July 24, 2008
Dear Everyone:
Herein lies my tale of woe.
I wrote last week’s Letter on Tuesday because I realized that Wednesday would be my last day in the office. Three people still get the Weekly Letter in hardcopy and two of them are co-workers (the third is “Jeannie” who can’t get to email until she replaces her old computer.) I was going to take Thursday as a vacation day to pack and fly to Riverside for the annual ARMA Pacific Region Leadership Conference.
As I reported last week, I had been having all kinds of fun trying to get the kitchen lights working. “Mark” called “Randolph” and referred me to him. But I found out later that “Randolph” didn’t want to take the job because “Mark” expected a 15% kickback. Can’t say I blame him.
As I also mentioned last week, I got a screaming headache the Friday before. I started taking over-the-counter pain medications. So when I started throwing up, I blamed it on the meds. Until Wednesday morning, when I hadn’t swallowed anything but vitamins and they came back up. I went into the office and called my doctor’s office as soon as they opened. This was clearly no ordinary headache.
They had an opening at 10:45 and my supervisor offered to drive me there. Since by this time I was having the first actual migraine in 10 years, I leaped at the offer (figuratively speaking.) When I gave my symptoms to the doctor he smiled and pronounced it “classic viral stomach flu.” And gave me a prescription for anti-nausea suppositories.
Back at the office, I reset my Out of Office Assistant and Voicemail to indicate I would be out for some time. I also emailed the other Chapter members that I would have to cancel the Conference. And called the airline and hotel to cancel the reservations.
Then I went to the store to get the prescription filled and load up on clear liquids. And spent the next six days lying in bed, watching TV and eating absolutely nothing.
So how did I get exposed to viral stomach flu? Looked it up on the Internet. Remember “Mark’s” adorable 2-½-year-old daughter? The one who pulled the books out of my shelves? After he bundled the two children away, I got right down on the floor to put the books back. The following Monday, when “Mark” finally showed up, one of his excuses was that he had to take the girl to the doctor because she spiked a high fever. The Internet site even gave me the very long name of the strain of the virus most prevalent in children under the age of three.
But enough about that. Movies…
Both of the last two movies we saw were picked out by “Jeannie”, paid
for by me, and begin with the letter “W”.
The first was
Wanted, starring
James McAvoy (Atonement),
Angelina Jolie
and Morgan Freeman. McAvoy, perhaps looking to break his “I only do
quality films” image, plays Wesley who starts the movie describing his
loser existence, dead-end job, obnoxious boss, girlfriend who spends
most of her time having sex with his best friend.
Then a complete stranger starts shooting at him and a beautiful woman scoops him up in a red sports car and Wesley’s adventure begins. Seems he’s actually the long-forgotten son of the best assassin in the world. Morgan Freeman tells him that he can become just as good with training. Lots of blood ensues. Lots of action sequences. Not a lot of sense in the end.
Interestingly, I happened to catch one of Jolie’s earlier Lara Croft: Tomb Robber movies on TV that same weekend. I marveled at how much thinner she is in Wanted.
Next is WALL-E, Pixar’s latest offering. WALL-E is a robot left on Earth after the Buy N Large corporation has depleted all the resources with the exception of one cockroach. It stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth class. WALL-E’s job is to collect all the trash and make neat piles of it. However, WALL-E has developed a sense of curiosity. When he finds something he deems unusual, like an ancient video of the musical Hello, Dolly!, he saves it in his collection. Eventually, he comes across a small seedling plant and puts it in an old shoe.
So where are all the people? Living on star liners with their every need provided for by robots. After 700 years, they send a probe, EVE, to Earth to see if it can sustain life again. In essence, this is a love story about two robots who were made for each other, centuries apart. It’s absolutely charming. If you have to make a choice, I’d go with WALL-E.
As for the kitchen lights? Still out.
Love, as always,
Pete
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