Erratica

Hey, didn't you used to be Hillary Clinton?

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I didn't have a PC at work for most of the day today- I forgot to move the mouse every 15 minutes and the screen locked up-my boss was gone until nearly closing time, so I didn't have much to do at all, save for a brief but savage battle of wills with my latest nemesis, the Ikon 200-something Copier. It had a desperate need to jam that is seldom seen outside of Guitar Hero addicts, but in the end it was no match for me.
I managed to fix it with positive thinking.
Seriously.
Actually, I turned it off.
Then I turned it on.
This trick fixes more things than you'd think, and the Ikon proved to be no exception.

Tsk. I am such a geek, I actually enjoy fixing office equipment. It's a chance to show off. The last time I had a workplace girlfriend, she said it was because she liked the way I could shred paper without getting my tie caught in the machine.

Anyway, two days in and I'm still liking the new job. It sounds corny, but I feel much, much better about myself now that I have a steady income- things are looking up. In a fit of optimism, I paid the entire balance of my phone/interweb bill...after spending a day alone in a room with no PC, I decided I didn't want to risk the same thing at home and the last bill arrived in a red-bordered envelope, not a good sign.

I took a book to work. Coffee was already there. What a fantastic combo those are, books and coffee... I read for a while, made some copies, read some more, made some coffee...there is a "coffee station" (four flavors!) on one side of my file room and a rest room on the other...it's a banal but welcome dream come true.

I've really wanted a boring day job with decent pay, air-conditioning , broadband access and no homework- and that's what I got. Woo! Took long enough, too- I have never had so much trouble finding work - I really was starting to wonder where I was gonna live...is a 9-5, rent-paying job too much to ask for? It was seeming so...

I get plenty of technical challenges and creative rewards at the radio station and during my increasingly frequent non-paper musical jam sessions, which are looking up too...I even feel like writing again! I recently had severe writer's block for the first time, ever. I wasn't sure if it would ever end, but I can feel the buzz returning.

Yesterday,I met a girl at work who said (reason unspecified) that she went from living in a crowded building to a large empty house in the sticks, so she decided to buy a drum set and start playing drums again after a long period of not playing, why not, right?...to me, that's about the sanest approach to solitude I can imagine. I liked her right away.
I'm not used to working in offices with people who seem sane to me. My idea of a good time would be banging the hell out of drumkit in the middle of nowhere-for hours. What's not to love about that?

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My best friend's wife finally got her U.S. Citizenship! Six years and two kids is all it took...she will be able to vote this year! Welcome to what I hope will be an improved America!

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My dad called, which means he's alive and sober. I didn't ask how long he'd been dry, but it was good to be able to tell him I had a job. He had some bad news about the family house, but not bad enough to offset the generally good mood I brought home from work.

I brought a good mood home from work?
Man, I better enjoy that while I can.