Day: August 14, 2004

Insanity is harsh, but when I sit down at the computer at 11:45 totally frazzled from 90 minutes of screaming, my creative juices are slow to work their magic. M. was in all kinds of weird moods today. She had a pretty good night of sleep, even spending the time from 6:00 to 8:30 AM in her crib. She woke around 10:30 or so for a feed, and really never got back to a deep sleep until 5:00. Both S. and I were a little frustrated because we didn’t have our regular two-hour blocks of freedom. After her nap, though, she was an angel. One of my sisters-in-law came over for dinner and M. just sat in her arms for an hour without making a noise. Well, she made some noises that began in her bowels so we laid her down to change her, prepared for the usual outburst. Not a peep. She just sat there and let us change and clean her. She dropped another load minutes later, and the same story for that change. We fed her around 9:30 and something there set her off. She howled from around 10:00 until around 11:30. It was one of those outbursts that nothing seemed to stem and brought mom and dad to the verge of their own tears. I haven’t heard a peep from the living room for 30 minutes (Granted, the iPod is cranked up) so, knock on wood, perhaps the storm has passed.

Long time readers of my work (I’m talking pre-blog work; back in the days of the ER list and the 80s trivia list) will recall I had an affinity towards boycotts. If something pissed me off, I boycotted it. That all came to a screeching halt when Masters Newman, Allison, and Lancaster forced me to break my seven year, idiotic boycott of Jack’s Stack one day at lunch. They actually had no idea of the boycott, and I sheepishly admitted it after I tasted how good the food truly was. I went back twice in the next month. Anyway, my point is while I’ve gotten off the whole boycott thing, I’m still a big fan of pet peeves. I have one new one, and was reminded of a classic one I feel obligated to share with the group.
The new one is people who have license plates saying that they’re the “Number One Fan” of team/school X. This really pisses me off. First off, unless you’re 11, you should never think you’re the number one fan of a team. There’s always someone more committed, more rabid, more mentally ill than you are somewhere that’s giving 1000% to the team compared to your 120%. Second, you picked this license plate off a rack that had 20 more just like them. Think about that for a second. There were opportunities for 20 more people to make the same claim, yet you still bought the damn license plate. Did you think they took the rest off the shelves one you carried yours out the door? Stick to a simple logo license plate, please.
The old pet peeve I was reminded of is far more serious. These dump trucks that rumble around, spreading debris and cracking windshields with the disclaimer to stay back 200 feet painted on the back really piss me off. First off, is that a legal defense? Can I put a sign on my truck telling people to stay off my ass, and then if I slam on my brakes for no reason and they hit me, they’re liable? What really gets me going is the fact that if you paint this on a vehicle, should they not ever, under any circumstances, pass another vehicle? How can I stay 200 feet back if the asshole driving the truck blew by me at 10 MPH over the speed limit? There’s a part of me that’s always secretly wants to take a rock from a dump truck in the windshield just so I could have a heart attack over the matter. I hate those things. Am I alone here? Is this thing on?

OK, I feel better after sharing those things. This next week is going to be different, at least I hope so. I’m going to try to get myself into a routine. I need to start studying for the GREs. I need to get back out running again. And I need to be more consistent posting about subjects other than my daughter’s excrement. I shall try to do much better so you have a reason to check daily again. Since I’ll be a captive audience for the Olympics, that should generate some ideas.