adrenaline keeps me in the game

I don't even want to talk about how much work I did today, although if I told you that I took two hours off for dinner and a slight amount of Tour-watching before doing a conference call and more work, and that I got up at eight a.m., you can probably figure it out. The title of this post is from Gavin Rossdale's song 'Adrenaline' from the 'XXX' soundtrack; it almost (almost) makes me want to see 'Constantine' again just because he played a devil in it, although the movie was pretty terrible. Anyway, here's a brief list of all the things currently keeping me in the game:

1) Electricity. Namely, I had to plug in my laptop, and if I touch anything other than the keyboard and mouse (such as any metal, ports, or the power cord itself), I get shocked. That's not good, is it? Either it's going to set my desk on fire someday, or it's actually a safe but brutally effective measure on the part of my employer to make sure that I keep working to avoid pain. Brilliant!

2) Europe. I will be on vacation in slightly more than two weeks! That almost makes is worth the fact that I can't take a break until then.

3) Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Today is the 61st anniversary of the failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. I wish that I had brought 'Letters and Papers from Prison' with me; it really puts things into perspective. Above Bonhoeffer's cell door in Tegel Prison, a previous inmate had scrawled 'in one hundred years it will all be over.' That is true of so many things in this world, including my fatigue, my job, my friendships, and possibly the current position of the magnetic poles (that change would be much cooler than losing all my friends because I never talk to them, although unfortunately less likely to happen). Unfortunately I did not celebrate this anniversary by watching 'The Bourne Identity' with friends like I did last year. But, tonight I am thinking of Bonhoeffer (actually all of them, especially Dietrich and Klaus), Dohnanyi, von Moltke, Oster, Stauffenberg, and all the other people involved in that ultimately suicidal attempt to make one last, fruitless stand against evil. You should think about them too.

4) Our Lady Peace. They're releasing a new album at the end of August! Too bad it's not coming out a month sooner; their last album was the soundtrack to my last trek across Europe, and it would be nice to continue that tradition.

5) Peanut butter. Peanut butter is my friend and ally, since it is virtually the only thing that I eat during the day. By six-thirty tonight, I thought that I was going to faint from hunger and exhaustion; I definitely would have fainted had I not gotten an apple and slathered it in peanut butter. At the time it did not matter to me that the apple was probably washed in cholera-infected water, although Walter pointed out that this was rather imprudent. Oh well, time is running out for me to catch the bubonic plague, and I might be willing to settle for cholera at this point. Then I can pretend to be a Scandanavian immigrant, imagine that my bed is Ellis Island and the hall outside is America, and die under my covers while staring forlornly at the promised land that I shall never reach.

Okay, I really really really need to go to bed. I hope that something will be able to keep me in the game tomorrow, or else Thursday will be quite painful.