My flight home on Fridays of my last week on-site is always midday, which always raises the dilemma of Should I make a brief appearance in the office Friday morning before heading to the airport, or just tell them I have an early flight and wrap things up on Thursday?

This headline made my decision for me. I’m wrapping things up here today, then I’ll be trying to get on an early flight tomorrow. I gotta fly before the flu makes me wish I flew.

Oh my God, I feel so old.

Picking up my very healthy fast food dinner at Arby’s this evening, I overheard and joined a conversation between the barely 20-something Pretty Young Thing behind the counter and two frat boy Big Boys On Campus:

BBOC 1: …yeah, and I heard Kenny Rogers was going to be there, too.
PYT: Who’s Kenny Rogers?
BBOC 2: You know, Kenny Rogers!
PYT: Who’s that?
Me (utter disbelief): You don’t know who Kenny Rogers is?
PYT: No, I don’t. Who is he? Is he famous or something?
BBOCs snicker behind me.
PYT: You guys! Come on, who’s Kenny Rogers???
BBOCs laugh out loud.
Me (thinking to myself because BBOCs are about to explain): Go get ‘er, boys.
BBOC 1: He’s, like, the oldest guy in the world.
BBOC 2: Yeah, it’s like they have to roll out a respirator when he’s around.
BBOCs and PYT collapse in mad giggling laughter.

I feel rrreeeaaalllyyy old.

This movie ROCKED!!! I loved it!

This is the ultimate anti-Christmas movie, so if you’re someone who likes visions of sugarplums and Cindy Lou Who, well this movie ain’t gonna be for you. Billy Bob Thornton is an alcoholic safe-cracking womanizing foul-mouthed bitter Santa, and this is a movie that puts him in bad situations that proceed to get even worse.

My favorite scene, the one that had me gasping for air because I was laughing so hard, had Santa, the latchkey kid he’s taking advantage of, and his dwarf accomplice sparring in a boxing ring, everyone kicking everyone in the nuts, and then writhing in pain on the mat. Fun-ny, let me tell you.

This is a movie where Santa feels he’s experienced personal growth because he beat up a kid. Where, when he’s opened his heart and tries to give the kid the present he’s been asking for, the police gun him down on the kid’s doorstep and the present is soaked with blood. Where Santa’s girlfriend screams “Fuck me, Santa!” while they’re screwing in his car in the mall parking lot and he later introduces her to the kid as “Mrs. Clause’s sister.”

Beyond being funny, what I really liked about this movie was its refusal to compromise. It had a dark, bitter tone that it maintained even as the characters “grew.” I kept waiting for it to get cheesy and schmaltzy but it never did, even when it sort of did.

I may have to see it again.

Since I went home over the weekend for Thanksgiving I had to check out of good old Room 301 — which was fine with me, since the view sucked from there. Now I’m in Room 445 with a much better view.

Here’s the view out the window:

…and here’s the view of the hotel’s atrium just outside my door:

And directly beneath my feet, three floors down as I took the picture? Free breakfast. Woo.

One of the perks I get from working with radio stations is that they all give away promotional items — station crap — and I usually score some at each station I go to. This time around I’ve hit the motherlode.

My station crap catalogue from this trip is:

8 (eight!) T-shirts with the classic rock station’s logo (a cool logo, fortunately)
2 DVDs — Volumes 1 & 2 of the American Folk Blues Festival
13 CDs:

• Martin Scorcese Presents: The Best of the Blues
• Roger Waters The Wall Live in Berlin
• Lynyrd Skynyrd Christmas Time Again
• Lynyrd Skynyrd Thyrty – 30th Anniversary Collection (2 disc set)
• Powerman 5000 transform
• Adema Unstable
• Aerosmith Young Lust: The Aerosmith Anthology (2 disc set)
• Kiss The Best of Kiss
• Monstrosity Rise To Power
• The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East (Deluxe Edition) (2 disc set)
• Shadows Fall The Art of Balance
• Jo Dee Messina A Joyful Noise
• Debby Boone Home For Christmas

Damn, I scored! (Except for that Debby Boone CD. Quote from the guy who gave it to me: “You touched it last, you have to keep it!” Fucker.)

But what the hell am I going to do with eight identical T-shirts? And who are half of these bands I’ve never heard of?

I love station crap…

This is me:

Which John Cusack Are You?

This is who I was hoping for:

Which John Cusack Are You?

And this is who I think I’m closest to:

Which John Cusack Are You?

One of the proudest moments in my life is when my college girlfriend said I reminded her of John Cusack in The Sure Thing because that’s who I secretly wanted to be. She eventually dumped me, of course, but we had nowhere to go but down after the Cusack comment anyway.

Say Anything, though… Man… That was so me when I saw it. I felt like they’d made a movie about me. That’s the one that gets me in the heart.

Gib is who I wanted to be, but Lloyd is who I really was. This David Shayne guy… I don’t even know who that is. I hate Woody Allen movies.

Fuck it. Call me Power Lloyd.