So lately, I've been getting the urge to take all the self help books with titles like, "Why Your Life Sucks," "Find a New Career," and "How to Deal With Difficult People" on hold under my name at work, just so my coworkers realize just how misanthropic I really am under the hyper perky surface.

Speaking of me being misanthropic: I think the whole "all my dreams are dead and this is all I do" spiel depresses people I tell it to. Which, it isn't that depressing to me until I see how depressing it is to other people. They really pity me that much for not really having anything else going on? Well I have a job, parents that let me mooch, and I have a really nice CD collection. So what if my hopes and dreams are dead? I'm not living in a gutter or in a third world country and I don't have a drug habit. That should be good enough, dammit!

Anyway, I bring this up because I talked to this dude I knew in high school today that I hadn't seen since then. That actually happens a LOT in retail if your town's not huge. The day before yesterday I talked to a chick I had shop class with in Junior High and hadn't seen since. And I really DO appreciate the people who stop to talk to me instead of pretending they didn't know me. People who pretend not to remember you are seriously assholes*. Because they DO remember. They just don't want to talk to you, those bastards! Anyway, I gave him my whole misanthropic song and dance, and I could really see pity in his eyes.

However, he told me he was going to school to be a physics teacher, so... I wonder if he saw the pity in my eyes? Because teaching sucks, physics sucks, and if I had to teach physics to a bunch of high school students, I would kill myself. Also: he's gained a lot of weight and grown a pretty ugly beard.
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* Including me. Except, actually, instead of pretending I don't know the person, I pretend I don't see the person. It works pretty well, as I frequently don't notice people even when I DO want to talk to them.