Sunday, October 3, 2010

Motivations

To wit, I do things because I am a selfish bastard. I think people write blogs for several motives: (1.) The author is completely egotistical and wants to talk about himself, (2.) The author likes a particular subject matter so much, that he thinks the world will be a better place if everyone shared his interest, (3.) the author has a lot of free time and blogging is way of improving one’s writing skills. The blog could be about one’s political views, budgeting, scrapbooking, religion, sexcapades but ultimately, it is about the blogger. Dear Reader, I am 1 … 2 … and 3. I often think my #2 is often ridiculous and doesn’t make for good reading. Who really wants to read about some Gaysian’s love of all things Batman and how JokerFish restrict the “Production Possibilities Frontier.” But in the past two months, I actually received six emails from strangers (one who is actually my brother’s friend and whom I have never met) asked me questions about my blog. It is an unnerving thought really, to see people in Alaska read and send me a message about my blog, when most of my friends have not. So this Dear Reader is for you – and for me.

It has been an odd and difficult week. There have been much turmoil in my personal life, and it leaked into my professional. I made a terrible mistake on Monday where I sent off an urgent email to a co-worker to inquire about $96,000 in net operating losses that were never utilized. For the uninitiated, Net Operating Losses (NOLs) are losses that a corporation accrues over the tax year. If they have losses, they can apply it to a previous years income to get a nice refund. If there were no profits, you apply it to income in the future. I spent a good 15 mins looking for the NOL worksheet – it was akin to the Ark of the Covenant. Since it was not there, I thought it was not utilized. My boss found it in 30 seconds. I was a wreck, I apologized profusely to my boss and his partner. I told him abut my awful week and asked for forgiveness. He seemed to listen with a certain amount of ennui that only a heterosexual man can, “It was not a big deal." I felt like a chastised Chinese wife telling her husband that the parasitic organism in my womb is a girl.

My life is kind of a wreck right now. I spent the good part of the week in disbelief. By Thursday I was a storm of outrage and contempt. Friday was a bit better, I had a 2,000 calorie dinner with Jason and Ashley. Saturday was fun too, 8 hours of playing Infamous, and a birthday/house warming party with happy couples, but if there were babies I would have euthanized myself. Today, was a bit weird, I went to church, and ate lunch at Joy’s while reading Julie and Julia.

I was at sea amongst floatsam and jetsam all week. With the exception of Thursday, I felt nothing. It was only at lunch when I read the dedication that the tears started running:

“For Julia, without whom I could not have done this, and for Eric, without whom I could not do at all.”

What makes that Eric different than this Eric. How did that one change another's life so much that he eclipsed Julia child. And how did this one whose only claim to fame is having two monster cats. Motivations ... I want to be that Eric.