You Think The Birds Are All Hi-Tech Cameras That Are Trying To Catch Sight Of You Naked Day!

You are pretty sure that Mrs. Lewis, the 81-year-old lady who lives down the block, has a thing for you. You're also pretty sure that Mrs. Lewis is a wealthy criminal mastermind with the power to build thousands of tiny cameras disguised as birds and scatter them around the trees outside your windows, solely to catch an occasional glimpse of you in the nude.

Everything changed between you and Mrs. Lewis back in 1981 when she wandered over to your stoop one Saturday afternoon and offered you a glass of lemonade.

"I'm a widower," you told her, "but my deceased beloved still has my heart."

Mrs. Lewis went back to her apartment and, you're certain, began plotting ways to glimpse you out of your shirts. She spent the next decade, you're certain, designing the prototype for her bird cameras, and began distributing them in the years that followed.

You're staring at thirty of her cameras right now. You're drawing on a large piece of posterboard. You're making a sign. It reads, "Would you care to join me for a cup of coffee Mrs. Lewis? It's been a long, lonely summer, and I'd prefer that the autumn not follow suit."

You hold the sign up to the bird cameras for a full minute, more than long enough for Mrs. Lewis to read it. Then you put the sign down and you wait to hear her knock on your door. If she doesn't knock, you'll have your answer.

Happy You Think The Birds Are All Hi-Tech Cameras That Are Trying To Catch Sight Of You Naked Day!

Airplane Dance Number Day!

You're on a plane with 83 people who coordinated a dance number to be performed on the plane so that they can get big numbers on Youtube and then get their shit played on a loop on Fox and Friends or some shit like that. You're the only one who doesn't know the moves and they're afraid you're going to ruin everything.

"You have to learn the steps," one of them, named Dusty, is telling you.

"But I'm playing in-flight trivia on my seat-back TV and winning big," you say.

"Who's playing in-flight trivia with this guy!" Dusty shouts. Then the passengers playing in-flight trivia argue that they're just trying to kill some time while you get convinced to learn the dance number. They point out that in-flight trivia really makes the time fly by, but Dusty counters that they all spent over $400 to be on this flight just to do the dance number and the dance number is what they're gonna do. The ones playing in-flight trivia say "fair enough" and they stop playing.

"Fuck!" you say. "I was killing it."

"Just learn the dance number and as soon as we get it on video, you can go back to watching the Office or whatever," Dusty says.

"But I can't dance," you say. "And this sounds gay as balls."

"Of course it's gay as balls," Dusty says. "You think a youtube clip can get played on TV if it isn't gay as balls? You see that one of those stocky people dancing down the aisle at that wedding?"

You concede Dusty's point.

"I really can't dance," you say.

Dusty tries to think of what to do to keep you from ruining everything.

"I got it," Dusty says. Then he beats you over the head until you're unconscious and stuffs you into the lavatory. They conduct their number while you're unconscious in there, but some turbulence knocks you off balance and you end up falling on your neck in a way that constricts the blood-flow to your head and you die in there. The tape of the dance number gets played on all the networks, day and night, to show what the rest of the passengers were doing while a man died in the airplane bathroom. The chyrons on the nightly news will read "Dance Of Death Flight" because no one at the studio could agree on what the chyrons should read so someone just typed something and shouted, "No more arguing!"

Happy Airplane Dance Number Day!

You're a Terrible Developer of Timewasting Websites Day!

You've been trying to come up with a hit, viral timewasting website for a while now, but all of your ideas are horrible. Your latest takes the cake, "Tree or Child Killed By A Stray Bullet dot com." It's one of those constantly refreshing sites where people click quiz after quiz. A name appears, and visitors have to click on whether they think the name is the name of a tree or a child who was killed by a stray bullet. So the screen either says something like "Maple" (clearly, a tree) or something along the lines of "Amber Rae Peterson" (I'm guessing child killed by stray bullet). How is that a challenge?

It's common knowledge that you hate criticism and you're going to read this and shout, "But I'm just trying to get my wife to come back!" This won't work. Write her a letter.

Happy You're a Terrible Developer of Timewasting Websites Day!

Pay The Kid To Sauce Your Lemonade Day!

You threw one too many punches, kissed one too many dames when they weren't looking, threw up one too many times on the pool table right after the felt got changed, and so you finally got thrown out of Murray's for good.

Nowhere else to drink in this neighborhood. What's your day gonna be like with no bar to belly up to? Who's gonna pour your sauce and ask you what's what?

Wait a minute. That yellow-headed kid on the corner selling lemonade to pay for his mom's prescriptions. He's looking for customers!

You slap a buck on his cardboard counter top and you say, "Pour."

He does. You sip. Then spit.

"Weak," you say.

"I can add more sugar," the kid says.

"Nah, nah. Wait a minute," you say. You slap a five on the counter. "Sauce it."

The kid just stares at you.

"Ain't got no sauce? Hang on."

You head to the corner and buy the best pint of vodka five dollars will allow.

"Here you go," you tell the kid. "Pour me another, but fill the cup with that halfway."

The kid says, "I don't know."

"Look son," you say. "I need a bar and I need a bartender or else I'm just a ship at sea. You're gonna have to take the job. You'll learn quick you sauce a guy like me, he'll keep giving you his money till you throw him out, and you will throw him out. Trust me."

You slap two bucks on the counter. The kid pours. You drink.

"Gimme that stool. Ain't sitting on the grass. Bartender works on his feet anyway."

The kid gives you his stool and you sit.

"Hope it don't rain," you say to the kid.

The kid says, "Not likely to I reckon."

Then you spend the next ten hours silently staring at the hedge just past his shoulder, trying to think back to 1973 and remember Gina's hips.

Happy Pay The Kid To Sauce Your Lemonade Day!

Gambling Husband Day!

You're going to have to defend your husband against another close-minded jerk again today. Apparently he stole your teenage babysitter's credit card and used it to gamble online. He ended up charging several thousand dollars in losses onto her card.

"He's a maniac," your babysitter will say.

Slap her in the face.

"My husband is not a maniac. He's a gambler."

"But, he lost all my money."

Slap her in the face again.

"Would you have been complaining if he'd won?" ask her.

"Why'd you slap me in the face? I was just stating a fact."

Put your teenage babysitter in a headlock and drag her around the room while shouting, "You're just jealous because I found a man who's willing to take chances!"

Then throw her through the bay window. She'll run off and call the police.

Happy Gambling Husband Day!

You Owe A Doctor $87,432 Day!

You've never even been in to see this doctor, but he started sending you bills anyway. They totaled $87,432 and they cover routine blood tests and other preventative health screenings.

"But I don't know who you are and haven't seen a doctor in years," you tell the doctor when you call.

"Must have been a billing screwup," the doctor says.

"So do I have to pay it?" you ask.

"Of course," the doctor says. "You got a bill didn't you?"

"But you just said it was a screwup," you say.

The doctor sighs. "Look, I don't know how this billing system works, and I would never presume to know. The billing system has a plan for us that we could never comprehend. What I think is a screwup is probably a part of a grand tapestry of billing that goes back for years and years, and will keep going into the future, until the billing system decides the time is right to reveal itself to a cowering mankind."

You realize that this doctor might be making sense. If you getting billed $87,432 for health services you never sought is part of a larger plan, that means your life isn't just a meaningless assemblage of humiliating moments that will end as randomly as it began.

If the billing system has decided you owe $87,432, choosing not to pay it would be tantamount to choosing to have never existed at all.

"Will you take a check?" you ask the doctor.

The doctor says, "However the bill says to do it, do that. Trying to pay any other way would only anger the billing system."

You hang up and read the bill. It says payment must be made in offspring (either two boys or three and a half girls).

Happy You Owe A Doctor $87,432 Day!

Goodbye The Gardener Day!

The gardener doesn't want to have sex with you anymore.

"But I bought all these new contraptions," you'll say.

"I met someone else," he'll say. "She's married and dissatisfied as well. She lives in the mansion three houses down. She really gets me."

"Is this because of that one time when I told you that if you didn't sleep with me I'd accuse you of stealing and have you arrested?"

The gardener will say, "It's not that. I hear that line every day."

He'll come and kneel by your daybed where you like to drink in the afternoon.

"People change," he'll say. "They grow. It's what makes life worth living. Sure there's loss, but only to make room for more gain."

You'll throw your pitcher of mimosa at his head but he'll duck. Then he'll run out the front door, not even looking over his shoulder for one last glance at the beauty you gave to him. You'll go upstairs, put on some makeup, then you'll go out back to show your naked breasts to the pool cleaner, just to get his input.

Happy Goodbye The Gardener Day!

Long Drive Just To Find Out If A Friend Is Alive Or Not Day!

You're stuck in traffic on some such highway headed north to Dean's house on the ugliest hill in Vermont. Dean was in that group of your friends who dropped out of your life when they turned 35. Dean was at least good enough to go and hole up in the middle of nowhere. The others just went about their lives, not changing a thing except for eliminating you from their immediate social circle.

Dean left town in a scary way. He started getting quieter and quieter, showing up less and less, then right at the point when people started filling conversation gaps with the "I'm worried about Dean" icebreaker, Dean sends out an email inviting everyone to come by his place cause he's giving away a lot of stuff. A week later he was gone.

The traffic's moving a little better now and you wonder if you're really worried about Dean or if you're just bored. You sent your first email to him a month ago without a reply, then you started sending him another every couple of days, demanding he reply.

Earlier this week, you wrote that if he doesn't write back, you're coming up to that shack of his and busting down the door. He didn't write back. Here you are on this stupid road. The leaves haven't even turned yet.

If Dean's dead, you're not sure what you're supposed to do. Did you drive all this way just to be the one who finds his body, dials 911, then drives back home? It's not like you're going to make the funeral arrangements.

His silence has lasted a month now. Were you thinking he's just been sitting on the floor, staring at your emails on his screen, rocking back and forth for weeks and weeks hoping you'll bust through the door and cheer him up?

What scares you the most is maybe you're only making this heroic, worried drive because you didn't go anywhere this summer and you wanted to take a trip. You're worried that you didn't want to save your friend so much as you wanted to get the weekday rate on a Zipcar. Before pulling out of town you considered stopping at the Apple store to get a car adapter for your iPod, but you knew you wouldn't have been able to live with yourself if you had stopped for the adapter and then shown up to find Dean freshly deceased.

"Had I only arrived five minutes sooner..."

Whatever the reason you took the trip, you're here now, here at Dean's. You've just turned off the engine. The light's on in the living room, but you can't see him. That light doesn't need to be on, the sun's shining bright through his many windows. You instantly decide it's been left on for days and nights and Dean really did pack it in.

You escape from your seatbelt and roll out of the car. You drop your keys in the dirt driveway and scrabble around for them. When you stand back up, Dean's standing in his open doorway. He's been waiting for you.

"I was gonna reply, but you said you'd come up if I didn't reply, so I didn't reply."

Dean's excited to have a houseguest. He has lunch ready.

Happy Long Drive Just To Find Out If A Friend Is Alive Or Not Day!

Last Call Day!

You and that guy are the last ones in the bar.

“Guess you’re it,” you say.

“Anything you need to know in advance?” he asks.

You shake your head mournfully. He helps you off your stool and leads you to the door.

“What if we end up together?” he says, while hailing a cab. “What if we get married and spend the rest of our lives together. All because we forgot to leave the bar earlier tonight.”

“I don’t think I’d be so great to grow old with,” you say.

“Me neither,” he says. You’re in the cab now. “That’s what I mean. Our fates could have already been decided by my decision to order that one last one a half hour ago, and your decision to wait for your songs to come on the jukebox.”

“That’s weird,” you say, pulling him into a kiss. You take a breath and say, “It’s hard to imagine that I might be marrying you someday. I mean, I feel nothing.” You kiss him again, just to prove that last statement to yourself. You're in your apartment now.

“Think if you make it out of this one without us getting tied down you’ll start drinking less?” he asks you. You’re having sex now.

“Doubt it,” you say. You’re coming now. “I can make all the empty promises I want but I know myself. I don’t know what’ll make me stop drinking, but it certainly won’t be when things work out the way I’m hoping they will. It’ll probably be more like if I get thrown in jail or something. I wonder about that a lot. You don’t get to drink in jail, do you? I mean, you can probably sneak the occasional bottle in, but that’s probably rare. How do they do it?” You’re done coming now.

“Well, whatever happens, you have a real nice place,” he says. He’s getting dressed and leaving now.

“I’ll call you,” you say. He’s gone now.

Only time will tell if you call him or not, like you said you would. If you do and this thing really does work out, at least you have this great “how we met” story to tell your grandkids one day.

Happy Last Call Day!

Your Daughter Might Be Dating a Relocated Witness Day!

Your daughter is dating a boring guy named Ben Jamison who says that he is in “accounts.” But your daughter says that the only reason he seems so boring is because he was in the witness relocation program and people are still after him.

“He told you that?” you ask your daughter.

“Of course not. He’d be killed,” your daughter says.

According to your daughter, there’s no way she could feel what she feels for Ben if he didn’t have some secret past that he’s trying to keep hidden, which is why he has to present himself as the least interesting person she’s ever met.

“Are you sure you’re not just inventing this secret past for him in order for you to settle for this guy?” you ask your daughter.

Your daughter says, “Watch this.”

She claps a book shut hard so that it sounds like a gunshot. In the living room, Ben immediately drops to the floor, whips a pistol out of his boot and fires twelve rounds through the bay window.

“I’ll never doubt you again,” you tell your daughter. “You got yourself a real livewire there.”

“Thanks Daddy,” she’ll beam up at you.

Happy Your Daughter Might Be Dating a Relocated Witness Day!

Treasure Rehab Day!

You’ve discovered a map that indicates there is an ancient treasure hidden deep underground on a hill in California. Turns out they built a rehab center on top of it, and the only way to get to that treasure is to admit yourself into rehab.

While you bide your time, inspecting the grounds and waiting for the right moment to bust through the basement, you’re going to have to attend the group therapy sessions where you’ll learn quite a lot about yourself. For example, the reason you turned to a life of crime is because your father favored your older brother who died on his Prom Night. And the reason you keep having to steal money to buy more cocaine is because you keep running out of cocaine because you’re addicted to cocaine.

When you finally find the treasure you’ll discover that it’s cursed and you’ll be killed and turned into a ghost forced to haunt the rehab center and that’s how you’ll become “The Ghost Of Shimmering Lake Rehabilitation and Rejuvenation Retreats (We Now Take Discover).”

Happy Treasure Rehab Day!

Your Son Ain't Gonna Be Born In No Women's Prison Day!

You and your wife are notorious thieves wanted in more states than there are stars on the flag, which is tough to do. After your most recent heist, your wife got nabbed by the cops and sent upriver. A pretty inconvenient wrinkle under any circumstances, but especially so right now, because your wife is seven months pregnant with your first child, a son.

"No way is my baby boy gonna be born in no women's prison," you tell the rest of your crew.

"But They know you'll try and bust her out," your demolitions expert says. "They're holdin' her just to make you come for her. They'll be waitin' boss."

"Then we better not make em wait too long," you say.

Happy Your Son Ain't Gonna Be Born In No Women's Prison Day!

Death Race For A Boy Day!

You like a boy named Craig in your school, but so do five other girls. Rather then spend all year fighting over him, you've agreed to a death race. You and the five other girls are going to drive your parents' cars through an industrial area littered with explosives and booby traps. Whoever is still alive at the end gets to date Craig (and live beyond age 17).

You can rest easy knowing that at the end of the race, you're going to come out the winner (your decision to arm your car with paint guns was genius, allowing you to blind the other teenage girls' windshields, sending them to crash at high speeds to their deaths). Though you'll come out of the race alive, a spike that gets lodged in your leg will spread an infection that forces doctors to amputate. Craig doesn't like the disabled, so he'll refuse to date you.

"Forget him," your father will say. "Don't let some boy decide whether you have value or not. The important thing is that you gave it your all, and you came out on top. See what happens when you apply yourself?"

Your mother will add, "I am so proud of you sweetie. I wouldn't trade you for any one of those girls you killed."

You'll thank your parents and ask them to leave you alone in your room. You'll wait for sleep to come, wondering why boys have to be such jerks.

Happy Death Race For A Boy Day!

Leafblower Killer Day!

You want to go down in history as the Leafblower Killer and today's your first kill. You find a neighbor in his yard and you sneak up from behind. When he turns around, you turn on your leafblower and aim it straight at his head. Unfortunately, the gust isn't strong enough to blow his head off. It just puts his glasses out of place and makes him annoyed. So you take the heavy base of the leafblower and bludgeon him to death with it.

That worked, even though it didn't quite go as planned. You'll still be able to be called the Leafblower Killer, but you'll just have to go around hitting people over the head with your leafblower. Your shoulder will be stiff, but hey, that's murder.

Happy Leafblower Killer Day!

Train Tracks Day!

You're nine so it's time to go fuck around near some fuckin' train tracks. Hang out with some homeless guys maybe? Poke a dead opossum with a stick or something. Set fire to a stray cat maybe? Poke a dead homeless guy with a stick or something. Pee up in the air and get a little bit on you maybe? Meet a girl who's looking for food for her sick dad or something. Help escaped convicts get their ankle shackles off maybe? Find a trash bag full of porno mags or something. You're nine. There's train tracks. They were built solely for you to fuck around on. It was only after several years of nine-year-olds fucking around on train tracks that someone realized those tracks could also be used for trains to ride on. The nine-year-olds were against it at first but once the trains started rolling on those rails they found that a lot of stuff falls off of trains that nine-year-olds find very fuck-around-withable. Anyway, those tracks are waiting, nine-year-old. Have a fun and disgusting and extremely dangerous time.

Happy Train Tracks Day!

Wargames Peterson Day!

Your parents named you Wargames Peterson because they loved the movie WarGames and they wanted you to embody the sense of light-hearted terror they felt while watching the 80's techno-thriller. It's annoying, though, because every time you tell someone your name they immediately start speaking in the Joshua voice and asking, "Shall we play a...game?" Or worse, they'll want to tell you how much they loved the movie, as if you had anything to do with it.

"My parents were just real into it," you tell them.

"But you must have loved it too, right? Everyone loves WarGames."

You never admit this to them, but you still haven't seen the movie. You're so pissed at your parents for giving you this crappy name that you've kept yourself from seeing it just to spite them. You're so sick of it all that today you're going down to city hall to legally have your name changed to Lawrence.

The clerk will read your name-change application form, then he'll look up at you and ask, "Now why would you want to go and do a thing like this?"

"I just want a normal name," you'll say.

"But anyone can be Lawrence," the clerk will say. "You're Wargames!"

The clerk will then tell you the story about how his parents named him Adelelmo, which means noble protector in German. He always hated the name and he decided to change it to Felix. Then his father explained to him that his Great Great Great Grandfather named his child Adelelmo but the boy was murdered as a teen when he protected his mother from invading hordes, and since then there's been an Adelelmo in every generation of his family to keep that ancestral child's brave spirit alive. The clerk told his father he didn't give a shit and he went ahead and changed his name to Felix.

"But I wouldn't have done it if my Great Great Great Grandfather had named his kid Wargames. Great movie. Shall we play a...game?"

You'll say to the clerk, "You know, I've never seen it."

The clerk will be shocked. "Then you don't even know what your namesake is. You can't take this step without at least learning what you're named for."

The clerk will invite you over to his place to watch WarGames. You'll only make it a half-hour into the movie before the clerk makes a pass at you and you split. You'll end up keeping the name, but only because you're afraid to see the clerk again.

Happy Wargames Peterson Day!

Stop Drunk Texting Your Priest Day!

Hey fther, just thru up in a cab. Dont tell jeesus! Shhhhhhh

Not cool. Your priest gave you his cell phone number back when your parents were getting a divorce and he wanted you to feel like you could call him anytime you needed some support through that trying time. Yes, it was a mistake on his part. He was new to the Parish and just out of the seminary and he was maybe trying a little too hard to be "the cool Priest." But this is no way to pay him back.

Hey father. Lotta wasted chicks at this party. Gonna try for a 2fer 2night. Jealous?

He doesn't need this. Sure, maybe you never needed his help. Maybe you're feeling a little wild now that you're twenty and out on your own. Maybe you think you'll never need the kind of help your Priest has to offer.

Hey Father. Beating off. Right fuckin now. sinsinsinsinsinsinsinsinsinSINSINSINSINSIN!!!

Have you ever asked yourself why you always feel the need to text your Priest when you're drunk? Do you ever think that maybe, when you're texting all these horrible things what you really want to text is...

Father? I need to talk to somebody.

Lucky for you, he'll still be there when you need him.

Happy Stop Drunk Texting Your Priest Day!

You Left Your Heart At The Topahanga Campground Port-A-Potty Day!

Today riding home in the passenger seat while your husband curses the traffic from behind the wheel, all you can do is remember that hand on your lower back, that breath in your ear, that stench of sanitizer and feces.

"Beautiful night," he said when he saw you.

"Yes it is."

You'd already been waiting for five minutes for the person inside the Port-a-Potty to come out and you really had to go. You tried not to dance while talking to him.

"Here with your family?"

"My husband and son," you nodded.

"My wife and daughter," he said with a little bow of his head.

"I guess we're both on the same page," you said, almost immediately regretting it. What did you mean by that?

"My dad used to take me here when I was a kid," he said. "Weird that I would take my daughter here too. I don't remember ever liking these trips."

You heard a noise hoping the Port-a-Potty door was opening but you were let down.

"It's hard to break tradition," you said. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm ever going to do anything that I haven't already done a hundred times before."

"You just have to decide what you want to do and do it," he said.

His two top shirt buttons were open. You saw his chest. It glowed in the lamplight. The Port-a-Potty door opened and you ran inside and locked the door behind you.

While peeing, you could only think about him out there, waiting, listening. What had he thought when you said "we're on the same page." You didn't mean anything untoward. Did you? And that line about new experiences. Good God, your husband was in a tent only two hundred feet away.

So it had to happen fast.

Your pants pulled up but left unbuttoned, you flung the door of the Port-a-Potty open, grabbed him by his open shirt collar and yanked him inside with you.

It was a matter of minutes. He lifted you up above him, bending your head awkwardly against the curved plastic ceiling so that your neck still hurts this morning. You worried about the surfaces your hand might touch so you made sure to keep them on his body.

You kissed, you grappled, you negotiated the space around you and the space inside you with a man whose name you didn't catch. You were ravished and you ravished, all the while with your sneakered foot resting on the toilet paper roll for balance. When the minutes had ended you left the Port-a-Potty first. You said goodbye only with a "wait thirty seconds after I leave." Then you returned to your tent and hid yourself inside your sleeping bag.

Last summer and the nine summers before that, you'd spend the drive home wondering if you remembered to clean up your campsite. Driving home today you wonder if your footprint was visible on that toilet paper this morning in the Topahanga Campground Port-A-Potty. So nice to have a new place for your thoughts to go, no matter how bad it smells.

Happy You Left Your Heart At The Topahanga Campground Port-A-Potty Day!

Asshole Love Triangle Day!

You are in love with Jenny but Jenny isn't sure if she's ready to commit to you, so you're dating Sheila who really wants you, but Sheila can tell how you feel for Jenny. Meanwhile, Sheila and Jenny kind of find each other attractive, but they hate each other because of all the confusion over where your heart lies.

If it all sounds like a confusing, frustrating, super-compelling mess of a love triangle, it isn't. That's because all three of you are assholes and no one really cares who assholes end up with. You could torture each other all you want but it doesn't really matter. Even though you might think it's love that's making you crazy, everyone knows that asshole love isn't real. Anything that goes on inside the heart or mind of an asshole is just asshole bullshit that sucks.

So stop freaking out over whether you should be with Jenny or Sheila. Nothing you feel is real or valid. When the world would be better off if you didn't exist, you blurting out the wrong name during sex really doesn't count as a big event in the scheme of things. Additionally, if you all kill each other in a jealous rage, cool.

Happy Asshole Love Triangle Day!

Slip A Tylenol In Your Date's Drink Day!

Tonight's your big date with Roxy. If you wanna make it go REALLY well (wink wink) when she's not looking slip a Tylenol into her Diet Pepsi. As the Tylenol starts to take hold, any mild pain or inflammation she might feel will be slightly alleviated.

"I'm not sure why," she'll say with a smile. "But being around you makes my joints feel a little less achy. Only a little, but I definitely feel it."

"Guess we're hitting it off," you'll say.

Roxy will put her hand on yours. Take it away, then place your hand on hers.

"I have the upper hand," you'll say.

Roxy won't know what you mean. You'll mean that of the two of you, you're the only one at the table who knows that Roxy just ingested a Tylenol.

Happy Slip A Tylenol In Your Date's Drink Day!

Topless Tim and Pantsless Paul Day!

Topless Tim and Pantsless Paul are coming over to break the news to you that the kid you were mentoring through Big Brothers just got sent to jail for gun possession.

"But I thought I was getting through to him!" you'll shout.

Topless Tim will reach out to give you a hug and say, "You did all you could." But you'll push Topless Tim away and shout, "Can you just put on one of my shirts before you do that?"

Topless Tim will assume you're just taking your frustration out on him. Pantless Paul will say, "You gave that kid a lot. But he was already headed down this road. You couldn't have stopped him."

Pantless Paul will sit beside you on your bed and rub your back. You'll shove him off.

"Your buttcrack is on my comforter! Get off."

You'll get up and go to your dresser and pull out a clean pair of white briefs.

"Put these on. Please!"

Pantsless Paul will look at the underwear and shout, "Look, I know you're upset but that's no reason to try and tell us how to live our lives!"

"I just want you to put on pants while you're around me!" you'll say.

You'll look down and see that Pantsless Paul's scrotum has gone taut and he is semi-erect.

"Do you have to pee?"

Pantsless Paul will say, "I don't know."

Topless Tim will then yank you into a strong bearhug and he will be damp because your apartment is too warm. He'll slide and slither his torso against yours, trying to hold you tight against the grief you feel. But only be able to pay attention to the breadcrumb you saw in his chest hair before he hugged you, knowing that that breadcrumb is probably now stuck in your chest hair.

"Can you just put a shirt on!" you'll shout as you shove Topless Tim away.

Pantsless Paul will say, "You have a lot of advice to give for a guy whose Big Brother mentee just got sent to prison."

You'll demand that Topless Tim and Pantsless Paul leave you alone. After they're gone you'll pick the breadcrumb from your chest hair and wonder why good kids make bad mistakes.

Happy Topless Tim and Pantsless Paul Day!

Elephants! Day!

You are very excited to see the new disaster movie called Elephants! in which the world’s elephants rise up and start stomping on people. You’ve been excited to see it ever since you read the movie’s tagline. “This summer, we’re gonna find out what happens when the world’s elephants decide start throwing their weight around.”

When you arrive at the theater you’re surprised to find that there isn’t a line of people camping out to see it. You sniff some glue, then you buy your ticket and head inside. Once inside the auditorium you discover that for the first time ever in your movie-going life you’re the only one in the theater.

After waiting a few minutes, instead of the lights going down they get brighter. That’s when all of your friends and family file in and tell you that there’s no such thing as a movie called Elephants! This is just your intervention. You’ve been sniffing so much glue that the only way to get you to show up someplace is to make you believe that a summer movie about murdering elephants is in theaters, waiting to appeal to your deteriorated brain.

“But I saw commercials for it on TV,” you say.

Your rich brother Mark raises his hand and says, “Guilty.”

“But Matthew McConaughey was interviewed by Byron Allen about what it was like to live with elephants for three months,” you say.

That’s when you see Matthew McConaughey laying down on the floor behind everybody.

“Sorry bro,” he says. “Your folks wrote me a letter saying you were a real fan. Hope you get better.”

You protest some more but eventually your family just gathers around you and tells you all the ways in which you suck. You pretend to listen, but all the while you’re trying to envision in your head how the movie Elephants! would have played out if it existed.

Happy Elephants! Day!

Teenagers Not Gonna Turn Their Backs On Love Day!

You're stopped at a stoplight when you glance toward the high school campus and see them walking toward each other across the football field. Jeff's been showing up to summer football practice. He thinks they're gonna have a real good year. Mary's teaching SAT prep to sophomores. She's got early admission to Penn but she's planning to make her last year count.

They wave when they're ten feet away from each other. They stop and put their hands in their pockets when they're four feet apart, like they're signaling that they don't wanna fight. They smile and nod their heads a lot when they talk. You can't hear them. But you have an idea what they're saying.

Did you have a good summer?

How's the team?

Ready for senior year?

Guess you'll be real busy...

Guess I'd better get back...

Look beyond Jeff and Mary and you'll see the audience has grown. Students scattered all around the campus have stopped where they are to watch Jeff and Mary talk for the first time since their blowout fight last June. They're divided between students who want Mary to take a swing at Jeff, and students who want Jeff to take Mary in his arms and give her a kiss that lasts till graduation day.

Your light has changed but you're not moving, and no one is honking. The whole intersection is waiting to see this play out.

Jeff shrugs. Mary shrugs and smiles. She reaches out a hand and brushes Jeff's shoulder lightly. Jeff lifts his hand in a little wave. And they turn away, backtracking across the field, like two generals returning to their armies.

Ten paces and Jeff stops. Mary gets five paces further than Jeff then she falls to her knees on the field, her hands over her face. Jeff finally turns and sees what we all see, sees Mary on the ground.

Jeff starts running.

He reaches Mary and pulls her up from the ground and she cries into his chest, his shoulder, his cheek, and then they're kissing. They're kissing an apology, an explanation, a declaration that they've been dying every summer day. They're kissing like they used to. And the whole world starts again.

Happy Teenagers Not Gonna Turn Their Backs On Love Day!

You're Tom Sizemore Day!

Today when you go to your local diner to get breakfast you're going to swear while you eat even though you're alone because you're Tom Sizemore. A child will be seated at the table next to you and you'll apologize to the child's mother for swearing. Then you'll get angry that you had to apologize to anybody and you'll throw your plate at the window and stalk out like a fast moving Frankenstein because you're Tom Sizemore.

Outside the diner, you'll pick up a newspaper box and throw it into the street. Then you'll run over to the box and check inside it to see if there's any toast or toys inside. Pissed off that the box is only holding newspapers, you'll sit in the middle of the street and sob at clouds.

A woman will shake you awake and you'll know by the light in the sky that you've been asleep in the middle of the street for several hours. "You're Tom Sizemore," she'll say.

She'll leave without waiting for you to confirm her accusation. You'll get up and run headfirst into a wall and fall down on your rear end. You'll get up and run headfirst into the wall again, not so hard this time though. You'll stay on your feet.

"Tom Sizemore has his wits about him now," you'll say to yourself. You'll spot a woman going into labor so you'll deliver her baby. Then you'll climb a fence and fall thirty feet into a construction pit. You'll live, but you won't wake up again until the next morning when you're not Tom Sizemore anymore.

Happy You're Tom Sizemore Day!

Run Through a Field of Tall Grass Holding Hands Like a Couple of Dickheads Day!

When you and someone you love come upon a field of tall grass, you should clasp hands and then take off running through the tall grass like a couple of dickheads. Make sure to wear big stupid smiles on your faces like you've figured out a way to pretend that everything isn't diseased. Keep running past the guy lying face down in a suit and tie. Keep running past the overweight child who just got beaten up by bullies and left there to bleed. Keep running past the acres of tall grass where those new condos are going up soon. If you can manage it, let your smiles hang low and open enough that you start to drool a little. That way people can look at you and think, "Are they high or just dickheads?" When you're done running one of you should tackle the other and then you should roll around in the tall grass, laughing like fuckwads.

Happy Run Through a Field of Tall Grass Holding Hands Like a Couple of Dickheads Day!

Papergirl Day!

You’re a ten-year-old girl who delivers newspapers, and that has nothing to do with the fact that you’re a lesbian.

“At least I think I’m a lesbian,” you tell your customers when they ask. “I’m only ten. But it’s looking like that’s the way I’m headed.”

Still, you didn’t take the job as some kind of political statement. Yes, delivering papers is traditionally a boy’s job. But there’s no reason for it to be. All you need is a stolen supermarket shopping cart and a throwing arm.

“I just like getting the word out to people,” you say. “I like knowing that my neighborhood gets their morning news directly from my fingertips. It makes me feel important.”

But your customers won’t let up. It’s gotten so that they won’t even pay you on collections day until you’ve convinced them that you didn’t take the job just because you know you’re going to be a lesbian when you grow up.

“Who I decide to kiss when I want to start kissing folks has no bearing on what I do to make some extra scratch so I can buy my GI Joes,” you like to tell them. That always seems to shut them up.

Happy Papergirl Day!

Learn To Surf Day!

You’ve wanted to learn to surf your whole life but you’ve been afraid to try it because in movies whenever someone tries to learn to surf all of the long-time surfers just try to stab him with switchblades they keep taped to the bottom of their boards. But you aren’t going to let them scare you.

You’ll swim out on your board (it’s got a yin-yang symbol on it, which you figured people would think is pretty cool). The other surfers will ignore you at first. You’ll do your best to stay out of their way. You’ll wait for a wave. You’ll wait and you’ll wait and you’ll wait while all the waves rise and break in the area where all of the other surfers are.

You’ll want to go over to their area, but you’ll know it will only cause trouble so you’ll just stay where you are.

After about an hour of waiting, your wave arrives.

“That’s my wave,” one of the other surfers shouts. He’s so far away it would take him five minutes to swim to where you are. This wave is twenty seconds away. There’s no way he could ride it. It’s yours.

“Ride that wave and you die,” the surfer shouts.

You look at him. Then you look back at the growing wave.

“No joke. Ride that wave and you die.”

The surfers, a dozen of them, reach under their boards and grab the sawed-off shotguns they keep duct-taped there in plastic bread bags so they don’t get wet. Twelve guns, still wrapped in plastic, are aimed straight at you. These guys really don’t like novice surfers.

You consider swimming into shore and saving your ass, but that’s the way you’ve lived your whole life.

With twelve guns ready to fire on you, you hop up on your board and you ride your wave with grace, with dignity, with experience far beyond your skill level. The surfers just watch, their guns still ready to fire, but no one pulling the trigger. Out of respect for the waves, they let you ride into shore.

“You got a lotta guts,” one of the surfers, the one who first threatened you, says. “We surfers have a saying: ‘Live to surf. Surf to live.’ You clearly understand that it’s better to die this morning on a wave than live another fifty years on a stretch of carpet.”

The surfer hands you a sawed-off shotgun, a Stroehmann bread bag and some duct tape.

“If you want to really surf, you’re gonna need these. Now let’s go catch some waves."

You and your new surfer friends run out into the water. You still feel the need to prove yourself, so the first time you see some novice surfers try to catch a wave, you shoot them both dead without even giving them a warning. They’ll be a teenage couple, a boy and a girl, just a couple of kids who picked the wrong beach.

Happy Learn To Surf Day!

Blankets Day!

Today’s the day for everyone across the nation to stay wrapped up in blankets, at least three. The blankets should be wrapped tightly enough that no one will be able to walk. That way, no one can go outside. Make sure you keep the blankets away from your mouth so you can still breathe, drink bourbon, and scream at God.

Happy Blankets Day!

You Are The Last Person On The Planet Who Doesn’t Know Jon Hamm Personally Day!

He’s had drinks with your closest friends on nights when you had work to do. He’s gone on a tubing trip with people at the office because one of them used to be his roommate. Even your parents love to tell the story about the time they broke down by the side of the road and Jon Hamm pulled over to see what he could do.

But you. Somehow you’re the only person you know who has managed to make it through his life without having had a personal interaction with actor Jon Hamm.

You’re so sick of it that tonight at a party you’re going to just make up a story about the time you and Jon Hamm went out for sushi together.

“But Jon Hamm hates sushi. Everyone knows this,” someone will say.

The party will go silent. Suddenly all of their eyes will roll up into their heads and they’ll all point at you and shriek. You’ll be abducted for experiments.

Happy You Are The Last Person On The Planet Who Doesn’t Know Jon Hamm Personally Day!

You Are The Nation’s Number One Star Of Antacid Commercials Day!

You topped the heap several years ago and you never looked down. It’s become the accepted reality of the industry that whichever antacid company can get you to endorse their product, that company will have the top-selling antacid on the shelves. It was rumored that in 2003 two competing antacid companies forged a secret pact to “share” you, having you appear in spots for one antacid for nine months and then switching to the other antacid’s spots for the next nine, just to be sure that a lesser antacid wouldn’t get the chance to steal you and build their market share.

You’ve been asked many times why you won’t make the jump into films or television. You evade this question, since your honest answer is not the kind of thing that belongs in the sort of trade magazines that interview you.

“Because films and television won’t help me destroy my father.”

Your father is the founder of the number five antacid company in the world. It used to be number one, until you started appearing in commercials for his competitors. Year after year you’ve delighted in watching his product’s sales tumble further and further. You only wish you could be there in his living room when your face appears on the TV commanding American viewers to join you in buying your father’s competitors’ products and help make your father a laughing stock. You have a gift, and you’ve devoted all of your energies toward honing that gift and using it to ruin the man who brought you into this world.

You and your father haven’t spoken in fifteen years. He’s never tried to confront you about your commercial acting. Not until today.

“You’ve made quite a career for yourself,” he’ll say to you from behind his desk in his far-too-air conditioned office.

“It’s good to have a goal,” you’ll say.

Your father will pick up a pen, stare at it like he had notes for his end of the conversation written on it, then he’ll put it down and say:

“What if I were to apologize to your mother? Would that make you stop?”

Apologize?

“You’d better hurry,” you’ll say. “Her last appeal was rejected. She’s going to be executed Friday evening.”

Your father’s face will go pale. His features will clench and he’ll clutch his chest.

“Do you need an antacid?” you’ll ask.

Happy You Are The Nation’s Number One Star Of Antacid Commercials Day!

Tell Your Dad He’s Gonna Miss Everything Day!

Your dad has been so focused on his career that he’s going to miss out on your entire childhood. You know how upset he’ll be if that happens, so it’s time to go confront him at his job and let him know what’s really important.

“How old am I Dad?” you’ll ask.

He’ll say, “I don’t know. Six? Look I’m really busy.”

“I’m eight,” you’ll say.

“Congrats,” your dad will say. “How about we talk about this when I get home.”

Tell your Dad that he always comes home too late for the two of you to talk. He’s never there to tuck you in. Never there to ask you what you learned today. He works so hard that he’s just never there for you at all.

“If you don’t try and become less focused on work, before you know it I’ll be eighteen and moving out of the house and you won’t have a clue how you missed it all.”

Your Dad will start to cry. Then he’ll realize what’s really important and he’ll throw down his apron and tell his boss, “My son needs me! I quit.”

His boss will shout, “You’ll never bus tables at a Denny’s again!”

Your Dad will lift you up into his arms and carry you outside.

“Wanna go play catch?” he’ll ask. “I have a few hours before I have to go to my second job as a night watchman. I kind of need to keep that one if we want to try and pay the back rent on our apartment.”

Tell him you realize that true change might take a while, and if he wants to continue to pursue his career for a little while longer, that’s fine. “But remember,” say to him. “Every hour you’re at work is an hour that your son doesn’t have a father. So try not to be so selfish.”

Happy Tell Your Dad He’s Gonna Miss Everything Day!

How To Wipe Your Ass Day!

Stop crying. You'll never get off of the toilet and on the train to the funeral if you don't stop crying and wipe your ass.

Is there toilet paper on the roll or is it on the shelf? If there's none on the roll, you'll have to stand up from the toilet and walk to the shelf where the extra toilet paper is with your buttocks clenched to be sure nothing falls off of you. Nothing ever does when you go through this process, but it's still terrifying. Even though the shelf is only a few steps away. The terror of loosing a remnant of filth onto the floor makes this walk comparable to crossing a rickety rope bridge that's about to give under your weight. You can do it. (Make a note to store your extra toilet paper closer to your toilet and never do it.)

Unroll a foot and a half of toilet paper and ball it up in your hand. If the sink is next to the toilet, wet the ball under running water. You'll get cleaner this way. If you've been wiping your butt without wet toilet paper all your life, start using wet toilet paper. You've been doing it incorrectly and you might die.

Wipe once with the wet toilet paper and let it drop into the bowl.

Unroll another foot from the roll, ball it up, and use this to wipe yourself dry.

Now you're clean and ready to get on the train to go to the funeral. You can cry on the train, but set aside some time to work on what you're going to say to people at the funeral to let them know that you're feeling the right things.

Happy How To Wipe Your Ass Day!

Inside The Touring Band’s Van Day!

You love your favorite band so much and you wish you could find out what goes on inside their touring van. Tonight after the show you’re going to find out.

The van will be sitting right there in the parking lot. The band will be inside and you’ll hear them hooting and hollering since the rear door will be cracked open.

You’ll get closer. Then you’ll lean your ear near the door and give a listen.

“You sang well,” someone in the band will say, probably to the lead singer.

“Thank you. You played guitar well,” the singer will say, probably to the guitarist.

“Thank you. I think we can all agree Rodney played his bass perfectly tonight.”

Rodney’s the bass player. You’re starting to get disappointed.

“What about me?” You’ll assume that’s the drummer.

“Best drumming ever!” the others will shout.

Then there’ll be an awkward silence that will last for what seems like an eternity. Finally, one of them (the guitarist you think) will say, “Why are we so guarded around each other?”

No one will answer. Two girls will shove you out of the way to climb in the van but the band will shout, “No girls allowed. Boys only!” and slam the doors shut.

You’ll walk home, wondering why people can’t just say what’s in their hearts. In the end you’ll realize, that’s just rock n’ roll.

Happy Inside The Touring Band’s Van Day!

Remember The Rubdown Your Babysitter Gave You Day!

You were eleven. She was twenty and early in her matriculation at massage school. At eleven, you weren’t much in need of massage. When she asked you if she could practice on you, you said okay.

“Change into your bathing suit,” she said.

You went upstairs and got out of your clothes fast. You hurried into your bathing suit, fumbling with the drawstring and pulling it way too tight so that it would leave a red mark later.

You walked out of your room to the top of the steps and you saw your babysitter in the living room, waiting for you. She’d laid a bed sheet over the couch and was staring up at you in your suit like she was waiting for you to dive off the steps.

“Ready?” she asked.

Without speaking you went down the steps and lay down on your back, like you did at the doctor.

“Turn over on your belly,” your babysitter said. You did as you were told.

Then your babysitter drenched her hands in warm oil and began to rub your eleven-year-old muscles. She rubbed your shoulders. Your neck. The middle of your back. Your thighs. Your calves. Then back on up.

It hurt. Especially around the shoulders and calves. You just didn’t have anything in need of kneading at that age. But you wouldn’t have stopped her for the world. The rubdown made you tenser, in fact, trying to hold still. Trying not to flinch in pain or when you were tickled for fear of any reaction from you making her stop. So you went stiff as a board, hoping to make your babysitter rubdown last as long as you could. Hoping to spend the whole evening under her methodical, mechanical, studied touch. She spread her palms across your flesh and leaned her pelvis against your side like her very future was dependent on how she touched your skin that night.

You didn’t understand what you were supposed to be feeling, but you knew this was a lucky break. It was something you kept quiet about. It was something you don’t tell your parents about, and you weren’t even sure if you were supposed to tell your friends about it. It might have gotten you made fun of, you had no way of knowing. All you knew was to lie still and let this twenty year old girl touch you until she was done.

When she was done, she rubbed you with a towel and told you to go take a bath and get ready for bed. You’re not sure if your parents ever found out. All you know is she stopped babysitting for you soon after. Maybe she finished massage school and didn’t need the money anymore. Or maybe you just got big enough that you were able to stay home alone. Regardless of what became of your babysitter, you know that all of your massages have been letdowns ever since.

“And that’s why I don’t go to massage parlors,” you tell your friends over beers. “That and the whole human trafficking thing. Most of those girls have been kidnapped.”

Then you and your friends drink your beers silently, all of you basking in the vision of a twenty-year-old girl helping an eleven-year-old boy relax.

Happy Remember The Rubdown Your Babysitter Gave You Day!

You Switched Bodies With Another Zombie Day!

You are a zombie who loves to shuffle across the earth very slowly and eat brains. You also love to groan. Thanks to a freaky occurrence last night (you bumped into an old fortune telling machine that people used to put quarters into before the zombie apocalypse) you appear to have switched bodies with another zombie. So you are still the same zombie, except you're in a completely different zombie body. And that other zombie is walking around as you. This is going to be nutty!

You've been getting a lot of looks from other zombies who know the zombie whose body you're occupying and they are confused by how that zombie is suddenly so different-seeming (he used to drag his left foot, and now all of a sudden you're dragging his right). Meanwhile, your body is walking around with this other zombie inside it and you're worried that he's going to destroy the zombie life you've built for yourself. What if he tries to slowly attack the wrong people and gets your head knocked off your body with bats?

You and this other zombie need to figure out how to switch back before your careers are ruined. There's only one way you know how to pull it off. That's by shuffling around, groaning, and eating brains. You can do it!

Happy You Switched Bodies With Another Zombie Day!

Get Struck By Lightning Day!

Today you’re going to get struck by lightning so that you can acquire new magical powers. It’s going to hurt and you’ll be in a coma for a little while so you’re going to miss your Dad’s birthday, but it’ll be worth it when you’re able to touch people and find out how they’re gonna die or whatever.

“So what’d I get?” you’ll ask the doctor when he takes the bandages off your head.

“You got struck by lightning,” he’ll say.

“No, I know that. What powers do I have now? Can I see through walls?”

The doctor points to the wall. “I don’t know. Can you?”

You look at the wall. “Nope. Can I hear people’s thoughts?”

The doctor will look at you and wait. Then, “Did you hear that?”

“Nope,” you’ll say.

“I was thinking you were an idiot.”

“I didn’t hear it. Come on Doc. What’d I get from the lightning? I don’t want to have to wait a few weeks until one day I see a flash and all of a sudden I’m turning sand into pebbles.”

“That’s a power?”

“Could be.”

“Okay,” the doctor said. “I can’t be sure. But I think you might be able to kill people just by saying the word ‘really.’”

“Really?” you’ll say. The doctor will drop to the ground.

“Oh shit!”

The doctor will get back up, laughing hysterically.

“I’m just kidding. You didn’t get any magical powers. You just got struck by lightning you moron. Why does everyone think getting struck by lightning can turn them into superpeople? It's sad. Your life must be really empty that this is all you're hoping for.”

You’ll get so angry that you’ll grow twenty times your size and burst through the roof. After squeezing the doctor into goo with your fist, start running from helicopters.

Happy Get Struck By Lightning Day!

There’s An Atheist In Your Foxhole Day!

After four days hiding from the shelling in your foxhole, some guy pokes his head in and says, “There is no God. Shove over.”

You shove over, then you say, “I thought there weren’t any atheists in foxholes.”

The guy says there’s one in this foxhole so guess that settles that. “Also, your whole religion is a fairy tale,” he says. “Old guy with a beard sittin’ on a cloud givin’ a crap about your life. GIVE ME A BREAK!”

You ask him what God ever did to him and he says, “He took my wife and kids away from me. Couldn’t believe in the guy after that.”

You start to ask him how it happened, but he doesn’t get the chance to tell you about the drunk driver who crashed into his car. The whistle of a bomb streaks undeniably straight for your location, and without thinking the atheist pulls you on top of him and shields himself from the explosion with your body. You’re killed instantly and the atheist decides God delivered you unto him so that you could give your life to spare his and his belief in and love for God is restored. And thus your death was necessary to keep that “No Atheists In Foxholes” rule alive and well. You’d agree it was worth it if your torso wasn’t soup right now.

Happy There’s An Atheist In Your Foxhole Day!

Tell Your Parents You Can’t Move To The New Town With Them Day!

Your Dad just got offered a great new job with a huge raise. It’s really going to set up your whole family for life. Unfortunately, the job requires that you all move to Santa Fe. You’ve tried to explain that this is really inconvenient for you, but they just brush your concerns off, saying you’re only twelve and you’ll make new friends. They’re not taking you seriously.

Today’s the day of the big move. The truck is in the driveway, almost full. One thing not in that truck is your suitcase.

“I’m not going with you, Mom and Dad,” you’ll tell them. They’ll be in the kitchen making calls to arrange for various deliveries and utility transfers.

“Not now,” they’ll say.

Drop your suitcase and shout, “No. Now!”

They’ll hang up their phones and turn their attention to you.

“I have built a life here. I have friends. I have my soccer. I have a girlfriend who just let me kiss her for the first time last Friday afternoon. You can’t ask me to just give all that up and run off with you because you got a new job!”

Your parents will sit down on boxes and they’ll speak in calmer tones.

“You have to understand we’re only thinking about what’s best for all of us.”

Tell them, “What’s best for me is that I finish what I start. That I live the life I’ve been living. My life. Not yours.”

“Where will you live? What will you do for money?” your mother will ask.

“I have my route,” you’ll say. You distribute coupon circulars throughout the neighborhood on a weekly basis. “My school lunches are subsidized by local taxes. I’ll get by.”

“But we’re a team,” your dad will say.

“You can’t be a team if you don’t let your players play their best game.”

Your parents will know then that they’re not going to talk you out of this. “How can we reach you?” your Mom will ask.

“I’ll be staying in the fort me and my friends built out in the woods. I don’t get mail there yet, but if you send word people in this town will know how to find me.”

Your Mom will hug you and your dad will walk you outside. “This girlfriend. She pretty?” he’ll ask.

“She’s okay,” you’ll say.

Your Dad will tell you how he split up with his parents for a girl when he was ten and he never looked back. “You do what you gotta do.”

Your Dad will tousle your hair and wish you luck. You’ll head to the curb and stick out your thumb to hitch your way into the future.

Happy Tell Your Parents You Can’t Move To The New Town With Them Day!

Your Buddies Just Stopped By To Let You Know You're Beautiful Day!

Your buddies Nick and Booter are buzzing your apartment. They're on their way to work at Knutzens Tire Junction, but they just wanted to stop off and let you know that you're beautiful.

"I'm not!" you shout into your intercom.

"You is too!" Nick shouts back. "Don't you fuckin' say otherwise."

"I'm ugly! I am ugly!"

"You fuckin' piece of shit!" shouts Booter. "All throughout high school you were always the most attractive one of our crew. Whenever we'd do whippits, all the girls would fight over who gets to suck on the tube after you."

"And the waitresses always used to give you free cokes at Cracker Barrel," Nick adds.

"So don't fuckin' tell us you're not beautiful!" commands Booter. "Forget what Stacy Knutzen says."

"She's lonely and she's drunk with power," says Nick. "Wants to pretend she's Cleopatra."

Stacy Knutzen took over control of Knutzen's Tire Junction after her father died. She's a 26-year-old junior college grad with not a lot of brains. She announced on her first day on the job that she was firing "all the girls and the not-hot guys." You got the axe.

"There's no accounting for taste," Nick adds.

"What if I exercised?" you ask them. "If I lost like fifteen pounds? Got back down to my hockey weight?"

Nick and Booter hesitate. Then they shout, "Um, yeah! Sure! You could--" But you release the listen button and go back to bed. That moment's hesitation told you everything. You'll never be hot enough to get hired back into that tire shop. It's all over for you.

Happy Your Buddies Just Stopped By To Let You Know You're Beautiful Day!

You Missed Yesterday Day!

You slept through yesterday. You slept a full 36 hours. You don't know why. You weren't drugged. You weren't sick. You just didn't wake up.

You'll go to the doctor and he'll tell you that there's nothing wrong with you.

"You were sleepy," he'll say.

"Do I look different to you?" you'll ask. "Like maybe yesterday was a big sleep to prep for me turning it all around in my life? Do you think maybe from here on in I'm really gonna make it happen?"

You doctor will flash his pen light in your eyes.

"Only time will tell," he'll say.

When you go home from the doctor, you'll sit still on the couch, waiting for your new resolve to kick in. After about an hour, you'll turn on the TV and watch three Law & Order SVU's, then you'll crank call your ex.

Happy You Missed Yesterday Day!

You Make Comforters Filled With Human Fat Day!

Most serial killers just want to kill people in order to dress up in their skin. You think that’s selfish. You never kill someone unless you think they have enough fat inside them to fill a queen sized comforter. So you’re kind of like Dexter. He only kills people who deserve it. You only kill people whose deaths can help others stay warm.

“It’s better than goose down,” you tell the rich people at the entrepreneur fair where you’re hoping to find investors. “It’s squishy, so the blanket oozes around your form, covering you like a womb.”

“But doesn’t human fat decay after not too long?” they ask.

“Yes,” you say. “But for a day, or at least most of an afternoon, you are snug as a bug in a rug. A rug made of human fat.”

“How much would you charge for these rapidly deteriorating blankets?”

“Well, obtaining the fat isn’t easy, but the customer is lucky in that I love the process,” you say. “Fifty grand per blanket.”

“I’d like to invest in your product sir!” one of the rich people shouts. “I will provide full funding! Whatever you need!”

Everyone at the entrepreneur fair applauds because they all know a small-business owner’s dreams just came true. Unfortunately, the man who claims to be a wealthy investor is actually the younger brother of one of your victims and he’s about to chloroform you and spend the next few days sawing you apart, slowly though so you can feel it. You try to explain to him how his older brother helped keep you warm on a cold winter’s night so his death wasn’t for nothing, but this a-hole only cares about himself.

Happy You Make Comforters Filled With Human Fat Day!

Is That All There Is? Day!

You’ve been trying to come up with a fun catchphrase to use at work, at home, and on the racquetball court. Well throw away the drawing board, because from here on in you’re going to be the “Is that all there is?” guy!

Some examples for usage:

The big sales meeting has ended. You’ve just learned that your division’s profit is up by 6% and the merger with London is almost guaranteed to go through. When everyone is ready for you to give them the sign to break for lunch, take a moment. Place your hands on the conference table and stare down at the floor, not blinking so that your eyes turn a little red. Then look up, stare deep into the distance and ask, “Is that all there is?”

You and your wife have just finished dinner. You worked together in the kitchen to make a delicious plate of lamb chops and cauliflower. The candles are still burning. There’s just a nick of wine left in the bottle and the bedroom is calling your names. Take a moment. Stare down at the remains on your plate, then look up and into the candle flame. Look at it like you can see the next fifty years of your life contained in that tiny flame. Ask, “Is that all there is?”

You’ve just been in a car accident. Your car was totaled but you’re fine. The other car exploded with its passengers inside. They are presently running frantically along the median, engulfed in flame. Stare past their firey chaos and ask, “Is that all there is?”

Your first child was just born! Your wife is sobbing. The doctor is laughing, holding the healthy baby boy up for the both of you to see. Let go of your wife’s hand, stare past the baby and ask, “Is that all there is?”

You only have one package of Oreo Cakesters left in the cabinet. Stare past the single package and ask, “Is that all there is?”

You’ve just been told there’s nothing the doctors can do for you and you’ll be dead within the hour. With your final breaths, gasp and wheeze your hilarious catch phrase one last time. “Is… [cough cough] that… [vomit blood, vomit bile, some more blood] all… [die]

Happy Is That All There Is? Day!

You Are An American Designer Of Toilets Day!

You are SICK of always chasing the Japanese! What God decided that all toilet innovation must come from the East? Everyone in the world needs toilets, but only one people is willing to sink the bucks into the research to make those toilets the strangest and best that they can be.

"People don't like a lotta doodads crawling all over em when they take a poo," your boss tells you.

"People lack imagination," you tell him right back.

You're betting the first time an idea of an automated car wash was put on the table it drew a whole lotta gasps. And look at the automated car wash now! Well your toilet design has all of the same elements of the automated car wash and then some. The jiggly rags, the squeegee walls, the multiple high-pressure jets of soapy water. If someone in this country would just take a chance on you, people would finally get the clean they deserve.

Today you've got another lunch meeting with yet another toilet R&D veep at a competing company. If your boss ever finds out you'll be out on your ass. But you have to get your vision out to the people. There are a lot of hurtles, one big one especially.

"Your design has a straight razor?" is the question you always get midway through the presentation.

"Multiple straight razors," is the answer you always give, which never helps to put anyone at ease. "Grooming down there is more popular than ever."

People often accuse you of being juvenile for referring to human genitalia as "down there," but just because you happen to design innovative toilets you don't think that should preclude you from being a gentleman.

Happy You Are An American Designer Of Toilets Day!

You’re The Cool Warden Day!

Today’s the big day. The first day of Dannemora State Prison’s new morale-building program, “Rock n’ Roll Mondays.” From now on, every Monday morning when the gates are pulled back on the cells, the inmates will hear pumped over the PA system several hours of classic Rock music. You picked the first song yourself. “Twist and Shout” by the Beatles. You can’t wait to see the faces of your inmates as they groove their way out of their cells to make their way to work detail.

You’re pretty sure the inmates refer to you as the “Cool Warden.” You’ve been doing everything you can to make clear that there’s really not all that much difference between you and your inmates. As you like to say at your weekly “Rap Sessions” with randomly selected groups of five inmates, they’re people just like you. They just happened to make a big mistake. Could’a happened to anyone.

“Hey, I got a little wild in my day too,” you like to tell them. “We all gotta get a little wild every now and then, am I right? But nowadays when I wanna get wild, I take it out on my ax.” Then you break out your electric guitar and play them some Thorogood. They love that.

You once even bunked in a cell with some inmates for a night, just to let them know you’re not one of those uptight wardens who’d never step foot in one of those cells except for during inspections. Sure, it ended with the inmates taking you hostage and attempting to escape, only to get their heads shot off by snipers, but you’re still pretty sure you reached them that night.

Unfortunately, Warden, today’s not going to be as fun as you’d hoped. Rock n’ Roll Mondays is going to have to be postponed when your guards find that three hacks were quietly beheaded last night. Retribution from the White Supremacists against the Born Agains for stealing one of their “Mouth Dolls” (new inmates who are abducted by a gang, and whose teeth are knocked out of their gums so that there is no bite-down risk when they are forced to perform fellatio on gang members). You’d better help everyone cool off with a mandatory “Chill Out Session” (basically, lockdown). Sometimes, even the Cool Warden has to act like a square.

Happy You’re The Cool Warden Day!

You Sell Old Playboys Day!

Tonight's your third date with Susan and you really think she might be the one for you so you're going to have to tell her the truth.

"I'm not the owner of several night clubs in New York, Miami, and Sao Paolo," you'll say to her over dessert. "I sell old Playboys on the sidewalk. On a blanket."

"A blanket?" she'll ask. "You don't have a folding table?"

"Saving up for one," tell her.

"Why did you lie to me?" she'll ask.

Tell her, "I just like you so much. You look just like Miss July, 1970."

She'll blush. "The one where she's in the hammock?"

You'll stare at her for a second, stunned by what you just heard.

"That's Miss September, 1971 for Christs sake! How could you get that wrong?"

"I'm sorry," Susan will say. "I must have got them confused."

You were all wrong about Susan. Get the hell out of there.

Happy You Sell Old Playboys Day!

Hypnotist Sex Day!

Hypnotist sex is terrible because after it's over you can never remember any of it so it's time to go find someone new.

"I'm through with you," you'll say to your hypnotist girlfriend. "I want someone who can give me a sexual experience that I can remember."

"You are getting sleepy," your hypnotist girlfriend will say to you while swinging a necklace in front of your eyes right before having sex with you again exactly the way she likes it. Tomorrow you'll try to break up with her again but the same thing will happen. And don't try to just make a run for it to the bus station. The minute you try and buy a ticket you'll start clucking like a chicken until the police are summoned.

Happy Hypnotist Sex Day!

The Sculpture Garden Day!

Today when you run down the street to the sculpture garden outside the junior college, you'll be certain that today's the big day when you see those sculptures come to life and fight.

When you get there, they'll all be still. You'll feign disappointment, then you'll walk down the block looking visibly sullen. Once you're out of sight, hide behind a tree and wait a few minutes until the sculptures feel comfortable enough with your absence to move again. It might take a few minutes or a few hours, but keep watching. They'll move. You can bet on it.

One word of warning though. Instead of fighting, when the sculptures come to life the only thing they ever like to do is reenact famous hate crimes. Tonight the sculptures are going to reenact the murder of an abortion doctor, Dr. David Gunn, who was killed in 1993 in Pensacola, FL. The reenactment will be very respectful and very solemn, since everyone involved will be cement gray with mouths sealed shut. It's going to make you feel pretty bad about America tonight, but at least you'll finally get to watch the sculpture garden come to life.

Happy The Sculpture Garden Day!

You Are A Landlord Who Installs Hidden Cameras In Your Female Tenants Bedrooms Day!

You are a landlord who installs hidden cameras in your female tenants' bedrooms, therefore you know who killed Missy Colgate, the young blond beauty whose murder was splashed across the covers of all the newspapers. Unfortunately, you’re too embarrassed to help the police catch the killer because you fear that people will look down on you because you masturbate to your tenants’ private bedroom activities via hidden camera. The way you see it, you shouldn’t be expected to broadcast your private perversions to the whole world just because you want to help make sure a murder doesn’t go unpunished.

“It’s just not fair,” you say to yourself while watching the girl in 6B get ready for bed. “I shouldn’t have to suffer for being a good citizen.”

Maybe if the world wasn’t so judgmental, things would be different. But you know the sort of stares you’ll get at the market if you go public with what you know. No one will see you and think, “There goes that hero who made sure that poor girl’s killer got what he deserved.” No way. The only thing they’ll think is, “There goes that perv who jacks it to closed circuit video of his tenants.”

When you think about it, it’s so hard for a witness to come forward without being victimized himself that it’s a wonder justice is ever served in this town.

“It’s not my fault people are so closed-minded,” you think. Then when the girl in 6B turns off her light, you turn off your TV monitor and crawl under the covers with the hope that your conscience won’t keep you up tonight.

Happy You Are A Landlord Who Installs Hidden Cameras In Your Female Tenants Bedrooms Day!

The Rubber Bandit Day!

Today you’re going to make your name as the world famous bank robber, The Rubber Bandit. You’re going to walk into the bank and lean over the counter with a rubber band cocked on your finger, aimed straight at the bank teller’s eye. You’re going to shout to the rest of the bank, “If anyone trips the alarm, this bank teller is getting a rubber band straight in her eyeball!”

The other employees will look at each other, unsure what to do. Then the bank manager will shout to the teller, “Carly, I’m going to have to trip the alarm I’m afraid.”

Carly will beg the bank manager not to do it, but he’ll insist that a rubber band in the eye just isn’t a bad enough threat to not risk it.

“But it’ll hurt!” Carly will shout.

“You bet it will. Don’t you trip that alarm,” you’ll say, fearing that they’re not going to take you seriously.

Carly and the bank manager will argue for a few minutes about how it might sting for a while, but we’re talking about thousands of dollars here and a stinging eyeball just isn’t worth that much.

“You’re willing to make that choice for her pal? You really ready to have that on your conscience?”

The bank manager will say. “I already have. I tripped the alarm a couple minutes ago.”

Everyone will wait to see what you’re gonna do. Ultimately, you’ll lower the rubber band without hurting Carly. You knew you didn’t have it in you to irritate an innocent person’s eye like that.

Happy The Rubber Bandit Day!

The 70 Year Old Virgin Day!

You are a 70 year old virgin and you stopped trying to have sex with people several decades ago. You keep your virginity a secret because it embarrasses you. You even adopted kids way back when you were in your 40’s, just so that people might think you had sex once. Your kids learned after a while that the only reason you adopted them was to hide the fact that you’re a virgin, and they were pretty pissed about it so they put you in a home. Today’s your birthday, so they’re making the one of two visits they make per year (the other one’s on Christmas).

The visit will be uncomfortable as usual, with your two kids checking their watches to see how long they have left before they can leave. Your roommate will tell your son that he looks just like you, giving your son the opportunity to say, “Oh well that’s just a coincidence because I’m adopted. We both are.”

Your roommate will then say, “Both your kids are adopted eh? Haven’t you ever had sex?”

You’ll start to cry and that’s when the news will spread all over the nursing home that you’re a virgin. The teasing won’t stop until you die.

Happy The 70 Year Old Virgin Day!

You Steal Bikes Day!

This recession has forced us all to improvise to make ends meat. Some people have started substitute teaching, others have started killing for money. You’ve found that there’s a lot of cash to be made in the theft and resale of bicycles.

Today you’re going to steal a real nice mountain bike from a lady when she parks outside a deli for just a second while she grabs herself a juice. When you bring the bike to the second-hand bike shop, you’re going to find this is one hot bike that won’t be so easy to sell.

“I know this bike,” Jerry the proprietor will say. “You know whose bike this is?”

“Some girl’s,” you’ll say.

Jerry will open up a newspaper to an article on the Molinari mafia trial. You’ll see a photo of Mob kingpin Louie Molinari standing outside the courthouse laughing it up with reporters. Right next to him will be the girl you stole the bike from today. In the photo, she’ll be sitting on that very bike.

“Why’s she sitting on a bike outside the courthouse where her Dad’s on trial?” you’ll ask.

“Maybe she just finished up her bike ride in time to take a picture with her Pop,” Jerry will say. “Who knows? The point is, that girl loves her bike, and you just stole it from her. She’s the daughter of the most dangerous man in the city. If you think I’m gonna let that bike inside my store, you’re dead wrong.”

“What am I supposed to do with it?” you ask.

“Throw it in the river,” Jerry says. “Throw yourself in after it. It’s where you’re gonna end up anyhow.”

And that’s how you'll end up going on the run from the mafia, shithead.

Happy You Steal Bikes Day!

Minidress Day!

Because you look so mothereffing good in that minidress you’re going to find yourself on a private jet to Bermuda by ten p.m. tonight. The way it will happen is you’ll be in a bank when some thieves show up to stage a robbery. Unfortunately, one of the tellers will hit the alarm button (the teller will get shot in the head for that, a message to everyone else that these guys mean business). The police will come and it will turn into a full-scale hostage situation. The robbers will demand a private jet to Bermuda and they’ll decide to take one hostage with them. You’ll look so good in that minidress that there’s no way in hell they wouldn’t pick you. They just want to be near you for a little while longer, and even though they know deep down they’re probably never gonna make it to that beach, on the off chance that things might work out and they might get to see you in a bikini, it’s all but guaranteed they’re gonna drag you onto that plane with them.

So thanks to that minidress, and the way your body looks wrapped up in it, you might never see your husband and two kids again.

Happy Minidress Day!

Mom’s Stuck In A Tree Day!

“Can you get her down?” you’ll ask the fireman.

“Don’t know if anyone can get her down from there but herself,” the fireman will answer.

“But she just climbed up there too high and can’t figure out how to get back down. That’s all.”

“That’s all?” the fireman will say. “You really think that’s all that’s going on here?”

You’ll look up at your Mom. She’s seated on a branch. She looks patient, maybe a little distracted.

“What else is there?”

The fireman will explain that when a cat gets stuck in a tree, it’s typical because cats are stupid and they do stupid stuff like that. But when a human does it, they oughta know better. A human stuck up in a tree is usually the sign that something way deeper is going on here.

“Like what?” you’ll ask.

“Like she married the wrong man. She should’a married the first guy she fell for, but her parents disapproved because he didn’t come from a rich wealthy family.”

You’ll see what’s going on here now. “Did the first guy she fell for come from a family of firemen?”

“I would’a let the whole world burn for her,” the fireman will say. “But I ain’t gonna help her outta that tree. She can’t just decide all these years later to do something to make me rescue her. She has to find her way back down those branches herself.”

Put your hand on the fireman’s shoulder. You’ll enjoy touching him there. He could’ve been your dad, had your Mom not been so willing to let her own happiness slip away.

Happy Mom’s Stuck In A Tree Day

Your Dentist Gases You Until You’re Unconscious Then She Strips You Naked And Climbs Into Your Arms And Just Lies There For A Bit Day!

You have the same body type as her dead husband. She misses him. She’s felt so cold ever since he passed. The minute she saw you she knew you could make her feel the way he used to make her feel when she’d fall asleep naked in his arms. But she’s still not ready to date, still not sure she can go through all those motions of getting to know someone new before both parties agree it’s okay to share intimacy. So to avoid all that she decided it would be best to just misdiagnose you as being in need of extensive dental surgery. You’ve been seeing her once every two weeks for several months now, and at every visit she gases you until you’re unconscious, then she strips you and herself naked and climbs onto the chair, into your arms. Then she just lies there, feeling your warm, heavy limbs around her. She enjoys that for about a half hour, sighing and occasionally crying into your chest hair. When she’s done, she climbs off you, dresses you both back up, then she slices into your gums unnecessarily for a few minutes. When you wake up, none the wiser with a mouth full of pain, you go out to the front desk to schedule your dentist’s next brief respite from cold, cold longing.

Your Dentist Gases You Until You’re Unconscious Then She Strips You Naked And Climbs Into Your Arms And Just Lies There For A Bit Day!

You’re On The Roof Of A Truck Day!

The truck is speeding through town, swerving left and right, trying to make you lose your grip and roll off but it can’t shake you free.

“Goddammit Julie I’m your father!” you shout at your daughter behind the wheel.

“You’re nothing to me!” she shouts back and she once again swerves to make you lose your grip. You almost slide off but just manage to secure yourself.

“Pull this truck over young lady!” you shout.

Your daughter speeds up. “I’ll kill us both if that’s what it takes!”

“No!” you shout.

Julie goes even faster. You can see that the bridge ahead is out. She really hates you that much that she’d kill herself just to make sure you die today. You really were a horrible father to her, weren’t you. But there’s only one way to redeem yourself.

“I love you sweetie!” you shout. Then you roll off the roof. Julie feels the bump when she runs you over. She slows down the truck to check her mirror to see that you’re not moving. Looking at your bloody remains she realizes that you really did love her. You might not have been a good father, but at least she knows you cared enough to give your life in order to save hers. So everything’s fine between you and your daughter now.

Happy You’re On The Roof Of A Truck Day!

Outdoor Dining Day!

Today at the restaurant when you ask to be seated outside on the sidewalk the hostess will tell you that she can’t allow that to happen because the rival drug gangs in the neighborhood have been getting aggressive and there could be a shooting.

“I know we just met, but I think I just fell in love with you and I can’t risk you being killed by a stray bullet,” she’ll say.

Tell her that if this was meant to be between you two, it was meant to be.

“You have to have faith in us. Set me free.”

She’ll take a deep breath and with a tear in her eye, she’ll seat you at a table close to the curb.

Throughout your lunch she’ll watch you from her post inside, wringing her hands with worry. You’ll occasionally send her a smile to reassure her that you’re hers, and you’re not going anywhere. But every time a car backfires or someone starts shouting she becomes terrified all over again.

You order a chicken salad sandwich and it’s just okay. Not great. But the cole slaw is very good. You leave some of the sandwich but finish the cole slaw.

“Okay now go,” the hostess says when she sees you put your napkin over your plate.

“Just let the waitress bring me my check and I promise I’ll get someplace safe. I’ll wait for you there. I’ll wait to begin my life with you there.”

CRACK CRACK CRACK! Gunshots ring out. You leap from your table to tackle the hostess to the ground. A car squeals away. You check the hostess’s body but there’s no blood. She checks you too. Neither of you were hit. That’s when you hear the screaming.

You both rise to your feet and look to the sidewalk café across the street, where a hostess is bent over the body of a customer. She’s holding his head in her hands, screaming for him to wake up and come back to her, to give her more than just a few minutes. But he’s not moving. He’s not coming back.

And that’s when you know that you and your hostess were really meant to be together, not like those two at the restaurant across the street who were clearly just fooling themselves.

Happy Outdoor Dining Day!

On The Occasion Of Your Little Sister’s High School Graduation, Give Her Some Advice Day!

“Die Hard’s only a movie,” tell her.

She’ll say she knows.

“And even if it wasn’t a movie, that guy was a New York cop.”

He was trained. Your sister will agree with that.

“He knew how to shoot a gun. He’s been in dangerous situations before so his nerves weren’t likely to rattle. He might even have killed people before. None of that stuff applies to you or me.”

Your little sister will nod, then she’ll ask if you’re tired, indicating that you probably dozed off a bit. Ignore her. You need to get this across.

“But above all that even, it’s still just a movie. In real life even the best New York cop would probably get killed if he took on a whole bunch of high-tech terrorists. New York cops aren’t super-soldiers or whatever. Most of them probably never fire their weapons at a person.”

Grab her wrist.

“If John McClane was a real person, he’d probably look just like me right now.”

Your nurse will come in and increase your morphine drip. You’ll be going to sleep very soon and your little sister has a lot of graduation parties to hit. It was really good of her to come visit right after commencement, so make this count.

“So if you ever find yourself in a building that’s been occupied by terrorists, or thieves posing as terrorists, don’t try and turn into a one-man army. Just save yourself.”

Your little sister will nod again.

“If only I could go back in time to last Thursday and tell myself that,” say. Then fall asleep, and try not to dream of all those people whose deaths you failed to avert.

Happy On The Occasion Of Your Little Sister’s High School Graduation, Give Her Some Advice Day!

One Of The Guys Who Works At Your Car Wash Is Hiding In The Back Seat Of Your Car Day!

You don’t notice him until you pull away and drive for a few blocks. That’s when he alerts you to his presence.

“Pssst!”

You don’t respond at first. You just keep driving.

“Pssst!” again.

That time you hear it loud and clear. You turn your head and make out his blue jumpsuit, curled up on the floor of the backseat. He’s still holding a dirty white rag.

“Don’t look man!” he whisper-shouts. “Just keep driving like you’re all alone, okay?”

He’s Latino. Probably eighteen or twenty years old. And he’s scared.

“Just drive me towards the bay, okay man?”

You ask him if he knows how to get to the bay. He says to take a street you never heard of, and you tell him so. He carefully lifts his torso up off the floor of the backseat and looks around to see where you are. Then he says to make a left and plops back down on the floor.

When you ask him what he’s going to do when he gets to the bay, he says he’ll hope on the first big ship that happens to be leaving the port at that moment.

“Stowaway?” you ask, turning your head around to look at him.

He says well they probably ain’t gonna be selling tickets. Then he shouts for you to keep your eyes on the road. “They might be following us okay?”

You tell him that you’d be happy to take him to the police, or to some kind of non-profit group that helps fight human trafficking. “If you’re forced to work at that car wash to pay off your passage into this country,” you say, “there are people who can protect you.”

He says he was born here. He’s running because he just got his girlfriend pregnant. Her dad owns that car wash, and she’s going to tell her Dad the bad news this afternoon.

“He’s gonna make me marry her and work at that car wash forever. I gotta get outta the country, okay? Just get me to a boat, okay? And try not to look suspicious. I’m telling you the minute she tells him he’s gonna hop in a car and come looking for me.”

You keep your eyes straight ahead. You wonder whether this hopping onto the next boat out of the port isn’t a bad plan for you too. Maybe you and… Wait, what’s his name?

“Ralphie. Rafael, but call me Ralphie.”

Maybe you and Ralphie could travel the seas together, him on the run from his family obligations, and you on the run from your Netflix queue and your internal debate over what takeout place to order dinner from every night. You could stowaway on a merchant marine vessel or some kind of tanker that’s already populated with outlaws who are better off keeping away from dry land. They’ll at first want to throw you overboard, then they’ll just give you jobs, the kind of tough manual labor that covers you in black grime from head to toe. Eventually, you’ll both be accepted as part of the crew and they’ll invite you out with them to solicit whores when they dock the ship on East Asian islands. Never again will you have to spend a moment wondering what you’re supposed to do next, because when you’re living and working on the sea the only thing on the agenda is to keep the ship afloat.

You can see the bay just about six blocks up ahead.

“We’re almost there,” you say.

Ralphie pops his head up to see, then shouts, “Oh shit turn man turn here!”

You make a quick turn right. You aren’t sure what at first, then in the corner of your eye you spot a car on the other side of the intersection covered in suds. That must be Ralphie’s boss. He got the news and hopped in the first car waiting to be rinsed off after a wash, leaving the driver stranded in the waiting room staring at a vending machine wondering why his car is taking so long.

“Oh man he knew where to find me. He’s gonna be waiting for me at that dock. How am I gonna get on a boat now?”

“It’s okay,” you say. “From what I could see, the only boat out there today was a garbage barge. I don’t know how long you’d be able to stowaway on that.”

“What now man?!” Ralphie says.

“You need to lay low for a while,” you say. “Come back to my place. I’m unemployed and I don’t have too much going on right now.”

You take Ralphie home and the two of you try to find something to watch on cable for a while, then you have a long conversation about whether you want to order Chinese or Indian food for dinner tonight.

Happy One Of The Guys Who Works At Your Car Wash Is Hiding In The Back Seat Of Your Car Day!

The Nine-Elevens Is A Terrible Name For A Band Day!

You’re just not going to win over a lot of fans with that. Even with an album titled “Too Soon.” It just sounds like you’re being assholes. And before you bring it up, Katrina and the Waves picked that name way before it attained the insensitive connotation it has today.

Controversy gains attention, no doubt. But obvious attempts at courting controversy also makes the public inclined to be dismissive. Have you thought of naming your band the USS Cole? A little subtlety can go a long way is all.

Happy The Nine-Elevens Is A Terrible Name For A Band Day!

Can't Wait Until Lunchtime Day!

You can't wait until lunchtime because lunchtime is when you get to talk to Raymond the kid behind the counter at Quiznos. Raymond looks exactly like Pat, one of your friends from high school who died on Prom night. You were driving and you bet everyone in the car that you could make it across the train tracks before the train passed. No one in the car took the bet and they begged you to just take them to their prom so that they could live out the night they've dreamed about throughout their teens. But them being scared was just going to make it all that much more fun when you ramped over those train tracks just in the nick of time. It didn't work out that way though, and everyone in the car died but you. Which is why you like ordering your lunch from Raymond every day because it lets you pretend that the world stopped just minutes before you got hit by that train and Pat not only isn't dead, but he's still 17 and he got a job at Quiznos.

Unfortunately, today you're not going to be allowed to order your sandwich because the manager will step in front of Raymond and tell you you're not allowed to eat lunch there anymore since every time you order a sandwich you follow it up by screaming "I'M SO SO SORRY!" and then lunge across the counter to try and hug Raymond and it scares his customers. Head over to Hale and Hearty where one of the salad girls looks like Kelly, one of your friends who was in the backseat, except more of a Latina version of Kelly.

Happy Can't Wait Until Lunchtime Day!

Burglars Catch You Sobbing Day!

When two burglars jimmy your lock and come creeping into your apartment today, they won’t know that you’re home at first. All the lights will be off and the shades drawn, and it will be so musty and dank inside that they’ll assume the place has been left empty for a month. They’ll go about burgling without even worrying about the noise they make. They’ll even turn on the HDTV and check out the picture before they decide to unhook it.

It’s only after they’ve finished gathering all the electronics that they’ll make their way into the bedroom for the jewelry and find you stretched out face down across the width of your bed. They’ll freeze, unsure of whether you’re awake or asleep. They’ll shine a flashlight on your back and watch it shiver as you release your peel of muffled sobs.

“Hey lady,” one will say.

“Just go away!” you’ll shout, without rolling over.

“We don’t wanna hurt you,” the other will say.

“Go ahead! Everyone else has!” you’ll shout back.

The burglars will be thrown. They’ll argue in whispers about what to do with you. Until you interrupt them.

“I said get out! Leave me alone!” you’ll shout, still not rolling over to face them.

They won’t say anything at first. Then:

“We’re stealing all your stuff,” one will say.

“Yeah,” the other will add. “Don’t you wanna stop us?”

This will send you over the top. You’ll spring to a half-sitting position, place your reddened, tear-stained face directly in the beam of their flashlight and you’ll scream, “I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!!!”

The scream will make each of them remember their own big sisters as teenagers. They’ll remember being concerned, listening at the bedroom door to the breakup tears coming from inside, then they’d get up the courage to shuffle in and ask what’s wrong, only to be commanded to leave with the most blood-curdling screech they’d ever heard.

You’ll fall back on the bed and the burglars will back-step out of your room, pulling the door part-way closed behind them. They’ll argue in louder whispers in the living room, then they’ll gather up their loot and get ready to leave.

Before they go, one will lean back into your bedroom.

“Hey,” the man who is about to take off with all of your valuables will say. “It’s gonna get better.”

Happy Burglars Catch You Sobbing Day!