Dead to Me

This morning, I was going through my internet rounds, checking out the sites I haven't gotten to read all week because of bus driving school.

One of my first stops, as usual, was the Cubs website to see how last night's game went and to see when they play today.

I was greeted at the site by the sight of a fan holding a sign emblazoned with a large W. The Cubs had won last night was the message.

This should have been reason for gladness. Something to kick the day off right, you know.

Instead, I really cringed and felt a stab of unease.

It was the letter W after all. I've reached the point where I can't stand the sight of it anymore, even if it signifies a Cubs win.

I'm just glad I don't have any 'W's in my name so that I don't have to change it.

Not Dead Yet

The Barry Bonds fiasco was pretty depressing. As unlikely as it was, I had held out hope that once he tied Hank Aaron he would abruptly retire. It would have been entirely out of character for him to do, but then, he would at least have had a little class. It's not as though San Francisco was actually going anywhere with or without him.

Anyway, he doesn't have any class. No big surprise. It was still a little depressing though. I was very happy that I at least didn't have to watch it. I spent the week in bus-driving school.

I was reminded tonight, though, that baseball's not done yet, despite so many people's actions that've tainted it. Rick Ankiel came back.

Rick Ankiel will never be as well known as Bonds. He was a very promising pitcher in the majors for a while until he lost the ability to throw strikes. I saw him, in 2000, throw five wild pitches in one inning. Without any reason, he just couldn't throw anything near the plate. His career was over.

Sort of. He'll never be a pitcher again. He went back to the minors and switched positions. He's an outfielder now. And after losing his stuff six years ago, he's finally made his way back to the majors. It looks as though he could make a heck of an outfielder, too (which is fine, even if he is on the Cubs' chief rival).

He hit a home run tonight in his first MLB game as an outfielder. And he earned every inch of it.

Maybe Abilene's Just Got Taste

My coming week is going to be almost impossibly busy, so I’ve been spending today getting all the little stuff done so that I won’t have to worry about it later.

One such thing was to get hold of a copy of the DVD of Twelfth Night. I’m supposed to show it to my class on Wednesday (we’re discussing the play on Monday and Tuesday). I thought I could get it at the library, but I was wrong. It was a different version (just made in the same year). So, I decided to rent it.

I went to the nearest video store. It was out. So I went to the next nearest video store. It was rented there, too. I went to the next one. I owe a totally unjust late fee at the place ($6 for one day late!), but I didn’t have to pay it. Twelfth Night was already checked out.

I think I’m going to give an especially difficult quiz tomorrow.

Praxis

'I am reminded [...] of one of the greatest ballerinas of all time. After one of her great performances somebody had the temerity to ask her what the dance meant. Her reply was simple and speaks volumes to us as we consider mission in the postmodern world. "If I could have said it," she said, "I wouldn't have needed to dance it."'

--N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus

Reflections on Fate and Shampoo

Things this week didn’t start off that well. Indicative of the week was this afternoon.

We’ve been having problems on our cell phone bill. They’ve been pretty massive, mainly because my sister (with whom I currently share a plan) had a lot of unavoidable daytime calls necessitated by her and my brother-in-law’s move last week. This pushed us well over our limit, and I’ve been trying to cut back on minutes used ever since.

To do this, I bought a phone card. On the front of the phone card, it says 150 PHONE MINUTES. Quite regular. I bought it and planned to use those two hours on my office phone to arrange my own move that’s coming up in a couple of weeks.

I tried to use it this afternoon, though. I called home to ask Mom a question, and it was odd. At the end of the sub-three-minute call, I was told I had 22 minutes left on my card.

I checked the back of it, and only on the back, mind you, it stated that this was a “state-to-state” phone card. Any calls I made on it that were placed within the state cost 5 minutes off of the card per minute spent talking. This was, once again, only in the fine print on the back.

So, I basically spent $10 for thirty minutes of talking. I was angry, since money’s a bit tight now anyway. I used up the rest of the minutes talking with a mechanic who was going to fix my once again defunct air conditioner. I didn’t get any of the calls made I needed to do in order to get myself moved.

This is how things have been.

But they’re looking up now.

Tonight, I went to United. Normally, I shop at Wal-Mart, but since I bought that phone card at Wal-Mart, I wasn’t inclined to go there tonight.

I bought the milk I’d gone there for, and on a truly inspired whim, I decided to buy an onion. I could cook half of it with the squash that I don’t need to waste in the refrigerator and bake the other half. Sounded great.

I was looking for the onion, when my eyeballs beheld one of the most beautiful sights they’d seen in days.

SHAMPOO!!!!

Or, to be more precise, my LUCKY shampoo.

Several years ago, I noticed, through intense scientific exploration, that my life went exceedingly better when I was using VO5 Sun-kissed Raspberry Shampoo, as opposed to any other shampoo in the world that I have ever used (especially VO5 Frees-Me Freesia shampoo which, unfortunately, smells quite good and is a pretty color).

So, even though it is perhaps not the best smelling of the shampoos, it is very beneficial to use, since it makes my life non-miserable, you know.

The problem, however, is that they had discontinued the VO5 Sun-kissed Raspberry Shampoo. Or so I thought. They, at least, had not been selling it anywhere where I could buy it for about the last year.

But it’s back. I bought three bottles just in case it disappears again from my life.

This was a good sign. I think I actually made an involuntary fist-pump when I saw it.