(no subject)

Ahhh...a day off. I don't think I've had a full day off in about ten days.

I have today and tomorrow off, so today is a day of laziness. I'm going to sleep and maybe write, catch Judy's radio show at ten, watch some television, and go scrounging around for some new reading material via references I caught in the biography. Tomorrow, I need to cook and go through some mail and do the laundry, clean off my desk, answer some emails, and make a library run, but I don't think I shall spend much time out of bed today.

In that vein, is nobody using Limewire anymore? I searched yesterday for something after not having used it in months, and I came up with zippo. Which sometimes happens, but not generally when your search terms are "Paul Simon". Is it just that I'm being denied access because my version of Limewire is older than dirt? If Limewire's gone kaboom, what should I be using?

Coworker M and I, the resident Heroes fans of the Box Office, have plotted because I have tomorrow off and she's working too late to catch the new episode. Tuesday we're both off at five, so I'm bringing the laptop with downloaded Heroes on it and we'll stop off at her place, which is en-route to mine, and get some grub and have a little Heroes viewing party. It'll be a nice break before work really kicks in earnestly. And then I'll have another brief break at the start of May, when I go back in to the hospital to do another two-day gamut of tests when my medication ends. (For those who didn't read about that, it's nothing serious, just a medication trial for which I get $400 and all the hospital food I can eat. :D)

I've asked for the two days off, plus a day to recuperate, and this time I'm staying overnight at the hospital. On the plus side, I won't have to get up at oh-god-early two days running to get to the appointment on time; on the downside, nearly two full days without internet, though I'll bring the laptop along to watch movies on. Expect lots of textposts. One thing I will say about not eating for nearly 24 hours straight -- a fast from 8pm onwards, followed by a six-hour test the next day starting around noon -- it makes even a hospital PBJ sandwiches look delightfully gourmet. By the end of the last test I was having intense fantasies about onion rings.

Okay! I'm off to my big day of doing nothing with vigour and intent.

(no subject)

So, Mum just called, she says hi (no she doesn't, actually, she doesn't know about this journal, but if she did I'm sure she would).

For those who aren't aware, my stepfather Lucky is part-owner with his family in a tract of land that has a natural gas well on it which has suddenly begun to produce vast amounts of income. Mum was very anxious at first that he would leave her because he was rich and could buy himself a pretty young wife, but I guess him marrying her kinda got her over that bump, and now there's um, a lot of commitment going on.

They got news back on a land purchase this morning; their bid went through, so they are now the proud owners of several undeveloped acres outside of Austin. Lucky says he wants to plant a vineyard so he can get an agricultural deduction and also yummy wine. Oh, and he bought a new truck yesterday.

Wait, what?

I'm really starting to get weirded out by all this. We are not conspicuous consumers, my family. I can't recall the last time I set foot in a shopping mall. I don't own a television or any video game systems, haven't bought a CD literally in years, and most of what I pay for could broadly be defined as a resource: internet, transportation, food. I still don't own an actual bed.

And it's not that I disapprove or feel uncared-for, because he just put money in my bank account to pay the rent with. It's not bitterness at all, because honestly, what the hell would I do with a Playstation or a flatscreen television? It's confusion. I don't know what to do with the concept of my family owning more land than one house can fit on.

I keep thinking about an interview I saw years ago with the man who invented Polar Fleece -- he had a small factory on the east coast and he made Polar Fleece and made decent money doing it, and then one day his factory burned down. By then, his competitors had already figured out his process and were making cheaper versions of his product, but he decided that instead of taking the insurance money and retiring, he would rebuild the factory and re-employ all the people who'd lost their jobs when it burned down.

The interviewer asked him why he wouldn't just take the money and give up, and he said, "What would I do with it? Eat more?"

Mum's never going to be the kind of woman who buys a fur coat and a giant diamond and season tickets to some theatre she doesn't even like just so she can say she has them. I'm certainly never going to be a trust fund baby, I like my profession and just wish I could actually find gainful employment in it. I'm very conscious that this money can help me while I look and can open a lot of doors for me, and I'm glad that my family finally has financial comfort.

It's just...surreal.

BLOND SNAPE IS CONFUSED. :D