your imagination is the hood ornament on your car of creativity

Does anyone remember 'I'm With Busey'? Probably not, and it's doubtful if even Busey remembers...but I do! Granted, I had to be reminded of Gary Busey's existence first, but that was accomplished by his bit-part in 'The Firm', which I watched tonight about thirteen years after it originally came out. When it originally came out, Tom Hanks was thirty years old and not quite so creepy, I was in Eastern Europe teaching myself algebra to songs played on Voice of America (when the stupid crane wasn't parked in the perfect spot to block our radio reception), and Gary Busey was ten years away from starring in 'I'm With Busey'. The show was short-lived, but I have fond memories of that idyllic last summer between college graduation and the start of my job--I saw a few nights' worth of episodes of 'I'm With Busey' while hanging out with Nita, Sika, and Walter, before going back to my tiny room and crawling in through the window to avoid the teenage campers hanging out in the lounge. Man, that show was great--I love insanity, and Gary Busey seems to have it in spades. It's too bad it will never come out on DVD, since that show was brilliant!

I did absolutely nothing today, which was fantastic--I've been trying my best to explore, and take advantage of the city, etc., but I didn't feel like going out today, so I spent the day reading, writing, watching television, and cooking. This was actually the first cooking I've done in the month since I've been here. I made quesadillas with chicken, peppers, and onions, and it was just as good as the way that I always make them at home, except I shouldn't have bought their idea of 'Mexican-seasoned' chicken pieces, there were no green peppers in the store, the tortillas tasted funny, the cheese was too strong, I forgot to buy black olives, the sour cream was a little weird, and the salsa should have been hotter. Other than those slight variations, though, they weren't too bad! Perhaps from now on I'll save myself the effort and just buy ready-made meals or order in, since cooking isn't all it's cracked up to be when one has terrible utensils and inadequate ingredients.

Um, what else. Thanks to 'one of the little ones' for cheering me up today--I shall try to remember that I'm not as boring as I sometimes think that I am :) Also, tomorrow is a bank holiday, so I don't have to go to the office, which is fantastic. Since I don't pay taxes here and don't have to worry about the massive problems of socialism, I'm quite thrilled that I'm getting so many days off. Granted, I still have it worse than the people in this office; everyone here gets a legally-mandated 25 days of vacation per year, whereas I started off with 15 and only go up to 20 after three years. Lame! But, 15 days is better than a lot of companies, and since I don't want to be a bloody communist, I guess I should be pushing for no vacations, more child labor, and more dangerous and poorly-ventilated working conditions. Instead, I'm stuck with 15 days of vacation, ten paid holidays, free food, and the only injuries I am likely to face are eyestrain and carpal tunnel syndrome. That, and the loss of my youth to the demands of corporate America. But, if I were living a hundred years ago, I would already feel like I was well into my middle age, so I suppose I should be thankful.

Also, note to Michael: nothing bad has happened to me this weekend, but nothing good has happened either, so I think you probably have a fifty-fifty chance of striking it rich on lotto tickets purchased in the next forty-eight hours. It might be worth the risk! But let me know if anything unfortunate happens to you, so that I can prepare myself for a change in luck. And on that note, it's time for bed.