2003-02-26 - 11:28 p.m.

Oh, The Book I Have Read!

I just finished Al Franken's Oh, the Things I Know!  A Guide To Success, Or, Failing That, Happiness. It is a small hardcover, 157 pages, a very quick read.  I had been looking at it in the bookstore for a while and finally picked it up.  I love Al Franken, and it is an extremely funny book.  It is like a gift book you would give a college graduate (because you feel you have to get something but you can't think of anything else), you know, like those other inspirational gift books like Everything I Know I learned in Kindergarten or Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr Seuss.

I picked it up because I loved Franken's Class Day Speech at Harvard last spring.  It was the best graduation speech I have ever heard. I saw it on C-SPAN.  The book contains a lot of the same advice from his speech.  Advice like fantasizing about another woman when you are board with sex with your wife.  Or most advice people give often wrong, so ignore it.  You know, useful stuff.

To the reader he writes, "Some of you who read this will have miserable lives and be disappointments to your parents, your children, your spouse and to yourself.  And to some extent, to me."  I love his self-centered outlook.  It cracks me up.

I went to my class tonight.  It was a blast, as usual.  I talked to my instructor about the show I saw him in on Sunday.  He became really animated about it and loves "talkin' improv."  I still think I am doing a lot of stuff wrong in the scenes I do but I receive very little criticism.  I replay the scenes in my head on the drive home. Not sure if I am learning from my mistakes, though.

I was very vocal about how great the show was I saw and talked it up during the break.  I would go to the show they have tomorrow if it didn't start so late.  I may go anyway.  So I will be dead at work on Friday.  So what.  What is really important here?

I am getting the feeling I am close to being caught up at work.  Today my clients came into our office for the training. I usually do it over the phone.  They were two really nice ladies.  One was older, in her late 50's and I loved her.  She reminded of a lady I used to work with at the bookstore, Judy.  She drives a hot little car, has her silver hair done in the Rachel cut, had bright blue eyes.  And she just talked and talked.

The other woman was a pretty, young soccer mom.  She smelled so good I just wanted to grab her and pull her to me and nuzzle her neck and breathe her in.  I don't know what kind of perfume it was, I usually hate perfume, but this stuff was very light and made her smell great.

I did the training, made a lot of crazy promises, and then set it all aside when they were gone.  I knocked out a lot of work today.  I managed to do it by just telling the other guys I was too busy to answer the phone.

It was really weird, I woke up at 4:30 this morning, tried to drift back to sleep, but it did not work.  I got up at 5:00 and just went on in to work.  I skipped lunch and worked straight through.

Fuckin' screw job.  I hope I get out of there soon.  I am not a pessimist, but logically I know that it is going to turn very sour very soon.  I just don't want to be on the way out when it does.  It is official now.  Everyone in my department is looking for another job.  It's kind of funny, really.

Ok, time to wrap it up now.

Good night.

Jimmy
 

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