Snow, looting and disappointment.
December 2nd, 2003
I am sitting in my chair at work and I can quite distinctly feel the room spinning around me. Oh dear.
I hope this is just because I am tired and have had too much tea to try and compensate, because if it means I am getting ill then I have no time for this.
It was beautiful when I got up this morning. Last night we had a bit of a snowstorm and the snow has stuck everywhere so it looks all clean and white and pretty. It's a bit nippy, it was -12C this morning when I left for work so I wore my fleece hat. I can only find my leather gloves and not my good down-filled ones, so my fingers were a little cold and stiff this morning when I made it in. I had to wrap my fingers around my mug of tea and grimace in pain until my finger joints decided to start working again. We haven't had any more snow today, but I think more is supposed to be coming soon. Last night on the way home from fencing, it was snowing so hard we couldn't see. The roads were pretty icy as well. On one stretch some idiot kid threw an ice chunk at our windshield and scared the crap out of us. Luckily Chris wasn't going very quickly and we had no one in front or behind us, but still. I told Chris he should have stopped the car and gotten out. He told me he was thinking about it. (I threw snowballs at cars on my street once as a child. Most cars kept going. I remember the flash of terror when I saw brakelights flare. I also remember the well-deserved chewing out I got. I never did it again.)
Another interesting vignette from yesterday. I taught from 7-8pm and then walked over to the AC to meet Chris at fencing so I could get a ride home. As I exit the workshop room, I pass through a hall with vending machines all lined up in a row. Last night, someone had just smashed out the glass in one of the machines, and students were laughing and looting the poor shattered carcass. Ok, maybe I am an example of a well-socialised, goody-two-shoes but on what planet is that acceptable behaviour? I couldn't believe it. I could also see the mob mentality starting, the students on the sidelines who were steeling themselves to go and take something. To prove a point? To show how much of a badass they were? To impress friend/lover/rival? Who knows. On my snowy walk over the bridge I called security from a phone kiosk and told them they might want to send someone over at some point. "The vending machine?" "Yes." "Broken glass all over the floor?" "Yes, and happy looting as well." "Oh thanks, I will send someone right over." One of the guys cheerfully looting I guess had been there when it happened and apparently some guy walked up, smashed the glass and said "Merry Christmas". Indeed.
In other unrelated matters, I feel like a very bad person today. And it is just me who let myself down, so I can only blame myself. It sucks. Get thee behind me guilt! You are no superwoman, so you can't feel guilty for something that is outside the capabilities of anyone who is not superhuman. Maybe I will believe this one day.
Currently Reading:
- The Thief's Gamble by Juliet E. McKenna
Books I have Read Lately:
- I have updated my reading list to reflect all the books I read while I was away from the journal. I'll fill in my thoughts as I go.
(All links go through Amazon.ca because of the affiliate program with The Usual Suspects. I spend so much time on there, that this is the least I can do.)