never give anyone a free lunch because if you run into financial difficulties and need to eat that lunch yourself, people feel entitled to it and get up in your shit for taking away THEIR food even though it was a gift to begin with

I have eaten
the Oreos
that were on the counter

and which
you were probably
saving
for dessert

Forgive me
they were delicious
and I was so stoned

That I can go see TOTALLY MICHAEL this Friday instead of seeing a play

I'm kind of jealous of my dog right now. This bone is so huge he doesn't even really know what to do with it.

HALLOWEEN WAS FUN

you guys i love matt he is the best possible

I am so making Matt take me here: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/1384

so excited to read classics and religious books with Amanda on a weekly schedule :):):)

I actually have a lot to get done but I am out of olive oil and so am borrowing my boyfriend's car to go to New Seasons, I'm so excited.

This guy I'm supposed to be working for in Seattle is nuts. We talked about me going up this past Friday. Wednesday he emails me to ask if I'm coming up "next Friday." I said, "sure, I can do Friday (whatever date)", he responds saying he'll be in Brazil. I offer that I could come up Sunday, he NEVER RESPONDS, THIS MORNING, he emails me asking whether I'm coming. WTF.

the kitten we are trying to find a home for is sooooo cute.

Tipping seems to be pretty much obligatory these days, right? No matter how bad the service is, you're supposed to tip, I guess. I guess this because I had a really awful server once come up to my table and scream at us for not having left a tip.
"Uh, actually, we left money on the table because we wanted you to bring us change and then we were going to tip you with the change"

We then got 86'd.

ANYWAY, tales of woe at the Horse Brass aside, did you know that minimum wage in Oregon is $8.40 an hour? I feel like everywhere else I've lived has had a higher cost of living, a lower minimum wage, and on top of that, people who worked for tips got paid something like $2.50 an hour.

So, I bristle a little at being expected to tip the person who makes my coffee at Stumptown (where they pay their baristas like $11 an hour). I just don't understand what about their job is so special that I'm expected to subsidize their earnings (which are already more than I make at my job, which is a lot harder than making coffee and being cordial to strangers, holy shit, I'd trade jobs in a second).

Correct me if I'm wrong, tips are supposed to be a reward for GOOD service, right? Why should standard or below-par service be rewarded monetarily? I asked this on a message board today, saying that I feel really uncomfortable tipping surly servers that feel entitled to 15% of whatever I order, when I know they're making the second-highest minimum wage in the country, and I ALSO know that it's more than possible to make a decent living getting paid at that minimum wage.

People called me an entitled cunt and told me I was a fucking retard who should die and eat a jar of dicks. (Because I'm confused about why I should give them money for ignoring me? Seriously every time I walk into the Ace Hotel the person behind the counter is doing something that's a lot more important than, you know, taking my order. I always tip at the Albina Press because they're on the ball and get me in and out really quickly.)

What is tipping FOR, if not a reward for good service or money freely given to someone you know isn't being paid a living wage by their employer?

PS - messier31, I understand that people who deliver pizzas should always be tipped because they are using their own vehicles and paying for gas.

Google Voice is so awesome. I had no idea that I could get free long distance on my home phone. This is so great I might actually get rid of my cell phone (voicemail transcribed in your inbox? HELL YES).

How are they doing this? Are they going to start charging money for this in the future?

Last night, Matt asked whether I'd ever slapped him. "Uh, I don't think so, I don't think I've ever hit anyone, maybe I got really frustrated and did when you tried to break up with me a few weeks ago?"

"I wasn't trying to break up with you."

"Ok. I don't remember hitting you, why?"

"Well I just had a flashback of a girl's hand coming at my face and it hurting a whole lot, I don't know why I just remembered it, but, I think a girl hit me once and it seems like you would have been the one to do it."

"Huh. Maybe I felt so bad about it that I made myself forget."

"I think it was that time that I broke up with you and then we got back together and then I re-broke up with you and left your house at 6am."

"Well, if I actually hit you I guess I totally deserved it when you didn't want to be friends with me after we broke up. But, you were being stupid, I guess I can see why I might have hit you if I was mad and thought you were being retarded, maybe I was trying to slap some sense into you? I was really pissed that you broke up with me to go out with Vanessa, that was pretty dumb"

"Yeah it was really dumb. I never went out with Vanessa. I just spent a really long time trying to."

I almost died laughing, then realized that might be mean, so I said "I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you in the future."

"No, it's ok, I think it's funny too, it was a long time ago."

"It happens when you're being really stupid"

"But HOW? Didn't your friends tell you you were being dumb?"

"Well, Davis doesn't like her because she brought his exgirlfriend over to hang out at our house [when he and Davis lived together]. And, none of my other friends are really good at talking about that stuff, I tried to talk to Kevin about it when we were in Hawaii, but, he'd just shrug and ask if I wanted to smoke a joint and then I'd kind of quit asking. He doesn't know anything."

Now I am really curious about how he got so good at having sex. I had just assumed that he was practicing with this other girl while they lived together in Hawaii. (Also relevant: Matt was working way more hours than her, getting paid less, and paying as much of their rent as he could because he wanted her to have more money to spend on herself.) I wonder if Matt hooked up with other people while he was living with Vanessa. I wonder when the last time he had sex before me was. I said that I hadn't had sex since June (we did it towards the end of July), and he said something about not having had sex since "before before.")

I asked him how on earth he got so good if he hadn't been practicing the entire time in Hawaii, he shrugged and said he'd always been good if he were in the mood. I guess this means he was not really in the mood the entire month/2 months that we first dated? WEIRD!!!!!

I guess that Matt and I started hanging out again a little after Valentine's day, because he'd asked her to go to the beach and she'd said she was busy, then left Matt alone at work to close on Valentine's day (their busiest day, AND Matt got her that particular job at the restaurant), lying about having a headache. It later came out that she'd skipped out early to make out with another guy, then went to the beach with this guy she'd known for less than two weeks, who she told Matt "understood her better" than Matt ever had.

"Ok, well, if I hit you, I'm sorry, and, that was actually a really good reason not to be friends with me for like a year"

"But, I wasn't not friends with you because you hit me, I was not friends with you because you told me I was being stupid, and I didn't want to hear it!"

(He has also said that he wasn't friends with me because it would have been "too tempting" [to sleep with me], which I think is funny because according to him, he's only really good at sex when he super wants to be having it, so, if he didn't actually just improve over the past year and a half, he DIDN'T want to sleep with me last year.)

So, in summary, I think this guy is probably crazy, but I think it is crazy in a way that I can totally get down with and also find very endearing, I mean, it is kind of dumb that he moved to Hawaii and supported a girl who, in all likelihood, just didn't want to be alone (and things he says about her now make me think that she just uses him for attention - like, he says she gets jealous when he hangs out with other girls, even though she says she doesn't like him). BUT, oh man, what VIRTUE in that folly! What GENEROSITY! What KINDNESS! What OPTIMISM!

This morning I could not drag myself out of bed at 6:30 because it was too dark. I wanted to go to the library at 7:30, when it opens, but didn't end up getting out of bed until 7. I asked Matt to take the dog out while I took a shower, he did. When I got out of the shower, he handed me coffee, and, when I got in his car, he handed me an apple for breakfast. I was so grateful.

I'm going back to see a chiropractor tomorrow, but, I ran XC in high school and had an IT band flareup (for some reason, coach never taught me to stretch there). I did PT, things seemed to clear up, I did the stretches and exericses for years.

I haven't run since because I haven't been able to afford new shoes. This year, I was sitting on my couch with my knees on my chest and I could kind of feel that my right foot was turning inward. Both my feet have always overpronated. I didn't notice anything off until the next morning, when I woke up and found that my right foot was SUPER overpronating, to the point where it didn't feel like there was weight on the outside of my foot. I put off dealing with it since it didn't hurt, bought some new running shoes, finally, that seemed to help, and tried to purposefully walk on the outside of my foot, which eventually wound up hurting, so I went to a doctor, and then got referred to see someone else. I chose to go see this chiropractor who specializes in sports medicine/injuries and in endurance sports. I'd heard of him because he's someone who does really specific bike fits, and I was starting to have some problems with my bike around the same time that my foot collapsed.

He was baffled by my foot problem, gave me some custom orthotics to the tune of $350, and sent me on my way, telling me to schedule a followup. I'm a spaz and totally forgot to do so, but my knees have gotten progressively worse, so I quit biking, which seemed to help, but then recently I've had a lot of hip pain.

I have no idea what it is but when I lie down my right foot turns totally outwards and I can kind of feel my hip rotate. I feel like the IT band stuff is coming back, but on my right side, it hurts too much to do the hip abductor strengthening exercises I was given in physical therapy.

I'm really confused as to how this has gotten worse with me wearing these orthotics, WITH really good running shoes.

FINALLY (I started having problems in DECEMBER, got orthotics probably in March or April, yeah, I'm bad at following up with this kind of stuff) I really messed it up during sex (although I've always had hip pain during sex) last week, to the point where my hip just doesn't feel normal anymore.

I also am starting to have some pain in what feels like my sciatic nerve, but only on my right side. I looked this up and it seems consistent with piriformis syndrome. I plan to discuss this with the doctor tomorrow, and be a lot more proactive at scheduling followups and getting myself into physical therapy. Not sure if I can do anything else? Is there any other type of doctor that I should try to see? It seemed like a chiropractor would be the best fit for this kind of problem, particularly since I thought it might be a leg length discrepancy problem.

I just bought me and Matt tickets to see Morrissey

First time seeing Morrissey with a boyfriend! Hooray!

But who in their right mind would rent property to someone with a border collie puppy and a 70-pound dog? Seriously, WHO.

The tellers at the bank told me the other day when I overdrew my account by $2 and then deposited 2 checks totaling over $300, as well as $10 cash from my boyfriend, that MY ACCOUNT WOULDN'T OVERDRAW BECAUSE I PUT FUNDS IN ON THE SAME DAY

This was on the 6th

My roommates have verified that the checks they wrote me both cleared the bank

There is NO RECORD of my having deposited these checks on my online bank account

I am on a PAY PHONE because my PHONE SERVICE, which I went on the bank website to PAY, got disconnected

What the fuck is this crap?

It turns out that my ADHD prescription, after insurance, is about $110 a month. WHATTTT.

ohmygod a combination of people owe me close to $1000 and I have no money, NO MONEY, between now and friday, when I will have a grand total of $250. my credit card is nearly maxed out and my dog is hella sick.

what the fuck am I doing wrong with my life

failcat chooses asparagus OVER sopressata