Friday, April 20, 2007

Sick Day

Yesterday I left class early because I didn't feel well. This morning, I woke up intending to go to school and work on a large group project all day long. It involves advanced statistics and things that are named Bonferoni and Nagelkerke, after evil statisticians who now torture stat students everywhere. I wasn't looking forward to the day, but I was looking forward to being that much farther along on the project.

I was feeling pretty crappy during my shower, but when I knew I had to stay home was when I took the cap off my deodorant, got lost in thought for a minute, then applied the deodorant to my right cheek. (I had begun thinking about face lotion, so that's what I did. What can I say?) I have been doing work from home as much as possible today, but seeing as how I took Dramamine for my stomach (per advice from Whitney) and benadryl for my allergies, I spent the majority of time either staring blissfully into space or in a drugged sleep chased by strange dreams in which I and my entire family had moved to Florida and I was trapped in a bar after hours with the Big X and my brother and his wife (my 3 least favorite people). So in my dream I began to drink heavily. You know being in a bar and all. Then the cops raided the bar (how they got in when we could not get out, I do not know) and we were all arrested for drinking in a bar after closing time.

I was supposed to go with my classmates to Mohegan Sun, one of the local casinos, tonight. I had bought my ticket already and everything, but I really am too sick to go. I have been doing ok with drinking water and sipping on broth all day, so as a treat since I couldn't go to the casino, I decided to order a small pizza from my favorite local pizzeria, Luna. Thin crust, fresh mozz, fresh everything. However, once it arrived, just the smell of it made my stomach lurch again. What a waste.

Just now, one of my friends called me from the casino to ask for another friend at the casino's phone number. I feel so left out and dejected. Here I am, watching Dateline NBC's "To Catch a Predator" series, where they lure pedophiles online. This one guy brought rope to tie the imagined 14 year old girl up with, and it was in a bag from Target. How benign to imagine being in Target in line behind some guy buying rope. Who would imagine it was to commit a sex act on a minor? As interesting as these thoughts are, I still wish I was at Mohegan Sun instead.

*Sniff.

The other thing is when I get really sick, I cry over everything like a pregnant woman or something. I am crying because of that phone call from my friend now. I wish my benadryl would kick back in so I could float away on my fluffy little drug cloud again.

*Sniff.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Easter Eve: Karma is a boomerang

Karma is a boomerang, and sometimes it hits you faster than others. I nearly always pick up my dog's poop. Nearly always. Exceptions are if I happen to be out of poop bags. I bring Goober with me to a lot of places, so she is out a lot. She usually goes a certain amount of times a day, so sometimes she surprises me and I am unprepared.

I was unprepared yesterday. She went on my front lawn and again on the little divider of grass between the sidewalk and the road. I was on my way out and figured I would pick up after her that evening. Well, I stopped at home again to pick some stuff up a bit later and parked on the road. Ran into the house, ran out, got in the car and drove to school.

As I was driving to school, I noticed the smell. I had managed to step exactly in the spot where Goober had left her mess and I had not picked it up. Boomerang. Smack in the forehead.

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There's a new bill in the Connecticut legislature right now that proposes expanding the bottle bill. The bottle bill is the one that put 5 and 10 cent (where is the cent sign on my keyboard? I want to bring back the cent sign! I love the cent sign!) deposits on soda and beer in many states. Now they would like to amend it to include water bottles, since that is probably one of the most-consumed beverages nowadays. I know it takes up the most space in my recycle bin every week. I believe they also want to increase the deposit amount by 5 c w/a slash through it.

The grocery stores have lobbyists fighting this, saying something about following the dime from manufacturer to grocery store to consumer which I think is meant to make you feel that the grocery stores get the shaft in all this. Some people say that barely anyone bothers to bring their bottles and cans back anyway, and another 5 c w/a slash through it incentive won't matter. Others think this is a good way to encourage recycling.

I am all for the amended bottle bill because: 1. I do not care about the grocery stores, who I see as The Man and I have over time developed a deep resentment for The Man. 2. I heart the environment. 3. It means that more bottles will say 5 c w/a slash through it, which helps my campaign for bringing back the cent sign.

But most importantly, and in all seriousness, this helps the homeless. I don't think most people in Connecticut see this aspect since they live in suburbs where they hide their homeless better than here in Hartford. Or else they are just not as cool and empathetic as I. But every trash/recycle day I see the homeless descend into the West End and pick through the trash and recycle bins.

There is one guy in particular who I like a lot. They all pull out anything worth a deposit, but this guy additionally goes through and pulls out anything not worth a deposit but still recyclable that is in a trash bin and deposits into the recycle bin. He is also the early bird so he gets most of the 5 and 10 c w/a slash through it deposit-worthy stuff. The later comers only get whatever someone happened to put out after he has gone by. So here is a man that is enterprising, ambitious, and yet still cares enough about the environment to separate recyclables that he doesn't make a dime off.

This is a man I want to help support. In fact, I have stopped bringing back any recyclables with deposits and leave them all for him. Therefore I support the bottle bill amendment because I want to help the homeless. Take that, grocery stores AKA The Man! Karma is a boomerang, and it's gonna get you guys in the end if you're not nice.