Christmas Eve

I read a book by Charles Schewe about cohort marketing a few years ago. He's a marketing genius. His theory, if I recall it correctly, is that what happens in the world between the ages of 17 and 23 for a particular person informs the way that that person reacts to basically everything else, including marketing materials. So if you're marketing to octogenarians, you need to look at what was happening 60 years ago in order to trick them into buying whatever it is you're schilling.

That's a way-over simplification. And if you have any interest in marketing (I'm fascinated by it), I highly recommend his books.

All this to get around to my point, which is I started working at Gus and Paul's Bakery in Springfield when I was 17 and I left when I was 23. And - no joke - that experience has absolutely informed the rest of my life. I don't exactly miss working there - food service has little to recommend it - but I carry it with me always, especially at Christmastime.

Working in a bakery at Christmastime...I have no idea what I can compare it to. All I can say is it's insane. People have certain things they like to eat at certain times of the year and if they arrive at a bakery and the baked good they want isn't currently available, they completely lose their shit. Or if the item comes out of the oven looking a little different than it used to look, Christmas is ruined. People just come completely unhinged.

Working behind the counter dealing with these people is really hard, and made harder because there are so many people behind the counter at once to deal with the crowds. Just trying to put a cake in a box you could accidentally manhandle any number of your colleagues.

But on Christmas Eve there was a glorious moment after we locked the doors and cleaned up the store and right before everyone left to go home to their families that all of us in our food-covered uniforms would stand in the back room and hug each other, and wish each other a Merry Christmas - even the people who didn't like each other very much in the everyday - and we would mean it. It was a beautiful moment of peace and love in a place that every other moment of the year was exactly the opposite (seriously, the bakery is where I developed my sailor-mouth).

That is the part I miss. That's the part I'm carrying with me today.

Updates

My new orthotics seem to be helping. I'm not over the bastard plantar fasciitis yet or anything, so it's not time to have a party over it, but I think there's a good chance I'm on the right track.

I think when it's finally over, though, I really will have a party. I can't think of a better reason to celebrate than a return to good health.

Here's hoping it's sooner rather than later.

Some neighborhood hoodlums broke a window in our house. It was a giant ruckus and basically terrible. Mostly for reasons that had nothing to do with the window breaking and everything to do with Scott running after the children who did it and then not coming back or calling me for nearly an hour while I imagined the group of them pushing him down and kicking him in the head and leaving him dead in a ditch.

I'll say this: Scott runs like a gazelle. He's in great shape and he caught up with those kids before they even knew what hit them. I think the children know now that they can't fuck with us, because if they do, Scott will chase them and then talk with them about why they broke our window, while they all claim they had nothing to do with it (then why were they running away as soon as the window broke, pray?). Of course, we can't prove that any one of them was the one that broke it, so even though we made a report, basically the cops can't do anything. So frustrating!

Those fucking kids are ballsy, though. They did it while we were right there! Sweet god.

I bought us new cell phones (I got the black one; the Count got purple). They're much fancier than our old cell phones. I also bought myself a blue tooth device called Jawbone, which is apparently the top of the line. Now I get to walk around like one of those assholes with a bluetooth device in my ear in public. Don't worry. I'm not going to be that guy. I totally promise. I only got it because I sometimes have to be on conference calls for work and it's hard to be on the phone for an hour on a cell phone without hurting my arm, neck and ear. I'm just a human.

They sure do soak you for this bullshit. However, unlike basically everyone else in America, we sent in our rebate forms, so they're giving us some cash-money back.

It was really time for me to get a new one. I'd had my old one for three or more years. Upon my telling her that I got a new cell phone, my old carpool-mate at work pretended to lift up something very heavy, held it to her ear and said, "Hi, I'm Jennifer Myszkowski answering my phone."

Everyone is a comedian.

Story Corps is coming to the Basketball Hall of Fame. I really want to go and interview my dad about this story - either that or I want to interview my sister about, well, everything - either that or I want to haul No-legs down there and interview him about his role in the printing union in the '40s and '50s or accidentally setting off the alarm in San Francisco when he was on night watch during WWII - either that or I can think of about a hundred other topics/people to interview. I only wish I could do it all.

This is my favorite time of year, when it's still warm during the day, but it gets really cool at night and I can sleep with a blanket. It's supposed to be sunny and lovely this weekend, so I'm really excited about everything going on. It's about the busiest weekend of the summer for us so far.

I must spirit myself away to prepare.

Radio 104 revisited

I was driving to a show tonight and I saw a sign for a radio station just by Exit 33 in Hartford. It said, "104one music".

Now, back in the day, I listened to Radio 104 (104.1 on your FM dial), which was where all the grunge-type, alternative-y, punk-y sort of music was played back when I was in college. I loved Radio 104, particularly the Jake and Beth Morning Show, which is one of the reasons I wanted to do morning radio, and ultimately did (for a very short time until I got tired of being broke).

It was a great station, but one day they changed formats. Then they changed formats again. Then they changed formats again.

So when I saw this billboard for "104one music", I thought, "I wonder what their new format is?" So I turned it on.

Basically, it's Radio 104, with all of the songs from when I was in college. Man, what an excellent blast from the past.

I heard a Hole song. Also, Green Day. Also, Counting Crows.

I almost had to barf when Dave Matthews came on, but you take the good with the bad when you're taking a walk through a time warp.

One song came on while I was driving home from the show. I told myself that I would remember which song it was because I wanted to tell this story, but I can't remember now. Wait! I just found it on their Web site: Foo Fighters, I'll Stick Around. Anyway, during the "I don't owe you anything!" shouting part, I was magically taken back to the night I got a flat tire on Flat Brook Road in West Hartford on my way home from St. Joe's, which is where Sunnie went. I was still at HCC at the time, so let's say I was 20. I was driving the Buick Skylark, which belonged to my parents and was knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door. I hadn't even been driving a year and it was my first flat tire. I didn't know what to do, so I drove back to St. Joe's and called to Sunnie in her dorm through the window and we got a campus security guy to change my tire.

Oh crazy, carefree days of youth!