one week over

Wth only a week into it, some minor things have changed this year. One of the most noticeable is that for the first time in weeks I didn't fall asleep on the couch Sunday night like I usually do. Oddly enough I had done that Sunday afternoon and managed to make it to my bed for Sunday night without seeing The X-Files.

...

Perhaps in an effort to make up for the complete lack of calls on Sunday, I got an insane number of ten telemarketer phone calls today. Sigh. Thankfully I wasn't home when most of them assaulted my house, but I wonder what product they think that they could possibly sell me between the hours of five and six in the evening.

...

The big adventure for the day was a visit to the doctor's office. My right ear had been bothering me off and on for the past few weeks and I suspected that I had an ear infection that subsided and then flared back up again. Of course I wouldn't be sure until I actually had someone with medical knowledge look at it for me.

Now going to see the doctor wouldn't be that big of a problem for me except for the fact that at the end of last year my lovely company forced a change of medical plans on the entire staff. There were no exceptions from this decree. They said that they did it for us. Yeah, whatever. All that I know is that I lost the convenience of my last plan and had to make multiple phone calls today to make sure that the person that I was seeing was covered under my insurance. Oddly enough all of the stress seemed to aggravate the pain in my ear. I wonder why that might be.

Soon I was there in the office amidst coughing and complaining people waiting my turn. It was not how I wanted to spend my day off.

I quickly learned that Monday is not a good day to see the doctor and I managed to devour three entire magazines before my name was called. In my reading there was a Smithsonian biography on J.R.R. Tolkien, an article on the revival of traditional religions in Vietnam in the same issue and another one on the pioneering effect of John Steinbeck novels with regards to the concept of ecology.

Moving on to Time magazine there was an article explaining how an American became a member of the Taliban and another one on ten of the most eccentric and groundbreaking thinkers living today. The one thinker that caught my attention was the man and his theory about time that refutes what Einstein said. According to this man whose name I forget, time is not a dimension at all, but something that our mind conjures up. I probably muddled his theory, but it did sound interesting.

After reading all of those articles that required some thought I moved on to a third and final magazine, GQ. I was amazed that a "men's magazine" could be filled with so many photo advertisements for clothing. Yes, I know that the magazine is geared toward fashion and appearance, but I just can't look at page after page of men standing there gazing off into space. I don't get it. Then again I don't buy into that concept of clothing makes a person. I think that all of that is bullshit. Of course to offset this homoerotic imagery there are a few articles about improving one's sexual technique and another one about a man and his drinking problems.

...

Oh, my ear is feeling much better now, so it was worth the wait. Although I think that I could have done without the heavy set woman complaining loudly into her cell phone about how bored she was at the doctor's office. Hello, Stupid Woman. Do you think that anyone wants to be here? Hunh? Do you think that we want to hear you complain as you call friend after friend and whine like a small child? Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.

I should have taken her phone away from her and then thrown it outside. There now you have something to cry about you baby.

...

Summer works in a medical office very similar to if not exactly the same as the one I visited and I wondered how she tolerates all of the nonsense on a daily basis. Then again most of the women behind the counter seemed to be able to ignore everything but their conversations so maybe it isn't that hard.

 
yesterday | index | tomorrow | one year ago