Scraggly-Arsed Dude

At long last, that's me finished with the Bad Rats Project. Hang out more flags! I haven't the faintest idea what I'm going to do next, of course, if you disregard work. From now till the end of the year, there's schoolwork and greyscale paintings to occupy my time, but after that, who knows?

I worked on my current painting for a couple of hours last night (after I put the Bad Rats Project to rest), but although I wasn't feeling too bad early on in the day, that didn't last. I was half-dead again by midnight. I thought about taking a shower--the hot water and steam seem to help me breathe a little easier--but I was so zonked I couldn't summon the energy to get out of bed. So I did the logical thing, given the circumstances, and went to sleep. Couldn't seem to stay that way, unfortunately. I had piled up my pillows so I could sleep sitting up, but I kept sliding down onto my back. I can't breathe lying on my back. I kept dreaming I was drowning, then waking up, sliding back up the pillows, falling asleep, sliding down, having those dreams again, all night, ad nauseam. It was extremely irritating, so I'm extremely irritated today.

I went to the 7-11 as soon as I woke up, hoping for a sandwich and some apple juice, and something else happened to me, something annoying. I was standing in line, waiting to buy my sandwich, when some scraggly-arsed dude came along, butted into the line right in front of me, and started demanding that the clerk change a fifty! Well, the clerk refused, of course, suggesting that the man go and buy something if he wanted change. Rather than GOING and buying something, this fellow started hovering around the checkout counter--still in front of me--browsing the impulse purchase items in minute detail. He couldn't seem to decide whether to have gum, a Slim Jim, or a candy bar.

As I watched this doofus browsing, I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to be standing up for myself this week, instead of being my usual absent-minded, wussy self. So I reached around the guy, put my sandwich and juice on the counter, and said "Excuse me. I've been waiting quite a while, here." Things went better than I had expected--the browsing man stepped aside with a sheepish look, apologizing for having been in the way, and I'd bought my sandwich and left in no time.

Silly me, though--I went and bought a tuna salad sandwich instead of chicken salad. Faugh. I loathe fish, but I was hungry enough to eat it anyway. Fortunately, the fish had been processed to such an extent that it was pretty much indistinguishable from chicken. Or cardboard. Or whatever 7-11 chicken salad is really made of. Ah, well. Win some, lose some. At least the apple juice was genuine. I once got pineapple by mistake: now, that was disgusting. Sickly-sweet, and pulpy to boot. Horrible.

At any rate, not having been awake very long yesterday, and having just begun with today, I haven't much else to report. Back to work I go.