Yeah, it's about my job again
You know, this is turning out to be quite the season at my job - not only did I reach the milestone where I was finally, at long, long last, able to do my job with my eyes closed, but I worked my first night past midnight. Yes indeed, yours truly was at work until 1 AM just this past week. And doing what? Mostly waiting. Sitting on my ass. Waiting. hell, I could have been waiting at my own god damned house, let's be honest here. Failing that, I could have been waiting at the House of Blues across the street. But, no, I instead had to sit at my desk. And wait. Hell, I wasn't even able to catch Barack Obama's speech - I had to settle for Theresa Heinz-Kerry. Which isn't to say that she wasn't worth listening to. but, well, she wasn't Barack, from what I heard.
In my time spent waiting, I took the oportunity to see what was new in the vending machine. Before, I have spoken of the Coney Island Hot Dog Flavored Potato Chips. I have demonized the freeze-dried TGIF's Deep-Fried Mozarella Sticks. Did I mention the shrink-wrapped raspberry coffee cake? No, I don't think I did, but taht does little to change the fact that it appeared about as foul as you could imagine.
No, on that lovely night, as the clock was rounding 11 PM, I saw a bag of Reese's Pieces with Nuts. So, what? Did they take a Reese's Piece, and shoved a nut inside? Guess so. What's more, and what even makes this worth mentioning (albeit barely) was that it was a limited edition bag of candy. Sigh. I don't get it. Is this what I should really be looking forward to - that next limited edition bag of crap candy?
I'm thinking now of John Kerry's speech last night. Admittedly, I am an unabashed Democrat. As liberal as can be, unafraid of "Big Government" and wholly given to whatever it is that my party can come to agree upon. What's weird about that is that there was a time where I sought to distance myself from being labeled a "Democrat". Maybe Bush changed all that, maybe my own beliefs have changed. I don't know, and I guess I don't really care. I just want health insurance, cheap drugs from Canada, and the right - should I ever get the inclination - to marry the man that does me up the butt.
But like I was saying - Kerry's speech. I was prepared to dislike it. I was prepared to be dissapointed (and who says I'm not a Cubs fan?). And... truth be told, I liked it. A lot. I think Kerry did a marvelous job. While I will be interested in seeing what the polls say from over the weekend, my own instinct is that he did a good job of convincing undecided voters that he's the better candidate. True, over 100 days still remain before any of this speculation comes to its natural head, but I can hope that one day, I'll be proud of my President, and consider him/her a person worth looking up to.
So yeah, I said this was about my job. To see this man speak of his life, as well as hear the countless other men and women who were paraded in front of America this past week, gave me pause to consider my own life. I mean, Kerry volunteered to go to Vietnam - would I consider to go to Iraq? No, no I wouldn't. Can I name a single person that would volunteer to go to Iraq? No, no I can't. True enough, the American cultural milieu that evolved from a righteous sense of duty in WWII leading to the Vietnam conflict is quite different than the sense of cynicism and despair that pervades my peers today, but still, shouldn't I be inspired to do something?
If there is but one thing at which I excel, it's exhaustive internet research. Want a good hotel in Vegas? Give me two days. Want a reliable cell phone? That'll take me a week. I could go on, mostly with examples from my own life (a last example: want to know the best place to find an 8.5 g clay composite poker chip in an entire rainbow of colors? I got you covered). Suffice it to say, though, that I like to think that if I put my seemingly endless supply of energy to something good and/or worthwhile, I'd be quite the samaritan.
But instead, I do keep my enthusiasm to such topics as I mentioned above. Which is fine, really. I understand and embrace the fact that I have needs and desires, too, and that such needs/desires include going to Vegas on the cheap, picking a decent cell phone, and finding a set of poker chips sweet enough to become the envy of my friends. And yet - if ever I had a new catchphrase, that'd be it, I swear - if I could do something, I don't know, different, how nice would that be?
Yes, I do have plans to enter into the service of our fine government, by way of the United States Foreign Service, but that's some time away. but in the meantime, do I really want to be spending my evenings staring at the vending machine, wondering which is a more worthwhile purchase: Golden Streams Trail Mix or Andry Cap's BBQ-flavored potato sticks? Yes, my job affords me a lifestyle that is comfortable, and full of new Transformers action figures, but as inspiring as Optimus Prime is, he is nonetheless unable to warm my heart. What is that answer that we all seek in this young age of ours? Surely, or own parents were not faced with such an ambiguous challenge - they had a war to fight (or fight against). Our older sister's and brothers (well, my older sister, anyway) still had to challenege the amorphous threat of the Cold War. And while we're "fighting terrorists", I can't say that that fight means very much to me. Must I be touched by the cold claws of terrorism? I certainly hope not, but I'd still love to have some fire ignited within.
I see lots of my peers come and go in my current job, moving on to law school, or -- hell, I think that they all go to law school once they're done making labels. Apparently, they didn't pay enough attention while working to see what the rest of their lives would be like... but anyway, just the same, the people with whom I work tend to move on to something as equally vapid and useless as making labels, one way or another. where are the legions of idyllic young men and women who are charging across the country, changind minds, if not even our very own way of life?
I think that that's the hope and dream that is within us all, the greatest gift that we have been given by the sole reason of being born in this country. And I mean that - we are brought up to believe that we are capable of anything, even if the real-world problems are so apparent that such dreams seem like folly to even the youngest person.
But John Kerry last night did make me believe that, through some sort of cosmic impossibility, my dreams of doing something better, something more, something that at least matters, might yet come true. And if for that reason alone, I will gladly vote for Sen. Kerry. Not because he's not George Bush, but because he inspired me to be a better man.
Indeed, call me a schmuck - I've been called worse.
xoxo,
ddm
email me
You know, this is turning out to be quite the season at my job - not only did I reach the milestone where I was finally, at long, long last, able to do my job with my eyes closed, but I worked my first night past midnight. Yes indeed, yours truly was at work until 1 AM just this past week. And doing what? Mostly waiting. Sitting on my ass. Waiting. hell, I could have been waiting at my own god damned house, let's be honest here. Failing that, I could have been waiting at the House of Blues across the street. But, no, I instead had to sit at my desk. And wait. Hell, I wasn't even able to catch Barack Obama's speech - I had to settle for Theresa Heinz-Kerry. Which isn't to say that she wasn't worth listening to. but, well, she wasn't Barack, from what I heard.
In my time spent waiting, I took the oportunity to see what was new in the vending machine. Before, I have spoken of the Coney Island Hot Dog Flavored Potato Chips. I have demonized the freeze-dried TGIF's Deep-Fried Mozarella Sticks. Did I mention the shrink-wrapped raspberry coffee cake? No, I don't think I did, but taht does little to change the fact that it appeared about as foul as you could imagine.
No, on that lovely night, as the clock was rounding 11 PM, I saw a bag of Reese's Pieces with Nuts. So, what? Did they take a Reese's Piece, and shoved a nut inside? Guess so. What's more, and what even makes this worth mentioning (albeit barely) was that it was a limited edition bag of candy. Sigh. I don't get it. Is this what I should really be looking forward to - that next limited edition bag of crap candy?
I'm thinking now of John Kerry's speech last night. Admittedly, I am an unabashed Democrat. As liberal as can be, unafraid of "Big Government" and wholly given to whatever it is that my party can come to agree upon. What's weird about that is that there was a time where I sought to distance myself from being labeled a "Democrat". Maybe Bush changed all that, maybe my own beliefs have changed. I don't know, and I guess I don't really care. I just want health insurance, cheap drugs from Canada, and the right - should I ever get the inclination - to marry the man that does me up the butt.
But like I was saying - Kerry's speech. I was prepared to dislike it. I was prepared to be dissapointed (and who says I'm not a Cubs fan?). And... truth be told, I liked it. A lot. I think Kerry did a marvelous job. While I will be interested in seeing what the polls say from over the weekend, my own instinct is that he did a good job of convincing undecided voters that he's the better candidate. True, over 100 days still remain before any of this speculation comes to its natural head, but I can hope that one day, I'll be proud of my President, and consider him/her a person worth looking up to.
So yeah, I said this was about my job. To see this man speak of his life, as well as hear the countless other men and women who were paraded in front of America this past week, gave me pause to consider my own life. I mean, Kerry volunteered to go to Vietnam - would I consider to go to Iraq? No, no I wouldn't. Can I name a single person that would volunteer to go to Iraq? No, no I can't. True enough, the American cultural milieu that evolved from a righteous sense of duty in WWII leading to the Vietnam conflict is quite different than the sense of cynicism and despair that pervades my peers today, but still, shouldn't I be inspired to do something?
If there is but one thing at which I excel, it's exhaustive internet research. Want a good hotel in Vegas? Give me two days. Want a reliable cell phone? That'll take me a week. I could go on, mostly with examples from my own life (a last example: want to know the best place to find an 8.5 g clay composite poker chip in an entire rainbow of colors? I got you covered). Suffice it to say, though, that I like to think that if I put my seemingly endless supply of energy to something good and/or worthwhile, I'd be quite the samaritan.
But instead, I do keep my enthusiasm to such topics as I mentioned above. Which is fine, really. I understand and embrace the fact that I have needs and desires, too, and that such needs/desires include going to Vegas on the cheap, picking a decent cell phone, and finding a set of poker chips sweet enough to become the envy of my friends. And yet - if ever I had a new catchphrase, that'd be it, I swear - if I could do something, I don't know, different, how nice would that be?
Yes, I do have plans to enter into the service of our fine government, by way of the United States Foreign Service, but that's some time away. but in the meantime, do I really want to be spending my evenings staring at the vending machine, wondering which is a more worthwhile purchase: Golden Streams Trail Mix or Andry Cap's BBQ-flavored potato sticks? Yes, my job affords me a lifestyle that is comfortable, and full of new Transformers action figures, but as inspiring as Optimus Prime is, he is nonetheless unable to warm my heart. What is that answer that we all seek in this young age of ours? Surely, or own parents were not faced with such an ambiguous challenge - they had a war to fight (or fight against). Our older sister's and brothers (well, my older sister, anyway) still had to challenege the amorphous threat of the Cold War. And while we're "fighting terrorists", I can't say that that fight means very much to me. Must I be touched by the cold claws of terrorism? I certainly hope not, but I'd still love to have some fire ignited within.
I see lots of my peers come and go in my current job, moving on to law school, or -- hell, I think that they all go to law school once they're done making labels. Apparently, they didn't pay enough attention while working to see what the rest of their lives would be like... but anyway, just the same, the people with whom I work tend to move on to something as equally vapid and useless as making labels, one way or another. where are the legions of idyllic young men and women who are charging across the country, changind minds, if not even our very own way of life?
I think that that's the hope and dream that is within us all, the greatest gift that we have been given by the sole reason of being born in this country. And I mean that - we are brought up to believe that we are capable of anything, even if the real-world problems are so apparent that such dreams seem like folly to even the youngest person.
But John Kerry last night did make me believe that, through some sort of cosmic impossibility, my dreams of doing something better, something more, something that at least matters, might yet come true. And if for that reason alone, I will gladly vote for Sen. Kerry. Not because he's not George Bush, but because he inspired me to be a better man.
Indeed, call me a schmuck - I've been called worse.
xoxo,
ddm
email me
1 Comments:
enjoyed it and I will be adding it to my favorites. I have a really cool
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