Coffee Spoons

I do know why a teaspoon is a "tea" spoon, but why no coffee spoons. Seems wrong somehow. Usually I am a tea drinker, but this week my sensibilities have been crying out, aching for coffee. Not the caffeine, just the rich black liquid so dark that you can successfully scry in it. Maybe I just want to know the future. Possible I suppose. Times like these make me think of the opening line to chapter one of Tom Robbins "Still Life With Woodpecker"

..."In the last quarter of the twentieth century, at a time when Western civilization was declining too rapidly for comfort and yet too slowly to be very exciting, much of the world sat on the edge of an increasingly expensive theater seat, waiting - with various combinations of dread, hope, and ennui - for something momentous to occur."...

That really does sum it up in a nice neat nutshell. Except that the last quarter of the twentieth century has come and gone and while may things have happened, including the huge financial crash that seems to be squarely putting us all back in our places, nothing universally catastrophic has happened that has redefined existence. We all still do the things we do everyday, even if we do them with a little more frugality.

I am on bit of a precipice myself. Attempting to make since of my paths. There they all are stretched out in front of me. But the exit signs seem to be getting closer and I am not sure how may gas stations might be ahead. Perhaps I need a road trip, or at least another cup of coffee.

Shakespeare really knew how to curse.

One of my favorite authors, Christopher Moore, has just released a new novel titled "Fool" and it is his take on King Lear from the perspective of the Fool.  I am about 90% through and it is likely his most ambitious novel to date.  To anyone who enjoys the darker side of Shakespeare I highly recommend it.  This is dirty minded, violent, historical re-telling at its best.

Having my head beaten against a wall

I was about to start this post with "beating my head against a wall" but that implies choice, a kind of mindfulness that isn't involved with the situation at hand. We all know I am an advocate of controlling your own destiny, taking responsibility for your own damn self and all of that. But there are times where outside factors really do impact your situation. In those cases where it is linked to family or job or a situation where the impact of removing yourself from it would potentially create more of a headache then staying in and pushing through, those times it can honestly feel like someone is shoving you into an immovable barrier. At those times it is hard to know what to do. When you are in between the archetypal rock and hard place and you head is going to get smashed into something either way.

I need some tea.

Volume of commitment

Has anyone else ever noticed that we speak about doing things with our whole hearts, while at the same time, in the same culture, we talk about doing things with half our ass. Somehow this idea strikes me as being both profound and sad.

Pull on the plastic gloves and grab an ice cream scoop

It is time to dish. Or, more to the point to talk about dishing, namely at work. I have never quite mastered the fine art, the balancing act, of gossiping at work. Now before you shout out that gossip at work is a bad idea and is to be avoided, especially for those who do not have the skill, I agree with you. I would like nothing better then to be without it. When your boss and department run on it, however, it gets trickier. When you don't get involved, it seems that not only can you get a reputation for being aloof or stuck-up, but frequently the water-cooler chatter seems to be punctuated with real work information that is never mentioned in any other email or staff meeting. So there is the predicament. Is there some merit to getting professional development in the fine art of work socialization? If so, where do you start, where do you go for that kind of skill development? Tricky.

One of THOSE days

So today is what I think we like to call "one of THOSE days". You know that day where nothing quite goes right and you lack anything resembling grace to to get through it without either throwing a fit or just hiding under the bed? Well it is one of those, and I have a question.

Is it better to try to bounce yourself out of it and trudge through your normal routine knowing that you are basically as unstable as old dynamite, or should you just turn off the phone, call in sick and hide?

I see virtues and merits to both approaches and I am not sure which is superior. Obviously if this is something that is chronic for you then you had better just get up and get going or face being jobless, friendless, etc. However, this kind of individual is not the sort of person I am talking about, I am trying to decide the best course of action for someone who is generally a healthy, functional adult that sometimes for one reason or another randomly gets into a colossal snit.

Jury is still out.

Monday Holidays

I am never quite sure what to think of or do with Monday holidays. Only a small percentage of people actually get them off, and the ones who don't spend the entire day at work doing as little as possible in a kind of universal mock protest that they are not a part of said percentage. While I would rather be home with a nice cup of tea or a well mixed Manhattan, really the random Mondays off tend to be at least kind of quiet, which we really don't usually get often enough.

I have slacked off a little in my quest to be a little less consumerist and have bought several things in the last, oh, week and a half. But I did it, and there is no changing it now, bills are paid, meals have been eaten, and feeling guilt would be silly. At least I can say that the things purchased are probably not likely to sit on a shelf somewhere gathering dust, and there is something to that.

I need to get back on a system of improvement though. Not spending related, but in improving myself and my surroundings. Getting the mildew out of the bathroom is high on the list - ewww. Further down but important are setting systems in place to track budgets. So far I have at least been collecting all receipts in a box, but at the end of January I will actually have to do something with them.

But unlike blogs that are filled with intentions that never go anywhere I plan on at least bleaching the tub tonight, I may not bleach it well, but at least it is a start.