Costco

Ahhh, yes, home from work.

At Costco I'm a Cashier Assistant, which pretty much means I do whatever slog work the managers have available. Pushing carts. Crushing boxes. Helping members through check-out. Checking membership cards at the door. Checking receipts at the exit. Essentially, I'm Costco's bitch. In fact, it should say that on my name tag:

CHRISTOPHER M.

assistant bitch

But the thing is, I don't mind being Costco's bitch. In fact, I even enjoy it sometimes. The pay is really good. $11.50 an hour suits me just fine (plus time and a half on sundays). And I get a ton of hours if I want them. And my managers are pretty cool. And I can come back to work holidays. Okay, I'm just gonna stop there, 'cause it sounds like I'm gloating. It's just that this job is really important to me, especially considering the economic climate we're in.

Today I worked in the electronics department of Costco. I'm not trained to work in that area, they just threw me over there because we were almost closing and Eric needed his break. Standing there among the flat screen TVs and digital cameras I heard a voice I loath. Sean Hannity's show was playing. I don't know who had turned the TV to Fox News, but I wanted to strangle them for it. For half an hour I had to stand around and listen to conservative-slanted "journalists" spout off on how Obama is letting our country sink deeper and deeper into recession. Why not change the channel, you ask? I couldn't figure out how, the remote had been hidden away by the unknown Right Winger.

The important part about this story is that I had to listen to people bash Obama and his administration and it scared me. The more they talked, the more scared I got and the more faith I lost in our leader. I want us to get out of this recession. I want America to bounce back, but the truth is unemployment is higher than it's been in twenty-five years, the banks are failing, taxes are going up, Chrysler's gone bankrupt. Okay, you might say Fox News is blowing things out of proportion, we just need time to get out of this slump. Obama can't wave a magic wand and put everything back on track. And you're right. I know it's not as bad as they want us to believe. But it's still bad. 

So, for now i'll latch onto this job like a tick. Sucking it dry for all it's worth and and watch the world burn.

Summer Reading

Something I seriously love is summer reading.

Summer has always been when I get most of my reading done. During the school year I'm usually too stressed to really sit down and dig into a good book, I'd rather spend my free time splattering Nazi zombie gray-matter on the walls with the old Xbox-360. But now that summer is in full swing I can finally do some serious kick-ass reading. In fact, I spent ninety percent of today sitting outside with my shirt off (my poor Irish skin!) reading and drinking Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade (you don't need to tell me how manly I am). 

Unfortunately, I didn't get off to the greatest start. One of the first books I picked up was The Gunslinger by Steven King. I will say, right now, the first forty pages of this book are great. They pull you in with this mysterious main character and a world similar to our own but with a strange Western/Fantasy/Post-apocalyptic edge. But after those forty pages are done, so am I. King has such strange word choices that, after a while, I can't stand reading his work. And all of his characters sound annoyingly similar. 

A fun book I found is Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner. Each story is short and hilarious. Garner takes the fairy tales we've grown up with and satirizes them through an overly politically correct lens. 

I also took on The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. It's a children's book which, despite reviews that said it was the next Harry Potter series, proved to me to be somewhat hollow and laking the heart that makes a good children's series. 

The best book I've read thus far is by one of my heroes, Anthony Bourdain. If you haven't watched his show, No Reservations on the Travel Channel, you're missing out. This guy is a serious badass chef. In his book, Kitchen Confidential, he describes working in the underbelly of professional restaurants, struggling through heroine addiction, and coming out in one piece on the other side. This guy rocks! I think part of the reason I idolize him so much is because I can't cook to save my life. I wish I had the balls he does. I also want his job. On his TV show he travels around the world experiencing different cultures. He never does the touristy things, like "Hey, let's go visit the Eiffel Tower!" But he shows you what it's really like to immerse yourself in a foreign land. I want that. 

I've traveled more than most. I've been around the UK, Italy, and even China--but that's just given me the thirst for more. Traveling out of the country is something everyone should do. There are many places I still want to visit: France, Japan, Australia, India, etc. etc.. Hell, there are places in the US I'd love to see as well. I've always wanted to take a trip to Seattle (Bahn, Gary, Mikey, and I almost did one summer) and I'd love to visit my best friend in Salt Lake City (I have no idea what we would do, but I'm sure it would be interesting. Maybe ransack a Mormon church, just for kicks). 

But, alas, the real issue. Money. I need money for school. That's one of the main reasons I'm living here in Coon Rapids for the summer, because the last semester almost drained me. I need to make some green at Costco so I can enter back into the wilderness of academia in the fall and hopefully come out with an English BA (I'd love to say that stands for Bad Ass, but sadly, no). So for now, all travel plans must be put on hold. I wish I was more adventurous. I wish I could say, "To Hell with it, I'm flying to Tokyo and no one can stop me." But it doesn't work that way. These things take planning, and most importantly, money. 

Getting back to summer reading, I loved Bourdain's book. I'd recommend it to anyone who's seen the show and interested in how he got his job. The next book I plan digging my teeth into is Enemies and Allies by Kevin J. Anderson. It's set in the paranoid Cold War era with Batman and Superman as the main protagonists. I've seen this done well in comic books, I hope Anderson can pull it off in novel form. I'll let you know how it works out. 

I'd love to hear what you guys are reading this summer. I'm always looking for the next good book. Aren't we all?

Why Write?

I'm gonna be upfront with you:

I'm a twenty-one year old white boy from the suburbs. If you're not interested in what I have to say I can't blame you. For the rest of you who are bored enough to read my words, I thank you for taking the time and I hope you find something meaningful in my ramblings. Maybe (wishful thinking) you will even be a little enlightened. But, of course, I'm making promises I probably won't keep. Most likely this blog will be dedicated to my favorite bands (The Decemberists, Rogue Wave, Wilco, etc.), TV shows (The Office, No Reservations, Dexter, etc.), authors (J.K. Rowling, Kurt Vonnegut, Jasper Fforde, etc.), and whatever else pops up in my skull. 

Now, I guess I should sputter out the usual details. Where I'm from (Coon Rapids, MN), what I do for school (English major/film minor at Minnesota State University, Mankato), what I do for money (Costco's bitch), and where I'm going in life (hopefully somewhere between an aquatic documentarian and a globe-trotting Anthony Bourdain wannabe). But I'm guessing if you're reading this you already know all these facts. You're probably a friend, facebook or otherwise. Which brings me to the first topic I'd like to blog about.

Lets start with a question: Why write?

Many of you, my friends, are writers. Whether you aspire to do it professionally or otherwise. We probably started out together in middle school with Ms. Zimba at Writer's Breakfast. Coming in early (as only nerds do) and sharing our stories with each other. We'd listen, stuffing our faces with chocolate chip muffins and slurping down tiny cartons of milk, and dream. Letting each other's words lap over us, it didn't matter whether the stories were terrible adolescent hormonal slop or if they were the beginnings of the next War and Peace, they were OUR stories. And I don't think we fully appreciated this until it was pulled out from under us.

 

In high school there was no Ms. Zimba, no Writer's Breakfast. We were on our own, back in the wilderness. You'd think we'd give up. You'd think we'd just say, "Oh well, it was fun while it lasted." But no, we did something brave. We created our own writer's group and kept scribbling out new things to laugh over or talk deeply about. This wasn't for extra credit or something to look good on the college application, it was something independent, something rebellious. 

So, this brings me back to my main question: Why write? Why do it?

You could say it's fun, but not always. A lot of work has to be put into the words. I still spend late nights toiling over sentences. "Isn't there a better way to describe that?" I'm always second guessing myself. Even as I blog this I have misgivings over whether my grammar is correct (because I know Pedro will be on to me if it's not!). I also have terrible spelling, a horrible quality for an English major. There are times when I can't remember how restaurant or anchor are spelled (yeah, it's that bad). So, no, writing isn't always fun. The fun parts only come when you create something that makes people laugh, cry, or, both. That's where the fun comes, but it takes a hell of a lot of work to get there. 

You probably think I'm a pretentious bastard for writing this. "Who does he think he is? What does he really know about writing?" I'll be the first to admit I rarely finish anything I start. I have tons of files in my computer containing outlines and starting paragraphs for stories I'll never complete. But it's the effort that counts, at least that's what I tell myself to stave off the urge to douse my MacBook in lighter fluid and strike a match. 

Alright, so I think we've established we don't write just for the fun of it. I know I don't. We all have our own reasons. I could try listing all of them for you, but that would take far too much time and this blog has gone on far enough. 

Let me just say this, we write because we WANT to. There's something inside us, an urge or addiction that can't be stopped. The other day, I was with my girlfriend and, without thinking, I said, "I have to go to Dunn Bros. and write." She asked what I had to write about, and I said, "Whatever I want." This made her laugh, and rightly so. What we do is absurd to those who don't understand the joys of articulating thoughts into words. We are a strange bunch, us writers. But we can't be stopped, because we want it too much. When I've gone too long without writing, I become depressed and rather bad-tempered. I have an itch, like a heroine addict looking for his next score. And then there's the cathartic sigh that comes with the start of a new project. Maybe it's unhealthy, but I don't care. This is what we do.