MY LIFE - NOVEMBER

Friday, November 3, 2000

Last week my older sister was really sick. She spent most of the time that she was here on the couch, barely able to move from whatever it was she had. She's getting over it, but now my mom has it. For the last two days my mom has been unable to do much more than stay on the couch. Moving around has been a chore for her and I've seen her up once since 10pm last night.

I know I'm going to be next. I haven't been sick for a while now so I'm probably due, and I've been in contact with both my sister and my mom for the last few days. If I do get sick, it's going to be a major problem since I work the next four days in a row, three of them at Berea where I don't think calling off would be an option at all. So I'm just hoping that it doesn't hit me like it's hit them.

Consequently, I've been home most of today except for when I ran to the bank to deposit my check and run to my store in Strongsville to get my mom's medicine. I haven't gone far simply because I don't think it would benefit my mom much if she needed something and I wasn't around to help get it. So I've stayed close and made some phone calls for her just to make sure that things were okay.

One of those phone calls was to the phone company to let them know why a payment hadn't been sent in as of yet. The other one was to our insurance company to make sure the premium on my car insurance was correct. In both cases, I actually got through the conversations without sounding like a complete screw up like usual. That probably made my mom feel a little easier. I'm not the best at making calls like those and I did pretty good with them.

But I'm just going to hope that I don't get sick. I don't think I want to feel what they've felt over the last week or so. Knowing me, I'd probably just try to fight through it anyway. I'm stupid like that.

---

Morgue, one of the two cats up in my room, is not the smoothest of cats you'll come across. He and Kisa are complete opposites. Kisa's very quiet and delicate with everything she does. She'll jump, and if you're listening, you'll hear her land. You can hear Morgue jump if you're anywhere in the house. It's a very loud thumping sound.

Kisa walks, runs, and generally moves with grace and doesn't make a sound when she doesn't want to. Morgue runs and it's like a stampede of cows running through my room. He's also very clumsy. He's fallen off the ledge in my bathroom that runs along the wall where the bathtub is. Yes, he's fallen into the tub. With water in it. It's amazing how he doesn't get hurt when he falls from there.

He's run into the glass door that's in front of my entertainment center at least once a week since it came up here. He's run across the tile in my kitchen area and more than once tried to make a turn into the bathroom, only to slide into the wall instead. He's fallen off my bed more times than I can count. Kisa? Not once has she fallen off of anything or ran into anything.

Morgue is a big cat. Kisa is big for a female, but nowhere near the size of Morgue. Morgue is gray with darker stripes and a belly that's white. Kisa's all white except for her pink ears. Kisa has a slit on one of her ears from her many run-ins with cats back in Brunswick when she used to be an outdoor cat. Morgue couldn't beat his own ass if he tried.

Kisa's clean, but she doesn't mind getting dirty, as was made clear by her trips into the fireplace both here and when we lived in Brunswick. Morgue already feels dirty, so you don't notice with him. Kisa's scared to death of water. Morgue will not move even if I turn the water on. There's a reason why this cat has fallen into the tub more than once.

Morgue is just a klutz. Kisa is more delicate. But when they start chasing each other, you just get out of the way since both of them have claws. I love them though. Even though there's fur everywhere.

---

Tomorrow's my last day at store 4300 in Strongsville. Starting Sunday, I work for store 3035 in Berea. I guess I'm excited about it even though I haven't really thought about it or really paid attention to it. I also haven't really thought about tomorrow being my last day. I don't think it's hit me still that I won't be going to Strongsville anymore, that I'll be going to Berea instead.

I don't know if it's really hit anyone else either. Debbie thought I worked today and was surprised yesterday when I said I didn't. No one's said much to me except to ask me what I thought about leaving the store and what I thought Berea would be like.

I haven't picked up anything on whether or not anyone's going to do anything for my last day at my store. Then again, Mike was the one who always put together the going away parties. He was the one who'd buy a cake, some balloons, and get a card circulated and signed by everyone else. Well, except on his last day when Debbie got it together.

I don't really know if I'd want anything like that. I don't know. I guess I'd just rather have it come and go without any kind of commotion or recognition. I don't really like the attention. I don't think I'd want to have a party. It just doesn't seem like it should be that for me. Sure, I've been there for three years and generally got along with everyone I worked with.

But I don't see myself as a valuable commodity to the store. I would think that things would be just fine with me gone, that the place wouldn't miss a step. I know the front store won't miss me since I had been cutting back my share of the work for about two months now. I haven't done a whole lot in the pharmacy since Angela started training.

I've been playing the part of reduced role. It's not like when most people left. Most of the time, they did everything that they were asked to do and it was usually their normal workload up until their last day. Their workload didn't decrease like mine has. So should I get a going away party for a reduced effort?

I don't really know if I deserve it. The recognition would be nice, but I'll live without it.

---

Back on February 18, I mentioned how I was starting to write a story that was based on my high school years and my struggles with my dad. It was going to be a fictatious story that I had high hopes for.

Those hopes went straight down the drain when my Microsoft Word program decided to go haywire on me and stop working right, prompty eating most of my files and not letting me open up the ones that weren't lost. So I restarted the story again and had another problem. This time, the floppy went screwy on me and ate the files.

So that plan went down the drain pretty quickly, although I do intend on bringing it back to life in the near future. I do like the idea of writing a story, even if I suck at that kind of writing. I hope to find some time in the future, such as before I go to work if I don't work until late or after work when I'm online talking to people.

So the idea isn't dead right now. It isn't fully alive either. But I wouldn't be surprised if I start working on it again, especially if I manage to rescue some parts of it.

Word may not be so lucky if it eats another file though. Microsoft is on my good side again. It wouldn't take much for that to change.

---

Dick Feagler of The Plain Dealer wrote another column that pretty much typifies him. As has been the case with him time and time again, he's blasting something or someone he doesn't like. As with most cases, he's making it seem like he's speaking for the American people.

This time the potshot is at President Clinton and his appearance on the cover of "Esquire" magazine. He's doing what most conservatives and enemies of Clinton have been doing. He's calling it a shameful shot, a cover that Clinton shouldn't have done. He's then saying that it brings back the painful memories of the whole impeachment mess and how he's shaming all Americans.

Now while I think that the cover wasn't in Clinton's best interests, I don't think he's shamed anyone. The ones who should be ashamed are those who look at the cover and see sexual implications. I didn't think that when I saw it. That tells me that not every American is ashamed by it.

The whole point I'm making is Feagler needs to stop acting like the voice of America. He's not. His views and mine are completely different. But he'll always be that way I suppose.