Jesus Christ I'm beat. I hate long weeks. Actually, the week hasn't been so much long as it's been, well, odd. For instance, I spent most of the night doing volunteer work for this Alzheimer's Foundation thrift shop that needed to set things up for Christmas. I basically did it because I'm constantly buying crap from this place and have gotten to know the women who work there well enough to where I wouldn't want to see them break their hips trying to carry huge plastic reindeer up three flights of stairs. Additionally, I get first crack at the good stuff. You'd be surprised at how much vintage ornaments go for, and wow do they ever have a lot of 'em.

Thing was, I 'signed up' under the assumption that I'd be doing this by myself - which would be my preference. The last thing I want while trying to move 100 boxes are the obstacles of other old ladies asking me if I need a soda. What I found today was even worse - apparently, the foundation is connected with some other foundation who send bad kids there when they need to fulfill community service obligations. So instead of just doing my thing, I had to work with a thirteen-year-old mother and an eleven-year-old who seemed to think he was Scarface. It was TERRIBLE. The kids were actually fairly nice, but I didn't think I'd have to spend the evening engaging in forced conversation with people who got caught robbing candy or raping birds or something. I ended up leaving early, but not before telling the lead old lady that I'd be happy to come back on a day where I wouldn't have to babysit juvenile delinquents, or get yelled at by janitors who didn't like the way I was throwing out cardboard. To be completely honest, the only reason I was so up for doing this was because I noticed that old strands of bubbling X-Mas lights go for hundreds. I didn't find any of those yet, but I did come home with a complete NES with six or seven boxed games. So while I had a miserable time, at least I've got the original Legend of Zelda with the stupid fold-out maps.

Back tomorrow with a full report. Hopefully with another new article, too. I'm pretty sick of just reviewing shit at the moment, so I'm searching around for a topic that doesn't call for me to do a play-by-play. Maybe I'll write an article about eating Play Doh. We'll see.