co-worker

the h.r. lady at my office stopped by my cube to ask if i'd ever heard of "menopause: the musical." i had although i hadn't heard anything about it, and i told her as much. for no reason that i can retrospectively discern, she started telling me about how, although it was highly acclaimed, she didn't like the vagina monologues. she went on to explain that while there were "funny parts" there were also sad parts and when she went to the theater she didn't want to hear about rape. she likened this to her experience vacationing in mexico when seeing children begging on the street ruined her day.

i didn't say anything.

but this is america. these are the people funding musicals like "good vibrations" at $80 a seat and more, while new plays are hardly produced and, when they are, it's in tiny out-of-the way theaters where everyone works for free. these are the people who prefer a president with a strong point of view regardless of what that point of view might be to a leader who wants to think about the world in complex and nuanced ways and with whose opinions they might agree. these are the people who would rather be entertained than think. these are the people who are helping to shape this country into a place that me and my friends like less and less. these are the people who comprise the america that foreigners hate.

quote of the day

This from a recent e-mail from a friend.

"I am thinking that I am going to take a sex vacation. Not a going to Thailand to fool around with 14 year olds kind of sex vacation but a no more sex for me until I feel up to it sort of sex vacation."

I suport this friend's choice . . . but I think that other kind of vacation sounds like a pretty good plan too!

hic

last night, walking home after dinner with friends, i was chatting with another friend on the phone and i developed a mean case of the hiccups. the phone friend - who was remarkably tollerant of my spazims - described these hiccups as "deep" and "resonant." they were, in fact, killer hiccups.

by the time i was close to home, the hiccups had nearly driven me up a wall, so i veered into my corner deli to see if there wasn't some cookie or milk beverage or something that i thought would quell them. so i walk into the deli and my deli guy asks how i'm doing. "I've got hiccups!!!" I tell him. i look away for a moment, casting about for some inspiring foodstuff and the next thing i know he's giving me a plastic spoon of sugar to swallow. so i swallow it. INSTANTLY the hiccups are gone.

deli guy saved my life. didn't even charge me. love that.

signage

Not far from where I live, a hand-written sign in the window of a deli bears this inscription: "ice-cold water."

That's just ice.

free X 3

1. i went to the verizon store to a) get my new phone activated, b) get the info on my old phone transfered into my new phone. i was told that b would cost me $10.83. But then, when it was all done, the lady didn't charge me at all.
2. i had a jamba juice coupon for a free small juice or smoothie so i decided to use it. when i got to the front of the line, the lady told me my coupon had expired. but then she said "that's all right," and when my drink came out it was not only free but it was GIANT.
3. after a photo taking jaunt, my friend ken and i went for coffee and a snack and ken picked up the bill, which was really nice.

not spending money in a city like new york is a rare treat and very relaxing.

sweet caroline

i was waiting for my egg sandwich to be cooked this morning at the place where i get breakfast.
sweet caroline was playing and i was working hard not to let loose and sing along.
then i noticed that the man to my right - a middle-aged guy - was singing along quietly.
this was pleasing enough.
better was when another man came along and stood to my left and also sang along under his breath.
it was a moment that almost made that moment in musicals in which characters suddenly burst into song seem plausible.

secret identity

this evening, i went to the video store and rented a dvd.
i brought it home, took out my contacts, put on my glasses, and settled in to watch the movie on my computer.
but about ten minutes in, the dvd got stuck and wouldn't play no matter what i tried.
so, about an hour later, i went back to the video store.
"i'm back," i said.
the guy looked at me quizically.
i removed my glasses. "see?"
"Ahh. gotcha," he said, his face relaxing into recognition.
so, apparently, that glasses-as-disguise thing really works!

spring

at lunch today, i went outside to read my book in the sunshine for a while.

i was sitting along a flower-bed, leaning against a building and between the building (at my back) and the flowerbed (extending to my side) there were sparrows ruffling about in the dirt. They were chubby and cute and when they cheeped it was the same kind of sound that little baby puppies and kittens make.

when i reached up to push my hair back, i could feel that it had gotten all warm from the sun shining down on it. that is one of my favorite feelings.