Cuckoo's Nest first look

First of February, better get a jump on these posts here, it's a short month after all (but HOW short is it? Who knows... now I do, looked over at the calender.)

Yesterday was a bit of an adventure, I went and signed on for security guard training, a course that cost me a pretty penny. That plus a metropass has wiped me out at the bank again, and I start the training this coming monday.

It'll be good to improve my skills (CPR/first aid again- I did it in 2006 but pretty much immediately forgot everything), and the guarantee of work is nice (assuming I pass the licensing process- a relatively small gamble, but it's still got me on edge), but I keep thinking about that one character at the begining of The Grapes of Wrath who came and took over everyones land because the bank forclosed on the property, and he took the traitorous position of mechanically farming everything himself. Because it may as well be him.

Well, speaking of books, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a pretty great read. First it has the benefit of being a print from I'm guessing the late 80's early 90's which gives the paper that necessary time to ferment into a full on tome, with that requisite mustiness that always takes me back to my days of sitting alone on the paved so-called playground over in New Westminster British Columbia with one of my inherited Star Wars novels, back when I was always itching to get back to the Luke parts-

(definitely not true for, what was it... the Crystal Star? Luke was a total jerk in that one. Some force thing was getting his goat. Han was all "chill out buddy", and Leia had this great part were she met this being who refused to reveal her name because "names have power" which I have always found to be amazingly true, and why I do my best to remember peoples names.)

- but beyond my sensory enjoyment of Ken Kesey's novel itself- there's a story too! It has this cartoony sensibility of the world it describes, which takes a step away from the purely allegorical when you remember that this is a first person narration- it doesn't come up much, but it's true, and there's a reason this man is in a mental institution- he is crazy.

Helping the effect is the fact that I've just been reading it chapter by chapter before going to bed each night- I have to drowsily re-read a lot of paragraphs to make sense of what's going on. It's actually an effective way to get in the same mind set as the narrator, though that wasn't my intention starting out.

And it was a nice change of pace, getting out yesterday, and doing some wide awake transit reading. I got through a bunch more pages that way.

I ran into a friend who I see only on special occasions, she showed me her cubicled work space, and it was pretty amazing to me. She had a cabinet full of, I don't know, five little apple sauce containers. As we parted she said, "I guess I'll see you this summer and/or winter (at one of our mutual friends annual parties)."

Kind of a cynical thing to say. Also, very true.

I like her for that- not many people can say that kind of thing completely devoid of mean spiritedness or bitterness in their voice.

While hanging out I made jokes about Rick Astley and Jersey Shore, neither of which hit home... so I pretty much looked like a pop culture idiot as usual. Maybe I should have clarified that I have never actually watched Jersey Shore? Eh, that'd come across as defensive then elitist. So fine, I'm stuck.

I went to the Eaton Centre Chapters and read comics for hours. I even took a seat for a comic or two! I thought about giving some downtown people a call to hang out for a bit, go on a rare visit, but decided I'd had enough for the day.

Came home to a rearranged kitchen and messed up bedroom. Usually dad restricts his feng shui to the living room and his bedroom. The kitchen was a surprise. So now I've got a new counter thing in my room, by an outlet, that lets me plug in my tv for the first time in... well, months at least.

While fixing my room I got to watch Hawaii 5-O. Good show, if it wasn't on at the same time as Castle I'd watch it all the time.

It's funny- you see Chicago, New York, Miami, Las Vegas (you know, the CSI's) and I have no interest in them, not really. But Hawaii- I like Hawaii. I can actually long for that place. Which is kind of ridiculous of me, but it's cool too. I know loads of people that dream of New York, the city that never sleeps.

I like sleep! I try to do it on a daily basis!