Listening: Rage & Prodigy

I've been busy and haven't felt like I've had all that much to say.

Now I feel like I could say stuff but I don't think I could really put it in context. At least not without embarassing or infuriating a lot of people.

But it's eating at me demanding a way out of my head so...here goes.

Work found a new way to be lame and annoying. Last week we were going through meetings with communications consultants. We talked about the different aspects of our jobs and the stuff that has made it easier as well as hard. I spent a few minutes explaining how the QC process has evolved in the two years i've been here (two years: damn.) and included how happy I was with the final version. Two hours later we were in a team meeting with our QC coach who had the unpleasant task of informing us that the way we were used to doing everything was about to change to a more unwieldy, clunky and unfriendly system. I felt/feel cheated.

Last week on Tuesday I drove by McDonald's on my way to Molasses'. It's something I commonly did when I'm headed to the South Bay as it's in afternoon traffic and I'm usally lulled to sleep by the sluggish movement and lack of AC. McD's doesn't have the best coffee ever but it's *usually* better than most fast food places. And when you're on the 710 there is a distinct dearth of alternatives - unless you want to go driving around the City of Industry to find something (You'll probably just find more McD's. Starbucks has kind of ignored everything east of the 110.)

Now sometimes McD's coffee is just fine and I'm good to go. I fully admit that administering sugar and cream to a mostly-full 16 ounce cup of coffee is tough to try while driving and I'll be the first to explain that this kind of drinking frequently leads to spills and messes. And I've spilled their coffee on myself before and while it's not pleasant it's not normally a big deal.

But what I've noticed more and more is that at a lot of places the people at the windows taking my money and serving me "food" are quite young and _often_ goofing off. I know that they get shit for pay, crappy hours and no benefits, but still... I always give them the benefit of the doubt. In high school I had plenty of friends who worked for McD's and I know that helped them out with money and just in terms of getting started with their resumes. Not to mention the turn over rate is just crazy enough that a person can get managerial experience before graduating from high school. But recently I've had a spate of issues of these kids messing up my order, taking a damned long time and serving me sup-par coffee. (I rarely order anything other than coffee, and when I do it's usually something has been sitting under a heatlamp for at least an hour.)

This time what I asked for was a cheeseburger and a large coffee. The cheeseburger was because I was starving and just needed a little chewy hockey-puck to make sure to make it to Long Beach. There was only one car ahead of mine, but evidentaly the cashier knew the people in it and took her time chatting with them. When I pulled up none of my order was assembled yet so I had to wait....and wait some more while the other people inside discussed something or other with the cashier that was evidently really funny.

She didn't screw up my order and she was friendly but the cup was *very* full. I could see the coffee splashing against the lid. And wanted to get to a place where I could open my window and spill some of the coffee out. I should have done it right there.

I pulled forward and out into the street so the folks behind could get their turn in. At the corner I started the process by pulling off the lid while I was at a red light. But just gripping the cup to lift it up caused it to spill on my hand. The first spill wasn't much but it was enough to cause me to scream and try to jump away from the cup, which just dumped out more coffee on my arm and leg (and made take my foot off the break for just a second).

It took me a few seconds to regain my composure as my vision blurred and I was quite literally screaming in pain. cars were honking at me so I painfully guided my car out of their way and onto the freeway.

Words really can't do justice to just how excruiciating the next several hours were. In the car I had to keep blowing on my hand to keep the burning sensation at a tolerable level. This was hard because I was crying so hard it was actually difficult to breathe. Molasses had some aloe and it felt very nice when it was applied. We went to dinner at a very nice restaurant in Belmont and I got something that I wouldn't have to use my right hand to eat. During the whole thing my hand actually was at a dull ache except for every now and then something would twinge causing tears to flood to my eyes and my breath to catch.

Went to Rite Aid and got burn medication and some pads that were made of an interesting polymer that was some 90%-ish water. Wrapped the stuff on and left it overnight. In the morning the area of the skin that had been covered was pale white - in sharp contrast to the rest of my skin that is usually a light brown - and very puckered. The damaged area only hurt if I touched it and showering an interesting (and slightly painful) experience. by the time I got to work the skin didn't really hurt, though I kept a bottle of aloe on my desk and kept the skin wet. Sometimes the flesh did hurt, though, if my typing got too energetic.

by that evening the spot was red and still achy. I convinced Squire to skip climbing so as to not further endanger my hand.

Now it doesn't hurt anymore but it's a weird dark spot against the first knuckle of my thumb on my right hand. The skin is more wrinkly than usual and very dry.

Squire said I should sue McDonald's, but I don't think I'd have a chance and besides I'd rather punch out the stupid servers that have made me pledge to never give McDonald's another dime rather than sue their bosses.

Oh well. The weekend was fairly nice. Unfortunately working up to it had pretty well killed my desire to be around bunches of people. But I did my best to fake it. I still prefer to hang out with someone in a setting like a living room with maybe another five-ish people and chat to trying to shout over the din of a restaurant to get the attention of a dozen other people.

In fact I rather prefer hanging out with someone exclusively for a few hours over drinks...but when that's never gonna happen you work with what you've got.

La Rorita has gotten so big since I last saw her in July. Everything fascinates her and paying attention to the world around is said to be a sign of an intelligent kid. But what would I know. All children are brilliant and beautiful and mighty until proven otherwise.

But at least Marienne gave me a copy of new Tori material. Oh was _so_ perfect. It was just what I needed when I was feeling at my worst. Thank goodness for Tori (and Marienne };>).