Cacophony

Yesterday was a bum day, well almost. It started with me feeling like vegging out on the couch watching movies. I spoke to Jyg for a little while before watching Garden Party – a must, by the way. After watching that, I started watching Mad Max, but then remembered to call Jyg because she wanted to go buy her new TV at Wal-Mart. The thing didn’t weight that much, so I agreed to go with her and get it. It was on sale, but still cost her $500. We went back to her place and I set it up because that’s what I’m good for and I remembered, while attempting to attach the stand to the flat panel, why I hate RCA products so much – they don’t just put the instructions for the product you just bought, but all the instructions for all the similar products. So there was about three different TV sets in that booklet and I gave up on attempting to figure it out through book and just did what I do best, figure it out on my own. That worked faster.

Afterward, we dropped by my place really quickly because I needed to take a pain killer and we went to comic book store that opened in Edinburg perhaps a year or two ago – Cyber Comics, I believe it’s called. Reason being, I was feeling quite nerdy and I wanted to buy the Kevin Smith Batman comic – Batman: Cacophony. Of course, I love Batman and I love Kevin Smith so the two only made sense, right? I haven’t bought an actual comic book from an actual comic book store since I was just out of high school. It was strange, but I liked the set up. I asked the clerks if there were any left and there was quite a few. I just bought the one, which they were surprised, but I told them if I looked around, I’d wind up spending more than I had originally planned because they had a dollar comic section and I know I’ll find a lot that I’d be interested in.

I liked the place and as I was leaving I told them I’d be seeing them next month when the second issue hit, and I will because the place seems a little more friendly than Myth Adventures in McAllen. Not to attack Myth, because they’re still one of the greatest comic stores in the Valley, but these people actually made conversation with me while checking to see if they had any in stock. Treated like a fellow comic book reader than just a customer from the street.

I paid for the comic and left with Jyg who called this mission a nerd mission. We went to McDonalds because the pain killer makes me queasy if I don’t eat something with it and it’d only been 15 minutes so I ordered a cheeseburger and we waited for both our meals. While doing so, Jyg noticed some lady just putting her drink on Jyg’s car. The lady who was with her and the one who decided to use the car as her personal cup holder, kept staring at something inside, or at least I thought they were staring at something inside. Leaving my comic book in their view, I began to wonder why they were taking so much interest in Batman. When we got back to the car, I noticed that there was a wing sticking out from the hood and a little bird had met its maker. We couldn’t come up with reasons why it would be stuck in the corner of the hood, but what really puzzled us is why the lady, after knowing there was a dead bird on the hood of the car, would put her soda there.

After arriving home, my mother pulled the thing out and we noticed that it’d been there for some time as the bird had decomposed. The mystery of the suicidal bird is still open. And Batman: Cacophony, despite the what the naysayers say, is totally worth it.

Fever, Abscess, El Senor, Weekend & Books

All most of last week and the week before was a rollercoaster of fever. While 100.9F isn’t much of a threat, when you’re post op (a term, apparently not just used for transsexuals), it can mean there is something seriously wrong with you. The doctor told me most people who go through appendicitis normally form an abscess after surgery. Crap, that means I have to go back to the hospital to get that drained. He gave me a paper which said I needed to get a CT scan – he ordered one from whichever place I go to, is basically what it said – but then told me that if I hit 101 degree fever to just go the emergency room so I don’t have to pay up front. Fine. I had my plan, go during the weekend as to not inconvenience anyone. That plan fell through when the fevers left me as quickly as they came. Now I’m completely normal.

Friday, I almost stayed in but Jyg didn’t go out with her friends after all, so we went to JCPenny’s to search for the elusive sunglasses. JcPenny’s, however, doesn’t have any sunglasses so that trip proved fruitless. After walking towards other stores, I started to feel weak, so we went back to the car. We wound up at Hastings afterward because at least I get to rest there. While there, I found a used copy of Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them. Penniless that I am, Jyg purchased the book for me as a gift. We came back home afterward and I started to feel really sleepy. After a while, Jyg went home and I fell asleep.

Saturday was pretty much eventless. I just sat around, catching up on my reading because I have yet to finish The Silmarillion. Sunday, on the other hand, gave me something to do. El Senor, after having his operation done Friday, decided that he needed to get out of his home and hang out with someone who wasn’t related to him – this meant me and we would go to Cuppy’s Coffee for yet another session of our talking out loud and bothering other costumers who are sitting there with their laptops, purposely looking as if they’re writing the next great American novel. We talked books. We talked sugeries. We talked about what we’re writing – me, a short story/novella and him, his thesis. Afterwards, we went over to CompUSA because he has become the victim of his children – they lost two of his USB drives. He saw some he liked, but vowed to buy them in the morning because he only brought enough money for the coffee.

After that, I learned that he has moved from La Villa to Edinburg. This guy’s now more in walking distance than before. After offering me to tag along on a family road trip – which I passed because I couldn’t fathom the idea of being anywhere near his daughter who suggested that I looked forty the last time we talked – we go to his place. He has some reading material that he bought for me during the summer, a book by Paul Ruffin, Islands, Women, and God. I also manage to borrow The Chicago Manual of Style and swiped Two-Up by Eric Miles Williamson, a professor at UTPA. We go to Juniors to pay a bill he had and then he dropped me off.

One thing that I failed to mention is that he also offered me a job. Not with his business, which is manual labor and while I’m all up for it, my body isn’t. Instead a friend of his is looking for people with Bachelors to teach courses to the community. My job offer? To help others find jobs. I swear, that saying is true: Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. It’ll be a bilingual class, but at least I’ll have a translator because my on the spot Spanish sucks ass.

On Hats

I have too many hats for my age. I don’t even wear my fedoras anymore because they’re so goddamn hot on top of my skull. So I decided I chopped my hair short in order to keep it neater, right? I can’t remember the last time I combed or brushed it – actually, I do, it was for my great uncle’s funeral.

The fact that I love hats so much makes me think of the stereotype of women loving shoes; I’m saying hats are like my shoes, only for my head. Again, that sounded so much better in my head than it did typed out in front of me. I love them so much, I think my now obsession of looking at hats online is going to make me create a category for hats, or, worse, shopping!

I found this hat on Amazon and I fucking love it the brown one. Mine – same style – has been around for three years going on its fourth, so it’s begging me to retire it. Last time I posted about needing a fedora (I don’t feel like linking so go looking for it yourself – here’s a hint: it’s a list), I linked this fedora. Now, while I still love that one, I’ve fallen in love with this one. I want too many hats.

I’m going to stop typing now. I’m beginning to feel weird.