A Tale of Two Enemies

  I have a new least favorite book this week. A Tale of Two Cities is probably one of the worst books that I have ever read. It takes him sooo much longer to say such simple things that in any other time period would only take a few words. I mean I understand that people paid the authors by the word back then, but his way of saying things is just crazy. I really just want to burn the book and have it crumble into dust. It is so boring that I've fallen asleep several times while standing up and reading it. My question is ,"Why can't our English teachers just let us read something from around this time period, so that the book is at least in the English that WE speak. Dickens' book might as well be in Latin, his words would be about as meaningful to me then as they are now. I feel as though the book and I are enemies, it trying to keep me from understanding what it contains, and I, who simply wants to read it and understand what it means so that I don't fail English class. I would understand why we would read it if I was the only one that hated it, but as far as I can tell, no one, besides those who can analyze its true meaning, so much as likes the book, yet alone wants to read it.
   So I ask once again,"Why can't we read something that was written within the last hundred years?" Seriously, what are we supposed to learn from this book? How to read Old English and its many strange spellings? Stuff that we will never use again? What can we possibly learn from this book, other than the fact that Dickens decidedly enjoys to speak in various riddles, using things such as colors and other symbols to convey his thoughts to his readers, as if he can't just come out and say something, only dance around the topic and give everyone a different impression of what he is saying. This book is now my enemy and this is war.

"Life is Like a Box of Chocolates"

  I was really afraid that I wouldn't have anything to rant about this week, but sure enough, I found something. This Halloween I nominate the "fun size" Snickers bar as a deadly weapon. Today, when my brother decided to be nice and share some of his Halloween candy with me, he made the questionable decision of throwing it as hard as he could to hit "next to my face," and surprise me. What he ended up doing was chucking a UFS (Unidentified flying Snickers) directly into my face, barely missing my eye. So, yes, I almost got a black eye from a piece of candy. I have also added this to the most random injuries that I have yet received. If you're thinking, "so what, it couldn't hurt that badly," let me tell you that it is not a pleasant experience. I also checked the bar afterward and it wasn't even dented, although my eye is killing me now, so that probably can't be very good.
  Tonight's football game was freezing. I swear it was at least 0 degrees out but it might have been lower. Everybody was going crazy and losing their minds and Melrose was finally the team that broke our perfect streak. The end score was 20-19 when we definitely should have won even though neither team did exceptionally well.
   To end this post on a nice note, I witnessed one of the very few great acts of kindness at Market Basket this past Sunday. While I was bagging, one of the customers came through with all of the stuff he got. Once I got everything bagged and in the cart and he had to pay the cashier, he realized that he didn't have his debit card on him because he left it with his wife. When he thought that he couldn't pay and that we'd have to put everything away, he apologized over and over again and figured that he would have to come back later on. Just when I was getting ready to unbag everything, the man behind him in line told him that he would pay. I was amazed. it was that awesome Hallmark moment in all the Christmas movies but it was happening right in front of me. That was the first time I'd seen anyone do that for someone he didn't know and i thought that it was the coolest thing ever. I just hope that the other guy decides to be like the man that paid for him and pay it forward and keep the cycle going. Maybe there is hope for the world.