Blog, blog bloggity……

They have officially decided to rename St. Louis. The new name will be Blast Furnace Missouri. This is the worst summer I can remember for temperatures over 100 degrees. I’m actually getting used to 103 at it seems it be the norm.

News….
What news have I for you? UMSL – The University of Missouri at St. Louis where we put the “Ummm…….” in education. I am once again facing proof hurdles to set up my classes for the fall. There was a hold up in my TSU transcripts followed by a hold up in my high school transcripts (as the woman who does them was on vacation – she got back Wednesday). I can’t register until it’s all sorted so I have an appointment to try again next Tuesday. Today I had to prove to the financial aid people that I am a citizen again with my passport and birth certificate. They have all that information on file from summer, but can’t look at it because now we’re talking about fall and the two folders are made of material that explodes when in contact with either reason or efficiency.

My grades are in for the summer – I’m a straight A student across the board. I got 832 point out of a possible 818 in that last class that I was doing all the marathon papers for. Since I was handing in so much at the end it seemed like a good idea to pad the points a bit with a little extra credit. Yup, I’m a grade whore.

I was going to go see Rams Vs. Bears preseason tonight with Tyler, but I had to give up my ticket so I can work. I forgot about work since I was there on Wednesday for a meeting it felt like I’d already done my duties for the week. I am trying to solidify a promotion so I need to be the very epitome of a company man.

I am meeting with the owner of a re-branding (high concept advertising) agency next week to talk about bringing me on in a creative capacity. I’ve spent a great deal of time this week making that meeting happen. There’s a scene in the movie The Hudsucker Proxy where the camera pans to the outer door of an office with shadows moving around behind the glass. The door says, “Creative Bullpen” on it. The men behind the door are arguing with each other over what to call the dingus – the invention – the hula hoop. One of my dream jobs is to be one of those guys. This is that job. Wish me luck.

I’ve found a motorcycle to match Jes’s Matilda. To match her Professional inspiration (the movie The Professional) I would have to call my bike Leon (dorks on bikes – buy them many fez). I have a friend who wants to sell me his Suzuki 800 intruder, which is the big brother of her Suzuki in the same line. I just need to come up with the money – always my dilemma – I need a shot of good financial karma. This non advertising job pays well. It pays double my best salary ever. When I first started hanging out with Jes and I told her about the early interest feelers that are leading up to this meeting I called the situation my Faustian dilemma. I have been so broke for so long that I might be willing to make the proverbial devil deal to live a livable life with madcap luxuries like health insurance and the occasional trip to a dentist.

It’s raining here. I’ve been a little melancholy this week. I know it’s the heat and the wrinkles of uncertainty about my immediate professional future. I have to watch the desire to sleep all the time because exhaustion could be a symptom that something is going wrong with the medicine I’m taking. I need to accept that a certain amount of Weltshmerz comes with the territory in my psyche, so that even when things are going very well I’m just going to be a little bit sad.

Rousseau said that he would have been much happier if he’d never been educated. He had all these romantic notions about man’s essentially good nature evidenced by the noble savage. If you’re a compassionate person, then an education into what man, natural or not, does to his fellow man on a daily basis will lob wrenches the size of helicopters into Rousseau’s philosophical optimism. I like Rousseau. I’d like to have him over for dinner. The glass is the glass is the glass.