moneybags

While looking through piles upon piles of old letters from family and friends, I found $43 in cash! One $20 bill was from my dad in 2002; the other $23 came to me in 2003 on my 23rd birthday.

Best part of this is that RIGHT before I picked up the birthday envelope to inspect it, I told Julie & Jim: "Man, it's my dream to find a twenty dollar bill in one of these old envelopes."

Being psychic is awesome and rewarding.

cursed internet!

My quality of life would be much improved without the internet.

I can no longer scoff in silent judgment at others who watch TV, for I am an active TV watcher. True that only a couple shows hold my true interest--this season, Grey's Anatomy, my old standby, is frustrating me with its plot lines while a newbie, Pushing Daisies, is charming me to death, so to speak. (Oh, I didn't mean to be punny! But surely my subconscious did.)

In my senior year high school English class, Mr. Friedman gave us daily allusions--references to literature, film, culture, etc. Once in awhile, someone in the class recognized the source, but usually he would have to tell us what it was from. We would have tests over our daily allusions and study so much for these tests that the allusions became ingrained in our day-to-day speech. Friedman scholars, as he liked to call us (but none of us called ourselves), took with us to our respective schools an army of allusions, ready to wow our professors in our papers and essay tests. And it worked. I understood references the most lofty thinkers made to ancient Roman history; I knew what a double-edged sword was and could quote from many of Shakespeare's speeches.

Back to the point. There was one afternoon when Mr. Friedman had an allusion that read, "Demon box! Thief of time! I forsake you!" It was from this comic, which I've also posted below.


This internet has become to me what the TV seems to be for many. I need to impose a time limit for myself. I use the excuses that I'm writing, or reading news, or catching up on this weekend's goings-on. But then, twenty minutes later, I find myself looking through the photo album of a high school friend I've not talked to (other than through facebook or myspace) since 1998 graduation. For no reason. I know what she looks like. Do I really need to see how her vacation to her the Bahamas with a bunch of friends I've never met went? NO!!!

Demon box! Thief of time!

Just now I played ANOTHER game of solitaire Scrabble, when what I really wanted to do was write a thank-you note to my neighbor, who made me some Halloween cookies the other day.

So I'm off to do just that. NOW.

No more excuses, you little thief.

Happy weekend!

1/18/06 - threatening words if I ever heard 'em

January 18, 2006 - Wednesday

7:16 PM - threatening words if I ever heard 'em I'm not sure how old I was when I received my first chain letter in the mail. This was in the pre-email days, young ones, days when friends wrote letters more frequently and were patient enough to wait a few days to get a response. I was thrilled with the idea of this chain letter--if I just copied it out eight times and sent it to eight people and added my name to the list so that it was second from the bottom, I would get seven thousand letters within a week! My parents' first step was to show me how the formula would break down if even a couple of people in the chain didn't participate. They also pointed out that the threatening words at the end of the letter, words that suggested I'd be a bad friend with bad luck forevermore if I were to break the chain, were rude and--come to think of it--not very friendly.. Maybe I was enough of a cheapskate even then that their last major point of argument is what really hit home: "Do you really want to ask eight of your friends to spend their time and their own money on mailing out eight letters?" Why, no! I certainly did not. Since I first acquired a family-shared email address (geddis@prodigy.net, I think 'twas--we're talkin '92 or so), I have been smacked with a barrage of forwards and chain letters that make me want to scream. Most of my friends know by now that sending me a forward is a big, fat mistake, as these emails merely serve to piss me off and make me wonder why I'm not getting a quick, personal note from a friend instead of a note someone originally wrote and forwarded years ago. When I do get forwards chock full of inspirational stories, I'll be the first to burst the proverbial bubble by finding out The Truth on www.snopes.com. Now that I'm on myspace and have friends (and sweet cousins!) who enjoy passing around forwarded bulletins brimming with an ominous mixture of good luck wishes and evil curses (depending on the reader's reaction to said bulletin, of course), I see once again the humor and stupidity of these notes. To close, I will quote the last three cryptic lines of the bulliten I just received that encouraged me to admit that I had a crush. Since I didn't do my part in continuing the chain, here's what I can look forward to: IF YOU BREAK THIS YOU WILL HAVE THE WORST LIFE STARTING NOW Shit. I guess life's about to get rul tough, y'all. Currently listening : Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell By The Flaming Lips Release date: 18 November, 2003 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove