A Painful Truth

Just as I said I would, I stopped at the comic shop on Wednesday on my way home from work to pick up my comics and join in their Superman’s Birthday/Leap Year/15th Anniversary Celebration.

This primarily involved going in, being handed my comics – the cute girl who works there always spots me well before I get into the place and has my comics at the ready – wandering around for a while to see if there was anything else I wanted to buy, being offered and accepting a (small) piece of cake, paying for my comics, and leaving.

So, yeah.

Of course, the end result of that was the disruption of my usual Saturday morning routine.  Still, I had stuff to do, so I ventured out a little further into the world than usual, and then stopped to pick up lunch from Five Guys on my way back home.

When I got home, I found, to my annoyance, that someone had parked in my space.  Swearing, I turned around and headed to the parking lot, squeezed into a space, got all of my bags and my lunch out of the car, and started walking to my house, only to be more annoyed at the sight of the person who had taken my space leaving.

It’s a bit of a paradox to find having my space opened up to be more annoying than finding it taken, but by that time I’d already gone through the trouble of parking somewhere else and starting the trek home.

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As I’ve ventured out into the world in recent weeks, I’ve begun to realize that there is a painful truth that I can’t avoid much longer:  I need to go to Ikea.

I’ve really wanted to avoid that necessity.  Not because I have anything against Ikea.  The Ikea part isn’t the problem.  The going there part is the problem.

The nearest Ikea isn’t terribly far away, but its location is such that, due to traffic, just getting there and back will be nearly an all-day affair.  Certainly it’s not something I’m going to attempt on a weekend, so it’ll have to wait until I’ve taken a day off from work.

Still, it needs to be done at some point, as I desperately need a new desk for my office, and have been unable to find anything close to suitable at any of the more conveniently located stores I’ve been to lately.

Even so, it’s a painful truth to have to accept.

Happy Day Off To The People Who Don't Normally Have It Off

So I ventured a bit outside of my routine over the past couple of days.
On Saturday night I was sitting at home getting my Saturday night fix of Kirsten Kemp (who was so utterly disgusted by the foolishness of her house flipping advisees that she was letting down that warm, nice person façade and unleashing her cold, inner ice queen, which I, of course, found extremely hot), whom, I’m afraid, I have no pictures of here, topless or otherwise, for those of you seeking them. As with all other seekers of famous and semi-famous boobs, I wish you luck in your quest.
Just as Kirsten had made one of the errant flippers say “Ow” in response to her ice-cold words, I became faintly aware of the sound of music coming from somewhere.
I shrugged it off until I recognized it as my Scott ringtone, at which point I got up, too late, to answer my phone.
I called him back and learned that he’d been calling me to catch a 9:55 showing of Balls of Fury.
Though I normally wouldn’t venture out on a Saturday evening, there are no actual rules that I live by in this regard, so I decided to take him up on the offer, even though doing so made me a liar, as at work Simon had asked me if I was going to see it and I’d said no.
The movie was entertaining in pretty much exactly the way you would expect it to be, though I found it to be much more entertaining than I’d expected.
My drive home from the theater at close to midnight was sort of an odd experience. Nothing especially interesting happened, but given that I took the decidedly less-traveled and considerably more rurally-located back roads home, it almost felt like being back home in Michigan, complete with sections of actual dirt road.
Of course, it wasn’t quite the same as driving on similar roads back home, as there is considerably more paving, they’re populated by a lot more homes, and the trees don’t quite form the kind of canopy that make the experience of driving on back roads in Michigan rather like driving in a tunnel.
Also, like any road in Virginia, there is a lot more traffic to contend with on the back roads here.
Yesterday, as mentioned, I actually ventured out into the world, where I purchased a nearly $1,200 piece of paper that says I now own a 42” LCD HDTV.
In the interest of balance, I’m not doing anything today to make up for having done things on the past two days.
And that’s pretty much where and how things stand.
I hope you are all, laborers and non-laborers alike, having a good Labor Day.