2000-08-08 - 9:32pm

On the internal soundtrack: "Get Back", by the Beatles. I didn't discover them until I was about 24, if you can believe that.

WHAT'S UP

Not much going on. Tomorrow we're going out with R&R to Jaleo, some Spanish tapas restaurant that's supposed to be excellent. I'm excited!

We had a discussion during cake today (at my office we have cake for everyone's birthday) about sleeping patterns. There some of us, including the company president, who are NOT morning people. (Hence the company policy of flexible hours.) Getting out of bed before 8am is usually fairly torturous. We've got people at the opposite end of the spectrum too -- one of 'em gets up at 5am every day.

Anyhow, I said, "I don't want to go to bed at night and I don't want to get out of bed in the morning" and a bunch of people laughed in agreement. I mentioned that I'd read that you can train yourself to become a morning person. The general consensus of the folks at work was that you can train yourself to get up early, yes, but that doesn't mean you're ever going to like it. I guess our bodies are hard wired that way.

I really don't know why getting up early (as opposed to working late and sleeping late) is considered such a wonderful attribute. I also wish like hell that Poindexter would work for a company that started work at 9am, but they start at 7:30 instead. Bastards. Well, at least *I* don't have to get up.

I got all aggravated today. I had to go to the post office and mail a few things, but addresses were misplaced and there was too much taping of boxes to do and it soon became apparent that I wasn't going to make it to the post office before it closed. So I got really crabby for a while there.

It seems that the only thing that will make me truly irritable is when I have too many things to do in too little time. Sounds like the way most people's everyday lives are, doesn't it? But I can't stand being in that state, so I try very hard to work a lot of unstructured time into my life. I could never be one of those people who is always on the go, always DOING something. I don't think I'm truly happy unless I have a lot of time do nothing but talk to someone, read, or take a walk.

SPEAKING OF READING

I have never been drunk in my life (don't like the taste of alcohol, and don't try to tell me there are drinks where you can't taste it because I can), never smoked, never tried any illegal drugs. I have never done anything to alter my perception that I didn't have control over (such as spinning, or leaning backwards in a swing to get a head rush).

I also don't have any addictions to substances, major or minor. Some people are addicted to their coffee, or their Coke, or chocolate. They almost couldn't live without these things. I can't think of a single substance that I must have on a regular basis. I like cheese a lot, but I'll go for weeks without eating it. I have favorites, I guess you could say, but nothing I can't live without.

As I was mulling this over one day, I realized there is one thing I just can't live without. If you took it away from me I'd get cranky and irritable and there would be a void in my life: Reading.

Yes, I'm a nerdy dorky geek.

When I was a kid, reading was all I did. People would come over to play with me, and I'd say "Hey, let's read." Since then I've expanded my horizons somewhat, but I still adore reading. I can't think of anything I'd like better than to spend an entire day buried in a really good book. When I'm on vacation, I plow through a book a day, if not more. The rest of the time, I squeeze in some reading while I'm brushing my teeth, shaving my legs, eating, and waiting at stoplights. I read journals on the internet. If I have no books or magazines handy, I'll read instruction booklets or the blurbs on my cereal box.

So I guess, if I'm trying to understand people's addictions, I could try to imagine giving up reading? Maybe that would make me more sympathetic.

AN UNRELATED THOUGHT

Do you ever watch the QVC channel? It's on now (it's channel 3, so it comes on when we turn the VCR off). This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. They even caption it. It's a bunch of inane chatter. "If you've ever thought about buying something on QVC, well, this is 18 karat gold." Is that supposed to make me want to buy it? What motivates people to call those numbers and buy stuff? I've heard of people getting into thousands of dollars of debt because they can't stop buying QVC crap. I just can't imagine it.

I'm rambling quite a bit tonight. Talkatcha.

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