Who Do I Think I Am??

This one's about the weathering.

THE PROMPT: "WEATHER THE STORM"

Good evening, friends! Quite the appropriate prompt for the evening, seeing how we've been hit with a few inches of massive snowflakes over the last few hours. Not the soft, pretty snow that falls every once in awhile that encourages you to stick your tongue out and catch a few flakes. Nope, not this time of year. It's the big, wet, clunky stuff that makes you need to shovel your walkway every ten minutes, and instead of sticking your tongue out, you're sticking out your middle finger at your neighbor, who's either snowblowing his driveway at 6am or shooting snow from his driveway into yours. Or both.

In other words I'm gonna type related to the prompt, it's vague, which is nice. Leave me a lot of room to work with. Although you know what they say...give 'em someone enough rope, and they'll eventually hang themself. We'll see.

Weathering the storm...a pretty common theme in my life. Sometimes it seems like it's winter 24/7/365 with all the storms I've weathered. And maybe it's not actually fair to those who have it a lot worse than I do, but yeah, I wear my damage more on the inside than I do on the outside. Wait a minute...maybe then that's not fair to me? Hmmm...

We've all seen those Facebook status updates where someone writes "If you know someone is suffering from this, that or the other thing, let them know they're not alone by posting this as your status for one hour. 97% of my real friends won't do it, but the few that do will be rewarded in heaven with a seat next to St. Peter. Remember, I'll be watching! And NO LIKES!!". There's ones I've seen about depression, mental illnesses, and all sorts of other maladies ending in -ioma. I chuckle at it, because it's Facebook, but it's true. There are many hidden illnesses out there that you don't see. You just assume the person is fine and going on with his or her day. There's no limp, no speech impediment, no casts, and there's no indicator that this person could be hurting (or in a position to hurt you) a lot more than you'll ever be aware of. And that's sad.

And I still struggle from time to time with my own depression, even though from the outside my life seems great. And it is, for the most part. I still internalize a lot of things. I'm still my worst enemy and critic. I notice and take to heart my faults more than anyone else. And I'll be damned if I ever can find an answer why. But it's who I am, and since I know that, I can make the best of it, even on days or even moments when it's very difficult for me to see outside of the jumbled clouds of thought in my head. Every damn day sometimes, it feels like there's somethin' kickin' the bruises on my brain. And every morning that I can open my eyes and look at the ceiling, put two feet on the ground, look at my beautiful girlfriend and live in our house, well, damn, that's how I know I've weathered the storm. It doesn't always prepare me for the next one, but neither does the weatherman either.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

I can get behind this once in awhile. It works for me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhZTNgAs4Fc&ob=av2n

And this one too. Not that I've ever really dabbled in the hardcore stuff or anything, but none of the less-harsh stuff really did anything for me either. And pharmaceuticals? Forget it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToQ0n3itoII&ob=av2e Sorry to bring down the house with that one . Hey, in order for the laughter to begin again, it has to go away for awhile, right? Cuz that's life.

VITAL STATS:

So, who postpones a doctor's appointment because he's sick? This guy. Yup, I wasn't trying to make that half hour drive down the thruway into the city the way this stomach was processing things this morning.

Last week I was bitching about not having enough people to work with on my night. Today, it was the total opposite problem. And it's a good problem to have. Give 'em something to do that frees up more time for me to do things, and everyone's happy. Coupled with a nice snowstorm, and that's a recipe for a slow night, which means work gets done, a clean and neat store, and I get the chance to leave a few minutes earlier because I'm not rushing to make it clean and neat, nor am I trying to get all the money counted and figuring out where I screwed up or wondering what I'm forgetting.

On the minus side, however, what the hell is wrong with people who can't use a toilet properly? I mean, seriously, when you sit down on a toilet, you basically create a seal with your ass, which is aiming to put the waste downward into a porcelain bowl filled with water, and by exerting the slightest pressure on a handle, it all goes away and the next person has fresh water to do their thing with. There should be no #2 anywhere else but in the bowl, save for a little explosiveness around the rim and maybe under the seat. Never, under any circumstances, is it ok to leave wet ass drippings on the floor, not semi-solid poop smears on the wall. EVER. We have specifically addressed this issue of people shitting their pants on the sales floor by leaving the bathrooms unlocked now, so they don't have to wait for someone with keys or a code to unlock them. If I could make it to a toilet at any and every time I needed one this morning and afternoon, so can you. I shouldn't need a mop to clean up a toilet, and one of my cashiers shouldn't have to ask me four hours later if we found a dead body in the bathroom.

See some of the shit that I put up with on a daily basis? I don't recall in the interview them saying "stall jockey" when going over my job description. Sorry to leave you on such a shitty note, but, well, there are days like that. Sometimes it's a snowstorm you've gotta weather, and sometimes it's a shitstorm. Peace, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk6M1gqV-0A