Ash Wednesday... who's a good Catholic?
Not me. Today is officially the start of lent... and, like all Catholics, I give things up during lent. So, what am I giving up? Well... I'm giving up Ice Cream and Chocolate among other things... and I'm trying to do a few good things for myself, too. Sounds nice, huh? Well... I'm kind of putting it off for a week. You see, I'm a comfort eater... and this is a hard hard HARD week. So, as I was telling Hannah at work, if I don't have chocolate or ice cream this week I might very well kill someone. We both agreed the risk of eternal damnation in doing what you gave up is worth risking the eternal damnation from killing someone. Makes sense...?
One of the things I'm trying to do is come up with a reason why everyday is special... why every day is great... why it's great to be alive. So today I watched as a woman held her son up to the counter so that he could see his ice cream being made. Yes, I've seen it before, but this time was different. After his ice cream was made, she ordered something and said to her son " Go get a table. I'm going to watch my ice cream getting made" and then she stayed and watched her own ice cream with the same enthusiasm that her son had. It was... remarkable. Having children is like being a child again, in a lot of ways... and I saw the care of an adult with her child mixed with the childlike enthusiasm of an adult.
Oddly enough, today I was presented with the contrasting scene. On my way back from work, I saw an argument on the street. A man actually got out of his car and approached a Taxi Van... cursing up a storm. The Taxi driver apparently flipped him off, as he said something like "Yeah that's right, give me the middle finger you piece of shit! Fuck you!" and then he went back towards his car. The Taxi driver then rolled his window down and started yelling. If you've never heard a man from India say "mother fucker", I recommend it. >nods< It's good. And, even through all that ugliness, I couldn't muster up any thoughts more serious than: "Listen to all that yellin'. He's so not gellin'." >Shrug< It seemed to fit.

I went to Megan's for dinner tonight. She made some kind of chicken/pasta thing and there was salad and milk until I couldn't drink milk any longer (which never happened... I can drink the milk, let me tell you) (how come even I thought that was disgusting, even though I was there and I know that it wasn't?) Anyway... we talked for a while and she let me vent about work... and she bought me doughnuts, allowing me to further vent about work and drink even more milk. It was a good night... but her roommate came in and promptly went to bed, so I felt compelled to leave about 11:30.

Speaking of venting about work... let's talk ice cream, shall we? Who wants money from us... and why? We almost were unable to make our inventory purchase because of an outstanding bill that I knew nothing about.... which would have been bad because we ran out of ice cream mix, so we would have run out of ice cream by Thursday or Friday (not good). But I begged the woman who called, who talked with her manager, and we were given the weekend to pay. ALSO... AAA (the garbage collection company, not the insurance place) called about the bill we haven't paid. They said they sent the bill, and two notices... and now they're calling. I said I didn't receive the bill or the notices (as we haven't) and a second phone call revealed that "OH whoops! We've gotten both the bills and the notices BACK in the mail." Why? they were mailing to 1535 North Wells... and the store is 1533 North Wells. Oh... damn. Well we're sorry that we haven't actually sent the bill to the right place and that we stopped picking up your garbage, right? That's something they SHOULD HAVE said. Instead I got "I'll be resending the bill, and you'll have five business days to pay. Goodbye." Hooray for cities! I won't take responsibility for fucking up... I'll just continue to be mean and treat you like someone who hasn't paid even though you haven't gotten a bill. What a bitch.

Speaking of ice cream... guess who was makin' ice cream today? ME!!! I made two pans of the Sweet Cream and two of the Cake Batter... the first time I've ever made ice cream. >tear< My babies... so young, so fragile, so delicious. Heehee... I said "soda".

That's my cue, that means I'm tired. I wish all you Catholics a great Lent season... and I wish all you heathens eternal damnation. Heehee... that's not true. I just wish you a swift and just death. Also not true... I wish you all the chocolate and ice cream that I WON'T eat as soon as Andrea gets back. G'night.