The Misspent Life

Money's Worth

You sure do get your money's worth at this site. I mean, you get posts that go from Hooter's to drinking at work, to lamenting cultural decline, to a crappy poem written in two minutes.

Drinking at Work

Today we went to lunch at Hooters. Don’t ask me why. The food there is abysmal, and so is the staff. If I wanted to see that much makeup and pantyhose I’d go to a department store. We couldn’t even get beer.

I can’t tell you how much I would like work much better if I could have a drink at lunch, and maybe one in the afternoon. I would be such a nice thing. I can’t even begin to tell you, dear friends, what would happen if I had stepped up to the plate this afternoon and said, “What do you have on tap?” This group probably wouldn’t have been as upset as others, but I still would have gotten looks and it probably would have gotten back to the whole team and I would have been given a stern talking down.

It is my general belief that people need to loosen up. In some regards we are too loose, but I think on the whole we need to collectively wake up and reassess our priorities. Today, sadly, we must accept deviance and condemn tradition. I’ve written a short poem on the subject. You will find it below:

Truly the world is turned upside down.
What was once the norm is now verboten;
Who was once lowbrow is now well spoken.
Truly the world is turned upside down.

Bowling for Fun

So, (there I go again), Tuesday night saw the team go out for some team fun. What was this team fun? I’ll tell you. First we went to a Mexican restaurant. I’m never happy at a Mexican restaurant. I like burritos and tacos, don’t get me wrong, just not at a Mexican restaurant. They bury everything in cheap, watery cheese and pile lots of dried up Spanish rice and crusty refried beans on the said. Sometimes they throw in a pile of chopped up lettuce! Maybe a tomato wedge! No matter what you get, it comes out looking the same—like it has been sitting on the counter for half an hour before being thrown back in the oven to reheat.

After Mexican, we went bowling. This was fun. At first, I will admit, that I was skeptical. A bowling alley and Peoria did not conjure up the best images. Sure, I was being judgmental and elitist; but you should look around this town a bit and you’ll see where I was coming from. No matter, the crowd was okay. There was a young woman who works in the building there and she came over the chat a bit. The bowling alley was connected with this athletic complex and it struck me as strange that there were people drinking beer not only in the bowling alley (which was expected) but also in the gym part. Even better, there were ash trays on the tables in the gym. That was awesome.

My scores were 84 and something lower that I don’t remember.

Message from Rar-Rar: Part II

rar!

Youthful Indiscretions My Butt

The Corner has been buzzing a bit, as have a lot of blogs, about Kerry's Medalgate. One reader wrote into Jonah Golberg with this to say:

The problem with Kerry is that he doesn’t want to admit he was wrong. I agree with the guy in the New York Observer today. If he said I was 25 and stupid that would be the end of the story. Aren’t we all stupid at 25? And this is why he isn’t connecting with people. Elites feel like they are perfect and have the answer for all of the world’s problems and therefore cannot have any themselves. The people I hang with laugh about the stupid things they did when they were young. Come on admit it! You were an idiot too. It’s okay. It’s normal. Breath! Good news for Republicans – keep him defensive!

This prompted me to actually write in response to Mr. Golberg (something I rarely do). Here is my response:

Love you and love the Corner. However, I’ve got to take issue with your reader and the many other people who dismiss Kerry’s youthful indiscretions as, well, youthful indiscretions like drinking too much or enjoying the ladies. He may have been young, but he was also in the military. A bunch, if not most, of the young men and women serving in our armed forces now are under 25 (as am I) and while a lot of them most certainly will or have done stupid things, they have enough respect and seriousness when it comes to their service that they would not do what Senator Kerry did. They would know that what they were doing had profound meaning and they would treat such an action as any right-thinking American should; with disdain.

This whole youthful indiscretion thing really gets my goat. Perhaps it is because when I was a youth I did not have anything to be indiscrete about and I'm jealous of the people that go around binging and shagging. When are we supposed to grow up? 30? Judging by some of my coworkers and acquaintenances 30 is low balling it.

Oh, well...

My promised post on the Spectator will not be coming. Alas, I have found that other people are now saying what I had to say. If only I'd posted when I first thought of it I would have been trend-setting!

You still might get it, but this is my official unpromise.

Another Thing

I am listening to Rio by Duran Duran right now.

A Couple Things

1. I love Jessica Simpson with an overriding passion I reserve for a few things (Beanie Babies, monkeys, Flashman books and Simon de Beauvior are others). One reason? I saw somewhere that she is trying to get Donald Rumsfeld on her pending ABC TV show. She is from Texas, remember. Throw in Condoleeza Rice and that would be my perfect double date. Who would be my date? Honestly, I straight up don't care.

I will share further reasons why I love Mrs. Nick-from-98-Degress at a later date, don't worry.

2. I am eating Sour Patch Kids right now.

The 1970's

When I first started writing this blog in January (eek! has it been that long?) I was making it a habit to watch The Price Is Right every day; or more accurately, TiVoing it and watching at weekends. My parents thought this very odd behavior for a 24 year old living the single life in swinging Lincoln Park. No doubt it was. I have since stopped TiVoing it, but have not abandoned the underlying reason I watched it and which I promised a treatise on way back in the founding days of this site; I am transfixed by things that remind me of the late 60's and early 70's, and TPiR is certainly locked in time, no?

Of course, I say remind me only in the vague sense that they remind me of what I imagine the late 60’s and early 70’s to have been like because I certainly wasn’t around then. Yet, for some strange reason I feel a great affinity to that era and I cannot explain why. The idea of returning to stagflation, burning bras, gas embargoes, and ugly automobiles does not excite me. Granted, I probably would have been disdainful of hippies (not withstanding my occasional urge to go hippy and join a cult) and nodded my head to the “nattering nabobs of negativism” and later would have run around with my WIN button firmly attached to my oversized lapel. All of this doesn’t matter. There is just something about watching Match Game ’74 that gets me. The people were so unattractive, the colors just abysmal, and don’t get me started on the “celebrities.” Charles Nelson Reilly! Brett Somers! Bette White! Richard Dawson making lewd comments! Charles Nelson Reilly! Gene Rayburn’s God awful microphone and suits! Charles! Nelson! Reilly! In my right mind none of these should be even somewhat appealing and together should even worse; yet why do I love it all?

More at a later date…including music!

You'll Have to Wait

I made several promises of essays last night, both of which I can't fulfill until this weekend as I've left the source materials behind in Chicago.