Auditory Caffeine
I don’t know what possessed me to put this song on during my drive home today, but in some strange way, it rejuvenated me, at least for the duration of that drive. That drive is really only six miles long, though I’ve been known to make this drive take upwards of 20 minutes or so, by taking different routes and making needless turns. I will be the first to admit that I am not a fan of Madonna. I’ve never really cared for her or her music, but for some reason, this song has the ability to get my blood going. It’s almost like a four-minute auditory shot of caffeine and adrenaline all rolled into a single song. I won’t say that the song alone replaces my customary morning can of Rockstar, Monster, or Reign, but if anything, it has proven to be quite the complement to my standard breakfast.
It wasn’t as though today was anything remotely special. Mondays are Mondays and today really wasn’t any different than my typical Monday. Did the work thing and yes, I got to the office at my usual 4:40am or so. Still dark as hell too, outside, I mean. Since I wasn’t going to be in the office beyond 7am, I didn’t even bother to turn any of the lights on either. I sat at my desk, with the only light coming from my desk lamp, cell phone, and computer. At about 6:15am, the morning sun decides to make its first appearance for the day and in some way, I’m content because the darkness that had enveloped the office just over an hour earlier was gradually dissipating. From what I could see, no one was in the office at the time I left, just before 7am. Aside from the folks with security, it was just me. I love it when the office is the barren wasteland that it was the morning. Sadly, that is hardly ever the norm, but it was a pleasant sight today.
Gloria reached out to me this morning and decided that we needed to hang out and do some work together. So, from the looks of things, she and I will be spending much of Wednesday morning together. We are somewhat of a united front, being that she and I despise many of our immediate co-workers. In that regard, she and I are the outliers of our work group, which is a situation with which I am comfortable. As I may have mentioned before, the department’s desperation has been quite evident these last few years with the quality of people that they’ve decided to hire. Something has changed in the time that I’ve been working there and one of the first things I’ve seen is that the people who have been brought in just aren’t exactly quality workers. There’s a certain laziness to them, as well as what I like to think is an overall lack of intelligence, reliability, and even enthusiasm. If this were the military, I think that I’d sooner kill myself because the majority of the people with whom I currently work, I would not want to go into battle. I’d prefer to just kill myself rather than have the enemy do it. Dissension in the ranks is never a good thing, but that’s my current reality at work. But as it stands, we’ll see how Wednesday plays out. At least I won’t be spending time with anyone who I would deem stupid. Of late, I seem to have an even lower tolerance for bullshit and especially for dumb people.
Speaking of dumb and bullshit, I wanted to thank the Minnesota Timberwolves for ousting the Los Angeles Lakers in the playoffs this season. Living in Southern California means that I have to tolerate all this talk about the Lakers, whether good or bad. For these past few years, it’s always “LeBron this” and “LeBron that”. It gets old very fast, especially if you couldn’t care less about LeBron James and his antics every damn season. With James and the Lakers finished this post-season, all that James talk will subside. I don’t know where I fall along this continuum, but I am definitely of the mindset that the NBA would be better off if James were to just retire already. His career has already run its course and though I haven’t followed the NBA as closely as I used to in the 90’s, from what I have seen during James’ time as a Laker, suffice it to say that I’d be content if he were to finally just hang them up and call it a career. Hell, he can even take his son with him too, because at least as it stands for now, Bronny James has little to offer the Lakers or any other team in the NBA. I am well aware that Bronny is a former USC Trojan and as much as I want to have his back for that alone, I can’t do it.
The NBA today in general is a mess and definitely fodder for another entry. I just don’t have the strength or patience to write about the crap that today’s NBA happens to be.
The NFL’s 2025 schedule is supposed to be released on Wednesday (05/14). Normally, I wouldn’t care who plays whom and when, but this season, I’m genuinely curious to see the Cincinnati Bengals’ schedule. I’m also hoping that Cincinnati doesn’t start the season at 0-5, 1-4, or even 2-3. Those slow starts every season completely screw up the tone for the rest of the season and put the Bengals’ playoff hopes in jeopardy well before we’ve even reached the midpoint of the season. Can we go 4-1 for once, hell, maybe even 5-0? A boy can dream. We’ll just have to wait and see what the upcoming NFL schedule holds, I guess.
As I mentioned earlier today, she and I finally made amends. All we needed to do was have a conversation and across two phone conversations, we spoke for two hours and 29 minutes. I’m just disappointed that it took us so long to talk and hammer things out. Still, things are okay “good” between us and we’re on the right track. I’m hoping that we are able to diffuse our next argument just as fast as it starts. I hate arguing with her and yes, she is fully aware of this.
Today proved to be pretty chill, for which I am grateful.
I can only hope that tomorrow will be just as chill and nowhere near as stressful as it could be.
As is always the case, we’ll just have to see what tomorrow holds.