Help wanted


Well I guess I should point out here that I didn’t actually go kayaking this past weekend. Maybe this coming weekend, though!
As it was last weekend was pretty jam-packed with stuff. Sarasota had its first big rain in a long time — musta been 3 months since it’s rained that hard. Big, fat drops. No “droplets” here. Each one was a mini, self-contained drenching. And I was outside throwing a frisbee around through the majority of it with 10 other nutcases. Haven’t caught a cold yet! 😀 (And the throat cold I had last week? Think it ran away in fear.)
Today was a good day, albeit a bit frantic. Spent the good majority of it fixing last minute typos in documentation. The temptation was there to just not read very hard and say “it looks good!” — after all, this is just a beta release — but thankfully my better judgement kicked in and I went through it with a fine-toothed comb (and got my coworkers to as well). This is the kind of thing that you could easily turn a blind eye to — uberhardcore proofreading of technical documentation — but you know, sooner or later it will all come back to you. Might as well get it perfect the first time, right?
Had a conversation with my good buddy Sean over MSN Messenger a couple days ago. I was explaining how I went to see the arts festival on Saturday. But then I explained one thing more, something I didn’t mention here. That after I left the festival, I felt guilty.
Why? Because I saw a piece of bubblejetted 8.5×11, hastily stuck in a newspaper box, advertising a march, an opportunity to take part in an anti-war demonstration — a cause which I am morally aligned with — and I didn’t act upon it.
Why not? Well, one reason is that it was supposed to run from 2-4pm, and it was already 2:15pm. Another reason was that I had no clue where the advertised meeting point (an intersection) was supposed to be. And I had to get home and back to drop off some information for the tax guy before 5pm, and (both ways), that trip was 40 minutes.
Why do these reasons suck? Because at 2:15, the rally had only just started, I had a map book in the car, so I could probably find the intersection, and I probably could have made it back from the tax guy in time to attend the last half-hour of the rally. These things always run overtime anyway.
What’s the real reason I didn’t go? Truth is, I feel totally helpless about politics right now. I feel as though there is nothing that I could do that would make any sort of difference whatsoever. In addition to this, I don’t feel like I have the time. I know a few people who are involved with politics. It practically consumes their lives. Right now, I’m not sure I know how to look after myself.
All this leaves me feeling guilty. Don’t really like it much.