Despite the fact that I spend a minimal amount of time on the highway every morning in my pursuit of getting to work (and truly, it is pretty negligible -- especially when you consider that my shortest commute in the last year was about thirty minutes), whole new worlds of irritation have been opened up to me, and I have found that every silver lining is attached to a dark cloud. I tried a certain congenital aspect of my personality, one that I identified early on in the mirror of my mother's own identical habit, but I seem to be the kind of person who can't be happy unless he has something to complain about.
Now this somewhat graceless quality is neither as pernicious nor as pathetic as it sometimes may seem. When I find something bothers me and I give vent to my spleen, it really does make me feel better, and not all of my complaints are bitter, self-pitying screeds meant to engender sympathy or drag others down. Sometimes I just do it because complaining can be fun and entertaining -- after all, people like Lewis Black have made very profitable careers out of it! Perhaps the distinction is fairly minute, but I try to only rarely whine about things that truly make me feel victimized; typically, my tirades are about idiotic behavior and minor, daily injustices to which I've borne witness. Like shopping etiquette or Paris Hilton.
Anyway, I've become more aware of it, because Ulrich has made a conscious effort in his life to maintain the peace and kill with kindness. Me? I prefer to kill with bare hands. The truth is, though, that I really do admire this about him, and in fact the seemingly effortless way he radiates positivity was one of the first things that attracted me to him. I would like to be more like him, not just because I like to completely subvert my own personality and conform to what I think other people want me to be like (I do live in Hollywood, after all), but because it's a much more constructive way to live. And of course, I have tried in the past, but just when I'm considering effecting this in my own life on a permanent basis, some lady yells at me for parking on a public street.
Oh yes, that example is factual! Just this very morning, as I arrived (late) for work (but only by ten minutes!) and endeavored to park in tiny crevice of space between a trash can and a driveway, some woman came out to the end of her walk to watch me. This bugged me right away, because I hate how people in LA think parallel parking is a fucking spectator sport, but I could tell my form and technique were not foremost in her mind. She waited, and a long time, too -- I knew what she was out there for and wasn't about to rush headlong into the tiresome fray -- until I got out and started heading for the building. That's when she laced into me, really letting me have for�um�other people parking too close to the driveways and moving her trash cans. She let me know in no uncertain terms that she wasn't going to stand for it anymore, and she was going to the City to see about getting the street closed off (like, ooooh, I'm shaking).
Now, where some might have spoken to her calmly and rationally, I very nearly got back in my car so I could run her over a few times. There are no parking restrictions on that street -- I am allowed to park wherever and however I want. If she doesn't like non-residents parking there, I understand that, but�tough shit. If she thinks having the street lined with cars makes it difficult to navigate, she's absolutely right, but�tough shit. If she wants to go raise hell and get the street closed off, I don't blame her because I might do the same, but�leave me the hell alone, Crazy Lady, and let me go to my office! You can kill me won't do you any good! More will come! WE WILL HAVE YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!!!
I mean, again -- I get where she's coming from, but attacking a complete stranger for, you know, parking in an unrestricted zone is completely insane. This is Los Angeles. That sort of thing happens. In fact, she should just be glad I drive a teeny little car, and not a big fucking Hummer.
Anyway, my point is that I would have a hard time being positive with someone like that. When people get all ridiculous with me, a little switch flips in my brain and I have to complain about it so the world knows that SOME CRAZY LADY IN SHERMAN OAKS NEEDS TO CHILL OUT AND HAVE HER MORNING COFFEE!
Someone Got Here By Searching For: queen latifah kissing adrien brody I'm Watching: Kitchen Confidential and I have to say I was kind of�unimpressed. I'm Reading: I am savoring every page of A Walk in the Woods, and since I only have about twenty minutes to read it every day, it's a good thing.