September 2006 Archives

So earlier this year, I said that my new favorite phrase was "a festival of clowns." Little did I know that this would mean attending an actual festival of clowns...but that's what I did last Friday, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

R and I saw some friends of friends perform -- they are collectively known as Singer and Saw, and they feature musical comedy between a loving soprano and her adoring accompanist, who happens to play the musical saw...and decimates a few mallets in the process. You haven't lived until you've heard the "Star Spangled Banner" on the electric saw, set on fire. They were really, REALLY good. :) And, yes, I got to have dinner with not one but two attendees of Ringling's Clown College -- just clowning around, I guess. (Thanks, I'm here 'till Thursday!)

In other news...Mom is still in inpatient rehab, and probably will be until November. This is actually good, as she can't put any weight on her knee right now -- so there's no way for her to get up and down the many stairs in her house. Hopefully she'll be able to do stairs soon. :(

My World of Warcraft server is down tonight; withdrawal symptoms are imminent. I'll be rewriting the lyrics to "TV Party" for the remainder of the day... "We've got nothing better to do...then to kill some Troggs and have a couple of brews..." Hey, at least I made it to level 19 before I signed off. :)

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past week or so, you know that there's been an e.coli outbreak associated with fresh, bagged spinach. I'd been wondering what was up with that, since e. coli doesn't just come out of nowhere and attack spinach; there had to be a means of contaminating the spinach in a big, big way.

There's a good post here that discusses the outbreak and the implications not just for growers/consumers of spinach, but all salad greens, carrots, and other vegetables -- anything that you buy pre-washed, in bags.

Good stuff to think about.

Shiny! Green! Pointy! Green! Silvery! Green! Comfy! Green! And hey, did I mention they're green?

And the price was damned good, too...$50, down from $165. Outlet shopping is a beautiful thing.

I have two ways I can get to work from the Upper West Side: take the 1,2,3 down to 42nd street, take the 7 from 42nd street over to Grand Central, and take the 6 down to my work stop or take the crosstown bus from my block over to Lexington, and then take the 6 down to work from there.

The former is faster, but requires two transfers and running up and down many flights of stairs. It also offers you more possibilities for things to get screwed up -- if there's a problem on the 2, say, you'll get backed up...and backed up even more if there's also a problem on the 7 or the 6.

The bus/subway combo takes longer, but the quality of life part is much better. You can see the sun and Central Park for part of the morning commute, you can always get a seat at my stop, and if there's a delay, you can pretty much figure out why for yourself (as opposed to the subway, when they rarely tell you what's up). It's also only one transfer instead of two, and one flight of stairs as opposed to many.

This morning I opted for the bus -- I was in no mood to deal with transfers and crowds. This turned out to be a tactical error; I should've known what was up when I saw the crowd waiting for the bus. There's never a crowd at my stop. I got on, the bus began to move, but then we had to deal with the crowds at all the other bus stops on the trip crosstown...and the reason for all of the crowds? Traffic. Lots of it. No wonder the bus was late! It took us about 20-25 minutes to cross Central Park; lucky me got to spend all of those 20 minutes seated next to a woman yammering away on her cell in the most insipid fashion, ever. At least I got a seat, though.

The crowning moment was when I tried to get off the bus. I had a tote bag with me today, as I've got physicial therapy tonight. I may have tapped a man with my bag -- I don't think I even did this, but I can't deny the possibility -- in any event, this guy starts bitching about "Women with their large bags and all their stuff and their large bags taking up room and women and large bags and..." Really, all I could do not to stuff my large bag in his large mouth.

Happily, the subway portion of my commute went just fine. Viva New York...

R and I saw Pink Martini at Town Hall last night -- we were in fifth row orchestra.

A-MAZ-ing.

We'd seen them when they came around last February -- I was slow on the draw, so we had not-so-great seats in the back. It was a good show (they always do a good show) but this one seemed to have much more energy to it. Seeing their faces didn't hurt, either. :) They played a lot of songs from their upcoming album (they're hoping for March 2007) -- jazzy, lounge-y, salsa beats -- I'm definitely buying it when it comes out.

In the meantime? If you're reading this (all six of you), go buy their first two albums. You won't regret it!

Hey, it's "Talk Like a Pirate" Day! Not sure how to talk like a pirate? Watch this instructional video!

Anyone who's known me for more than sixty seconds knows that I am a major, major klutz. Yesterday was no exception. I was at the Tanger Outlets with two shopping bags filled with stuff, plus my purse. I needed to use the restroom, so I went into the stall, and hung everything on the door -- purse last.

I did my business, went to stand up, and BAM! -- hit my head on the purse. The purse then came unhooked from the door and started rolling down my back, toward the toilet. Frantic to keep my purse from hitting the water, I dropped my head, allowing the purse to roll the other way and hit my skull a second time before falling to the floor.

All of this without pulling my pants up, even.

I tried to keep my "no, I didn't" laughter down a bit, but I'm sure the other toilet occupants were wondering...

I'm at work, listening to WOXY.com slowly drift away. It is, I believe, the last hours of their programming -- they're counting down the "Modern Rock 500" on their vintage channel, which is due to end around 4:00 pm or so. After that, it's anyone's guess, although my gut tells me that the station will go dark after that.

Crap.

In other news... I'm feeling cranky and overwhelmed today. I came in to some crisis/emergency stuff to deal with this morning, and now that I've taken care of it, I can't seem to get the rest of my day's rhythm together. R and I aren't running in sync; there's some things we need to take care of at home, but we keep on being invited here and there (poor us, I know) so things aren't getting done. Since I'm at the rehab center with my Mom at least one afternoon per weekend, things aren't going to get done unless we sit and schedule everything out. :P Oh, and it's raning, which just makes my day more vivid.

Pity party over. R and I will blast some WoW critters later tonight (we're both at level 14 now) and I got a manicure/pedicure today, so at least my toes look nice for physical therapy. Small things... :)

So this is not a great day for me. Today is my father's birthday; he would have been 61 today. I need to make sure to call my mother tonight.

It's sad. When both of my parents turned 50, they each got a birthday party. My father enjoyed his; we had all of the cousins over. :) My mother was all fussy and indignant ("I didn't want a 50th birthday party!") even though I think she secretly liked it.

Contrast to today: since my father died at 55, we couldn't do one for him. My mother turns 60 either this year or next (she always quibbled with my father over how old she was) -- but I don't know that we could do a big one for her now, since she's still so affected by my father's death. She wouldn't see it as an occasion for joy but rather an occasion to mourn for who wasn't there -- my father, my grandparents, etc.

I don't know, guys, I just don't know. I never thought I'd see the day when my mother was older than my father.

It's been five years since the day New York was forever changed. Actually, that's too limiting. It's been five years since the day America was forever changed. And, honestly, I'm not too sure how well we've done in regard to our security and morale.

I don't feel safe. I don't feel secure. I am bitter and angry. I think we've paid a lot of lip-service to things in an Orwellian display of freedom. If I'm free to ride the subway, then I can have my bag searched at any time. I'm free to check out any book I want out of the library, but Federal officials have claimed the right to know if I've done so. How can I feel good about this? Even worse, how can I feel good about the secret prisons my government has set up, all in the name of freedom? Is my freedom worth someone else being held without trial for years? Is yours?

Meantime, we're not doing the right things here at home, paying attention to the details, the way we should be. In Paris, for example, I've been told all garbage pails are transparent -- so police can see what's been thrown in them. In Penn Station, all pails are black, and can accomodate a decent-sized, combustible package. Hello? Why does a major transit hub still have black garbage pails? How is it that someone could stroll on into Penn and toss a bomb in the trash with no difficulty?

I don't know what the right answers are. I don't know what the best way to handle this should be. All I do know is that what we've got right now isn't working.

As a rememberance to those who have gone, here are some images from what Manhattan looked like five years ago -- the first set is from September 13, 2001, and the second is from September 19-20, 2001. At the time, I felt it important to document was was happening elsewhere in New York City -- what those of us who weren't downtown were seeing and experiencing. In addition, here are some essays, written by myself and others, in response to the attacks.

Let's hope we never see this again.

Oh, it's not a joke...R and I wound up playing WoW for most of the day. We're both level 10 (I'm pretty close to level 11) and we're having a LOT of fun. :) I have a bad, bad cold so it was the perfect activity...

Special "hi's" to the Gul's Angels! w00t!

My boyfriend R is fabulous. :) He "enabled" me with a copy of World of Warcraft last night. Things went downhill from there:

Midnight: Didn't get to install WOW, having some other things to take care of. Started installing at midnight-ish, since I at least wanted to see what it looked like.

1:00 am: "Oh, it won't hurt to just play for a few minutes..."

2:00 am: "As soon as I kill that frickin' boar and get some mage training, I'll go to bed."

3:00 am: "Whattdya mean, you can't just drop objects? My backpack is full, and I need to finish my quest!"

3:30 am: "Okay, I finished the quest and...WHAT TIME IS IT?! I have a doctor's appointment at 8:30!!!"

9:00 am: Exceedingly grumpy Roe is taking every eye exam under the book on three hours' sleep. Thankfully, my eyes have remained the same...no thanks to IDIOT ME, PLAYING WORLD OF WARCRAFT, or my enabler boyfriend. :D

And yes, gang, I'm on the "feathermoon" server...under metrocake. (What else?!) Right now I'm a gnome mage, level four.

Anyone got some coffee?...

I know my readers (all six of you!) have heard me mention my love for WOXY.com before. WOXY is an internet-only radio station that plays the best modern and vintage 80s music. It has been trying to support itself through member subscriptions (I most certainly paid up to subscribe -- I believe in supporting awesomeness), but it's been hard going for them.

As of right now, they are shutting down on September 15. The membership money and advertising revenue just haven't been enough to keep them in existance, so they are looking for either a significant partner or for someone to purchase them outright.

If you've got some serious investment capital burning a hole in your pocket, please go work with them. They sound like a wonderful group of folks, and it's a true shame to see them be silenced forever.

I work for a medical non-profit on their Web site and on their publications, and in that capacity I sometimes need to purchase stock photos. Typically, they're pretty innocuous -- shots of doctors with patients, researchers in a lab, sometimes images of food (if we're doing a nutrition story), etc.

A few weeks ago, I had to purchase a closeup shot of listeria, a type of bacteria. For that, I had to go to a specialized medical stock house. They were very nice there, the price was right, and the image was good...except...now I'm on their e-mail list. Like most stock houses, they're sending out information about their offerings once per week or so. But while most stock houses are sending out collections of, say, "business and global knowledge" or "teenagers in action," this particular stock house is sending out collections featuring skin cancer and Lyme disease. Today's topic, "meningitis," caught me by surprise while eating lunch -- a reminder, to be sure, to not check work e-mail during a lunch hour.

Other offerings have been unintentionally funny -- one for "sleep disorders" featured frightened eyes peeking over sheets; another for "alcoholism" showed a fifth of whiskey spilled on the floor next to an outstretched hand. Very over-the-top!

Any bets on what's coming next week? C'mon, guess...

Two titles I'd love to use someday: "The Giant Shining Disco Ball of Seduction" and "Simply Fabulous: The World Explained by Captain Super!"

I'm probably buying World of Warcraft tonight. An outside observer would have found it pretty sad, watching me look through all the character classes to see which best fit my personality... :D

So many things from this weekend...lessee: I did go to the Met in the monsoon and caught a few exhibits before heading home to Indian food. :) The nice thing about being a member of a museum or zoo is that you've essentially paid for admission for a year -- how often you use it is up to you. If I was paying for the day, I'd want to spend the day...instead, I get to run in for a few hours, or even 45 minutes, and not feel like I've wasted anything.

Mom's blood clot is better -- she doesn't know when she's heading off to inpatient rehab, but soon, I'm thinking. Crossed fingers that it's somewhere in Nassau County and accessible by train, as I've no idea how I'll visit her otherwise. :P

World of Warcraft -- so I've been thinking about playing, but I've been nervous. I'm afraid I'll really like it and then never leave the house. Anyway, this weekend I decided to just up and get it, so that's happening tomorrow. I'm thinking about being a gnome mage or a human priest(ess). Whaddya think?

It's absolutely pissing down rain, and I want to go to the Met today. Happily, they're open until 9:00 on Saturday nights, so maybe it will stop raining for five minutes, just long enough for me to run to the bus stop.

: stares out the window : Or maybe not...

I was at the hospital this morning. Mom's certainly more lucid, but she's still not allowed to bend or flex her leg. This has me a bit worried, since typically the docs have people bending their legs to some degree within an hour after surgery. Also, she's got a blood clot in the back of her knee that they're keeping a strict watch on. They've already done one doppler test on her -- like a mega echocardiagram -- and she's scheduled for another one tomorrow morning. I cracked wise about the doppler also showing Hurricane Ernesto on her knee, but I am pretty worried about that blood clot and what's going on here.

I'll be talking to my sister C at some point over the weekend. She's a trauma nurse, and she's already been in touch with the surgeon -- if anyone can translate doc-speak into English, she can.