Ladybug delivery day. I’d forgotten. Got a phone call this morning.
mom: “Hello? Jon? Hi, it’s your mother!”
me: “Hi mom!”
mom: “Normally I wouldn’t call you in the morning, but um, I think I got a package of yours. It says it’s live ladybugs.”
me: “Oh. Happy Mother’s Day!”
mom: “…what?”
me: “I ordered that for you. It’s a box full of live ladybugs.”
mom: “…WHAT?!”
me: “Yeah! Have you looked at them yet?”
mom: “No, I’m just looking at the box. I haven’t opened it yet. There are LIVE LADYBUGS in here?”
me: “Yep! Two thousand five hundred live ladybugs.”
mom: “YOU SENT ME TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED LIVE LADYBUGS?!?!?!!?”
At this point she breaks into hysterical, spastic laughter and manages to choke out a “Jonathan, WHY would you send me twenty-five hundred live ladybugs for Mother’s Day?” to which I quickly chirped, “Because I can!”
I stayed on the phone while she read the instructions. “Two thousand five hundred ladybugs is enough for a 2500 square foot garden. JONATHAN, WE’RE IN A 900 SQUARE FOOT APARTMENT!” and she started laughing hysterically again. “WHAT am I going to DO with these?!” and she read further about how to keep them alive and said “Oh, no, you have to keep them refrigerated so they’ll live. David, honey, can you clean out the refrigerator and put these in there please? Oh dear, oh dear.”
I explained to her that I ordered them on the internet and opted against ordering the full 70,000 live ladybugs and also against five giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and she started laughing again, the mad laugh of a normal woman pushed to the brink of insanity. “THANK you for NOT sending me seventy THOUSAND live ladybugs OR giant cockroaches!”
me: “So what are you going to do with them?”
mom: “I.. god, I don’t know. *more insane, confused laughter* I guess I’ll go around the apartment complex and let them loose in the bushes? Or take them over to your brother’s house and released them? I have no idea!”
me: “And that’s the fun of it. See, since I moved out I get the feeling that you don’t have enough to do. Above all else, I like the idea that through the power of the internet, with VERY little effort on my part, I can create a problem in your life that you have to solve. Now, really, did you have ANYTHING else to do today before you got the ladybugs?”
mom: *long pause, then the laughter kicks in again* “Well, no, I guess not.”
me: “There you go. Have fun! Let me know what you end up doing with them, and take pictures if you can. Love you, mom! Bye.”
mom: “What? You’re just going to –”
*click*
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Been focusing on reading more lately, since I actually have time to. I find that one helpful anchor point of sanity during crunch is FORCING time into my schedule to be able to read or relax or do something constructive besides work. I’m getting out of my post-crunch funk a LOT faster than last time. I’m getting better.
Reading more of Nobodies to Somebodies which is now released and even more worth reading. Nearing the end.
Also bought an autographed copy of Winning by Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. Why autographed? Well, because I’m a whore, that’s why. I’d like to say I didn’t start giggling and do a happy little dance as soon as it was delivered to me at work, but I’d be lying.
But before I do that, as soon as I finish Nobodies to Somebodies, I’m going to finish reading The Motley Fool Investment Guide : How The Fool Beats Wall Streets Wise Men And How You Can Too which has been recommended to me by several people. I’ve read it off and on but crunch usually kills my interest in reading.
My interest in investing has been rekindled by a reader of my blog that contacted me last week. He’s an investor and loves Warren Buffett as I do, is a huge video game fan, and likes what I say well enough to invite me to join StockArena.com, a fantastic investor’s discussion board, and a hell of a lot more. I’ve been digging into it for the last couple days and getting a feel for it, how it all works and where to start. It’s full of unbelievably knowledgeable people and fantastic analysis, advice and commentary, and an intelligent moderation and reputation system that has cash rewards for the best posters.
In short, it’s a fantastically valuable resource I intend to contribute to and use as best I can.
Going to dive into investing as soon as I knock out some outstanding debts, like the Dell Inspiron 9300 notebook I picked up in March. Fantastic machine with a BEAUTIFUL 17″ screen that’s completely replaced my desktop PC. My only regret is that it isn’t faster (1.6ghz) but considering the amount of cutting-edge gaming I do these days (hint: none) it wasn’t practical to do more than that.
That’s all for now. May update this post again later today.