out of business

I went and got myself another phone, in case you were wondering. It's actually the same phone, but a slightly newer one in which the stupid "can't change the default make-me-sound-like-a-fourteen-year-old-wannabe-rapper ringtone" bug has been fixed. I suppose that makes it a slightly more tolerable phone, although I just realized that this makes it my seventh cell phone in five years. Those rat bastards got me good.

Oh, and I also went out and got myself a job. Of course, I already had a job, but no seems to have noticed. I swear, if another well-meaning relative begins a sentence with the phrase, "So now that you've got a job..." or says "It's so great that you were able to find a job in this economy" or muses "It must be hard not to have so much free time anymore" ....

What did you think I was doing with my time for the past two years -- licking food stamps? Sitting in queue outside the dole office?

In any case, there is some truth in that last comment, about the free time. Shaving every morning, fixing your lunches, ironing your shirts, making sure you don't wear the same sweater two days in a row, buying BART tickets, getting to the train on time, waiting for the bus -- these are the things that tend to shred all your free time into strips that are too short to finish a New Yorker article, but just long enough to ponder why the concept of the central office still thrives despite every indication that people are usually better off working elsewhere.

Speaking of which, I've got myself my first office illness since I quit my last office job a couple years ago. It's an old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness head cold. I'm not sure if it's from the office itself or from someone on the train, but it's a real pain either way. They should make everyone wear sterile gloves when using public transportation. That'd put Nyquil out of business for sure.