The Internet Book Database of Fiction

I thought I'd start a general thread where people can come and talk about how their life has been lately. Not necessarily good or bad, maybe a mix of both. Or just to tell a story about something that happened to you.

Something funny happened to me today: I was in the grocery store, and the Prince song "When Doves Cry" came on over the music system. Now, of course, this was a song I remembered from my youth, so I started kind of singing along to it, but quietly, so nobody could hear. Just as it got to the big chorus part, "Maybe you're just like my mother, she's never satisfied," I hear this big male voice from over in the next aisle singing that part really loudly. He actually had a good voice. Anyway, I thought that was really funny. Maybe you had to be there...

That story made me smile, I can just picture some guy walking along, minding his own business, picking canned goods up off the shelf, belting out the chours of the song. It makes me giggle just thinking about it, maybe I'm just easily amused or it could be that I've cought myself singing along to the music in my grocery store too, only to realize how loud I actually was singing and then hoping no one heard me. Hmmm, maybe the story isn't that funny seeing as I could have at one time been that person for someone else.

Na, it's still funny!

I'm stoked today because 1) I'm seeing Wicked twice in the next 2 months and 2) I got Kerry Ellis' autograph in the post today! She's so nice!

Well, last Sunday night/Monday morning I was with some of my friends at a restaurant eating after seeing Spiderman 3, and my roommate got a call what said one of our friends (who we lovingly call Sexy Steve) shot himself in the head. So the rest of the night I had to babysit a bunch of grieving drunks , and I didn't get any sleep, and then I had to go to work. Now things have calmed down a bit but we're still dealing with the repercussions, notably that right now Sexy Steve's mother, in a serious state of distress (she was the one that found him; it was at her house; he intended it that way re: the letter he left) is looking into all of us to see what relationship we had with him and what certainty that can give. So yeah, wonderful times, but at least I maintain my cheery disposition.

--PolarisDiB

I'm very sorry to hear about what happened, Polaris. I'm sure you're friends were glad to have your there to help them process what had happened. I imagine Steve's mom is trying to do anything she can right now to find answers. She is probably hoping to perhaps even find anyone or anything else besides her son to blame and/or find some sort of answer from because it is painful for her to be so helpless. It is probably also a coping mechanism to fill her thoughts with some purpose.

Perhaps you and your friends could compile any pictures you have and write down some (acceptable to a mother) stories you have about him, and put them all together. It sounds like your friend was a well-liked guy, and after she gets over the initial phase of grieving it might provide her with some comfort.

PolarisDiB wrote:So yeah, wonderful times, but at least I maintain my cheery disposition.

Keep yer chin up, man. It sounds like your friends depend on you quite a bit (whether they realize it or not).

you didn't say how you were handling it yourself, polaris...how are YOU doing?

((BIG HUGS)) from someone who's been there.

violetblue wrote:Perhaps you and your friends could compile any pictures you have and write down some (acceptable to a mother) stories you have about him, and put them all together. It sounds like your friend was a well-liked guy, and after she gets over the initial phase of grieving it might provide her with some comfort.

Most of the pictures we have of Sexy Steve are blackmail pictures, and most of our stories involve his penis. Not very comforting.

But anyway the whole event is over as we've buried him and had his funeral and everything. I didn't know Sexy Steve as well as my friends so I'm a little easier at it, most of my friends are getting out of their funk right now. To be sure, the grandest part of the thing was the shock. But thanks for all of your concern.

--PolarisDiB

I am glad that Jordin won "Idol". Now I can rest easy. Wanted to watch the premiere of the "So you think you can dance?" show but won't get to tonight. People falling on their behinds might be fun! I know I would- if I tried out for the show. I am awaiting the end of the day because I hurt. But, am in a pretty good mood all around- its friday tomorrow and even though I don't get a long weekend my parents are coming to visit me and hubs and its going to be fun!

I'll have to get the executive summary from my wife .. she devours those things. I assume they'll have another "Simon", tho, and I can only take so much of the bitey comments.

Life has been a bit complicated around here for the past week: Bob had a tooth surgically removed on Friday—May 18, and he has been in considerable pain since then. The pain medication is one of those "don't drive" type of things, so I have been his chauffeur to and from work. I have been coping with sensitivities that build up to a compelling need to sleep, so I've not been getting much done EXCEPT the chauffeuring.

On the positive side—this has meant LOTS of time at the computer—outrdatabase is now approximately 2/3 restored (records rechecked and reentered) based on where I was in March when I wiped it out.

The restoration leads to my seeing bits and pieces of each book. I came across the following quote:

Rex Moran dialled his wrist teevee phone for the time and looked at the clock …

from Criminal in Utopia, a short story by Mack Reynolds (1968) that first appeared in Galaxy and was selected by Harry Harrison for the Best SF: 1968 anthology. I don't know if it has appeared elsewhere.

I don't think this is a significant quote—I've never been strong on the "predictive" factor in SF, and anyway these phones appeared first in Dick Tracy, but I thought it was kind of fun. Do we WANT cell-phones on our wrists?

Sue

This week was a somewhat harrying experience for two of my little jerseys. It started sunday, with my daughter asking "where's the calfs?"
Yep. two 5 months old calfs gone missing.
They had probably got out late saturday night. Something or someone (I'm guessing a loose dog) had sent them away on a blind panic, rupturing several (3) electric fences on their way. The tracks led across neighbouring fields and onto the highway- and there vanished (first oops, tracks leading to heavily trafficed roads is not a good sign). We searched the rest of sunday in vain.
I reicieved a call late sunday night (~2330) saying they'd been spotted some 5 km's northward (that's way farther than I ever guessed they would go), near a petrol station. I went out there but found nothing in the dead of the night. Too dark...
Monday morning my father in law (who also is the other farmer on our farm) found them grazing in a large garden near where they had been seen the previous night. But they were still scared off by something, allright. When we tried to get them on to their transport home, one of them raced off in a new panic. Straight into an urban residential area, and there disappeared again...(second oops).
After some hours we got in touch with someone who had had her in their garden. But, alas, she seemed to have jumped over their hedge- sited at a precipice some 20 meters straight above the railway line (third oops). Without much hope of finding the poor creature alive, he went down to search. And who jumps out of the bushes, now more scared than ever, but markedly alive and barely scratched? (now, that's a rethoric question)
After alerting railway officials and yet some hours af careful searching we and two neighbouring farmers had the poor little fellow cornered. I managed to get a rope on her, and calm her down. Totally exhausted, the calf and four farmers went home.
The two calfs reside in the cowshed now- and there may yet be some time before they are allowed back on to the pasture. They seem both allright now, no late appearing damages visible. They aren't scared of people either (now, that's a blessing after that experience).

KEE

I am soooo excited right now! We have decided to go to NYC in July, and we are getting tickets to see WICKED. The girls are really excited about it too. Wicked, Wicked, Wicked, I can't believe we're going! I don't even care about what else we do, but we have a few days to fill. Anyone with any suggestions, shoot 'em my way.

I had a good weekend. On Friday, my sisters and I went to help celebrate my oldest sister's retirement. At 53, she is young to retire, but has had many health problems that have hospitalized here at least 3 times in the past year, so she had to leave. Teaching 2nd graders, she was catching things left and right. It was very touching. Her other teachers and principal were very complimentary of her, and her assistant was crying her eyes out the entire time. It was neat to see her through someone else's eyes. We have great hopes that her health problems will start to alleviate somewhat now. There were a couple of birthdays in the mix, so we went out to a tea house afterwards to celebrate those, too. It was set in the country, and had a gift shop and a nursery, and was very nice to visit.

Yesterday, we went canoeing on a local lake in the afternoon, had a cookout with friends, then took the boat out and went swimming until it was dark. We had a lot of fun.

violetblue wrote:I am soooo excited right now! We have decided to go to NYC in July, and we are getting tickets to see WICKED. The girls are really excited about it too. Wicked, Wicked, Wicked, I can't believe we're going! I don't even care about what else we do, but we have a few days to fill. Anyone with any suggestions, shoot 'em my way.

Better be on the lookout -- you may suddenly acquire a 3rd daughter when GG hears about this!

Suggestions:


New York Public Library -- the coolest, starting with the stone lions out front

Museum of Natural History -- dinosaurs and a lot of other neat stuff

Hayden Planetarium -- for the space-science crowd (and very kid-friendly)

Metropolitan Museum of Art & The Cloisters -- great "classic" art and sculpture

Museum of Modern Art -- the "edgier" art and sculpture

The Bronx Zoo -- animals, animals, animals...

New York Botanical Garden -- actually a lot of different gardens, one for every taste

Empire State Building -- see the city from waaaaaaaay up high (observatories on the 86th and 102nd floors)

Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island Museum -- the immigrants' stories and photos are cool, and a ferry ride to get there!

Church of St. John the Divine & St. Patrick's Cathedral -- 2 gorgeous churches with lots of nooks and crannies to explore

Shopping on Fifth Avenue -- Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Sak's, etc. These stores make the malls look boring....

Eating -- take your pick, NYC has everything


There's tons of other stuff, but these are the places I've loved on my visits to NYC from childhood to now.

41 today. Nothing too strange happened. My red pen at work ran out of ink though ..

My brother-in-law (who just found out he's diabetic) stopped by and we went out for dinner. He has a serious aversion to needles/blood so this is gonna be "interesting".

Thanks for all these cool (and heart-touching) stories ...

Two responses:

(1) To violetblue: I agree whole-heartedly with Laurie's list, but would have put The Cloister WAY up at the top because of the Unicorn tapestries.
And I would add the Wall Street area for the statue of George Washington outside the old Custom House (?) and the old church (I CAN'T recall the name today) just north of where World Trade was. Both of these did survive the attack on September 11, 2001.

(2) For CodeBlower's brother-in-law. I have had diabetes for more than 11 years now with no need for needles EXCEPT for the testing. My daughter, who has been coping with this disease for only about 5 years has made an arrangement with her physician that allows for infrequent testing, because she can hardly bring herself to prick her finger for testing. There are many oral helps available today before one reaches insulin injection. Of course, each case is individual—the good luck stories in our family do not necessarily apply to the next patient. But our experience is that this is a drag (you have to be on the lookout all the time) but there are ways to deal with this disease and still have a "normal" life.

Sue

Happy Birthday, CodeBlower! Don't forget, you will always be a year older than me.

Thanks for taking the time to make that list, laurie. I'd probably really enjoy seeing the unicorn tapestries you mentioned, mcc. The girls would probably like that, too. I am going to go to the travel agency tomorrow to make all the final arrangements, and this will help me put together an itinerary. My neighbor is a travel agent, so she is helping us out.

GG, if you'd like, I'll buy you a little something from the show and send it on. Let me know. Cheaper than taking you with us!

41 today. Nothing too strange happened. My red pen at work ran out of ink though ..

My brother-in-law (who just found out he's diabetic) stopped by and we went out for dinner. He has a serious aversion to needles/blood so this is gonna be "interesting".

Cheers, CB! Happy B-day.

Slow day at work and sometimes...that is good. Even if my brain has been in hyper mode. But I'm working longer hours than usual. Oy! Need more coffee!!

violetblue wrote:
GG, if you'd like, I'll buy you a little something from the show and send it on. Let me know. Cheaper than taking you with us!

Oooh.... very tempting... S'OK, though. There's no such thing as a 'little something'- the prices are through the roof in gift shops (Down the Apollo, where it's playing in London, they were selling the Grimmerie for something silly like £50!!! I got it on Amazon for about £17...) However, if you managed to get Julia Murney and/or Kendra Kassebaum's autograph I'd be your friend for life...

You're so lucky to be seeing it on Broadway.... I mean Broadway.... wow! (I wouldn't trade Kerry Ellis in, though...)

I'm still up and it is after midnight. After having a migraine, why am I still awake. Okay, my head still hurts a bit. But I so want to sleep. But I lay in bed and get sad about all the things from the past year and a half.

Is it the fact that my birthday is less than a month away and it is making me sentimental and retrospective. Which just makes me sad. So many things lost. Friendships I thought were important turned out to be far more important to me than to the others.

Lots and lots of things. In the end, I sometimes wonder if anything is really worth it.

I'm terribly worried about work. I was sick so much the month of April. And I was so burnt out in March. I'm worried about getting in trouble for missing work. Even though I've got TONS of accumulated sick time from 8 years working there.

I'm worried about getting in trouble for not getting everything done all the time. But I'm so tired of trying to do the work of 2.5 people by myself. So I'm just doing the work of one now.

I'm so tired of the stress. But I'll never find another job making what I make now. Not at this level of education in the field. I lucked out with it being a county job. At a correctional facility. If I were to quit or get fired, I'd end up having to file for bankruptcy. I wouldn't be able to pay everything. On what most jobs pay, I wouldn't be able to do house, utilities, car, food, insurances. Not even looking at student loans and credit card debt.

This was not the direction I intended to go with this. But I guess this is something that is really on my mind. I just don't know what to do about it anymore. I'm so burnt out on everything.

Maybe a How Are You thread is sorta evil? I tend to answer that question with the truth. People don't seem to want to hear the truth.

Some might say this thread is evil since I started it. Those early morning hours are killer when it comes to thinking. I think sometimes in our lives are just harder than others. Would it be possible to sit down with your supervisor at work and explain that you have been having a lot of health problems lately, and seeing if they can do anything to shift around the workload? Or would that just result in an immediate firing? Even though you are afraid you won't find another job, it doesn't hurt to look. The best time to look for a job is while you have one. As far as friends, well, I sympathize. I have a friend I've had for over 20 years that I am losing because she is allowing her new husband to close her off from any "outside" forces. I'm really hurt she's letting him do it, I thought she would stand up for our friendship. Another friend is angry at me, and I can't completely blame him. My birthday was a hard one this year too. Not because I really care about getting older, but I did go into a bit of a panic mode, figuring I'd better get my life straightened out before I'm too old to do it. Late nights and birthdays, a bad combination!

Moonspring: Work stress is a rough kind to deal with because our lives are so enmeshed with our jobs. I think society is letting it control us too much. Someone needs to rebel. Seriously, we work 40+ Hrs a week. And, in the case you mentioned of doing 2.5 peoples' work I see that so often its no wonder so many fields suffer from "burn out".

Moonspring said:

I tend to answer that question with the truth. People don't seem to want to hear the truth.

I think that most of us here DO wish to know when how things go for our friends. (And those that don't, probably don't bother with this topic.) So DO feel free to let it all hang out.

I wish there was something I could say to make things more cheerful. Perhaps this will help—several times during the 30 years I worked for Webster Publishing Company/Webster Division, McGraw-Hill I had some very sticky job conditions, but I hung in there (because as a single support parent, what choice did I have?) and the creators of the sticky situation moved on. The "reward" was the 30-years and a very decent retirement.

Government budgets always seem to sticky—does the county allow for volunteer work in order to alleviate some of your work load?

Sue

SQUEAL!


Just got back from Avenue Q! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!! That describes me ATM. I'll write a proper summary on my LJ later. Anyway..... It was so funny! I'm going again (but not until after I see WWRY in August)...

I got Simon Lipkin's (Nicky/Trekky Monster/Bad Idea Bear), Jon Robyns' (Princeton/Rod), Matt Henry (Garry Coleman) and Jennifer Tanarez' (Christmas Eve) autographs! They even talked to me! Jennifer asked me what I wanted her to write in my program and I was just "Oh... um *star struck*"... In the end she wrote 'Ruv Always Jennifer Tanarez'

I bought a bunch of badges, too! Hehe

So- How am I? "Ecstatic", is the answer...

Moonspring wrote:If I were to quit or get fired, I'd end up having to file for bankruptcy. I wouldn't be able to pay everything. On what most jobs pay, I wouldn't be able to do house, utilities, car, food, insurances. Not even looking at student loans and credit card debt.

I comletely empathize with 95% of your post - especially the above -- you're pretty-accurately describing my current situation as well as yours.

As for the "is there hope?" question, the answer is "yes". My last boss sounds like what Sue described - worst I've ever had - I out-lasted her - barely - but I did. Still not sure I don't need therapy, but ...

... and in answer to your "is this thread evil?" .. the answer is (er, at least for me) this is my therapy. I think crying/rejoicing with each other is what makes this all bearable.