The newest development...

Ok, I know the WEDYHTD community is divided over Lance Armstrong. Heroic/national/athletic icon to some, sleezebag doper to others, tomayto, tomahto... but what about this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4749716.stm

So Sheryl and Lance break up and all of the sudden she's being treated for breast cancer? I realize this is all speculation, but they broke up THREE weeks ago... we're supposed to believe he didn't know about the cancer? He ditched his wife who nursed him though his own cancer recovery for Sheryl, then hit the road when the going got tough with her. Either Lance and his heart are pure but have the worst timing EVER... or he is the worst person EVER. We can all decide for ourselves...
PS. I think we need weekly updates on TomKitten since lords knows, I can't keep up.

a shot at greatness

While perusing one of my favorite celebrity blogs this morning over a cup of coffee, i saw this:

"VH1 & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY ARE HITTING THE ROAD LOOKING FOR

POP CULTURE TRIVIA FANS TO COMPETE IN THE

WORLD SERIES OF POP CULTURE!"

And it occured to me, for once in my life, I actually could be equipped to compete in a world series! I mean, yeah, ok - its no Torino. But jeez, anyone who saw the ladies freestyle skating last night might concede that "greatness" isn't all that great. (cause dude, that girl so should not have won! did anyone else notice that she repeated the floaty-fish-arm-spin into single-arm-in-the-air-spin sequence 3 times!? it was like a skating version of a kylie minogue song. but i digress)

Anyways, maybe i'm just looking for an avenue to vent about ridiculous sucess of the fucking girls who ruled my middle school, but i think i could do this! i read like 3-8 celeb blogs a day, a fact which i never thought of as something to be proud of, let alone something to share with anyone, but for reals yo, i could DO this. i need teammates. who's with me?



ADDENDUM: I was so busy watching skating last night that i missed seeing becky get booted from American Idol. and yet, my dreams of greatness have not waned. the road to pop culture beckons....

Free Money

I spoke to my brother Kevin on the phone for a while last night, and told him about this major fundraiser we’re planning at work and how I’m very anxious about it because it’s only nine days away and we’ve filled about a third of the seats in what is not even that big a hall in the first place. We haven’t had a problem getting donations, though. The money is pouring in. It’s just that no one seems to want to get anything back for it. In general in my work here, I’ve found that it’s a lot easier to get people to give money than to attend an event. The easiest way to bring in cash seems to be holding raffles—that way, people can send in their checks from afar without actually having to make time in their schedules to go to a concert or a dinner or whatever, feel good about themselves for supporting a great cause, and have a shot at maybe, just maybe, winning a Chivas Regal gift set or a NordicTrak machine or someone else’s frequent flier miles.

Kevin compared it to his reaction to the homeless people on the streets of San Francisco who try to sell you their newspapers for a dollar. He usually gives them a buck but tells them to keep the paper because he can’t even be bothered with going out of his way to the trash can to throw it out.

It’s probably a raising-a-family-in-the-city thing. The people who would most enjoy the benefit concert that we’re planning are parents who bring their musically-inclined kids. But those are the same people who think they are too busy to come out on a Monday night. So instead they send in a check and their good wishes and go about their daily routine of feeding the kids and making sure they do their homework and get a good night’s sleep.

I’ve given more money than I thought I would this year to various organizations and I’ve almost always received something in return: tote bags and iPod holders from WNYC (and maybe a laptop if by chance I win the special Apple drawing!), a concert at Madison Square Garden (and a glimpse of Bill Clinton) for Katrina victims, a performance of Beethoven’s 9th for earthquake victims, all I could drink at the Brooklyn Brewery for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Next weekend I'm going to a concert that will somehow benefit both New Orleans and Tibet. I like doing fun things for a good cause and when I don’t have time for that anymore because I’m responsible for other living beings, I’ll miss it.

More and more I feel little incentive to strive towards grown-up goals like having a family and investing money and buying a home. I just did my taxes and they were so easy, on account of owning nothing of value and being responsible for no one but myself.

wasn't born yesterday

does anyone else remember a time when a snack-sized container of almonds didn't cost eight bucks. what is going on here? am i the only one who has noticed that the price of almonds (and cashews!) is out of control. are you embarrassed that i've posted this on our blog? have i jeopardized our legitimacy?

Loud and Clear, Big Guy

I am beginning to believe in a higher power. It wasn't the trip to Israel this month that did it, although the moment on shabbat looking out over the dome of the rock and the church of the holy sepulchre with the sound of the call to prayer drifting over the old city in stereo from mosques did make it seem like all of these people might know something I don't. But what turned me was the feeling lately that someone, somewhere was beginning to think I was feeling too cocky and I needed to be brought down a notch. Or, at an even more basic level-- that somebody has been paying attention. Examples from my recent existence:
In Israel I got in a yelling argument with someone on our trip, which let loose a self-righteous flood of rage that culminated in my bringing up the fact that he had spent the second day of the trip vomiting on the bus due to a vodka-drinking contest with a Russian the night before. Man, was I self-righteous. I spent most of the next day vomiting.
Also in Israel, I spoke with Juliet about how I felt like I really needed to experience heartbreak before I settle down with one person forever. Meanwhile, I spoke confidently about my relationship. I came home and within 24 hours had been dumped.
This fall, I had started to feel cocky about law school, like maybe at some level I was better than some schools. Or that I'd be considered a stronger candidate than the numbers suggest. And then those schools started to reject, wait-list and defer me.
There are other examples that don't come to mind right now, of me saying or thinking things only to be squarely contradicted by what seem like pointed changes in reality. Like someone is trying to tell me something.
The journal I'm using now I started on Valentine's Day 2004 and every page was filled ending last night, Valentine's Day 2006. I did a little personal retrospective on these past two years and more and more things seemed to be getting tied up, coming full circle; its all happening very cleanly. Not that breakups and arguments and rejection are clean, but it's falling into place like someone is planning this.
On the last day of the Israel trip, the dreamboat guide had us all write out postcards that he will mail to us, to send ourselves a little message about what we want ourselves to remember that we'd learned, realized or changes we intended to make. My postcard was about the realization that after being completely removed from everyday life for 10 days, I realized that my life is more than the sum of its components. After spending so much mental energy on relationships, jobs and law school, it was both freeing and terrifying to think about my life as being more than all of those things put together. And then I came home and a lot of those things shifted.
This whole weird, hard time brings a lot of maxims to mind-- be careful what you wish for, what goes around comes around, don't get too comfortable. It's weird. I don't know what's going on... but I'm putting it on the internet to say:
OK, I HEAR YOU.
Now if I could only figure out what they're trying to say...
I hope this doesn't mean I'm losing my mind.

Floofy dresses, Prosthetic Boobs, Opera Singing Cabbies, and the Oakland PD, or "How I spent my Saturday Night"

So pretty much nothing about Saturday made any kind of sense. I started the day with Jessie in the sunny suburbs of the South Bay trying on ridiculous pink floofy bridesmaids dresses (my sister's getting married). From there we tootled to Julia's. We were starving but the bagels were off limits - what can you do? It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and it was 5 o'clock somewhere so we drove through the city loking for a cafe in which to drink bloodymary's. You would think that wouldn't be so hard, but hours later we were still driving, with no bloodymary's in sight. We decided to pull out all the stops and go to the Cliff House, which is a swanky staple of the San Francisco tourist scene. But its ma$$ive white columns made us keep driving to Louie's, which looked quaint but in fact was just totally bizzare. First of all, no bloodymarys. Then the waitress yelled at us for wanting to switch to an empty table away from the door. When i asked for a refill of diet coke, she told me that she had given me regular, so was i sure that i wanted diet this time? There was some sort of nasty plastic thing floating in Julia's water. nothing really went right. Since we had never really fulfilled the bloody mary craving, we decided to get swanked up and paint the town red.

After many stops for black slinky things we arrived in "Balboa Park" which i guess technically is part of the city but pretty much felt like another country to us. Jessie's friend was having a party which we thought was a "Vamps and Vixens" party, but in fact was a "Vamps and Vampires" party. quite different in fact. Her friend is a fabulous drag queen and many of the other people there were also very much in drag and lace and leather and prosthetic boobs. We meant to just stay for a drink and return to civilization but many french martini's later we were still there. A woman in a leather jumpsuit with a boat of a cadillac drove us to BART. which we missed. we got on a bus. i dont know what bus it was, but i think it was the wrong one. it was empty though and we didn't have to pay. Julia decided to get off. later she regretted her haste, as it was not the correct stop. Jessie and I got off too, somewhere, nowhere near her house, so we got in a cab. i was actually a van. with a woman driver who was so fabulously nice and who turned off the meter when i jumped out to get us pizza, which again i didn't have to pay for.

I loved this cab so much that i decided i couldn't leave it, i wanted my own bed, which was across the bridge in Oakland. but i was drunk and what is money to a drunk girl? So she took me. She was an opera singer and her favorite opera, Amal and the Night Visitors, was one that my mother took me to see every single year at chistmas. So she sang me arias and we ate pizza and talked and talked and then i was home. I put it on the credit card (which was a smarter move than i knew then) went inside and ate some more pizza.

Suddenly i heard gun shots. and i looked out the window and saw 3 or 4 guys running like crazy down the street. So i got out the phone book and called the cops. Which is something i feel like i do a lot for some reason, so it didn't feel that crazy. they said they'd send a car out. i said cool. so i finished my pizza and went to bed.

This morning, as i was dawdling and making myself late to work again, the phone rang. I normally don't answer my house phone but i did and it was the Cab Driver from saturday night, calling to tell me that she had filled out a crime report with the Oakland PD and they going to contact me and she was so glad i paid with a credit card because otherwise she'd never be able to find me again. and i was like, "oh my GOD - the gunshots!" and she said, "Yeah! I got away just in time!".... It turns out that when i went inside my house that night and she was pausing to do the paperwork for my ride, a bunch of guys started running at her shooting. she peeled away just in time and the bullets missed her and just hit the side of the van. She drove off for a couple of blocks until she called the cops but they were already on their way. So now i'm sitting here waiting for the cops to call and connect the dots.
crazy friggin night.

Some Women

Nothing like a record-breaking snowstorm to separate the Vain and Superficial from the Just Plain Silly. I mean, really. If you look out the window before you get dressed in the morning, or in the event that you don't have a window or your window looks out on a brick wall you watch the local news or listen to the radio, you should have the sense not to wear your pointy-heeled boots to work. Otherwise you end up like a woman I saw coming out of the 72nd street station looking stumped because the only surface not covered in snow and ice was the grate with holes in it that would swallow up those long and skinny little heels. As Sarah suggested, "she's probably still standing there."

New Years Resolutions: better late than never.

As I strolled into work this morning, 45 minutes late (as usual), trying to nonchalantly cover the food stain I neglected to notice this morning when putting on my lamo pastel office-wear sweater that I bought because it was on sale even though it wasn't the color I wanted, I realized that I need to make some changes. It's still January, so I can still make resolutions right? I'm putting them here so as to make them more official and I think you guys should too. If you want.

1. Get to work on time and stop deciding to clean the house 10 minutes after I'm supposed to leave it.
2. Be more stylish - only buy office clothes that I wouldn't feel lame going to happy hour in.
3. Never buy things just because they're on sale
4. Don't avoid starting political conversations just because I assume that everyone around me shares my point of view. They don't.
5. Drink at least 3 Nalgenes of water a day
6. Be more present. When I start to panic about dumb shit in the future, force myself to stop and let go.
7. Make lunch and bring it to work
8. Take vitamins + flax seed oil every morning
9. Wean myself off of Equal and sugar-free popsicles.
10. Know when to shut the fuck up. Especially when drunk.
11. No whiskey. Ever.
12. Stop crying during minor conflicts, arguments, or conversations about money.
13. Write at least a couple songs this year and be less nervous about singing them in front of people.
14. Start exercising again.
15. Stop flushing O.B. wrappers down the toilet.
16. Be more stringent about the use of apostrophes and the difference between "its" and "it's" when typing.
17. Spend more time alone
18. Go to more museums, talks, and concerts. Always worth the money.
19. Reinstate Frugal Month.
20. For every hour I spend reading celebrity gossip, I must read at least one real news story.

Upfront

Took a cab to work. Who said it - I said it. I was running really late and when my boss is out of town he just waits for an opportunity to say, "You're taking advantage." So I hailed a mini-van cab on 7th and hopped to the second row. I'm about to go on a birthright trip to Israel and hear that the cool people sit in the back of the bus. I'm doing a lot of prep this week.

My cab driver, Jack Rubin, seemed confused. "Most people sit right here," he said pointing to the seat behind him. I didn't tell Jack that I had chosen the second row because it gave me more sleeping space though perhaps I should have because as we turned onto Flatbush he offered me his copy of the New York Post. I get sick if I read in a moving vehicle, but sweetly accepted.

At my final destination, he asked if I wanted the receipt. I said sure even though I had no use for it. "At least somebody's getting reimbursed," he said. Precisely. I didn't want him to suspect that I was spoiling myself. I'd be concerned if he thought I was being excessive.

Stopped in at Starbucks. The man in line in front of me requested that he not get the croissant he had been given. The barista explained that he had actually put 2 in the bag. But the customer had a particular butter croissant in mind and pointed. The same barista then ordered me a triple grande latte when I had just paid for a double tall. I didn't say anything. It seemed he liked treating.

Mayans into Theatres Near You this Spring

My dad used to make a living cutting trailers for movies. He was responsible for the coming attraction to Mel Gibson's 1995 film Braveheart. Now here was potential for a great coming attraction. There would be bagpipes,greenery, battle, kilts, kissing, more battle. And then, the music could stop, and in would drop a killer line: THEY CAN TAKE OUT LIVES. BUT THEY'LL NEVER TAKE...OUR FREEDOM. It just seemed too easy. But that was ten years go.

Let me be clear. I don't have my Masters in anything. But it seems to me that trailers have come to rely too heavily on well-established formulas. Those of us who "don't want to miss the trailers" know the ad approaches all too well. For example, there's the "Until Now" method, which goes something like this: Mel Gibson had it all. He was handsome. Australian. He was winning Oscars. It seemed like he had the world in the palm of his hand - halt music - UNTIL NOW- more music go go go. Perhaps the only thing more cliche than these trailers are my jokes about them.

I'd like to call your attention if I may (my apologies for sounding so formal-I am merely misplacing the academic energy that could go toward a masters degree if i had ANY IDEA WHAT I WANTED TO STUDY!!!!), to the "teaser" trailer for Mel Gibson's new movie Apocalyptico. http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&cf=trailer&id=1809249345&intl=us

Instead of a narrator, it uses "cards" or words. Early on we see this Will Durant quote: "A great civilization is not conquered from without - fade out - until it has destroyed itself from within" followed by images of howling, blood thirsty Indians who turn out to be Mayan. The entire movie is in Mayan. This leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Indigenous people had colonialism coming to them? Even if the Spanish arrived only once this particular civilization had largely dispersed, it seems like a strange statement coming from a philosopher/scholar. And certainly not a theory that could be applied throughout history.

I asked my dad about it and he said that he suspects Mel Gibson is trying to imply that America is currently destroying itself from within. That our culture is on the decline morally. The trailer further misleads the American people when it posts this on the screen: "From the Academy Award winning director of Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ." He didn't win an award for the Passion let alone a nomination!

Suddenly THEY MAY TAKE OUR LIVES BUT THEY'LL NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM sounds like something Bush would say. Looking back at the titles of his movies, it occurs to me that maybe Mel has been working for the man all along. Lethal Weapon,The Patriot, Bird on a Wire, Maverick. Of course this could all just be a "Conspiracy Theory" because he was
also in a movie called "Air America."

4 Years of Liberal Arts Education: $150,000. An Uncanny Ability to Bullshit: Priceless.

Like probably several others on this blog, I went to an expensive liberal arts university (the very same one in fact!). With a big stress on the words "liberal" and "arts". Not so much "university". Or so I thought.

I spent the first couple of years halfheartedly trying to fulfill the few requirements there were. To this end I took and managed to pass both physics and astronomy. I am eternally proud of this fact. But that's where the facts end and the bullshit begins: I was an American Studies major, the most liberal major of them all. (To my credit, I think I was possibly the only Amst major who chose the department because I truly honestly was interested in the subject and methodology, and not just because of the flexible attitude they had towards credits. Although damn, that helped a lot) and I created my own major which was nice then, and continues to be nice now because it takes quite a bit of time trying to explain what a concentration in Nationalism & Transnationalism is exactly, so if I'm ever in an awkward social situation with nothing to say, I can always play that one up. But I digress....

Annnnnnyways, I finally have a job that makes me really pretty happy. (Word to the wise: I've discovered that most people don't actually like you when you're happy. My popularity at potlucks has plummeted since my depression began to wane...) and a lot of what I do at my job is write and edit grant reports and letters and briefs and stuff.

And I realized all of a sudden that, contrary to what I always thought, I actually owe any success I have to my liberal arts education! Even though I wasn't sure how those film and lit classes were going to ever help me, I'm starting to think that maybe in some strange way, they will. It turns out, the art of talking things up is surprisingly valuable! Which is awesome, because that's pretty much the only thing I know how to do at this point. So there you go. A public service announcement to anyone who is as lost as I have been:

Do not lose hope; become a grantwriter.

unacceptable

I am at work and my co-worker is currently listening to the radio. Now, this is something I normally don't mind. In fact, even in college and living with roommates, I was always the one that wanted to study with music on and if it was something I didn't care about, with TV. I like background noise.

But I do NOT like today's background noise. My co-worker is listening to the history of douche on the radio and now they are taking calls from women to hear their experiences with douche-ing. Am I right that this is wholly unacceptable to listen to at work? I mean, I'm all for inappropriate conversation and dirty, intimate details and I love Adam Corolla. It's not really the conversation that bothers me. It's the fact that I don't want to listen to this WITH my co-worker while I am trying to finish a personal injury settlement. The pros and cons of douche (I was taught there are only cons and douche-ing is really really bad) is bar talk best reserved for best girlfriends and effeminate boys, NOT pre-lunch, radio-listening at work.

A little NPR never killed anyone. I will now deal with the situation as passive aggressively as possible by tuning to an internet radio station that is turned up just loud enough to make having both stations on impracticable. And if the co-worker doesn't like it, she can go douche herself.

As fate would have it...

I received Sea Monkeys this morning as a gift. These days they are GUARANTEED to live for two years. I told the giver, my uncle, that I really wasn't prepared to make that kind of committment... but it does make it a more serious kind of gift for a significant other. Two years is like giving someone a cat. Or at least a gerbil. Chrismakkah gerbil?

STRIKE!

This is my only proof that I walked to/from work 3 times. I love extreme circumstance (so long as no one is in danger) and so severe weather, blackouts and transit strikes are right up my alley... but this got old. Luckily, it's a good excuse for the sparsity of Chrismakkah presents I'll be doling out this weekend. I felt once again very distant from most people I spoke to about the strike while it was going on, there seemed to be so much anger and frustration and it was solely aimed at the union. I'm sure it's my pinko upbringing, but I was always taught never to cross a picket line, regardless of what the union is or what they're requesting-- a strike is a huge, costly, dangerous, difficult thing that folks don't arrive at lightly, so you have to assume whatever they're asking for it worth a whole lot to them. Maybe I also feel torn between the sense of purpose I felt while cresting the Brooklyn Bridge on the second morning, accompanied by thousands of New Yorkers and Billy Bragg singing "There is power in the union" on my ipod and the fact that I was trudging all that way to a job that provides no such sense of purpose and probably more undermines things I believe are important. Looks like I need my own labor negotiations.

MTA War Stories

Well, it happened. The subway is on strike. I know that several of you blog from New York and I am interested in harrowing and humorous tales of how you're getting around.

I'm in Minneapolis and when the buses here went on strike a couple of years ago, the only thing that changed for me was that I had to drive this really tedious and annoying co-workerto work every day. And my most harrowing transportation experience recently is having to scrape off my windshield every morning in -20 windchills.

Anyway, let's hear your stories as I don't believe Katie Couric's experiences really sum up those of the average New Yorker. And while you're at it, let's hear your plans for getting the trains moving again. I'll be there in 9 days and I don't have money for cabs.

Holidazzle

So apparently Bush is totally booked for the next 3 weeks or so. I wonder when he'll observe Kwanzaa.
Also, speaking of religious pluralism, I read an article this morning about Hindus wanting New York to make Diwali another Alternate Side Parking Suspended day- so the normal rules of "no Parking on Tuesdays" don't apply on those days. Bloomberg vetoed the bill to make Diwali one of those days, unfortunately it seems the NYC DOT has gotten themselves into a little bit of a pickle since there are already something like 45 of these days including "Solemnity of Ascension" and "Shemini Atzereth" (observed at the end of Sukkot, marked by a service in memory of the dead and a special prayer for rain.) The city argued that the other holidays represent a large number of people and are holidays that prohibit driving (so folks can't move their cars,) which I guess makes sense except in cases like "Lincoln's Birthday" and "Lincoln's Birthday (observed)." The cars are moved to allow street cleaning and so this was another point raised, if parking weren't enforced in Diwali, the streets would be dirty... but what about the one-two punch of the 7th and 8th days of Passover immediately followed by Holy Thursday and Good Friday!?!? The streets will be filthy in late April, book your vacations now.

Funny 'Cause Its True?

Saturday night, mostly because it was cold there were no options of parties of people we knew, we went to a party locally of someone we didn't know. (We being myself, Erica, Rob and our two friends visiting from Boston.) I thought they had kind of an odd aesthetic sense-- the living room ceiling was covered with those nets of christmas lights (excuse, holiday lights. Um, I don't think they were kwanzaa lights, though) and those little styrofoam model airplanes that you might get as a prize in a cereal box or buy as some kind of souvenir from a flight-related tourist destination-- kitty hawk and cape canaveral come to mind. After being there for awhile, someone mentioned that this was a "Pearl Harbor" party.
Excuse me...? All of the sudden the Kamikaze shots made sense.
Granted I think I have a pretty liberal interpretation of whats funny. And I generally appreciate inappropriate humor. And I didn't think it was "offensive." Just really weird. I mean, I guess I understand we're all supposed to be over Pearl Harbor. Not even very many people alive today were alive or concious of what was going on at the time- but where is the line? At what point is it ok for an attack that claimed 2,390 lives to become the theme for a party for a bunch of twenty-somethings in Brooklyn. So if September 11th was the Pearl Harbor of our generation, will there be September 11th parties in 60 years? Should we start having them now so even when we're old and senile, our grandkids will think we were really cool and cutting edge? Is anything sacred or does enough time pass and allow anything and everything into the public domain, allowing us to do with the symbols what we want? I don't think anyone would suggest a Holocaust party. Or a Tsunami party. Hurricane Katrina? How about a party themed "massacre" and everyone could come dressed in the theme of their favorite massive loss of life. These ideas seems totally abhorrant, but why is one ok and the other isn't? Are we being ironic when we drink wine and eat chips with a tragic theme? Is it ok because no one who was impacted by the event was going to show up to the party (I assume the organizers didn't invite any grandparents...)?
The thing about liking inappropriate humor is that I understand that it's hypocritical for me to draw this line. I hosted a "cowboys and indians" party sophomore year, Freshman year we played a drinking game called "Beer Hunter" (a russian roulette of drinking based on the film about Vietnam) I think jokes about stereotypes are funny and while it's "ironic" because it's not what I believe and I don't condone people who believe those things... they are reflective of real problems and issues real people face.
But something about this rubbed me in a weird way.

iPod: Protection from Myself

After 15 months together--most of which were blissfully happy--it's over between me and my iPod. On a bus back to New York over Thanksgiving weekend, songs kept skipping, and so I restarted it only to discover that all 2500+ songs were gone. When I try to plug it in to Sarah's computer, I am told that "The system cannot read the inserted disc" or something devastating like that. My reaction has been surprisingly mature. It's been a week now and life has been okay. I'm getting a lot more reading done on the subway, and walking down the street I do feel more a part of the world.

The trouble, as I found out yesterday, is the bus. My work takes me to various places that make it necessary to ride the M86 back and forth across town. I can't read on the bus for fear of vomiting, so this had been prime iPod time. I'd look out the window and lip-synch to myself, ignoring the people around me. But now I have nothing to do on the bus. Yesterday I found myself reverting to an old habit that I associate with the summer of 2003, when I first moved here: I stare at people. I like to look at what people are wearing, what they're reading, what they're writing, etc. Obviously the people who are most fun to watch are the ones who are a little bit crazy--the ones who draw fellow passengers in sketchpads, the ones who have facial tics, the ones who pray, and so forth. Yesterday I happened to be across a woman in fur and a ton of makeup who was talking to herself, so naturally I stared. It didn't take too long before we made eye contact and I got freaked out and concentrated hard for the rest of the ride on not looking at her. One day I'm going to stare at the wrong person and get my ass kicked. Or mugged.

So that's why I need a new iPod (or to wait the five hours it will take to get it serviced at the Apple store in SoHo): too keep my mind busy enough that I don't have to stare at people and therefore put myself in danger.

Or, I guess I could start using one of my three portable CD players again. But that just feels so backwards now.

11215 Dialect

This morning, at the intersection of Union Street and 5th Avenue, I jumped the gun. Although there wasn't a walk signal, the path looked clear. The woman in her late 20's next to me seemed to think so too. We both started walking, then looked both ways, realized there was in fact oncoming traffic, and said at the same exact time, "Maybe not."

Maybe not. Is this just what people say in that situation? I doubt that most would find it necessary to talk to themselves/impress the strangers around them with their take on what has just gone down. If I were a linguist, I might trace "maybe not" back to the same language group as "I feel like."

More questions. Is it possible that our using the same words at the same time indicates some sort of shared lifestyle? And given the fact that I found this incident to be worthy of a blog posting, is it a lifestyle that could use a little spicing up?

It's Christmas, for Christ's sake.

About a week ago, the Christmas decorations appeared in the lobby of my office building. Someone, somewhere really went overboard. Every flat surface hosts little scenes of golden deer frolicking in fake golden snow, there is a giant christmas tree that blocks the path to the turnstiles and all surfaces that can't quite accomodate a golden deer have swags of greenery on them. There are also about 6 different decorating themes going on there... but I really don't care. It's Christmas. The theme is Christmas. Fine.
Monday I noticed a new set of decorations in the corner of the cafeteria. Here we have a Christmas tree, a menorah and, apparently, a Kwanzaa table. I didn't see the Kwanzaa table up close until I inspected today, but could only assume thats what it was-- when you see a folding table draped in kente cloth, it can only mean Kwanzaa. When I looked more closely this morning, the Kwanzaa table also holds a Kwanzaa candle holder, wooden bowel of fruits and vegetables and dried corn. (You can read more about this at the official Kwanzaa website, http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/symbols.html)
Ok, so this is the point: In theory I totally support and value a pluralistic society. I mean, there is no caveat to this. I just don't find this all necessary. Menorahs and Christmas Trees are not the same things, one is an instrument of a religious holiday, the other is a decorative symbol associated with a religious holiday. Christmas and Hannukah aren't the same thing- and the there's Kwanzaa, which isn't the same thing at all since it's not a religious holiday... but it is an important development from the black power movement. It's just this kind of lame newish need to give everyone something roughly equivalent to Christmas. Instead of giving jews and african-americans some throw away symbol, why not chill on the Hannukah bit and teach gentiles about Rosh Hashanah? Or don't make it seem like Kwanzaa is the black people's Christmas... teach everyone what its about and why its important that it exists.

On a seperate note, I read in the paper today that tomorrow buses in New York and various other cities across the country will be honoring Rosa Parks by reserving a seat at the front of the bus in her memory. Now THATS a cool tradition.