The Most Depressing Things

I was early to a talk at the Center for Cultural Studies earlier and it looked like it was going to be really sparsely attended. Happily, I was just off by 15 minutes and plenty of people showed up. It reminded me, however, of the things I find most depressing in quotidian life:

1. When a band plays to a nearly-empty venue. This brings to mind one of the greatest Onion headlines: "Ska Band Outnumbers Audience." I was in just that situation more than a few times back in the skinny-ties-and-bari-sax days.
   
2. Those people who stand on streetcorners with signs for things. The most egregious example of that was the people who would stand on corners around tax time in Portland wearing Statue of Liberty outfits for a tax preparation place. I just...cringed every time I drove past. It also hits a new level of humiliation when the sign people DANCE. Oh. My. Dear. God.
   
3. Social outings someone diligantly organizers to which no one shows up. A lot of that shows up on my new favorite website, Fuck My Life. Last night was a near-miss on this score, as B and I were the only people who showed up for tacos for what was supposed to be a history grads outing. Thankfully, we ended up having a fine time kicking it with the organizer, N, who was so ruthlessly betrayed by the rest of her first-year cohort. Shame on them.

All of the above are examples of one of my most deep-seated convictions: failure should be carefully hidden so as to not make me feel awkward.