I was in the bathroom at work on Wednesday when I ran into this girl I used to work with that went to MSU. We were complaining about the crazy hours we work when she said "When we were at MSU, did you ever imagine we'd be doing this and putting up with this bull shit?"

If that's not the most depressing thing I've heard in months I don't know what is.

We are euthanizing our 18year-old cat, Athena, tomorrow. She's been lingering since Thursday and can't walk or eat. Godspeed, my zombie kitten friend, the best there ever was.

* My sister is buying a house in Royal Oak (with my money as the down payment), so I'm moving in a month. I am extremely excited.
* I bought this bed at Ikea http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10074929 in black
* I have know had my car for a year and put 5,000 miles on it. There are not adequate words to describe how much I love my car.

Today on the morning radio show I was listening to, they started talking about a documentary they had seen about conjoined twins that had one body and two heads. Normally the hosts of this show are kind of doofuses who say idiotic stuff mainly for the shock value but are relatively harmless. So I was surprised by how nasty they were about the girls being freaks and weird and all that stuff.

What really bothered me was that the one female host who sort of always laughs at the stuff the boys say got weirdly angry at the idea that these girls had normal lives. "They aren't normal," she said. "They can try and sugarcoat it but they don't lead normal lives. They can't get married or have kids." It was like they personally offended her for having lives and driving and working to make the best of what they had. Then someone called in to say the twins shouldn't mind when people take pictures of them, because they are freaks. And no one said anything.

I am so unbelievably bother by this I can't even explain it. I use a wheelchair and don't have legs, people stare and whisper, but whatever, I even had someone get down in front of me and take a picture of me once. But still, the very idea that cripples go out in the word and live happy, healthy lives and don't sit in their houses and cry seemed to shock and upset them. What the hell? I sent an email to the station but now, almost ten hours later I still feel angry and sad about this. Is this really how people feel about me and other disabled people? That because our lives aren't exactly like theirs we must be these sad little creatures? I don't even know. Thanks for listening.

http://www.hom.org/exceptsite/except.html

This is amazing.

It would have been better if it hadn't been for that whole get a job start a career thing. Technically I reread all of the Vonnegut.

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut
• The American Dream by Edward Albee
• Betrayal by Harold Pinter
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
• Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
• Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney’s Humor Category by Dave Eggers
• Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
• Equus by Peter Shaffer
• HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
• Hiroshima by John Hersey
• Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
• Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
• Our Town by Thorton Wilder
• SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading of 2003 by Dave Eggers
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004 by David Eggers
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005 by David Eggers
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 by David Eggers
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading of 2007 by Dave Eggers
• The Dubliners by James Joyce
• The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Under the banner of heaven by Jon Krakauer
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• When you are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
• The Zoo Story by Edward Albee
• Anthem by Ayn Rand
• Angels in America by Tony Kushner
• Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahirie
• Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
• Supreme conflict: the inside story of the struggle for control of the United States Supreme Court by Jan Crawford Greenburg.
• Speaking Freely by Floyd Abrams
• ECONOMIC NATURALIST: IN SEARCH OF EXPLANATIONS FOR EVERYDAY ENIGMAS by Frank Robert
• A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler

Here's a question. Does anyone like their job?
I don't mean "I don't loathe it." I don't mean "it doesn't make me want to Kill myself"
I mean does anyone like their job? Really like it?
I don't know. I have this seven page evaluation to do for work and it's due Thursday. I wanted to do it this weekend but God help me I couldn't summon the motiviation to do antyhing but sleep and go to Meijer. I don't want to wait until Wednesday night to do but probably will. I'm kind of obessses with Neutral Mikl Hotel lately.

My cousin turns 14 on Christmas Eve and I wanted to get him two books. I don't want this to be some self-indulgent thing where I buy him books I love and he doesn't read them, but a chance for him to feel what I have felt reading a really amazing book at that age. I also want it to be something he wouldn't read for school and something he might not pick up on his own or until he was older. Also, despite being the son of the only McNulty we talk to any more, I don't really know him all that well. He's a 14-year-old boy who likes to skateboard and play hockey. He's pretty laid back and smart, but beyond that, who knows. I don't know how he feels about life, or how he feels that his dad (my uncle) lost his job or anything really. I don't want to impose my tastes or view of the world at that age.


Suggestions? What was amazing to you at 14?

The RIA is ours

http://freep.com/article/20081211/NEWS06/81211042

I never wrote about this show, but there is something undeniable about two thousand people screaming "phew for a minute there." I miss it. Also, 2:19 in. Amazing

A very happy and early birthday present for myself. I'm very happy.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook?mco=MTE3MjA

Clearly this was what Youtube was meant for.

It's long, but oh man is it worth it.

I got a promotion at work. It means a little more work but not much. It also means a lot more money, medical benefits, a 401K, paid vacation and just a lot of perks. It's an odd sensation to have something really nice happen to me, and I won't lie, it's slightly disconcerting. I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Radiohead in five days.