Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Bad Mojo

This is topic Bad Mojo in forum Grist for the Mill at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :

Here is a breakdown of my last 3 weeks:

Jan 3 - (My birthday) Dog almost bites off my finger. Spent birthday in emergency room.

Jan 4 - Start feeling really nauseous at work - vomit that evening - discover Loritabs have codeine in them (I have history of severe vomiting with codeine and had informed hospital and pharmacy of this)

Jan 9 - Drive 30 miles to town to use a $25 Blockbuster gift certificate I received for my birthday. Discover all Blockbusters in my area are permanently closed.

Jan 13 - Acquire food poisoning from eating at fast food restaurant (spend night vomiting)

Jan 14 - Spend day at home running and sitting a lot.

Jan 15 - Wife's vehicle is sideswiped by another car.

Jan 18 - Son's hamster dies.

Jan 21 - Repair shop call to inform us that our vehicle (that is already in shop) will not be ready by end of week due to them receiving (and already painting) the wrong part.

Jan 21 - That evening I seriously consider not writing that satire about the guy going to heaven.

[This message has been edited by philocinemas (edited January 21, 2010).]

Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :

Sorry to hear about your rough time, Philo.

Cheer up there is only 10 days left in your bad month...

and 344 days left in your bad year...

and 9 years, 11 months and a week and a half left in your bad decade...

Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :

Wow, snapper! Thanks for helping me keep everything in perspective. I feel a lot better now.

Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :

I am sorry for all you've been through. BTW, how is that finger of yours? Is it all healed or still bandaged?

As far as the rest goes

That proves you can get through 8 years of college with an attention deficit disorder.

Jan 9 - Drive 30 miles to town to use a $25 Blockbuster gift certificate I received for my birthday. Discover all Blockbusters in my area are permanently closed.

Blockbusters are on the way out. Smart that you used that gift card before it became a bookmark.

Jan 13 - Acquire food poisoning from eating at fast food restaurant (spend night vomiting)

Someone from above is telling you that there isn't anything like a home cooked meal and brownbagging it isn't a bad habit to get into.

Jan 14 - Spend day at home running and sitting a lot.

You can cancel that high colonic now.

Jan 15 - Wife's vehicle is sideswiped by another car.

Silver lining: other guys insurance rates are going way up.

Jan 18 - Son's hamster dies.

May it rest in peace. Condolences to your son.

Jan 21 - Repair shop call to inform us that our vehicle (that is already in shop) will not be ready by end of week due to them receiving (and already painting) the wrong part.

Not all AD people are smart enough to become Doctors and Pharmiscists.

Jan 21 - That evening I seriously consider not writing that satire about the guy going to heaven.

Now that is a tradegy. Sent it to me. I'll give it a read.

[This message has been edited by snapper (edited January 22, 2010).]

Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :

My son refused to look at my finger after the incident. However, he did ask me what it looked like.
I told him, "Remember in Empire Strikes Back when you see the back of Darth Vader's head for half a second?"
He said, "Yes."
And I said, "That's what my finger looks like."

Now my pinky is mostly healed on the outside. I have a fairly deep scar that goes just below the original inside crease. However, one of my nerves was severed, so I have feeling on only one side of the finger. I can type with it OK, but it has that "I-just-woke-up-after-sleeping-on-my-hand feel" to it.

Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :

I haven't written the "heaven" story yet - I'll send some of it over once I get going with it (it will probably be more novelette length).

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Yeah, what would we do without him (snapper)?

Commiserations, philocinemas. For my part, I hope things get better for you from now on.

If it's any consolation, when I dislocated my right pinky finger a year or so ago (I remember it was 13 April, but I'm not sure what year), I wasn't sure it would be of any use to me any more, but it is behaving itself rather nicely now. Give your pinky time. It will improve, I'm sure of it.

[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited January 22, 2010).]

Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :

yea when sh!t like that happens to me i usily just dont get out of bed, like after yesterday eving to just 20 min ago i spent 26 hours asleep. and i am still tired and my back still hurts after takeing 100mg of tramidal.

RFW2nd

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I'm thinking maybe next year you should avoid January altogether.

Cheer up: the bad things can't go on forever.

Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :

Just think, Philo, all your bad luck happened at the first of the year, and you have it all out of the way. It's only uphill from here.

I can sympathize with the vomit thing. I felt a little out of wack when we went to see Avatar last Sunday but ignored the warning and had a large tub of buttered popcorn. Then we had chili for dinner that night. Guess what I ended up doing somewhere around in between 4 & 5pm Monday morning? Liquid Hersey-squirts while up-chucking at the same time. No fun, I can tell you. No surprise I was home Monday but felt like a new person by Tuesday morning and went to work. Funny thing is I always get sick at least once sometime in January. I never have been able to figure that one out.

Posted by shimiqua (Member # 7760) on :

Poor philo.
You go through all that, and then you have to read Crystals last post. Too much information, Crystal!

Hope things turn around for you, but just in case they don't, cheer up, things could always be worse.
~Sheena

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I'd post some of my misadventures in the bathroom, but you never know how scatological humor will go over.

I don't know about Blockbuster stores anymore, but I know the supermarket I visited this morning had a Blockbuster machine in it---like a soda machine only it dispenses videos---don't know what they offer or how much they offer from each machine, but maybe your gift certificate (was it a card?) could work in one of those.

Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :

janruary is not my faverit month eather. my faverit month is february. when ever i am feling down i just day dream about february. mummmm breeding season mummmmm

infact i think i will not go to work next week. i will just lock my self in my room and sleep all week. screw going to work. what are they going to do? fire me? my contract ends in 16 days.

RFW2nd

Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :

I don't know about that. I've always been told that misery enjoys company. I wouldn't have said a thing except my experience happened about the same time as Philo's whom I consider to be a good friend. AND we are creative writers. Once I got started, I just got on a roll. LOL

Sorry. I didn't mean to gross anyone out.

Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :

Crystal, you didn't gross me out. Thanks for sharing (both my misery and your TMI).

quote:
yea when sh!t like that happens to me i usily just dont get out of bed

It "Depends" on the problem - sometimes you're better off getting out of bed.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

quote:
...i usily just dont get out of bed...

Could be pretty messy if you don't.

quote:
...infact i think i will not go to work next week...

I wouldn't recommend it...they might call it "desertion" and you want to leave with your head held high, and your benefits preserved as much as possible.

Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :

Oh philo. Philo, philo, philo.

I have very mixed feelings about January too, but this one hasnt been bad, for me. Hopefully you will recover, eventually.

And yes I think Netflix has finally pretty much done Blockbuster in. Which is ok with me, because Blockbuster sucks.

Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :

I agree - Blockbuster sucks!

- I used to purchase previously viewed movies from them for about $3 a piece.

Posted by Lyrajean (Member # 7664) on :

Which would be ok, but before Netflix won the rental wars, blockbuster puts all the other rental stores out of business back in my hometown in the States.

And Netflix opperates on a subscription system. You pay X per month and they send you disks at their leisure...

I don't need another monthly bill. I'd rather pay a buck or two for a movie I know I want to watch when I want to watch it.

Very glad netflix hasn't reached Japan yet. We still have Tsutayas, Geo etc... And they seem to be in a price war over the rental price 100yen per week for some disks.

Posted by aspirit (Member # 7974) on :

Philo, I hope this week has been MUCH better for you.

Lyrajean, I'm a big fan of Netflix. Even when I lived in an area with a notoriously bad postal system, we still received the next DVD on our list a few days after mailing a return. We subscribed to the two-DVDs-at-a-time option ($15/month) so that we had a DVD to watch while our second was in the mail. On the rare occasion when our next choice wasn't available, Netflix would automatically send us the next below it.

I hated Blockbuster. The late fees were ridiculous, few of the employees cared about customer service, shows were rarely in the categories we expected to find them in, the stores carried few of the shows we wanted to watch, and the show quality was horrible. Most of the videos and DVDs we rented were so worn out or scratched up we couldn't watch the movies and episodes all the way through.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Well, I can tell you, neither Netflix nor Blockbuster is particularly popular in the part of the post office I work in. They're difficult to run through the machines...they jam, they fold up and the barcoding doesn't read, they rip up.

Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :

If it's that difficult to get movies through the mail, I think I'll just stick to the old fashioned way and rent mine at the local video store that's not a chain. I might have to get off my duff and drive into town to pick out a movie and take it back, but there's absolutely no headaches involved

. And I can get exactly what I want, or nothing at all if I so desire

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Well, most get through...it's just the ones that don't that annoy us no end. Ever spend a couple of hours trying to figure out which front-of-the-envelope went with which rest-of-the-envelope?