h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey Maggaroux, I miss talking to you. If you ever make it back here, come by and say hi!

thanks for missing me! i've been so busy! i finally got a job, a real one that my psychology degree is for! i just got a position as a counselor at this outpatient center for developmentally disabled adults! it's a really really great facility. they have a workshop where the people work putting together products like remote controls and stuff and they try to gradually phase them into working in the real world. they also have assisted-living apartments so they can have their own places to live. when i graduated, i didn't really want to work in any kind of institution for the retarded cuz i figured that i'd just be depressed and frustrated because of the lack of good facilities, but i like this one because their biggest concern, aside from safety, is the integrity of its clients, and the goal of the place is to give the clients a life that's as close as possible to our lives. i've gone there a few times, and it really doesn't leave you feeling depressed at all; i think helping these people will be good for both them and me. and the job is a real grown up job with salary and paid vacation and insurance. i even have a 401K. i always thought it was funny that when i was in college, a person's identity centers around their major. and then we graduated and my friends and i were swapping resumes and comparing, and now we talk about our benefits packages. wierd wierd wierd. sometimes i still want to be in college, living the easy life. but everybody knows that the easy life will give you very few real rewards. it's only through struggle that we gain anything worth having. i'm finally getting used to being in the north. luckily, it's been one of the mildest winters in history. i'm learning where everything is and how to get there on public transportation, but i haven't been brave enough to do a solo subway run yet. someday. hopefully now that everything has calmed down i can visit the guide more regularly. so have you seen the queen of the damned? it's strange that when aaliyah died nobody mentioned that she'd be in this movie. it's good that they didn't hype it up cuz one of the stars is dead. i want to see the count of monte cristo, but i wanna read the book again first. it was a really good book. after we saw the lord of the rings, i got ryan the whole set of books. he's on the last one now, and every day i get an update about what the hobbits are doing. he's so cute! so hows everything in tennessee? do you ever go to that big barbecue festival they have? i went one year and thought i'd died and gone to heaven. these yankees don't know a thing about barbecue. i guess, like most things, if i want it done right i'm gonna have to do it myself. well, hopefully i won't be so delinquent in the future. hope to hear from you soon jellenj!

Good to hear from you! I'll be posting more when I'm not so sleepy.

I've never been to New York, but I remember how nice the subway system was in London, and how easy that made it to get around. The public transportation system here in Memphis is pathetic. Strange that it would be easier to get around a giant city like London than a smallish city like Memphis.

The new Count of Monte Cristo movie is wonderful! Don't wait too long to see it, it might go off. I love a good swashbuckler like that.

I don't go to the Barbeque Festival very often. I don't like to fight the crowds. When I get a craving for barbeque I just head round the corner to Corky's - they have the best barbeque on the planet.

Oh, I forgot the most important thing - Congratulations on your new job! That's super!

so the day after i posted my last message, i actually tried yankee barbecue. granted, it was at a jewish deli, but it was the worst barbecue ever. the sauce tasted like ketchup and worchestershire sauce. being that i'm from new orleans, i'm very into food. i am a self-declared ham n cheese conniseur. the best ham n cheese sandwich i ever had was at the black bear restaurant in gatlinburg. i'm anxious to start my job. i have to do the orientation first and the whole thing is contingent on a background check, which i'm a little nervous about cuz i was arrested on a marijuana charge; i wasn't convicted but i don't know how picky they are, if they want someone who was never arrested ever or if they realize that i'm all clear since i wasn't convicted. que sera sera i guess. so the count of monte cristo was good? i usually don't like swordfighting action movies, but i really liked the man in the iron mask and i think i'll like this one. did you ever read the book? in other news, i now have a mission in new york. i'm looking for a unicorn. i'm sure i'll find one in new york if anywhere. but there's tons of places where a unicorn could hide, so it will still be hard. i enjoy searching for things that take imagination to find. in new orleans, there was this old wrought-iron telephone booth, and there was a little pole next to it and if you touched both of them at the same time you could feel current going through your body. but somebody hit the pole and they never put up a new one. well, i'm gonna go watch the news now. there was a plane yesterday that was stopped at jfk cuz one of the passengers looked like a terrorist. and now it seems that the biggest battle so far in afghanistan is going on, which is wierd cuz i thought the war was almost over. i'll talk to ya later. take care!

If you get a chance Maggaroux read post 29 under "A New Movie" It was a funny one, and kind of got lost in the backlog.

I liked Man in the Iron Mask too, but then I am a huge Leo fan. That's the first DVD I ever bought, before I even had a DVD player! I have not read Count of Monte Cristo, so I have nothing to compare the movie to. I may go see that one again before it goes off.

I think it is very cool that you are looking for a unicorn. You have an eye for detail which I like. When I went to London I became friends with a guy named Darron (from Texas), who was looking for a hedgehog. We went to the largest toy store in the world, in London, but they didn't have one. Then I took a side trip to see the Dover cliffs, and at a tiny tea shop in a tiny village, they had a hedgehog in the window, so I got it for him. He and I were both crazy about PreRaphaelite paintings. The Tate in London has some really beautiful ones (PR paintings, not hedgehogs ).

Your Unicorn quest also reminds me of a quest by artist Hilton McConnico. He was a Memphis artist who moved to Paris and became an artist and designer. I love his stuff. Anyway, he started trying to find a cactus in Paris, and he couldn't find one for a long time. They were so scarce that he decided to do a set of glassware and furniture based on the cactus. Very cool.

I'm surprised also to hear there is another big battle going on in Afganistan. I thought that was pretty much over. Shows what I know about world events.

sorry i've been so delinquent lately; i've been really really busy. did i tell you i got a job? i'm a counselor in this workshop for developmentally disabled adults. the mission of the agency that it's a part of is to help the developmentaly disabled (mentally retarded) people live a life that's as close to yours and mine as possible. my job is to counsel people in this workshop, which is kind of like a practice workplace. i figure out what skills they'll need to work on and help them develop those skills. it doesn't pay that much money, but i go home every night feeling great about what i'm doing and that's worth more than anything else. the orientation was a pain though. it was three days, and some of the people asked so many questions that we didn't even have time to cover anything about my position. and they questions they asked were so inane! but thank god that's over and i'm doing the real thing. i even conquered my fear of the new york public transit system. i ride four busses a day now. i thought i would hate having to be out at the bus stop before 7am, but it isn't so bad when it becomes part of your routine. except now i fall asleep at ten at night and miss conan o'brien. oh, st. patricks day was this weekend. they had a parade in manhattan and one on staten island. i missed both. the one in manhattan was on saturday morning and i woke up after it was over. i went to the one on SI but i arrived just in time to see the last float. but i'm not irish anyway. it got cold again here. i think it snowed last night. is it still cold in tennesee? have you guys been having a really sporadic winter like we've had up here? one day i was out in the sun with my sleeves rolled up and the next day it was snowing!are you going to go see resident evil? i like the game, and i love love love milla jovovich, but i don't know about movies that are made from video games. i didn't see tomb raider. have you seen Heavenly Creatures? it's a very good movie. well, i have to go watch the news now. i didn't know it was going to be raining and freezing this morning and i don't have an umbrella, so i'm very interested in how the weather will be tomorrow morning. hopefully, i'll be around on a more regular basis. things are starting to mellow out now that i have a daily rhythm. take care!

I'm glad you like your new job! That's really cool. I get the feeling that my therapist feels the same way - that she likes being able to help people, that she's doing something worthwhile.

It's too bad you missed the parades! I would have enjoyed hearing about them.

It was cold and very windy today. The weather has been, as you say, sporadic.

My best friend was hospitalized for depression this week. I went to visit her this afternoon, and I tried to take her a get well balloon, but the hospital wouldn't let me bring it in. Isn't that stupid? I'm totally bummed out because this friend has decided to move back to North Carolina with her parents. She needs a break financially and emotionally. I'm hoping that once she gets on her feet again she may move back to Memphis. Until then she and I will have to stay in touch via internet, at least I have that. But real life friends I can hang out with are getting scarcer than hen's teeth. Do you miss your friends from New Orleans?

I don't think I'll go see Resident Evil - it looks too creepy. Heavenly Creatures was a really good movie. It was based on a true story wasn't it? Kate Winslet and the other young lead were both excellent. You looking foward to the Oscars? Looks like a tight race this year. I can't remember ever liking so many of the nominations for best picture so much. Usually I'm just rooting for one. But I'd be happy for Moulin Rouge, Beautiful Mind, or Fellowship of the Ring to win. I think Mind will sweep this year, that's my prediction. We'll see if it holds up. Talk to you later.

i'm sure lord of the rings will win tons of stuff. i didn't see a beautiful mind, but i heard it was good. same with moulon rouge, though many of my friends who saw itsaid all the singing kida threw them for a loop. and yeah, heavenly creatures was based on a true story. i saw a documentary on the chicks, and one of them, maybe both of them, is still alive. and i do miss my friends from new orleans a lot. we all were very close and spent a lot of time together. i was rarely alone since so many of us really enjoyed doing everyday things with friends; i rarely even went to the supermarket without someone who was willing to tag along. and we're all so chill that as easy as it was to hang out together, we can never seem to all be emailing and calling consistently at the same time, so i periodically lose and regain touch with everybody. but we used to have barbecues every weekend and hang out every night. my friend david had show and tell at his house every monday night. i miss it all. i like all of ryan's friends, but like i say, theyre ryan's friends. i mean, theyre nice people and all, but i like to meet people in diverse ways so i have a diverse pool of friends, but most of the people i know here i met through ryan. and even he admits that he's been away for four years and hangs out with many of these people simply due to history. i can imagine if you have friends that you hang out with all through high school and then you go away to college and the longest possible time you can hang out with them is three months, you'll probably be surprised by the way some people have changed when you move back. but i like the girls at work and some of the girls ryan knows have asked me to hang out. the wierd thing about that is that i have always had mainly male friends and though i've always wondered what it would be like to have lots of female friends, i'm not the 'girl clique' kind of person. but all in all i've met a lot of nice people. and i still stay in touch with my really close friend from home.
so if you were an academy judge, what would you pick for best movie. i think i've only seen one movie this year (jay & silent bob strike back doesn't count) and it's lord of the rings, which will obviously win at least two awards. i'm sorry about your friend. but humans are basically resilient creatures, and i bet she'ss pull through, especially since she's getting help. was your balloon rubber? i think it's rubber balloons that can't go in the hospital because if it gets swalloews it sticks to the inside of your esophagus like glue and it's impossible to breathe. well, i'm either gonna take a nap or do the laundry. i'll see ya latr.

Nah, the balloon was mylar, and quite large. Would be impossible to swallow. Guess they were just paranoid about the helium. Or there is just some esoteric danger I'm not aware of. Anyway, I took Sandie a pretty stuffed toy bunny, white with pastel colors. She really loved it.

Hmm, I just got interrupted by an instant message, and totally lost my train of thought.

Beautiful Mind was my favorite movie this year, but only by a nose, with Moulin Rouge close behind, and Rings close behind that. A good year for the movies we had. (Yikes, I sound like Yoda!) Watching the Oscars was fun - I watched over at my sister's house. I liked Woody Allen's little comic bit.

Erm, I really can't think too clearly right now. Suddenly preoccupied. Oh well, I'll talk to you soon.