sunday musings

best singles awareness day love line: "my love for you is like diarrhea...i just can't hold it in". there were lots more good ones on the radio, but my memory fails me.

lesson of the week: i learned a valuable lesson this week, thats actually been brewing a bit for a while. outsiders be advised that when a south african gives you directions and tell you "don't worry...its straight forward...you can't miss it," be worried. very worried. chances are it is not straight forward, and you have to try really hard NOT to miss it. this has happened a few times now and initially i was content to think that it was my lack of directional skills, but no longer.

one of my bosses asked me to be in pretoria (30min-2hrs from joburg, depending on traffic) on thursday within the hour, so i pack up my stuff, ask a couple people how to get there, got the "it'll be right in front of you; you can't miss it" response and was on my way. without much traffic at all, i got there 2 hrs, 14 illegal u-turns, a foray into the heart of downtown pretoria, and 6 "where the hell am i!$" exclamations later. the place was so confusing to find and the company building was hidden (the opposite of "you can't miss it") and the sign was as small as my pinky finger. hmph, not a fun experience. south africans are really good at finding their way around, just not explaining that to anyone else in a reasonable way. yes its a generalization, but my limited experience so far tells me its true. thats my story and im sticking to it.

saturday was an interesting day. after i tried for the 7th time to get my contract phone and for the 7th time failed (i wont bore you with the details), i went to get some fried chicken, like a good african (this was around 5pm, i had played some futbol earlier, was running on an empty stomach and carrying a dizzying headache which made me feel like i was gonna faint). while waiting for my chicken i decided to go to the fruit and veg store next door and maybe get some fruit. before i entered i saw these gigantic mangos on display outside (probably among the biggest mangos i've ever seen). so when the owner came out to ask me what i wanted i joked (or tried) around by asking what lab those mangos were genetically engineered from. welll this guy (who looked exactly like the scary white guy from the addams family, and talked like him) did not take that joke very lightly. he started on this rant about how he's a christian and would never do such a thing (hmm, i'm sure there are some christian genetic engineers, no?!). then he went on to ask me if i was a christian and even after telling him i was, went on to preach to me for a good 10 minutes while holding the medium-sized mangos i decided to buy. and it wasn't good preaching; rather incompressible jargon that would have made even less sense if i didn't know much about christianity. anyway, i think he had good intentions, so i can't fault him for that; but with that addams family voice, height, and facial structure, i thought i unleashed a freakin devil and all i wanted were some sweet mangos. i'll put that joke in the ever rapidly growing list of jokes never to tell again.

today, i found my new favorite store: builder's warehouse. its so close to me and even tho i had been looking for a place like this, i didn't realize that it was just down the street. think home depot, only better. by far. i know, i asked myself the same question: what could be better than home depot? but i found the answer, and its builder's warehouse. its got pretty much everything u can think of when it comes to home improvement. i just walked around the store (which is huuge) and had the sincere urge to build something, anything. it was nice. then at the end, this beautiful store became even more awesome. as i was walking out, the guy that checked my bag, gave me a free sunday newspaper. FREE. no strings attached (well, except that i bought something from the store of course). but how cool is that.

post-post: on a much more serious note...sometimes i think i try to come off as a hard person, but i think i'm pretty soft on the inside. this NIU shooting really got to me and if anyone knows people at the university or has any affiliations there, just want you to know that my thoughts and prayers are with you all. i'm not sure exactly why it got to me so much (these things are getting increasingly numerous); perhaps it was because it conjured up images of how i felt when the events at columbine happened and how my high school rallied around one another and around other schools in the community. or because it reminded me of 9/11 and brought everyone in my uni together and accelerated the feeling of community, even tho i'd only been there for a few months at the time. whatever it was, for a little bit on friday, things were put into perspective for me. still not sure exactly what to make of it, but its helped raised even more questions in my mind. life is short; live it to the fullest. if i died right now, i'm not sure i would be able to say that i've lived my life to the fullest...