I just wrote a note to myself that reads, "Return Eminem and King Leopold." I looked at it again and that, man, that's an odd note. Worth blogging about.

I have been on a mini shopping spree lately, which is what a year of almost no discretionary income will do to you when it lets up. I've picked up some DVDs, clothes, CDs--the basics. I went CD shopping at lunch yesterday at a mixed new/used store and got 11 discs for $77. The only thing I paid full price for new was The Eminem Show, since I figured I was one of three white guys in America in his 20s who didn't own it already. I was happy with myself for mixing in some contemporary with the fogey music I often go in for, and all in all it was a strange mix (Eminem, Roy Orbison, Concrete Blonde, Sugar Ray just to name a few).

So this morning I popped Eminem into the CD player in the car and discovered that I had accidentally purchased the radio edit version. Ironically, this caused me to release a nasty string of curse words, because this is not the type of revelation you want on a foggy U.S. 40 at 6:15 in the a.m. Fortunately, I called the CD place and they will trade it in. But since tomorrow's my last day at work, I need to do it tomorrow.

For the same reason, I need to return my last outstanding (in both senses) library book, King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild. This is a very good read on colonial rule in the Belgian Congo, and it is highly suggestive of how ongoing exploitation of colonies has divvied up the world into haves and haven'ts. It's worth noting too that this is high praise from me, because I rarely like (or even bother with) history written by non-professional historians--whether they're buffs writing Civil War minutiae or Steven Ambrose-style hacks who write a book a year about presidents, kings, and wars. Hochschild (a journalist by trade) actually has an advantage over many social historians who would write this book, because he is willing and able to transition back and forth between what's happening on the ground in the Congo and what's going on in Laeken, the royal palace in Belgium. Juggling both stories is no mean feat, and Hochschild truly gets it right.

As I noted above, tomorrow is my last day at work. Last days are weird. I am less ambivalent about this one than usual because I'm really happy to be moving on, but of course I will miss people and familiar settings and routines. We are going to my boss's apartment to celebrate, which may or may not be fraught; time will tell. At least it's a happy send-off--the type where I'm not leaving on bad terms and their not happy to see me go, but they're happy for me and I'm especially happy for me. It'll be a bittersweet day, but it should be a mostly pleasant one.