A Festivus for the rest of us

First off, I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas...and all that jazz that follows thereafter!

I woke up at around 10 AM this morning (sleeping in has been rare over the last few weeks, so I take them when I can get them, even if it is Christmas Day!), ate a quick breakfast and proceeded downstairs for the traditional exchanging of gifts that everyone seems to be quite fond of.

My family knows me so well. The gifts I got were half practical, and half dumb...just the way I like it! I got a much needed infusion of clothing, reading and beef jerky, while I also got a minature glow-in-the-dark basketball/hoop for my room and a waffle maker. We also have a new table hockey game!

I'm loving my desk calendar featuring the accidental wit and wisdom of George W. Bush. The funniest quote I've seen so far is this: "If the terriers and bariffs are torn down, the economy will grow." LOVING IT!

Tradition in this house dictates that we get one unhealthy sugary cereal per year, and that it comes at Christmas time. This year, it was Choco Blast cereal, which I've surprisingly found to be quite delicious. My heart rate is going to have to slow down though before I can get another bowl! ;)

Col and I combined to get our parents something they would never buy for themselves...a digital camera! Half the fun is watching my dad play with it and not saving any of the pictures he's taking! Although I work for a very cheap company, I'm glad my "Christmas bonus" coupon for 10 free digital photos will indeed get used after all...

Everybody who's somebody in this family is coming over tomorrow for our annual Boxing Day Extravaganza! More food and frolicking! Huzzah! I can't wait for our gag gift exchange...every year, we have a wild-card gift consisting of a shower curtain with clowns on it. Whoever gets it the year previous has to re-package it and throw it into the pile for someone else to recieve. I'm going to have to top the Mr. Potato Head that I chipped in last year!

Hope you are all having a happy holidays! I'm out...

Ev(an)

Tuesday with Thornley

Thanks to some free tickets from my brother Colin via Zach Perkins, I was able to partake in a Thornley concert at the Odeon after work last night. Huzzah!

We got there at 7:40 and waited outside for 20 minutes to get through the doors...then we waited for an hour and 15 minutes for the warmup band to play! My feet and back were killing me from a long day at work, so the standing wait combined with my pet peeve for tardiness grated at me for some time, but the promise of seeing Thornley at the end of the night was well worth the discomfort.

Once we found out that the warmup band was simply a warmup for another warmup band, the audience got real antsy. 25 minutes had already passed in waiting for the next warmup band, and I don't think I could have endured another long wait for something I had no real interest in seeing anyway. Instead, Col and I decided to grab some grub at the Irish "restaurant" across the street (mmmm...chicken fingers) and we correctly predicted the time in which we thought that band would be done.

By the time we re-entered, the stage was already setup for the main event. And man, they didn't disappoint. Thornley was awesome. They played some songs from their current CD and some old ones I nearly forgot about. They also played the song "Shout" until the lead singer admitted he didn't know the words beyond the chorus...too funny! It was awesome when he stopped singing one particular song and let the crowd finish it for him. The last hour was well worth it!

$4 for two cups of Coke? Puhleeze.

One guy actually jumped the stage and started dancing until the lead singer shoved him off the stage. Not a smart thing to do, especially one week after that shooting at a concert in the US that killed the band's lead singer. I can only assume that he got a good beating in the back from security :)

Funniest moment of the night? The first warmup band made the mistake of mentioning that they were from Winnipeg. One guy (and it wasn't me, I swear) shouted out "RIDER PRIDE!!" The singer said, yeah the Bombers sucked this year. The same guy shouted back" THEY SUCK EVERY YEAR!!" They had no comeback for that one!

And that's how I sort of turned into the Incredible Hulk...

"Your ass is mine, Simpson, your ass is mine. That's right! I think words I would never say."--- Principal Skinner, telepathically intimidating Bart on the witness stand.

Have you ever had that one moment where someone gets under your skin so much that you literally turn red in the face and launch into a profanity-laced tirade? Today, that more or less happened to me...and with an authority figure, no less. Let the fun begin...

My assistant manager, who is a real (expletive deleted)[use your imagination, folks], apparently wanted me to work in the warehouse/head office today to do some odd jobs there. Normally, I'd have no problem with that. The problem I do have is when he assumes I'll go and doesn't even ask me. I drive across the city to go to work today and run into 2 people who ask me why I'm not at the warehouse instead. I have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Apparently, he's been telling everyone that I'll be at the warehouse this afternoon. I get paged over the intercom and get asked why I'm not at the warehouse. I reply that I was never asked. He says he called yesterday (not true) and earlier today (true, but according to my caller ID it was just before my shift and I was out of the house). I reply by saying it's pretty hard to say yes or no when you never have the actual conversation. Then he plays stupid and says we're having a conversation now, so can you go now? I reply no. I just drove all the way across the city and am ready to work here. I don't want to go all the way back across town, get changed, and find a building I've never seen before. He wasn't exactly impressed with my response, but I think he was surprised that I raised my voice with him. He never mentioned the incident for the rest of the day.

My co-workers remarked that they have never seen me so angry. I absolutely hate it when people put words in my mouth and try to intimidate and take advantage of me...something that this person also has a reputation for doing with many other people. And he doesn't seem to understand why no one wants to do him any favours...hmmmm.... very baffling, indeed.

I was thinking about transferring to the new store that would have been a 5 minute walk from my house. But guess who's transferring there too! Oh well, I guess it's for the best. I really like the people I work with, and it would have been tough to leave. In about a month's time, my job will become somewhat more tolerable for the first time in recent memory. Make no mistake people: I still dislike it, but the intensity in which it sucks will be reduced.

As for the profanity-laced tirade? Well, much like Principal Skinner, I managed to internalize pretty much all of it...but let's just say that if it were possible to hear my thoughts, Chris Rock himself would have blushed. I'm not proud of myself for letting a few slip out, but (expletive deleted) happens! :D

I was always taught in university to hearken back to your original quote/paragraph when writing an essay. And now that I've done that, I'll stop now :D

The moral of this story: don't tick me off or else I'll go quasi-Hulk on all of you!