28 November 1998: Not What I'd Envisioned in a Weekend

Saturday, 28 November 1998:

Not What I'd Envisioned in a Weekend

This has been one of those weekends that was more akin to the first half of 1998 than the second, in that it's been kind of a sucky one.

For one thing, giving the cats their medicine is getting progressively harder. Jefferson is now at the point where when he sees me get the medicine out of the fridge he (1) runs, and (2) immediately starts salivating. Poor guy. I think I have figured out that it's a little easier if I can get him to open his mouth and use the eye-dropper to squirt it towards his throat rather than giving him a little bit at a time on his tongue and at the front of his mouth.

He does not like it, though.

This afternoon I went to the theater to see another film in the Warner Bros festival they've been showing for six weeks. I went in and sat and read for a bit, and then sat through a few previews. "That's odd," I thought, "they haven't done previews for the previous movies in the festival."

Yes, moments later I found that I was watching the beginning of Elizabeth rather than the film I'd gone there to see. They'd changed theaters on me! And having sat through the previews and all, I'd thus missed nearly the first half-hour of the film. So I walked out. (How often do you see someone walk out of a film less than five minutes into it?)

They did give me a pass to come back later, but I was bummed enough about what happened that I decided to pass. I like going to the early afternoon show because then I have the rest of the day to do with as I please. I didn't want to have to kill two and a half hours and then go back to the theater.

So that sucked.

Then, this evening I went down to the coffee shop. There was a sign on the door which said, "We will be closing tonight at 8:30." I looked at my watch. 7:37. I figured, sure, I can get something to drink and read for 50 minutes. That's okay. So I go in and go up to the counter, where I have the following conversation:

GIRL BEHIND THE COUNTER: Sorry, we're closed.
ME: But your sign outside says you're open until 8:30.
GIRL (gesturing to the clock on the cash register): Yes, and it's a little after 8:30 now.
ME: No it's not. My watch says it's 7:37.
GIRL (surprised): Oh. Well, we've already closed out the cash register so I can't serve you anything.
ME: Oh. Well, it looks like you forgot to set your clock back for daylight savings time.
GIRL: Yeah.

So I left and came home, where I spent the evening reading various things. But I was bummed. Even when I do things right sometimes I can't win.

I hope she was stuck there for another hour minding the store since there were other customers in there, though. Twit.

Oh, and I did finally see the preview for the next Star Wars film. The special effects sure look nice! The one thing about the first three films which has not aged well is the fact that the aliens all look like people in rubber suits. I guess the new film uses a lot more CGI, which looks sharper. What the story will be like -- who knows?

Michael Rawdon (Contact)