Notes on a Scandalous Life

I wouldn't say that I have senioritis, perse - I like college - but I am desperately looking forward to graduating. Not because I'm tired of school, but because I'm jealous of all my friends who are off and living in more exciting places with more culture than Conservative-ville, TX. So maybe, instead of senioritis, I have an advanced case of the-grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side-itis. Whatever.

Among things that don't suck about Texas: my car. Disregarding my tires, of course, one of which blew out on the fourth of July (should I capitalize fourth - since it's a holiday?). Okay, I can change a tire... but, unfortunately, my car lacks a spare. In its place: a subwoofer, installed by D-Bag Rick, the former owner of my Camaro. So, I had to get a tow. To NTB, because Discount Tire, where I purchased (or, should I say, Brandon purchased - but more on that later) my $800 set of racing tires, was closed. So, instead of paying for fireworks and booze on this particular holiday, my first choice, I paid for a tow and a cheap (sort of) tire to tie me over til I could get around to getting the blown-out one replaced. Fortunately, replacing the tire at Discount this week was only like $20, since it was still under warranty.

Speaking of Brandon! He called to inform me, the other day, that I had not yet paid certain medical bills that I originally received less than a month ago. Since my phone or electricity is not likely to be turned off if I do not pay these bills, I was originally not in much of a hurry to pay them, but, now that Brandon has decided to bug me about them (in the event that they could go against his credit), I have upgraded the urgency level of these bills to maybe. Right up there with light bulbs (which I actually DID buy - although it took me a few months to simultaneously be in Wal-Mart and remember that I can't see when I'm in the hall) - but waaay behind shoes. Maybe he should have been a bit more generous with that divorce settlement, eh? Oh, yes. I'm a bad ex-wife. Good thing I have no plans to get married again!

And, now, off to finish work for the afternoon, so I can start trying to convince somebody to rent The Unborn tonight. Demon fetus for the win!

I think just about everyone but me got the day off of work, so I'm retaliating against the man by writing a blog during my paid work hours. It's kind of an empty gesture, really, because my boss wouldn't care, but, you know. I can dream. And so, here I am, sipping on Big Red (por gratis, because my coworkers are trying to fatten me up), and wondering what I should say now.

Serving at Cracker Barrel has been going well, ever since they stopped playing the Wounded Warriors DVD on a loop. Wounded Warriors, as I now know (brain space I could maybe have used for something more important, like... well, anything), is a charity benefitting men and women who sustain injuries during their respective careers in the armed forces. Which is all fine and good, except for how, you know, the military DOES provide full-coverage healthcare, and disability. Meanwhile, people keep dying in other countries, which doesn't matter, apparently, because they didn't die for AMERICA. Sigh. I tried to relate this idea to another employee, only to be quickly shot down with a snippy"They DESERVE this. Is any of YOUR family in the military? Because, if they were, you would understand!" Sigh again.

And yet, soldier-worship is so prevalent. I keep seeing people join the Facebook group "Petition to remove 'soldiers are not heroes' from Facebook", and I have to wonder why. For one, the group is not going to accomplish anything, because saying that soldiers are not heroes is not a death threat, racial slur, or anything else that Facebook prohibits in its terms of use. It's just an unpopular idea.

Second, "Soldiers are not Heroes" makes a pretty good point: it's a little perilous to declare that all soldiers ARE heroes. Whether or not you agree with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I'm sure that it's pretty easy to accomodate the idea that a soldier who risks his life to save a fallen comrade, or something of that nature, is a hero. But, then, not all soldiers do such things. A few soldiers see the front lines... and some spend their deployments chilling out in an air-conditioned tent in Iraq. And some don't deploy, at all. And a lot of them sexually harass their fellow soldiers. Personally, I think that we need to stop exhalting soldiers. They are just ordinary people, getting paid to preform a dangerous job.