miscellany, #1009
everything’s more expensive now. cookies, frosty beverages, shirts. hot pockets. stego slices. sure, prices on stuff go up, but this has been awfully noticeable. i paid $1.70 for a bottle of soda at cvs today—the vending machine represents a bargain at $1.25 (shhh!). on the other hand, it makes perfect sense. it takes a lot of energy to make that 20 ounces of delicious high-fructose corn syrup, place it in a plastic bottle and transport it halfway across the damn country. and now it costs more. go figure. it cost me $10 to drive down to my parents’ house and back the other night. of course i can’t put a price on visiting them, but nevertheless, that’s a lot of money to go 90 miles. i’m torn between thinking it’s a good thing for people to finally be feeling the pain, and frankly being a little frightened. i’d like to think i’m enlightened, but i don’t like it any more than the next guy.
this has been a tough week. i sometimes take a step back and worry about the extent to which i can sometimes be argumentative and contrary at work. a lot of what i do involves putting away your own ego, and i always wonder if i do a good enough job of that. the fact that i worry about it probably means i’m all right, but it’s not like me to not fret about such things. at the end of the day, as long as i can feel like i’m doing right by the project at hand, then it must be okay. on the other hand, the fact that i have to argue so much to do that isn’t so fun.
in general, it goes to a larger issue, which is that as a byproduct of my generalized effort to stiffen up and grow a backbone, i wonder if i’ve become an asshole. goodness knows my patience is ever so thin right now, and even though i think it’s amusing to childishly screw with the people who test it, i am, you know, being a jerk. it’s not like me. or at least it wasn’t. i don’t remember when that was. on the other hand, it really is funny.
part of the beauty of sport is that there are certain things you can do that are just sublimely pleasing to have accomplished, in and of themselves. the other night i actually made a full-extension diving save in goal, scrambling after the ball to tuck it in safely. it was nice.
