Biennial Musings

August 1^st marks the start of the third full year of my keeping of the Dominion. The ride so far has been enjoyable. There were some rough patches starting out. I was kind of a dick (moreso than usual) to people who perhaps didn't deserve it and haven't come back since then. I had people firmly sequestered on the ban list who figured they'd help themselves to my inventory because I'm a new owner. Once in a while I did something silly and relented after they'd paid off their late fees. Some of the time, they even had reformed as customers. The start of the first year was pretty full of frustration and rage.

Around January I mellowed out, partly because I'd come to accept that people are untrustworthy assholes and partly because I came to terms with the fact that said assholes I'd encountered are gone for good. And the latter half of that first year passed by fairly smoothly. One thing I had begun to do, however, is chronicle the most inane things I experienced in a Word document. Why I began to do this I wasn't really quite sure at the time. Well, actually I was; these were such rage-inducing incidents that I needed vent them out somewhere, lest I inadvertently take them out on my loyal, good customers who had done nothing to deserve it.

August came and went and it was the second year of Keeping. The document grew apace. Things that vexed me at first became rote. Sure, there were still the odd thieves, but they didn't bother me nearly as much as back then. Then in October I suffered the double whammy of Big Brother and Family Video incidents within two days of each other, decided to start the official Chronicles because whatever, and that was that.

Now it's the end of Year Two and things are...normal. There's no real excitement to my workday anymore. No excitement to my workmonth. Open at noon or two, sort returns, update late list, plug in sodey pop fridge, log accounting in the computer, sort mail, write checks, hop online to do something vaguely work-related and peruse movie and entertainment media news, update the Chronicles if it's Tuesday or Thursday or Sunday, help customers, once in a while encounter something worthy of throwing into my now-110-page document (it was at 18 when I started the blog). Close up the store at 8 or 9. Maybe hang out with friends afterwards if it's one of those days on which it works out. End of the month, call up the distributor and put in the orders for the following month.

Weirdly enough, it's an okay existence. Could it use a bit more excitement? Maybe. But I'm not a particularly exciting guy and I don't particularly enjoy having my life be an action thriller. Perhaps the most positive way to put it is that the Dominion of Movies and its Keeper are there for you because that is what we are here for.

See you all next year.