Catching Up

I finally had a day off, and ran around like a bat out of hell getting my page-long list of "stuff to do" done.

One of those things was to pick up contact lenses I'd ordered last week when I got an eye exam. I'd gotten some news I'd been expecting for awhile-- that when I order new glasses I'm going to need bifocals. I know that a 46-year-old needing reading glasses is no rarity, but it's something that happens to other people, not me. Like getting older.

I guess I can salve my pain by the fact that a couple of days ago, a young co-worker thought I was in my early thirties.

The last week has been crazy-- I worked five consecutive shifts at the restaurant-- two doubles and a lunch. It was good, though-- I finally got my footing there, and made a butt-load of money. Whenever you start at a new place-- a new restaurant, school, office, whatever, it's crazy the first few days, learning all the procedures, practices and what-not.

The first week was interesting-- observing the different kinds of people working there. There was one guy who really floored me-- he was incredibly unhappy. After my first shift with him, when I was training, I realized that he needed to get out of the business. He was incredibly pissy. I started to avoid him-- he was very negative. Yesterday, he was fired. Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed that he was really unpleasant to be around.

Back to "Johnny Yen's Day Off." High up on my list was to go register for my first class. I got that done. It turns out that I should have put one item higher up on my list-- purchasing the new reading glasses my eye doctor recommended. When I got home and read over my material (with my new reading glasses), I discovered I'd misread the schedule and signed up for Biology 120, rather than Biology 121. I have to go Friday and fix that.

Other updates. On Saturday, the backlighting on my little Ibook started going schizo-- it would work after a restart, then conk out after a while. I ran it up to Nabih's, a Mac-friendly repair place in Evanston that fixed it this February. It's funny how we are about our comfort zones; I can post just fine from the household Mac Mini that sits on the 100-year-old desk in our dining room that my great-grandfather made, but I miss sitting at the counter in the kitchen on my Ibook. Plus, it's harder to download photos from my digital camera on the desktop. I've got all the settings for it on my laptop. So in addition to all the general work craziness, I have to be posting from a computer I'm not used to using.

Other miscellaneous stuff. I'm digging having reading time since taking the el to work rather than driving. I'll enjoy the reading even more now that I don't have to hold it out at arm's length. And I'll enjoy ride even more since I found a set of headphones that won't break. I loved the little Sony headphones I had that folded up, but I broke three sets of them. Today, I got a lightweight headphone set I like made by Phillips. The part that broke on the old ones is made of metal on this one.

Adam called me last night to discuss Karl Rove, and the Iowa straw poll. For what it's worth, he's a Barack Obama guy. You might want to get on that bandwagon now, kids!

It's weird-- I missed only a day of posting, but I feel like it was two weeks.

I've got the new earbuds on, listening to my big ipod (as opposed to the shuffle). It's hellbent on playing great songs-- The Velvet Underground's I'll Be Your Mirror, Elvis Costello's Two Little Hitlers, Aretha Franklin's Chain of Fools and Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues.

I mentioned that video last week, when referring to the Dylan documentary Don't Look Back. Seems appropriate to put it on this post, especially since Allen Ginsberg is in it-- I just read that On The Road, by Ginsberg's friend Jack Kerouac, is fifty years old now. Time flies.