The Hotel New Hampshire, published in1981, was the second John Irving novel I read — last week. I’m about a hundred and fifty pages now into The World According to Garp, which preceeded it by five years in publication. Imagine my surprise as I read Garp the foreshadowing of THNP:

He felt stuck with his story. He realized he could go on giving his made-up family one adventure after another, but where were they going? To one more B restaraunt with such a weakness in their desserts that an A rating was a lifetime out of reach; to one more B hotel, sliding to C as surely as the mildew smell in the lobby would never go away. Perhaps someone in the inspector’s family could be poisoned, but what would it mean? And there could be crazy people, or even criminals, hiding out in one of the pensions, but what would they have to do with the scheme of things?

… There had been a bear who rode a motorcycle, around and around a parking lot.

[Pg. 123]

And …

Those “other residents” would include a kind of circus; not a very good kind, either, he imagined, but a circus with no other place to stay.

[Pg. 138]

I suppose contemplating the novel Garp writes in the book, Irving was prompted to write his own using some of those images and a somewhat changed premise of the family’s cause to be in hotels (as owners and operators, instead of inspectors). So the question is, is John Irving’s The Hotel New Hampshire really T.S. Garp’s “The Pension Grillparzer“?

(Did Irving ever live in Vienna? He sure seems to love that city).

I hate Gary.

So my schedule this fall calls to work at the Indy on Wednesdays and Fridays during the day, as per the handwritten note I left pinned to the bulletin board in the office, and dated “effective” from last Monday.

And yet he’s got me on the schedule tomorrow during the day.

Not a huge deal, I don’t have classes except Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I’d be willing to help him out on the occasional Mondays if he’s short-handed. Mondays I have penciled in as my one-day-a-week off, to be used for goofing-off, errands, and studying.

Except that a week and a half ago, Steve at the Franchise asked if I could work the Monday lunch shift at the Franchise. I said “sure!” for two reasons: 1.) I like to brown nose when I can, and 2.) I’ve had five days off … even though I probably won’t get many — if any — deliveries, I’ll get the hourly, and I could use the dough.

So now I’m scheduled at both places tomorrow, and I’m not happy about it. As much as I bitch about the Franchise, if they do one thing right, it’s getting the schedule up as far in advance as possible. Steve had the schedule completed through September 10th as of yesterday the 26th of August. Meanwhile, Gary only started making next week’s schedule for the Franchise tonight, and according to Silent Bob (who I spoke to briefly tonight), he hasn’t even completed the damn thing.

I know what he’s going to say when I call him tomorrow — I didn’t fill out my request sheet. Yeah, true Gary, but the last time I saw you — Friday a week and a half ago — I told you that my school availability would be in effect when I got back. (Not valid because you know I’ve got the memory of a gnat, Jeff).

But Gary, I put my fall availability and the dates it was effective on your bulletin board. (Pft. Looking up there takes too much time and effort, Jeff).

Grumble. Talking to him tomorrow isn’t going to be fun. Here’s the real fun part. Greg’s working all day tomorrow at the Franchise, and he’s got paychecks, and I need to get my paycheck tomorrow. So even if Gary somehow winds up guilt-tripping me into calling out from the Franchise to bail his late-schedule-making-ass out of the fire he lit, I’m still going to have to show up at the Franchise for my fucking check.

Fuckity fuck.

(Hey, Darkwing Duck on DVD Tuesday. How can I not be in a good mood with that on the horizon?)

Maybe it’s just me …

… but even for a rookie, how do you forget to latch the tiger cage?

“Meh. I feel like being eaten.”