Who do I still think I am??

This one's about the extraordinary, blessed and cursed.

MOB-RELATED ACTIVITY:

Well then...good evening readers! With a day left to spare, our bOSS (with an uncapital B), brothernature, has emerged from his reclusive cocoon to drop a quick message of praise on his faithful. Nice to hear from him today. One more day left of Mob business before the next official round of the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  starts on March 1st...hope to see you all there. I'm still trying to think of some prompts to contribute to the ol' War Chest.

And since it's not even 9pm (my time, not necessarily yours) and I'm already yawning, I'm gonna try to keep this short. You don't wanna know what happens when I start to doze off in front of my laptop (but if you're patient and read this through you might find out ).

BCF PROMPT: "What is the kindest thing someone has done to you this week?"

How do you know that your week has pretty much been a garbage fire so far? When the best example you can give relating to kindness is finally getting a call back from a doctor's office after you've placed three over the course of five hours. On one of those calls, I was transferred to another line...it would've been nice to at least get kicked over after 8 or 30 rings to a voicemail system, but no. Just kept ringin'. I was tempted to hang on to see just how long it might take them to answer, but even I know better than that.

Of course, with every triumph comes the eventual let-down...when I finally got an answer from my primary care provider as to why I wasn't seen by the orthopedic specialist yesterday, the ortho office was already closed for the day. Which means I get to call them tomorrow for an appointment hopefully next week. But that's not what this is about.

I'm really trying to think of something, honestly. The pretty/pregnant/pretty pregnant secretary yesterday was very kind to me, calling me "honey" about 18 times in the course of three minutes, and that didn't annoy me the same way it would, say, if she were a 57-year-old dude that has a problem with us kids playin' on the lawn or something'. I think she, along with my landlord, are among the only people I haven't lost my shit with or at least kinda wanted to this week (although it is only Thursday). Big-ups to Brooklyn for them.

I wonder if that means I've officially crossed over into grumpy middle-aged man territory? What's "middle-aged" technically going for these days, anyway? I mean, assuming I die around the age of 78 (give or take), wouldn't that put me somewhere in the middle of my life right now? I have no idea. In some cultures humans weren't expected to live even this long, so I guess I've got that goin' for me.

I try to be kind as much as possible, believe it or what have you. But sometimes you need to piss people off just enough to light a fire under them in order to get things accomplished, or get your point across. Lord knows I've done enough things in life unknowingly that have angered or frustrated people and needed my ass kicked a bit before things were eventually made right. And some things...you just don't screw around with. I've learned over the years how to do without a lot of things, but when my personal living situation is tied in with my health, and my future, I prefer not to be toyed with. But the other 99.643% of the time, catch me in a halfway decent mood and I'll shower you with all the kindness you deserve. It's a simple thing, actually.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

** Image ID #1970900 Unavailable **

One more day left after today in "The Soundtrack of Your Life" . I'm gonna miss it, actually. It's brought back some good memories, and some not-so-good-but-necessary ones as well. Plus it's been nice reading other people's takes on songs I'm already familiar with and enjoy, while also being turned on to some different music I might not have checked out in the first place. Excellent idea, lizco252!!

If you held a gun to my head and said "Name a line or two of any song that you think sums you up the best", I think nine out of ten times I'd probably say "My life has been extraordinary, blessed and cursed and won." There are a great many songs I feel like I can relate to on some level, but that line is a near-perfect summation of my history so far. It's as close to an all-encompassing biographical sketch one set of lyrics can get to me.

The song itself is "Muzzle" (lyrics: http://rock.rapgenius.com/Smashing-pumpkins-muzzle-lyrics) by The Smashing Pumpkins (album: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness {link:http://www.amazon.com/Mellon-Collie-Infinite-Sadness-2012/dp/B00AEVQZWC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393554410&sr=8-1&keywords=smashing+pumpkins+mellon+collie+and+the+infinite+sadness}). Like so many of you, I've been on a pretty incredible journey so far, even if it's not what I'd hoped for or want right now. I've been able to enjoy great highs, and I've seen my fair share of lows. My story's still being written though, and just to be able to say I've made it this far is pretty amazing. It's not gonna be a book or a movie anytime soon, and it may not always be interesting, but this life is mine and I'm doing the best I can with it, even if that means not always being perfect, following along with the crowd, or making others happy all the time.

Twenty-eight songs in the same amount of days is roughly two cd's worth of music, if you think about it. "Muzzle" would probably be somewhere near the end of disc one if I were ever inclined to give this collection away to someone that wanted to know a little bit about me; on the other hand, 28 songs doesn't seem like nearly enough...I'm already thinking about bands and artists that won't make my list this month. There isn't a whole lot of rhyme and reason that goes into a list like this for me (kinda like a lot of things I do) beyond the mood I'm in and whether or not any particular memories have shaken themselves loose throughout the day. This is a song that isn't pegged to a specific point for me so much as I feel very connected to the lyrics, to an extent where no matter what mood I'm in, I feel evenly related to it (unlike some songs, where being in certain moods can elevate or distance you).

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

It pains me to have to remind myself this, but I have to share this if only for that purpose: I shouldn't be allowed near anything once I've taken any kind of prescription medication and declared my day over with. Example no. 1: I woke up this morning with peanut butter kinda pretty much all over the place, and I had to think about how it got there. On a plastic knife next to my garbage can, on my laptop, and my hands...rub a tiny amount of peanut butter on your palm and let it dry...that's how my hand felt when I woke up. Took me a minute to realize I'd fixed me a little snack before going to bed, and I vaguely remember having a bit of a difficult time with it. I swear, I had a better memory on nights I've polished off nearly a bottle of whiskey, but I'm strugglin' when I wake up and there's peanut butter on my laptop. What the hell is wrong with me?

Speaking of my laptop, example no. 2: I usually will leave a few tabs open when I close up my laptop for the night (assuming I don't shut it down). I like being able to sort of pick up where I left off the night before...although lately I've been falling asleep while catching up on Tonight Show episodes on Hulu. Anyway, last night after reading "Feb. 26 Villian, Song, and Missing Mob day 2"  from Lyn's a Witchy Woman , I decided to check some of the personalized settings on my computer. I knew my display wasn't as bright as it used to be, and for some reason my desktop image had gone totally MIA, plus I wanted to update a few other things. I'm glad I remembered I did all that this morning, and had there not been peanut butter all over the place I might've seriously wondered why my lock screen has a picture of Samuel L. Jackson and could've been freaked out. But there was some crazy looped melody playing when I opened up my laptop, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It literally sounded like 8- or 16-bit Nintendo game opening credit music, and I had no idea which tab of the seven or eight I had open it was coming from, or if it was even from an open tab. And like I do almost every morning, I close Hulu because I don't want to waste an entire day watching tv shows...just like that, the weird music went away. I've never heard Hulu make a noise other than whatever program I was watching, so it kinda startled me in a different way when it stopped. The whole thing made me chuckle though when I saw this: Linked 'Note' no longer available....because that in essence (with lesser tabs) was my morning.

Ok, I promise...I won't mention "This one's about the bold choice."  anymore after today, as long as Diet Coke quietly goes away. http://jezebel.com/diet-coke-addicts-beware-diet-coke-frost-is-coming-fo-1532694...

Well, I think I'm done here. I didn't really answer any prompts or talk about a song as much as I spoke about myself, but that happens. Time to move along with the rest of my night and start thinkin' about how I'm gonna occupy myself in those tense moments between taking my meds and actually sleepin'. Peace, the echo that is love, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!