I Might Be Out of Words

I am disturbed by my lack of blogging. However, I am not going to be one of those bloggers who calls it quits only to have a huge burst of blog-creativity and then write some of their best stuff. Because, I'll tell you, every blogger who has ever said "that's it, I'm done" has come back for more. It's like crack. Or pastry. Or good sex . . . you can never say "I'm done."

Anyway, the reason I might be out of words is that I recently completed two major writing projects at work. Seriously - I've probably written in excess of 50,000 words in the last three weeks. I don't know why my caseload can't be more balanced. I would love to have a simple case, hard case, simple, hard, simple, hard, etc. but it doesn't work that way. I had these two giant things due at the same time and now I have a string of completely little things to deal with for the next month or so.

Of course, I complain and complain during the big things, but then I complain when I'm not super busy because I get bored without deadlines breathing down my neck. I'm the type of person who asks for more work if I have nothing to do at work. I can't stand to be idle, particularly at work.

All of that being said, I have a few random comments I'd like to make. In no particular order.

First . . . I think some people should learn to keep it in their pants. And by "it," I'm not referring to car keys.

Second . . . why is the river flooding on the riverfront such big fucking news? Yes. It sucks for the people who live and work on the riverfront, but is it really such a big surprise? Didn't you notice the river when you bought that restaurant space (or planned to build that museum)? It's kinda hard to miss, people. And do you know what rivers have been doing since the beginning of time? Flooding. And do you know what this river has been doing for at least the last 8 years (the time I've lived in Peoria)? Flooding. Seriously. Every. Single. Year. Sometimes more than once a year.

Why is it such a surprise when it happens again? I mean, nothing has changed down there. It's not like they are building up levies or walls or barriers or anything. I mean, they don't even bother sandbagging anymore. It's a RIVER, people. My grandfather taught me many things, but one thing was that you don't fuck with a river. OK, he didn't say it like that, but you get my point. And he was talking about the Mississippi River when he said it. Despite the fact that we are all humans and think we have the right to control everything, in fact, we don't and can't control Mother Nature.

And while I'm on the subject, no one is allowed to call this current flooding the "great" or "horrible" or "record" flooding of Peoria's history. Until you lived through something like the floods in Des Moines in 1993, you have no fucking clue what a great flood is. ALL of downtown Des Moines was flooded, including two of the three major hospitals. Every single government building was flooded. Power was off for weeks. There was no usable water for two months. It's been almost 16 years and some things still haven't returned to normal. Oh yeah . . . and people died. Until things get that bad, I really don't want to hear about it.

Third, just because you are writing something on the computer does not give you the right to turn into an illiterate moron. Seriously . . . can't we just make an attempt to use correct grammar and punctuation. Please? I mean, I get pretty hacked off when people misuse their, there, and they're, but I mostly keep it to myself. But, if you can't write a simple declarative sentence, why are you even on the computer? Your time would be much better spent taking some adult ed classes. Really.

Fourth, I don't get St. Patrick's Day. I mean, I get the fact that for most people, it is just an excuse to get shit-faced drunk and do stupid things. But, if you need an excuse to do that, I think it's time to take control of your life, do what makes you happy when you feel like doing it, not when it happens to be a time everyone else thinks you should do it.

Fifth, this week is the worst week to work in downtown Peoria. IHSA. Ugh. Not only do they screw up traffic and parking and take every freaking spot in every freaking restaurant over the lunch hour, they expect us people who are actually working for a living to rearrange our entire lives so their sorry-ass children can have their five minutes of high school fame before they go to college and realized that life is not high school and . . . really . . . high school doesn't matter that much.

Well. Look at that. I guess I didn't run out of words after all.