Hell of a Weekend.

1 - Fighting a head cold/sore throat. Again. 2008 is the year of sickness, apparently.

2 - iTunes on Sandy's computer wiped out all the files on my iPod Shuffle when I tried to show Sandy how to use it with her brand new Shuffle. Clearly the fact that I use other software to manage my music on my computer means I want fu&'%ing Steve Jobs and his fu'&%ing proprietary software to erase everything I've done and put on it. 4 hours shot re-filing music on the mp3 player. I swear, I'd have thrown the thing against the freaking wall if it wasn't such a well designed piece of hardware.

3 - And in the high nut-kicker of the weekend, one of my bicycles was stolen. Technically, the bike belonging to the board of education was stolen. The second bike, that I had bought, I haven't really been using, because after crashing it a couple times [only one was alcohol related, thank you] and generally riding it into the ground, the wheel was out of wack and only one of the brakes was working. And it wasn't really shifting right. So I was using the mamachari/charinko the Board gave me when I got here. Came home on Friday, parked it in front of the apt, like always, and by Saturday it was gone.

No, I didn't lock it. My fault. My naivete. But, in my limited defense [paltry though it may be] I haven't locked the bike up in front of the apt in the 2 1/2 years I've lived here. And never had a problem. I mean, the area I live in is pretty inaka/rural. And the bikes aren't even visible from the road. It's off the beaten path, as it were.

[Which makes me wonder if my bike was targeted specifically. There were other, nicer bikes around, just as unlocked as mine... And then I think of the handful of yanki 2nd graders at Jr High, some of whom don't really appreciate when I make them do, you know, what the JTE is telling them to instead of sleeping... but I digress.]

I mean, when my mp3 player was jacked 2 years ago, I chalked it up, rightfully, to my dumbness. I left it in a high traffic area by the train station in a bag that anybody could've rummaged through. But my bike, out in the middle of nowhere? Let's just say my last little bit of illusioned preconception about the 'safety' of Japan or the general nature of folks in the area got a good solid throat-punch.

Nonsense like this keeps up and it's gonna ruin my naturally sunny disposition.

Ha. Ha. Fuck.