10.28.2002


In case you were worried, my Halloween costume turned out great. I can't imagine why you were worried as I'd never mentioned that I was worried about my Halloween costume. Maybe you just knew to worry about it. I don't know.

A couple of weeks before every Halloween, I think that I'm going to put together the best costume ever. EVER! Then I forget all about that until the morning of the first Halloween party. (At that point, it becomes, "Next year, I'm going to put together the best Halloween costume ever. EVER!" If you want to know what the future looks like, it looks like a gorilla suit.)

Friday was my first Halloween party and that morning, I had nothing. I told Judith that I didn't have a costume and she suggested Existential Dread. When I asked her how I was going to pull that off, she said, "Wear a Hawaiian shirt."

I don't own a Hawaiian shirt.

Late in the afternoon, still with no idea for a costume, I went to Kmart (this was also Judith's idea). Against my wishes, Judith apparently told all of the annoying eighth graders in the Boston suburbs to meet me there. The Halloween aisle was overrun with them. They were yelling and screaming and running around. I have a low tolerance for screech, so I wandered around Halloween™ for ten minutes before freaking out.

The Acton Kmart has a permanent Christmas section. Maybe every Kmart has a permanent Christmas section -- I have no idea. I've grudgingly come to accept that Christmas isn't always a bad idea, but a year-round Martha Stewart Christmas section certainly is.

I have to admit, though, that I was happy when I found myself in the blissfully empty Christmas section. I'm sure it was the peace and quiet that made me decide to spend time there and buy all the stuff for my Christmas tree costume. I'll post a picture sometime, but you can take my word for it when I say it was great.

From now on, around Halloween-time, I'm only going to shop in the empty aisles for my costume. Next year, I'm going to go as a Ford Escort floor mat.
..:.:5:17 PM:.:..

10.9.2002


I have to get up early tomorrow morning -- at 7 AM. I'm thinking about tomorrow morning because I'm about to leave work and I'm trying to plan my evening. I'm used to getting up at 9 AM, so this multi-hour difference is difficult for me to wrap my mind around. So, five minutes ago, I was sitting at my desk saying over and over to myself, "7 AM, 7 AM, 7 AM." Then it expanded to, "7 AM in the morning."

I said this a couple of times (in my head) because I liked how it sounded. I typed it into Google (I do this with random phrases a lot) and "7 AM in the morning" returned 660 results! Does this surprise you? Wouldn't you laugh if someone said this? Wouldn't you make some snide "Department of Redundancy Department" comment? I know I would. I might even bring up the just-learned fact that "a typical Baywatch day starts at 7 a.m. in the morning."

Then I thought that maybe it was something peculiar to 7 AM. It sounds right to me -- I was saying it in my head. But, no!

"1 AM in the morning" -- 894 results
"2 AM in the morning" -- 1,800 results
"3 AM in the morning" -- 2,360 results
"4 AM in the morning" -- 1,610 results
"5 AM in the morning" -- 1,100 results
"6 AM in the morning" -- 1,030 results
"7 AM in the morning" -- 660 results
"8 AM in the morning" -- 816 results
"9 AM in the morning" -- 647 results
"10 AM in the morning" -- 770 results
"11 AM in the morning" -- 250 results

"3 AM in the morning" is the winner, but it doesn't sound right to me at all. I'm going to work on making it sound right to me, though, if for no other reason than thinking about that will keep me from contemplating the 10 results returned when searching for "10 PM in the morning."
..:.:6:33 PM:.:..

10.7.2002


Diet Dr. Pepper makes me sick to my stomach. I determined this about six months ago when I had Diet Dr. Peppers on three consecutive days and felt pretty sick after each one. Since then, I've confirmed it nine more times. I've just concluded what I hope to be the final confirmation.

I'm really happy that there's no more Diet Dr. Pepper.
..:.:8:09 PM:.:..

10.2.2002


I have my clock radio set to loud, staticky Christian talk (it helps me wake up). Usually, the nice Christian people are talking about New Age-y New Testament-y kinds of things in between hocking their wacky religious books pamphlets (they were selling something called "Can God Bless America?" today -- me? I'm waiting for the sequel "Straighten Up, You Yankee Doodle Dandy!"). Today, though, there was a guest host piling on the Jonathan Edwards fire and brimstone. In the stretch of a minute and a half, he told me eight times I was going to hell.

I'm sure it says something about me that my reaction to this was, "Ooh, retro!"
..:.:11:07 AM:.:..

mark@markand.com
aim: mdanderson45