Friends, Failures and Frustration

The word of the week is expenditure.

July 4 - Summer SAD 

One would think it was still winter around these parts: overcast, temperatures in the low teens and brown grass. You'd also think I had a moderate case of SAD, as I've not picked up a book or played a game on the Xbox in over a month now - I've no desire to, as I'm losing patience both with work and with my job search. Along with ensuring that my budget plans are being met, little else seems to matter to me this summer, which I think has to do with my frustration over Vacation Denial. The old saying "No matter where you go, there you are" also comes to mind, as I realize I can be just as miserable visiting friends while on vacation as I can be here. Which only adds to my frustration as I ask: do I need a break from myself and if so, how?

July 5 - C. Difficile 

Moving to BC has had its ups and definite downs, but one of the main reasons to move my parents here was to improve my mother's health. Now that Niagara( and ON in general )is in the grip of a nasty drug-resistant strain of bug in its hospital system, I am doubly glad that my mother, with all of her various health problems, does not have to worry during the sizable amount of time she has( and will )spent in hospitals for her various ailments. It's worrying enough when a health problem arises and she has to be hospitalized; add on the very real possibility of catching a superbug and I can hear grey hairs popping into existence atop my head. I hope for all those in the affected hospitals in ON that methods arrive quickly to contain and then eliminate the outbreak of this superbug, which I also fear is a herald of things to come... 

July 6 - Relationships

Dating sites. They're like the romance novels of the internet: great covers, but the experience inside leaves you feeling let down for the money you paid( I'm sure there's a lesson in that ). For years I've popped around to various sites( paid and otherwise )in search of True Love, or at least a close approximation I might be able to live with; so far, no dice. Heck, I've been doing it so long that I'm a charter non-paying member of Match.com ... and it hurts to say that, as they've been charging fees since the year 2000! What I've found in the online experience is the same one as this posting( read the comments! )describes: that it turns you into a cynic who eventually just turns away from online altogether, after the disappointments add up to a level of X( insert your own breaking point here ). If Ms. Perfect Match is out there, she doesn't have a computer... and has likely left the offline coffee shop where we might have met years ago. 

July 7 - I waited 20 years to eat THAT? 

By now, some of you may know that I'm a fan of the apocalyptic, in that I relish wondering how I'd deal with disaster compared to other people. Regardless of the 'disaster' there's one clear fact: you'll need to eat. Have you ever wondered WHAT you would eat though, apart from your fellow bunkmates in too-small the fallout shelter? Wonder no more: you can buy all sorts of survival gear online( 2012 is just next year, if you care )and among those are survival rations of various kinds guaranteed to keep fresh for 20 years until you need them to live. MRE's are also an option, but tend to be both expensive per serving and have a short shelf life of 'only' a few years, compared to several decades. Which may be a factor while you wait for a nuclear winter to end, or for the aliens to finish searching for your well-hidden tinfoil-lined shelter... 

July 8 - Laptop Dies( but not mine! ) 

Spending money bothers me. It's a trait I've developed over the last decade that came about from not having enough to go around, so I became wary of spending it without aforethought - even once I'd made a habit of things like budgets and planning ahead for larger expenses. So when my parent's laptop fritzed out today in an unrecoverable way, I rolled my eyes and made ready the Laptop Plan... which was to go out and buy the best one I could for as little as possible( and not a netbook! )rather than spend about the same to fix the 3-year old Dell 1521 model; a shame. They ended up with a Toshiba C650D-06Q, which was made all the sweeter a deal with a $50-off coupon from Staple's EasyRewards program I'd signed up for months ago( for free ). My parents seem pretty pleased with it so far, insomuch as they just surf the web and answer email on it. They'll be even happier once I get all their backed-up irreplaceable data restored - good thing I was prepared ( as always, paranoid me... )for that sort of thing! 

July 9 - Yell it to the mountains 

Living on a mountain is annoying sometimes, like today when I was up at 6am to get to work for 9am - since there's no trolley service, it was either bike or get a ride... I chose ride, due to exhaustion this week and the fact it's still bloody cold out there for July - sheesh. I did chill in a warm A&W for breakfast( new coupons this month! )though, surfing the web on my little ASUS Transformer; I find new things( and apps )to enjoy every single day with that thing. Which helps maintain the equilibrium when customers scream at me for things that aren't my fault, even when I try to help them. Note for all of you: if you're angry, don't straight-arm a glass door - it won't end well for anyone. So today was another mediocre example of why job searches are vital components for one's sanity, unless your job is a bikini contest judge or a rocket scientist...

July 10 - Happy Birthday, Rene!

It occurs to me that a blog is quite often ego-centric, where you talk about the world as it relates to you, talk about yourself, or just talk... but it's all about you. Well, today I'll break that little trend and talk about a friend of mine, whose birthday it is this very day. Friends, as you know, don't grow on trees( but can come in mail-order packages if you pay enough ). One can never have too many good friends - notice the qualifier there. My friend Rene is one of those good friends, that I've known for years... the sort of friend you realize you'll still have when you're old, grey, toothless and won't admit to anyone that you're a day over thirty. Good friends pick up where they've left off despite distance and years, forgive and hopefully forget the things that made the distance and years seem greater, rather than shorter. I could go on here, but suffice to say I'm grateful and frankly astonished at the large number of wonderful people I've had( and have )in my life, despite my distance from too many of them of late. To you then, Rene, I say Happy Birthday and thanks for being my friend... I hope that I'll be able to be there for a pint next year( and next decade )until we can't recall when we first met - as friends.

Because that's what it's all about.

Adieu for now, my friends - more in a week.