updates n stuff

Sheila - thank you! I would totally buy one of those if I could find it. (Not just to stave off would-be vandals, but because it would make my Martha Stewart wannabee neighbor's head explode). A manatee mailbox. (That's ALMOST a walrus mailbox, which is ALMOST a lolrus mailbox.)

nightfly: yes, you can has party. u bring d booz tho.

Kate - thank you. Stranger things have happened. I'm just amazed that I had forgotten I had it.

And going waaaaay back: Ken, "My Name is Earl" is one of the NBC shows I was vaguely referring to. It's one of the funniest things I've seen on television (let alone network television). And even better, it has that kind of fundamental sweetness to it: Earl's an idiot and a screwup but he WANTS to be better. (I'm wondering how they're going to work the fall season given what happened the last episode of this season, though.)

Overheard in class the other day: "I clip coupons sacriligiously." Hehehehehe. I think, from context, she meant exactly the opposite. No, I didn't correct her, there was no need to and I don't like to look like a pedant (more than usual.) I did manage not to laugh after she said it.

Oh, and speaking of Earls - the guy I referred to as "Earl" is gone again. I e-mailed him telling him that the semester was half over and that if I didn't hear from him by next week about the arranged class, I was going to "assume" he didn't plan on completing it. (I don't know if I'm allowed to come out and say, "I will fail you" or not. If it gets to be the end of the semester, yes.). I really hope I don't get some begging e-mail from him giving me a sob story as to why he couldn't e-mail or phone to let me know what was going on. (Hrm. Maybe he got bit by a spider and his arms wouldn't work.)

The thing that gets me is this: I have a set, limited, amount of attention and energy I can devote to things. I prefer not to devote that attention and energy to people who are just going to squander it and not go anywhere with what they're doing.

One of my friends from church was telling me about his cousin, who is a military chaplain - when the young man was in training, an older chaplain warned him: "Eighty percent of your time will be spent on about ten percent of the people."

And you know? He's right. Ten percent (or less) of the population, the ones who just don't have their stuff together, they're the ones who demand the most time, the most help, the most repetition of stuff. The ones who ask you to tell them again what they're supposed to be doing (when you had just got done explaining it, but see, they were distracted by the fish in the fishtank. And they have in on a printout in front of them, but they didn't read it). They're the ones who claim you never told them to do something (or conversely, never told them NOT to do something), but everyone else in the group seems to have acquired that knowledge (maybe by osmosis?). There are people who would suck you dry for help; you just have to become deft at cutting them off and redirecting them to work on their own without their becoming resentful.

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I went to wal-mart yesterday. I think I've figured out how people "lawyerball" the 20-items-or-less lanes. There was a man and his (I'm guessing) mother shopping together - and they each had just about 20 items. And they combined it as a single order. I'd argue that doesn't count (especially because I was standing behind them with my eight items AND THE WOMAN WAS PAYING WITH A CHECK THAT SHE DID NOT START WRITING UNTIL THE CASHIER HAD RUNG THE ENTIRE ORDER UP). I don't know. My opinion is, wal-mart either needs to actually POLICE the policy (as in, "Sir, you might consider stepping down to one of our larger checkstands? It appears you have fifty items in your cart.") or just take down the bloomin' signs.

Because you know? I'm gullible that way. I tend to assume other people follow rules or "suggestions" as rigorously as I do. (And yes - I have gotten in a longer, "big checkout" line when I had 22 items, even when I probably could have slid through the 20 items or less line).

So every time, when I'm just there to buy milk or eggs or Excedrin Migraine or feminine-hygiene products or whatever, I happily get in what I assume is going to be a "short" line, until I see that the person ahead of me is:

some Comic Book Store guy with his month's supply of frozen dinners
a little old lady with lots of baking supplies and lots of cat food
a mom with kids and a fullish cart (In that case, I'm often willing to cut slack - it must suck to have to grocery shop with kids. But still).

I think another reason people do it is the friggin' wal mart has like 40 checkout aisles, and only three of them (aside from the 20 items ones) are ever open. Hello? Wal-mart? 4 pm? People coming home from work? Eighty people in each lane? Might you consider opening another? Even if one of your managers has to come out of his office to do it?

I don't know. What I said before, stands: if my city had PeaPod or whatever they call the order-online-get-delivered-at-home grocery service, I'd be all over that.

(Because it's also always raining when I go to the wal-mart, and I hate having to dodge and weave my way through the line of cars parked in the fire lane because their occupants are so very important that they can't possibly park in the lot like ordinary humans and WALK through the rain up to the store.

There's something just DEPRESSING about 4 pm on a Wednesday with bucketing down rain and the closest parking place being far enough away from the door that you're soaked (even with an umbrella) by the time you get in. And what's even worse is that all the carts have just been harvested from the parking lot so THEY'RE all dripping wet.)