A while back I wrote about how when I was a kid, I drew Hitler mustaches and hair onto every image of Charlie Brown in one of my Peanuts books.  I also crossed out "Charlie Brown" and wrote in "Hitler" throughout.  I had no real idea who Hitler was or what he stood for; I just knew their heads seemed similarly shaped.

Today I'm wearing one of two yellow t-shirts I own with the zig-zag Charlie Brown pattern across the front.  A guy in Safeway who appeared to be about my age told me he always thought of himself as being like Charlie Brown: bad luck, football being pulled away, etc.  Like me, he was balding, wore shorts and sported approximately the same number of tattoos in the same places as mine.  We talked a little longer, and he seemed like a nice guy.

After we were done talking, I got a closer look at the tattoo on his right shoulder (where I sport a yin & yang symbol).  It was four scythes forming a swastika, with the lighting bolt-style SS symbol superimposed on top.

Thankful that our conversation was complete (and that Charles Schulz wasn't around to witness the conversation), I left the store.

Following my last blog, E the E pointed out to me that "self pity isn’t sexy," so I have been attempting to remain relentlessly positive since then.  My birthday dinner with the Family went quite well, and life in general has been fine over the past several days.

I’m following the advice in "What Color is Your Parachute," and performing a major self-assessment before continuing my job search.  I’m going to the gym every day and eating [mostly] right.  I’m cleaning up after myself, getting the dishes clean on a regular basis, and will be attacking my piles of clean clothes tomorrow.