finish Reading »

I overslept by a half hour, which meant I missed the bus.  It also meant that I had to walk the two miles into work, which isn’t usually a problem, unless, you know, it’s 0 (that’s Z-E-R-O) degrees out, with a wind chill of -15.  Oh yeah, fun times.  Add to that the fact that the city, in its infinite wisdom determined that the *best* place to dump the plowed snow is ON THE SIDEWALK.  And then didn’t shovel or plow or blow or whatever the bridge…  or the sidewalk.

So I’m walking in…  and it’s cold out, but I’m dressed properly and I have all the accessories - hat, scarf, gloves, (headphones) - when some guy shouts to me in a scolding way, "Where.  Are.  Your.  Gloves?"  And I look down at the pale pink gloves that I’m wearing and hold up my hands to the guy.  "They’re pink," I said, not really having anything else to reply.  "Good girl," he said.

And it occurred to me that I see people every day who simply do not know how to dress for the cold.  A refusal to wear a hat, or forgetting their gloves at home or not owning scarf or eschewing layers as "too much work".  These people would be SCREWED if their car broke down on the way home or if any circumstances arose where they needed to be outside.  And it’s bigger even than simple ignorance, it’s really about a greater reliance on cars than I had really realized until now.

Even the people I know who KNOW how to dress for the cold usually don’t.  They save it until they’re going skiing or hunting or (what is wrong with these people???) winter camping.  Unless they are specifically in the wilderness or the country, they do not apply their knowledge of how to dress for cold weather, relying instead on their warm car and insufficient jacket.  And that’s all well and good, I suppose, until you consider that it’s always possible that you’ll run out of gas or something will go wonky in your engine or you’ll find yourself in a car accident.  And, my friends, at that point, in -15 degree weather, it would not take long for hypothermia to set in.

The reality here is that we ALL know how cold it is outside because we ALL have to go out in it to some extent.  You don’t look cool or tough for not wearing a hat or gloves with your fall-appropriate motorcycle jacket, you look like a cold IDIOT.  And, honestly, many of us wonder about your sanity.  You don’t look sexy showing off your midriff with your short top and your low-rise pants, you look like a cold IDIOT who’s attempting to be sexy, but, honey, I gotta tell you, frostbite isn’t sexy…  it’s gross.

I can forgive not wearing a scarf because, as Spawn explained to me, "It feels like being strangled."  I have the same problem with turtlenecks, so, ok, just bundle and layer up.  Lack of scarf is forgivable and it’s generally not covering skin anyway, just helping to insulate at the neck, but HATS, people, and GLOVES.  Even that brief 5 or 10 minutes a day of exposure can turn into more and you know it’s going to be unexpectedly.  Depending on the weather, that 5 or 10 minutes of exposure can be enough, especially if you don’t know how to act, react and dress in cold weather.

Clearly, far too many people DON’T.

But kudos to the ones who do.  Probably you’ll live through the winter. 

Ringing in was quiet. Spawn and I played Trivial Pursuit (his first time!) and tied at 3 pieces each. Then we watched a movie, switched between crappy TV ball drops and he played his new video game until the wee hours of the morning. Not much else to say about it.

This morning I woke up in a panic, thinking that I was late for work (even though I had the day off), went back to sleep until it was time to make pancakes.

Burned the first TWO batches of pancakes.

The coffee pot went all wonky and messed up the last of the coffee in the house. (I salvaged it, but still some grounds in.)

Spawn grumped around as the teenager that he is.

But it’s not all bad. The first movie night (well, ok, afternoon) of the year had us seeing Juno, which was fantabulous. So at least it did pick up a bit. I even ran into my little brother, who told me he plans to come and hang out this evening, which is always a nice thing.

But, damn, what a way to start off the year. That said, last year started off really wonderfully with two friends from out of town, an excellent story I’m still not allowed to tell on the internet and crazy fun times. I suppose I’m okay with things starting off less than wonderful if it means that the rest of the year will be downhill… at least mostly.

Happy New Year to all of you. I wish you all the best that 2008 has to offer!