I don’t hate Valentine’s Day but I don’t love it either. It’s just another day for me probably because I have my own holiday for one day making a girl feel special. I like to call that holiday “Every Day.”
I feel like Valentine’s Day is the time for a lot of guys to treat their special lady much better than usual so their girl’s battery can be recharged to deal with the guy’s bullshit until her birthday or some other holiday, like President’s Day. Or maybe even until next Valentine’s Day. Of course, that may not be what’s happening, but it can be.
I don’t mean to sound so negative and cynical, forgive me. I’m just trying to be real about things and that’s how it comes off.
So ladies, I hope your man knows how to make you feel special just because you are, not because he’s “obligated” to during a holiday. And I hope none of you are in denial if you read this and try to rationalize shit. If you do that and you catch yourself, slap yourself for me then gently massage your face where you slapped yourself for me and I apologize in advance for slapping you (through you).
Happy Valentine’s Day.
When life gets you down, it’s ok to rest there for a bit; just don’t forget to get up soon.
From January 12, 2011 at 1:40am
Running in the snow is cool. Shadow boxing, not so much. Hard to keep my damn footing when the snow gets compressed into ice.
As I ran through the snow and started coming back to footprints I had already made, I stopped and watched as new snowflakes came down and began to cover them. I tried to make sure that when I ran back to my house, my feet landed on the footprints I had made earlier to keep them there longer. Of course, since it has not begun to rain around these parts and it is still snowing, by morning (or even in an hour or so), the footprints I made will have been completely covered and it will seem like I had never gone on a run at all.
That’s kind of how life is. Sure, we can have everything now: money, fame, other shit. There are our footprints. But 100 years down the line when we’re (most likely) dead and gone? Our grandchildren could be mentioning us to our great grandchildren if they’re not having mid-life crises. But what about a few hundred years later? If we’re lucky, someone in our family was (un)cool enough to put together a family tree so they can look and say, “Oh, there’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa Emil.” Pretty soon, the snow of time begins to slowly but surely cover the footprints of our lives.
I know, there are people who died many hundreds of years ago, some even a couple thousand years ago and some change that are still remembered today. They are the “lucky” ones who were able to run over their own footprints then had future people run over their footprints for them posthumously. If I could do something that would have me remembered that long after I have died, well…damn, I probably would not have even known I did something that great since someone’s greatness is usually only fully grasped once that person has long since passed.
I (don’t) love how things work out that way.
Oh well, a guy can dream, can’t he? Even if his dream is to make the almost impossible completely possible.
Welcome, 2011. It’s nice to see you. There’s so much I have to do during your 1 year reign. I won’t spoil it, but I will say I’m going to work damn hard for once.
And with that, I say RIP, 2011: although it just began, I’m bout to kill it. In the best possible ways.
5:25am last year. That morning, still so clear to me, like a frosted over car bathing in the moonlight in an unlit parking lot. The ringing of the phone, my mom answering the call and the dropped phone followed by dropping tears. I went as cold as the frigid morning air that awaited us as we hurried to the van to make our way over to Swedish. The only thought I could muster since I invested all my energy in halting my tears was, “Why?”
You were lying there so peacefully. You had motioned for us earlier that night to go home. Did you know it was your time, Lola? Did you not want us to see you pass? We did not mean to disturb your peace but we had to begin saying our “goodbyes,” with your newly wet cheeks and reddening eyes. Well, mine weren’t. At least not yet. Remember you told me I had to be strong?
I can’t believe a year has already passed. I suppose that’s a good thing: I’m another year closer to seeing you again. Sorry, I know you wouldn’t want me talking like that. Did you see me finish this past quarter? Finally and officially, I’m a college graduate; I know you had been waiting to see that.
It’s really painful that you passed away on this day. Every time the New Year approaches, I get reminded that it’s another year that’s about to begin that I don’t get to be with you. Again, I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to talk like that. Don’t worry, La, I’m happy and only getting happier with the way things are going, but I will always feel that pain in my heart and those tears sting my eyes around this time before I get back to normal and remember the good times I had with you during your life and not the tragedy that was your death.
I love you, La, and I will never forget you.
Greatness is not the lack or absence of failure: whether one fails or succeeds, it is facing every challenge that comes one’s way, no matter what the odds.
- Over 7 billion people populate the Earth but the Earth’s carrying capacity is only about 2 billion people…and that’s if we used every bit of land on Earth. Now, that carrying capacity isn’t really fixed since it could be higher if everyone only ate and used up other resources that they NEEDED, but that’s never the case, is it? And of course it could also be lower, which is a more likely case.
- It’s understandable that people fear the sea level rising due to global warming melting ice around the world, but don’t freak out about the Polar ice caps melting. That’s not what you should be worried about if you’re afraid of rising sea levels since ice is less dense than water, so the Polar ice caps melting would probably lower the sea level. It’s the ice on land melting that we should be worried about, like the Antarctic ice sheets. Sea levels would rise about 240 feet if ice on land melted. That would make Queen Anne an island.
- Anyone catch that NASA Press Conference about alien life on Earth (with alien life being a creature that isn’t carbon based)? I didn’t, but supposedly it wasn’t as groundbreaking as some people would have hoped since that arsenic based life doesn’t start that way and only begins to incorporate arsenic when it is bombarbed with arsenic. Sorry everyone, no Xenomorphs or Predators just yet.
The horrible ones far outnumber the good ones, but man, I love watching them. Damn, how come most people didn’t like “The Descent” though? That’s one of the best “recent” horror films. Shout out to Clairbel because she liked it. The rest of you, explain yourselves.
Feel free to recommend scary movies to me. In fact, it’s encouraged. I’ve probably watched what you’re thinking of recommending though. If not, you get a gold star.
It’d be great if I had money to go on a vacation somewhere. Daydreaming will have to do. I can make my ceiling turn into the scenery of any place I want if I stare at it long enough. But damn, after a while, it just makes me want to get away even more.
I read a recent article that daydreaming isn’t very good for your mental health: although we can daydream of happy things, they typically regress to things that may elicit negative emotions.
Word, but I’ll take that. Time to go on another vacation.
