hehe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVV6oCwf0-8&feature=channel

Hi Internet,

It's me, Jane. I miss you. I feel like I never get to see you anymore. I never thought I would feel this way. We used to be so close but now I feel like I have to sneak off and see you.

I hope sometime soon we can get back to normal.

Love,

Jane

Stoners are confusing

About 3 or so months ago a girl (probably in her late 20's) moved into a vacant apartment on my floor, also about 3 months ago my floor started reeking of weed. Being a fairly logical person, I put two and two together. Now I'm not bothered by the smell and it was not getting into my apartment so I'm indifferent for the most part, though I am boggled by her ability to make the entire floor smell like you are trapped in a small room with 20 Bob Marley fans but that's besides the point. The few interactions I have had with this woman have always been fine and she seemed like a generally normal person. However, as my roommate had witnessed a pretty intense fight between her and her boyfriend/drug dealer (perhaps both) I knew she has some shit going on. Also helpful in understanding the encounter I'm about to describe you should know that she is eastern European and has a somewhat heavy accent.



Friday night, at about 10pm I am home, as is my roommate; we are sitting watching tv. Someone rings the buzzer.


Sherri: Don't answer it.
Me: (after giving it a moment of thought) I should see who it is.

I open the door and pause. The girl is standing there, now when I say she looks a hot mess I am being kind. Her eyes are blood red, puffy and she smells like a joint (not like she has been smoking one, which she has, but literally like a joint). Though I'm sure with a lot of work and a lot of weed someone could get to that place aesthetically, it seemed to me that she had also been crying. In one hand she holds an iphone that has the USB adaptor cable plugged into it and in the other she holds the wall outlet plug.




Now for anyone not familiar with apple products, I will provide a brief tutorial. Most apple products come with a USB cable that is used to both, plug the devise into your computer and into the power adaptor that plugs into your wall. See photo below. When new, the USB end of this cable has a plastic protector over it, which needs to be removed before the cable can be plugged into your computer or the power adaptor.

Now that we are all up to speed, I will continue. So my high neighbor is standing there holding these pieces and looking very, very confused. Finally, she says in somewhat broken english that her phone is about to die, she is waiting for her boyfriend to call her and she can't figure this out. She kinda pushes the phone in my direction, which I interpret as high speak for, "help!". I take the wall power adaptor and the end of the USB cord, remove the plastic cover thing and plug it into the wall adaptor. While this is happening her bf calls, she answers the phone and is explaining the situation to him in hurried, frantic sentences. I hand the power adaptor back to her saying that it's all set, and make a gesturing motion to show that she now has to plug it into the wall (you would think that this part would be self explanatory but at this point I'm not taking any chances). She takes it from me, looks at it, and realizes with joy that the problem has been solved. She then grabs me and pulls me in for a big hug and kisses me on the cheek. Then she is off, back to her apartment while still talking to the boyfriend/drug dealer in a manor I would not consider normal. Right...

We all know that when people are high they can become paranoid (as well as idiots as we have seen) and while that could be all that is at play here I don't think it is normal, even for the phenomenally stoned, to be so upset that they might miss a phone call from their boyfriend as to cry and then proceed to a neighbor to ask them how to plug in their phone. I could be blowing all of this out of proportion but this relationship seems less than healthy. I will put up with the constant aroma of pot and even the crazy, stoned neighbor coming over to ask me to perform simple tasks for them but so help me if this shit turns into domestic violence I will be on the phone with the cops so fast.

Bottom line. Weed = I'm ok with it. Domestic violence = oh, fuck no.

ch-ch-ch-changes

Due to a change in my work situation (nothing bad) my online time at work has been drastically reduced. And as online, at work, is where I usually write these enchanting little snippets of my life, I would like to forewarn readers that my posting might become a little more sporadic for the time being. Until I work out a new schedule to get in my internet time that is.

the gym again...

The gym may be many things but it is not a sports bar. While I will judge you silently when you flex in front of the mirror, I will stare openly at you when you sit down on a bike in front of a tv showing a baseball game and yell loudly, curse and throw your hands in the air when your team does poorly. This is just not acceptable behavior - even for the gym. I am not generally bothered by rowdy responses to sporting events when I am at, say a bar. But when I'm trying to get into my workout and you are sitting 4 feet away from me yelling obscenities at the television like we are in your living room, I find this odd and inappropriate. So yes, I will keep casting judging looks in your direction until you shut the hell up.

Food, INC

Ok, so get ready to get depressed. I watched Food, INC tonight. Though it was basically what I was expecting and have heard a lot of the same points in the past it still managed to leave me very discouraged and angry. And because I am a caring person and only want to give, I thought I would share some of the points I found most disturbing so as people reading this can share in my feelings of fear and disgust.

• The average American eats 200lbs of meat per year.
• In 1970 the 4 largest meat companies purchased 25% of the beef, now they purchase 90%.
• In 1972 there were 50,000 food inspections conducted by the FDA. In 2006 there were just 9,164.
• 1 in 3 Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes.
  
• 1.5 million Mexican farmers were put out of business when America flooded the Mexican market with cheap American corn. These farmers were then bused into the US to work for very low wages in slaughter houses and as day laborers.
  
• Smithfields (the worlds largest slaughter house) allows 15 of the illegal immigrants it employees to be arrested each day so that the immigration and border control offices will allow them to continue to employee illegal Mexican immigrants. And since they employee so any people their business is unaffected by the loss of 15 employees.
• And lastly Kashi is now owned by Kellogg's and Tom's of Maine was purchased by Colgate...

If only people (including myself) could effectively channel that depression and anger into something productive we might actually be able to do something about those statistics.