Yes, I have just finished watching the aforementioned film. Again. Even if you don't like foreign language films, girls with orange hair and stomach tattoos, and electronic music, it will at least send your mind spinning in about one million directions at once.
Since this is a movie about all the big consequences tied to every little decision, I immediately thought about my nicotine addiction. I wonder what happens when I go outside to smoke. Did a long-lost acquaintance check in while I was gone? Perhaps we would strike up a conversation, renew our friendship, and work out a deal for me to go cruising around Europe writing travel blogs. Could someone have had a heart attack in the lobby, and i am the only person who knows CPR, and in the seconds it takes me to get back, it's too late? Maybe the woman of my dreams whisked past the desk, and I would have caught her eye and we would have started talking about Escanaba?
And what if that last cigarette is the one that costs me my life, maybe not now, but even twenty years from now. Maybe, the day after I die in real life, I would have received a call from a publisher saying he had agreed to my first novel. Then my (fictional) son has twins a year later! What would I miss? Another lifetime, I would guess. Tony Robbins (I have indeed read one of his books) said that thinking about what you want will make it happen. If I'm thinking of losing weight, theoretically my decisions will lead me to that goal. When I have a choice between a banana and a milkshake, I'll supposedly choose a banana (haha right). But really, it's true. When I'm thinking about a girl, I see her everywhere even when she's not around. I notice the things that she likes and the things she needs. If I'm reading RA Salvatore novel, I see more magic in the world and I am much more likely to spend frivolously on a sword or a shard of ancient armor.
You never know, though. Maybe if I had stayed inside instead of going out for a smoke, a can of tomato soup would have fallen down on my head and given me brain damage. Maybe I would have fallen for that beautiful girl and she ends up bartering my books for crack cocaine. All I can do, I decided long ago, is make the best decisions I can and then accept the consequences. We only get one chance to make each decision, so at least I know that everything I am is of my own making, for better or worse.
In other news, I went to the car wash today; the news being that i was returning my rental car and needed to spiff it up a bit. I drove for six miles (!) without seeing one. Before I realized it, I had entered the World of Rochester Hills, the Land Where Everyone Drives Mercedes and BMWs. I pulled into some futuristic, high-tech building called Jax where there were like 20 workers milling about with uniforms that matched the colors on the sign. Oh, alright, I thought, the Enterprise is just around the corner so I might as well just do it. Okay, first of all, they had a BOOTH in the lot where an attendant would politely come out and hand you a menu of services ranging from $12 to $200. $200!!!!!!!!!!!!! I must have had a seriously incredulous look on my face, because the attendant suggested the $12 or $15 wash if I was in a hurry. I was thinking that a value meal came with it, but alas, not so. Hey, at least they would vacuum my car FREE with any purchase!
So once we got that straightened out, they had three lines going: one for trucks and SUVs, one for cars, and one for detailing. This was all very silly and honestly, annoying. I suppose they do this so that the jobless rich will feel good about their day having made a decision from among three (!) choices as to how to waste their unearned money. I finally made it into the right line. I crept up to the entrance and then I have to stop. They wanted me to get out of my car!! Ah yes, for the free vacuuming! After they finished, some old fella with a foot long beard jumped in my car and drove into the car wash machine thingy. He noticed my disbelieving stare and simply pointed at the entrance door to the building.
Apparently, one has to walk through the entire building (about three times as long as a regular car wash, though I have no idea how many more brushers and foamers and rinsers and dryers they could possibly need) to get to the front desk where I was supposed to pay the money and then out another door to retrieve my car. The hallway had wood paneling and was carpeted! It even had large windows every ten feet so you could follow your car as it was being washed! It was like being in an aquarium, except pretentious and wasteful. If I was not so stressed about giving all of my money to the repair shop, I would have laughed out loud. I think the girl at the checkout realized how ridiculous this place was. She must have seen me, walking around completely confused, like in a casino, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do next. In a car wash! Oh my.
A final note: I was offered a ticket to the Killers concert in Ypsilanti yesterday. I did not really know, though, because I was asked by text message only if I was working that day. I had no idea until the next day that I had been offered front row tix to see a concert for the first time in, oh, about five years? Oh, and the band that happened to open for them, M83, apparently had a hot French girl playing synthesizer. Oh, and they played nearly everything off their new album, Day and Age. oh, and they opened with Spaceman. Oh, and Neon Tiger was as great live as we imagined it would be. yeah, thanks. Good to know. At least now I know when this friend has tickets for a great concert to take the day off work. Just in case!
Unfortunately, as you can tell, that's quite a bit of fun I have been missing out on lately. I'm really feeling the need to see or do something extraordinary. I need that once in a while to restore balance to my brain. I am okay with the mundane, I really am, because I really do believe in the little things, the little sacrifices, the little pleasures. But once in awhile, I need something where I can sit calmly amidst a sea of anarchy, so enraptured with whatever is capturing my attention.
With that in mind, tonight, I wish for you, and for me, in Killers fashion:
Give me rolling hills
So tonight can be the night
That I stand among a thousand thrills
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