Giving the world a hand since February 3rd, 2002. "If you're gonna dine with them cannibals, sooner or later, darling, you're gonna get eaten."




Comments by YACCS

 
I HAVE SOMETHING THAT'S HOT & THROBBING...

...unfortunately, it's my elbow. When is this gonna go away?
so wrote Leper around about 9:16 AM

 
REINCARNATION, ANYONE?

"It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is."

You are Desiderius Erasmus! You have great love for others and will do just about anything to show it to them. You are tolerant and avoid confrontations, so people generally are drawn to you. You are more quiet and reserved in front of strangers, but around some people you open up. When things get tough, you like to meditate alone. Unfortunately you often get things like "what a pansy," or "you're such a liberal."

What theologian are you?

A creation of Henderson
(Link via the good Group Captain)

so wrote Leper around about 10:56 PM

 
TO QUOTE "HEE-HAW"...

"If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all."

I've made a concerted effort to keep my lovelife off of this esteemed page, and I've been mostly successful at doing so (with the occasional nonsensical rant when I get paticularly, um, annoyed and feel the need to vent). I gotta say, though, that right now things are looking pretty bleak. Career opportunities are nonexistent, I have a grand total of three friends in this city (four if I were to lump Kelsey's husband in with the others, but right now he's more of an aquaintence than friend), and my social calendar looks like Dresden after the firebombing. I don't even have my health, what with the head cold & golfball-sized elbow I'm carting around. I'd say that this was truly "the winter of my discontent", but it's not even winter yet.

Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the upcoming holiday season, maybe it's thinking about Chris' funeral again, maybe it's Seasonal Affective Disorder (I do tend to hibernate in the winter), or maybe it's the super nicest ever "let's-just-be-friends" speech I got tonight, but I'm feeling really down right now.

I'm broke, I'm bored, and I'm lonely....and I can't quite seem to find a way to change any of that.

...but I'm working on it.

so wrote Leper around about 10:16 PM

 
MY FRIEND CHRIS

Here is what my friend Glen said about my good friend Chris at the funeral. The way that he describes Chris is picture perfect. Glen's words had me laughing hysterically on the outside & crying in pain on the inside. See for yourself:

Guy Mann

My grief compels me to tell you about this guy I know.
Knew.
I struggle with verb tense just now.
He was a “guy” in every way possible.
A fat fingered guy with freckles.
He was fashion impaired.
For him, brown plaid flannel was the all-occasion fabric.
Fabulous was never an attitude he owned.

He loved to laugh with you and at you with a maniacal laugh tempered by a cherubic grin.

There was hockey and revelry in buxom women with a fondness for dance,
Red Stripe beer and a dog unpretentiously named Joe,
An unsettling good Darth Vader impression at the least appropriate time.

Quick was he with a "never-mind-what’s-in-it-drink-it" admonishment,
Followed the next day with a "you-knew-what-you-were-getting-into-I-say-suffer" smirk.
An avid fan and skilled player of the pull my finger game,
So skilled, truth be known, one rarely needed to pull his finger.

Thus far unremarkable, just a guy.

I also need to tell you about this extraordinary man I know.
Knew.
Still struggling with the tense.

Wicked smart,
With books and with people,
Blessed with a clarity of vision to the core of most problems.
To the core of me.
Unaffected, endlessly decent and loyal,
A bluntly gentle critic meting out justice and compassion judiciously,
Like Solomon with a buzz cut.

There was a love of words and ideas,
The simple and profound,
The ribald and the righteous,
Embracing the free exchange of each.

He knew the best things about me and would remind me when I had forgotten.
He knew the worst things about me, but never really cared.

I will miss this guy, this man I knew.
There, I resolved the tense struggle.
I will miss the sweet duplicity of the man child.
I will miss both what we shared as confidants and grieve for what we would have shared.

Actually miss is too small a word to convey what I--we--feel.
This loss stretches to a place beyond language,
To the place where our grief can only be let out in small staccato breaths and clenched fists,
Our solace, too, is there, quietly waiting for us to find it.

I miss him.
so wrote Leper around about 2:17 PM

 
HSARRTY POTTRER

I hadn't realized until yesterday exactly how much I use the two numb fingers on my left hand for typing. Even as I type this, I'm having to use the Backspace key about every three seconds. Damn, but I'll be glad when the swelling finally goes away.

So anyway, I saw the new Harry Potter movie last night. I thought it was smarter & better written than the first, but, having finally read the books, I felt as if I had only gotten half of the story. This is because the second book is twice as thick as the first, and there is no practical way to make the whole book into a movie without going to "Lawrence of Arabia"-type proportions. I have an idea that my feeling will only get worse with subsequent movies, as the following books keep doubling the size of the one that precedes them. Still and all, it was a good movie.....and seeing it on a Sunday night really cut down on the "screaming child" factor.

I've always favored Sunday & Monday nights for actually going to the theater to see a movie. That way you're not fighting the crowd for a seat or an overpriced bucket of popcorn, but you still get to aprticipate in the group experience of actually seeing a movie on the big screen. I like going to concerts & the like, but I don't want to have to swing my elbows & stomp on other people's insteps to be able to move around. I guess that's why I never buy concert tickets on the main floor.

My goddaughter was really well behaved during the whole movie, even if she did start squirming during the last 15 minutes. Of course, I didn't know this until later, as she spent the majority of the film on her mother's lap munching popcorn.
so wrote Leper around about 3:07 PM

 
THE FLESH IS WEAK

Just as soon as I start thinking about how healthy I've been lately, my damn body pulls a Benedict Arnold and gives me a double whammy. Earlier this week, I managed to catch the head cold that 70% of people in this city currently harbor. A head cold, no big whoop. Yesterday, however...

My left elbow was a little sore yesterday afternoon. By 4pm, it had swollen to about golfball size. When I went to sleep, I was wondering if it would just go away. It must have bothered me something fierce as I slept, because when my alarm woke me up this morning, I woke up swinging, popping the lens out of my glasses in the process. After my morning shower, I noticed that my elbow had progressed from golfball size to almost baseball proportions. After an abbreviated workday, I managed to get myself to the doctor's office. The verdict: an infection of the fluid surrounding the tendons in my left elbow. The swelling is pressing on the big ol' nerve there, which is why my pinky & ring finger on my left hand constantly tingle. Take ibuprofin, wrap it in an ace bandage, ice it regularly, take this hideously flavored antibiotic, and hopefully they won't need to jam an 18-gauge needle in there to drain it.

Gee, thanks.
so wrote Leper around about 1:16 AM