Morbid Romantic

bringing you quality randomness since 1981

I am an avid and passionate horror movie watcher. There is little else more satisfying than a lazy night spent in front of the television watching horror movies and/or horror television series’. I admit that I am very picky about my horror movies; I won’t watch a lot of the new ones that come out that are filled with teen stars and boring cliches. When I watch a horror movie, I want it to be good. The Scream series? Crap. The American versions of the Grudge? More crap. You see where I am going with this.

One of my most favorite series is the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Alfee even bought me the complete box set, 3D glasses and all, as a gift. It’s one of my most special possessions because I had been dying to have it for so long.

I have watched the boxset many, many times since I’ve gotten it. I think that I would go into a state of depression if something happened to it and I lost it. I need Freddy. Not only is he an icon of icons, but he is a part of my childhood. You see, I didn’t have parents that shielded me from horror movies and violent images. As a result, nothing you could show me on TV could scare me.

But no one told me that they were doing a remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. From the time they began announcing remakes, first with Halloween and next with both Friday and 13th and Hellraiser, I began to hope beyond hope that no one would touch A Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s too sacred, too much of a classic to tarnish or try to redo. There’s nothing wrong with the original (or the original of Hellraiser, for that matter)! I went to the Internet Movie Database to check out anything they had on the remake and the message board was alive with people suggesting cast members. Like Billy Bob Thorton. I kid you not. That guy with a horrible Southern accent as Freddy Kruger. It’s sacrilege. I don’t have anything against Billy Bob, I just don’t think he would fit the role of a horror movie icon.

It won’t be Freddy without that look, that laugh.

How am I going to handle seeing my favorite horror movie series reduced to the standards of modern horror? It’s going to be awful. I predict pure awfulness complete with a soundtrack full of bands like Metro Station and My Chemical Romance. I’ll just die. I’ll boycott and then I’ll die.

And I am SO going to collect the comic books as soon as I have a little bit of money. EBay, you’re on. Don’t fail me now.

Popularity: 11% [?]

My problem is that I am short with the looks of a teenager. No matter how I dress myself, style my make up or do my hair, I will still end up looking like a teenager playing the part. I’m three years to 30 and I can’t even pass for an 18 year old without being carded and looked at twice. Normally, I don’t let this get to me. There are definite advantages to getting to eat from the cheaper kids menu or getting into events for half off. I’ve had some bad moments like a waitress asking me if I wanted the kids menu on my 21st birthday, but I generally take it in stride. After all, they don’t know me and must go on their first impression or assumptions.

Sometimes, every once in a while, I can’t help but get annoyed. The world doesn’t see or treat me like the adult that I am. It’s a shock to be at one second a figure of authority and the next someone not taken seriously due to young physical features. I get offended even though I know that it’s not the fault of the people around me. As I’ve said, these people can’t be blamed for the impression that they take of me without knowing me. I DO look 16.

What annoys me the most is that people don’t take my opinions or knowledge as valid. Heck, most of the time I am not even asked for them. Even at 27, just because of how I look, I am shifted off to the kids table away from the adults. My family does this, too, which is very hurtful. Neither strangers nor family ask me to share what I know. After all, what would a teenager have to say about international trade tariffs, or the lack of clean water in the developing world or American politics? Someone who is 16 can’t have an educated and informed opinion.

But, I am a 27 year old with a very educated and informed view of the world that I don’t get to share merely because of my appearance.

It is something I am going to have to get used to until I wrinkle and my age shows. I don’t tan, which is part of the reason I look so young. I have good, plump skin. I probably won’t really wrinkle for a long, long time. I can imagine being 40 and still getting the kid’s menu. This is my fate, frustrating though it is.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I am so tired of people who use a common living space as their personal trash can. Certain people around my apartment complex forget that everyone shares this space, these parking lots and these walking areas. Just because you have the right to use them does not mean that they are exclusive to you and your needs. You can’t just throw cups or litter or, for the love of everything, used tampons about as if it’s not going to offend the other people who have the right to enjoy the space.

That is one reason I am going to be happy to leave this apartment complex. No more having to deal with the increasing number of rude, disgusting tenants. What sort of people leave a used tampon in the parking lot? If it fell out of your trash bag, fine. But, since it came out of your body, you could stand to pick it up with a tissue so that other people don’t have to walk past it.

Also, fellow neighbors, part of being a responsible pet owner is cleaning up after your pet. I know waste is not a fun thing to pick up and dispose of, but that’s part of what you have to consider when you adopt a pet and choose to let your pet use the bathroom in public spaces. It’s not your yard. It belongs to everyone, therefore everyone has an equal responsibility to care for it.

In short: I am never going to walk into your yard or our shared yard and drop my trash for you to deal with. So, please don’t do that to me.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Today, as I was coming down the stairs, I stepped wrong on my left foot and I severely twisted my ankle. It’s not swollen or red, but it’s really tender to touch and hurts to use. It can’t handle too much weight and it pains when I walk or press on it. I have minimal experience with injury; I’ve never even sprained anything in my life. Lordy. I don’t know WHAT to do to make it stop hurting. Maybe some pain killers?

Anyone with kids have some advice? Maybe you play sports and twist ankles and such all of the time? What do you do to make the pain go away and still be able to get around? I need to pack, so I need to walk, climb and sit on my ankle from time to time when I am on my knees getting to the bottom of places.

A family member told me that I need to put it up, but I can’t. I can’t afford another day sitting on my butt. I already lost two days this week thanks to a stomach virus I got from a family member. Oh, woe is me.

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Who here is familiar with Harden’s Tragedy of the Commons?

If I can summarize the entire Tragedy of the Commons in a very succinct but clear way, it’s a piece about resource use and damage to the environment. Hardin proposes that people abuse the environment because a lot of it, the air and the water and the green space, is a commons that belongs to everyone and no one. Since everyone feels a sense of ownership over the commons, they feel that they can do what they want with it even if it means damaging it. This would not be so bad if only one person did it, but since everyone owns the commons, most people abuse it in some way and the collective result effects us all. The key solution, according to Hardin, is “mutual coercion mutually agreed upon.” People must agree to allow the government or some other such entity to protect the commons from them– it’s coercion that everyone agrees to endure. This ensures some level of sustainability that will protect the commons so that it can be used for future generations.

So what does this have to do with my day? What was my major Tragedy in This Commons moment?

Walking outside of the hospital today, behind me I heard some guy let out an absolutely disgusting nasally snort sound seconds before he spit this huge ball of mucus out.

I understand that the ground is as much his as it is mine. From another perspective, as far as the law is concerned, my rights end where his begin, blah, blah, blah. I have no right to tell this man, this stranger, that he can’t spit mucus out disgustingly upon the sidewalk. If that’s what he wishes to do with the commons, he can. It is as much his as it is mine. But another way to look at it is though he is spitting on his ground, he is also spitting on mine. Not only that, but he subjects other people to his horrid display of bodily function.

It’s not that I feel others have to cater to me, I just wish that people had more respect for others and for the space that we all share.

Popularity: 5% [?]

The movers will be here on September 10th and will arrive at the destination between the 20th and 22nd. It’s a six day drive, loosely, so we’ll have to leave around the 14th, maybe a bit earlier. I figure Alfee will let me stay at his house until the day we have to leave. I’ll need somewhere to sleep!

The only bad thing is that we’re going to be on the road during my birthday. I had asked my mother to arrange everything so that it happened before or after my birthday, but she seems to have forgotten that in her own planning. When I asked her, she said that she thought it would be novel for me to spend my birthday on the road. Honestly, I don’t know how she can be so dense sometimes. Four days on the road already and it’s going to be novel on my birthday. Chances are I am going to be miserably bored and uncomfortable. Just how I want to celebrate an already miserable day.

Oh well, can’t change things.

I am going to get my camera soon. My mother, grandmother and Alfee are all chipping in to make that my present. So, I will take tons of pictures of the US as I drive through it, almost halfway across it! From Virginia to Utah. The only two states after that is Nevada and California. I won’t have internet access most of that time, but I am still going to be keeping a journal of my trip to post once I do have some way to connect to the net. I hope to find a WiFi Hotspot every once in a while. With how prevalent they are now, I should be able to find one easy when I want one.

We’ll see.

I better get packing. I had to take a day off yesterday due to illness, but I am all better now and ready for action.

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Yeah, we all know that petitions aren’t the most effective things for getting your way. But, they are a means of protest, which everyone has the right to do. Whether or not it works is up to the future (my guess, no).

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You know when you live in an apartment complex that you’re pretty much subject to the conditions of the people around you. What I mean is that when they move in, if they carry bugs with them, they will infect your home, too.

Well, someone must have just moved in with a very large infestation because I have been killing bugs ALL day since last night. The first one I saw was on my computer desk, then a few hours later one was on one of my packed boxes, then one in the kitchen, and finally the last one in the bathroom. I am getting so tired of them. I’m also worried that they will crawl into my boxes and come with me when I move. I don’t want to take someone elses bugs with me! It’s just gross. It’s not hard to bug bomb right before you move. Do it and then clean everything as you pack it. Why take bugs with you when you settle into a new place, anyway?

I guess, too, the bugs are looking for new homes because there have been a rash of people moving out of the complex lately. Why? HUD, of course. This place used to be a quiet complex of teachers and old women. Now, as more people move in thanks to HUD, the parking lots constantly have people’s trash in them (you know, discarded cups and bottles and banana peels), a few people here never bother to open the big trash can to put their trash in it and only leave their junk around it, rap music wakes me up in the middle of the night as heavy bass shakes my windows, people scream and have loud lawn parties at 2am, and more. I don’t know why the complex does nothing!

Thank GOD I am leaving this trash dump.

Popularity: 6% [?]

It’s Friday night and here I sit at home. I usually spend my every weekend at Alfee’s house, but since I have so much packing to do, I need to be here. He has things to do with his brother tomorrow because there’s no telling when his brother will be shipped out, so he’s staying at home. It’s for the best because he would be really bored here.

He did come down to take me to dinner, though. I had a yummy steak with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. Yes, it was super delicious and I am now hungry again and wish that I had another meal just like it to eat.

Naturally, because this is my luck we’re talking about, we get seated next to a party of the loudest and most obnoxious patrons. I do realize that when you’re out at dinner, having a few drinks and having a good time, you tend to be a bit wild. I don’t expect people to be saints because I am sitting there and I’m a princess. It’s just being polite. You don’t have to explode with the loudest laugh ever or scream to the people across the table from you. These people were so loud that Alfee and I could barely hear each other unless we too wanted to yell, which we didn’t. It was so bad that I was getting a headache.

When we came home, Alfee and I decided that he might as well take home some of his stuff. We went through every drawer of mine and got his clothes, socks and underwear out of. Also, from the closet. We were both relatively surprised at how much clothes he had here! It all but filled the back of his SUV. I think he had more socks here than he has at home, and in better shape, too. Most of his clothes smells like cedar wood, so he has a lot of laundry to do over his weekend.

Like I have a lot of packing.

My mother and I were supposed to clear a path to take out some furniture tomorrow for the dump. After she ate, she said to wake her up in an hour and a half. But, my mother is the laziest person in the world. I don’t know why I fell for the “I’ll get up” line again. I tried and I tried again, but she refused to get up. Now, she is going to be extra stressed and full of curses tomorrow when she has to rush clean to clear a path.

I warned her.

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My mother is either naive or reckless.

I trusted her to find good, reputable  companies.  You know, do some research first.  First, you find a company.  Then you utilize the vast information of the world wide web by searching the reputation of the company, maybe read some reviews other past customers have left.

It occurs to me today, since my mother has to settle on a company tomorrow, that she might not have done this.

So, I go into her email account and start Googling the different companies she has gotten estimates from.

And holy crap.

She can’t trust ANY of them!  We are at square one here.  There’s no way she should leave her things, her entire life, in the hands of the idiots these companies seem to hire.  All I see for every company she has spoken to are negatives and comments of things being stolen, broken or lost and never compensated for.  My mother would be heartbroken if any of that happened to her.

We’re now back to square one at the crunch because my mother didn’t bother to research.  She is still so new to the internet that she hasn’t learned that the internet doesn’t quality check.  You search and you come up with a whole list of good and bad.

Now, I have spent the evening contacting GOOD companies.  Hopefully we will be able to get quick estimates from them so that we won’t be pushed too far back.  And not have to pay too much.

Popularity: 5% [?]