Author: scottspinelli

Unequivocally, this feeling tops this one.

No matter how you feel about finishing, starting a good one is great. You’re entering a new world of characters and places and dialogue. You have no idea where things are going to go or even how they’re going to get there. Additionally, and like the beginning of a good meal, the end is nowhere in sight so it’s all clear on the western front.

It’s honestly like being 40 years old and looking back at the version of yourself right after college or high school. All that promise, all that life in front of you. That version of you doesn’t know how annoying the ending of the book is going to be when the author just leaves it up to you to decide what’s going to happen. That version just knows that there’s so many pages out in front of you, so many things to figure out and discover.

If the book is a good one, you can’t put it down and that’s the proof in the pudding for this feeling. No matter how good a book is, like a relationship, the beginning, voracious portion of the experience is the best part. No one says, “Wait til you get to the middle!”

Polar Opposite of this Feeling?: Thinking this new book is going to be the one and it turns out it’s awful. And, because you’re a trooper, you press on for 100 pages, dredging ahead for some unknown reason with feelings of guilt, only to discover what you already knew—this book sucks.

I’m in the minority here, but I can’t really stand the beach. I don’t care for the lack of activities or the fact that I might not come back* whenever I go for a dip. I hate the drive down the shore and the parking. I don’t really have what you’d call a beach body and I’m not a particularly tan fellow.

It’s not my scene, as you can see.

But, above all these things, what I can’t stand most is the sand. No matter how little time you spend, it seems to always get in every single crevice, orifice and wrinkle on your person. It’s infuriating. You’ll be scratching your head three days later and out come a few grains.

I’m talking about that moment when you are able to finally get (most) of that sand off you. It’s finally not chaffing, not riding up, not itching, not invading every inch of your personal space.

If you were smart enough to not go in the water, all it takes is a really good brush-down with your towel and you’re home free.

Not to mention, has your skin every felt smoother than it does in that immediate aftermath of sand-removal?

Polar Opposite of this Feeling?: Thinking you’ve gotten rid of all grains, only to sit in your car and realize your ass is still soaked.

 

*Or get bit by a jelly fish, step on something sharp or simply deal with how incredibly fucking cold the water always seems to be. Even when people say “It’s not that bad!”, it is. It always is that bad.

A lot of readers would probably tell you this is actually a bad feeling. There’s that corny expression, “Finishing a good book is like losing a good friend” so that has to count for something in the way of how the public feels about book-finishing.

And, I suppose, I get it. I mean, when you’re really into a great book, it does kind of suck to have to be done with it, with the characters that you spent the last few days/weeks with. But, come on, it’s still a nice feeling to get to a conclusion.

There’s something nice about finally having figured out who the killer was or whether or not they’d get back together or if he’d make it in time to his own wedding or who was ranked number one. I mean, ultimately, what is the point of reading aside from finding out how things come together in the end?

I love a good book as much as the next person—and do feel a slight bit of regret to be done with the ones I love—but finishing is a nice feeling.

Polar Opposite of this Feeling?: When you fall asleep while reading and continually have to find where you left off because you never bookmarked the page.

For me, it’s been this… on repeat, for nearly 48 hours now.

Try to not be in a better mood after watching that. Impossibly, even after watching/listening to that song a handful of times, I’m decidedly happier after each watching/viewing.

I love every bit of the process along the way with this feeling.

Discovery: For me, I’d seen the Beats by Dre Pills commercial a few times, enjoyed the song but never looked into it much.

Round 2: Someone usually has to bring it back into your world. For me, this happened when a co-worker randomly brought it up and said how he couldn’t get it out of his head. Naturally, I was in his position in under 4 minutes.

Inability to Listen to Anything Else: Spotify, YouTube, iTunes. Just constant, mother-fuckin’ loop.

Research: For me, this might be my favorite part. I’m a nerd about the music I like. Once I get into someone/something, I want to know as much as I can. I’ll go to sites like whosampled.com to find out where the beat came from, do some wiki-research to see who wrote/produced the song. Almost always, there’s an interesting nugget (or three) to unearth. In this case, I discovered that the above music video is actually a supercut of what was made as the world’s first 24-hour music video. Basically, there’s 24 hours of the song playing on loop with everyone from Steve Carrell to Tyler the Creator to regular ol’ folks dancing. It’s amazing.

Telling Everyone You Know: Well, there’s this. There’s me sending it to my mom, to my sister. Telling my friends, putting it on my iPod and even considering, for a bit too long, making my own version of the music video.

Of course, there’s the decline. But, that’s for another time. I may be getting very close to that point now, to be honest, but it’s been a great few days.

Polar Opposite of this Feeling?: When you think you’re the first person to tell someone about a song and it turns out you’re the last one to know. Like, me with Aloe Blacc’s “Wake Me Up”.

A friend suggested this feeling to me just a few days ago and after some brief thought, I realized it (without question) deserved placement on the list. I understand that feeling number 19 is pretty similar to this one, but there’s one glaring difference that puts this one in the 100s and that one in the top 20.

That difference, of course, is the element of surprise. Both feelings contain it, but #19 is total and unexpected. You don’t go to the bank with a cup filled with coins and not expect the teller/machine to give you back legal tender. You may not get what you expected to get (thus, this feeling… more on that in a moment) but at least you’re getting something.

Anyway, now that we’ve exhausted the difference between the two, let’s give a few inches of column space to today’s feeling.

Personally, I keep two cups in my bedroom, one for quarters for laundry (why I can’t just use dollar bills or a credit card is beyond me) and one for every other piece of change. These assholes who simply discard change should burn in hell. If you’re literally throwing away any money, of any kind, please let your largest friend know so they can beat you senseless for an hour.

That second cup though, once it gets filled, I’ll take it to wherever I can go that doesn’t charge me. Sometimes that’s a bank that’s so far away that the gas I’m using makes the trip not worth it, but it’s the principle of the thing. Either way, as I’m heading to wherever will change my coins into cash, I’m trying to piece together how much money I’m going to net. 10, 15? Maybe 20 or 25? I start thinking about how many dimes and nickels were in the cup, as if I’ve got some Rain Man tendencies.

Finally, I’ll settle on a number… typically I go low, if only for this specific feeling. And when the number I get back is higher, man, that’s a nice feeling. It’s not exactly free money because you knew you’d been saving it the whole time, but it’s at least unexpected money and that’s got to count for something

Polar Opposite of This Feeling?: People don’t really need to do this any more, but having to individually roll up all of your quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies into those (what are basically just) Chinese finger traps.

Here at scott-spinelli.com we pride ourselves on catering to one and all. A lot of the feelings I’ve already listed have been ones that might not apply to kids, or at the least, apply minimally to those not 21 or older. For feeling #196, youth is served.

The snow day is one of the most glorious things known to boy or girl. Sure, there’s always going to be that negative Nancy complaining about how every single snow day is just one more day you have to spend in school in July. However, you brush that thought aside. You’ll worry about July when you get to July*. You’ve got the whole day ahead of you to do whatever you want. Most of the time that’ll just devolve into nagging your parents, annoying your siblings, playing video games, watching way too much TV, and maybe (maybe) doing something in the snow like sledding or playing football. And you know what, that sounds great.

Now, I work in television so there’s really no such thing as a snow day for me. Best case… I get to work from home, which isn’t bad but if you’ve ever been to where I work, you’d know why I like going in. Either way, for most adults, these days still exist. And, from what I can gather, the feeling is still great. In fact, everything is still the same (and great) except for the list of activities you do with all this new found free time. Substitute everything from the previous paragraph with “drink all day” and you’ve basically covered it the same.

Polar Opposite of this Feeling? I can’t speak to this for adults, but as a kid… it’s when you get a little aggressive and anticipate a snow day to the point where you actively don’t do work due that next day. Then, your alarm goes off and you have school.

*For the record, those people were only right on a technicality. Yes, there was school for longer in July than originally intended. BUT, everyone knows those days in July were so unbelievably easy it was basically like not being in school.