|
Friday, Nov. 08, 2002 / 1:29 p.m. ~Dining Out For Charity, a New Demonstration, a Faux Pas, a Freudian Slip, and the Job as Penance, etc.~ I've said before that I consider this job some form of penance, that the Cosmos has me here for a reason, as when I first got hired, told Brent I was a minority and he said, "Good. It'll be good for you." So a white boy comes along, they place him only a few feet from me, and he's a good ol' boy Southern redneck dick asshole, Army reject, 20something with two kids and a drug-addict ex-wife from whom he's constantly trying to obtain child support. His body language is intrusive, he hangs out of his cubicle, he sits in his chair, legs apart, leaning over, copy of whichever Anne Rice novel he's reading now spread out in his open hands, literally in the aisle. If he starts to talk to me while I'm writing and I say I'm 'busy', he says, "Go on, write in your journal", and I wish he didn't know, I wish he didn't know anything about me, I wish I'd never spoken to him at all. The 'new boy' chaps my ass. He is a thorn in my side. He is something I do my best to avoid, but when he's leaning in to see what we're all up to, all of us who bring things to occupy our time, bills to pay, magazines and books to read, phone numbers of friends to call, he sits bored and aching to spill his life to us. I don't want to hear it. Yesterday I was too exhausted to do much. I got online at home after work, but it was the big TV night: "Felicity", "Survivor", "CSI", "ER", and somewhere in the middle of all that I simply went in and logged off. No energy at all. All the while, thinking if only I had a laptop, maybe I could pound something out on commercial breaks� There is a lot to report. A lot to note. Shall I start here, now, and work my way backwards? Listerine is going to tomorrow's March/Vigil downtown, and I'm excited for her. I've halfheartedly invited her to go with Sandy, his son and me, but I don't know if Sandy is up for it. I'm guessing yes, the more the merrier, but until I clear it with him I think she can find her own way. The weather is supposed to be really nice, and we expect a large turnout, as always. I'm glad to get to meet up with some protestors, especially since I missed the big Demo in D.C. on the 26th. Our governor-elect made his first faux pas� yep, already. I'm so embarrassed. In his acceptance speech he said, "Free at last, free at last, thank god almighty�". A Southern white good ol' boy. Big ol' KKK-looking guy (I'm stereotyping, I know, I know, but I said as much to Listerine and Veronica and they totally agreed with me!), quoting MLK Jr. Sick. The ACLU has called it "inappropriate", but it's worse than that, it doesn't even make sense. What was he talking about? WHO's free? Him??? What, was he a slave prior to the election? I'm confused. I'm feeling sick again. I had quit the echinacea, cold turkey, but I keep up with the vitamins, the gram of C, the E, the B-50s, the multi, calcium, as always. Still, yesterday I had a fever on and off all day, and I started back in with the achy neck, shoulders, back. Plus, I had horrible cramps, bad, bad, like all the way from uterus through to lower back, horrible pain. That's gone today, but I woke around 5:00 a.m. feeling like I had a head cold, all congested, head like a brick. Lovely. Symptoms now (10:26 a.m.) include clogged throat, headache, neck ache, major soreness, slight fever. On "Felicity" the other day mononucleosis was going around the dorm. I watched Megan writhing in bed, soaked with a feverish sweat, and thought, Oh no, what if I have mono? Surely it's a virus from hell, one that lay dormant for a week or so, and is now back, but we'll see. Turned out Felicity only had the flu, and maybe the others did too, but in the end she goes to see her new boyfriend (one Elena calls 'new guy', which made me laugh because I call my co-worker the 'new boy') and their first kiss occurs when he looks her right in the eye and says, "Give me mono". Sigh� Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought that was outrageously romantic. And they always have the softest lit scenes. Beautiful. I really love that show. Duh. This is all so random (and long!), but there was a Bill Maher interview on NPR's "Fresh Air" yesterday afternoon. I really like and admire him. Always have, I think. He answered Terry Gross' queries about running for political office by explaining that he thinks religion is bad and drugs are good, for starters. Those are unpopular views. I love it. He is awfully intelligent and articulate, and tolerant of those with radically opposing viewpoints. It was a good interview. Yesterday was Penelope's birthday. We had pound cake for breakfast, German Chocolate cake with ice cream in the afternoon. She's 51, but she's not aging. She's beautiful. The night before, Wednesday, was the Dining Out For Life charity dinner event. Everyone on our team was invited, they all got the menu for the restaurant we chose, and they all backed out. Last minute. Even Kukla couldn't make it, some problem with her eye forced her to leave work and not return. I was feeling really gross physically, but Penelope was up for it, it was to celebrate her birthday, and help out Project Open Hand (delivering meals to AIDS patients and others with restricting illnesses). She invited a friend of hers in another department, Shawn, and Shawn offered to drive just us three, so we went on ahead right after work. Shawn is 31, I'm 41, and Penelope is 51, something I realized after the fact, and I think we made a great group. We drank Pinot Grigio, they tried to order in Italian, we laughed, I rolled my eyes at the waiter, said I'd been there before, but my pals had not. We were only semi-annoying. Shawn asked the waiter his name, I introduced us to him, she said what a beautiful smile he had� every time he walked away. She is so shy, and married, and tall, and beautiful, and has the most beautiful dark brown skin, black really, and the prettiest white, white smile. I've always thought she was incredibly striking, but I've not talked much to her in the time I've worked here� She was so cute with her little crush on our waiter! He was cute, had long sideburns, and when he smiled (which we made him do again and again, just to see it) his whole face lit up. I joked with Shawn about it, mostly to make her giggle and smile too, saying, "Ooooo, 'Jungle Fever'!", and secretly wanted to see the two of them 'together', the strikingly beautiful tall black goddess and the skinny white boy with long sideburns and a fetching smile. I talked her into drawing a smiley face on her credit card printout - she also wrote "Gorgeous Smile" up at the top. We had great food, we helped the charity, gave extra donations (in addition to the 20% of our bill being allocated to them), and the place was full when we left at 8:30. I'm so glad it was just the three of us. We had a really nice dinner. The night before, at home, I cooked the last steak of my huge thick ribeye I'd cut into three separate steaks and froze. I went really simple this time, just sprinkled on some garlic powder and drizzled olive oil and Worcestershire sauce, broiled it, salt and pepper once done. It was so good I licked my plate. Yep. Feeling very primal, trying hard not to think about the fact that I was eating the flesh of an animal. I do lean towards vegetarianism, and hardly ever buy and cook meat myself, though I eat it, but I remain conflicted. I love a good steak! (feeling a bit guilty) That makes me think of last night's "Survivor" and how sweet that woman is (Jan?), with her little animal graveyard. I love how sensitive she is. I'm with Ted, I would've eaten it too, without participating in the slaughter and cooking, but I also wouldn't have minded if they just let it go free. No doubt some other animal would have gotten to it in that case. After all, there are quite a few carnivorous animals in the jungle. I think I'm about all tapped out here, in my attempt to catch myself up. There was one thing I made a note of yesterday, a little Freudian slip made by my pal Mark, and I told him I'd make a note of it, told him I had to write it down it was so good� I call him at his job, whilst I'm at my job, we talk desk to desk, work to work, but I'm in a call center environment here, technically, so I get calls and have to hang up with him, or put him on hold, but then my personal calls appear really long on the reports and I'm scolded later. Anyway, he volunteered to be put on hold, as he often does, when my phone rang yesterday (three phone lines, one outside to in/inside to out, one inside to inside/inside to out, one is strictly business, the hot line, the WORK line), but instead of saying, "Sure, I'll hold", or "Put me on hold", or "I'll hold, go ahead", he said, "Go ahead, just hold me". I thought that was really, really funny. But maybe you had to be there. I think he just sounded like he needed a big hug anyway, so it was clearly a 'Freudian slip', his subconscious mind speaking out. I leave on that note, for now. I'm going to sit here and drink lots of water, listen to MC Solaar rap in French (makes me swoon�) and read my Entertainment Weeklys, until I get some work to do. At home, I need to tidy up, at least, before calling maintenance to fix my heater. It was cold this morning! I do love sleeping with Gladys curled against me, under the covers, but she leaves sometimes and then even sleeping is cold. We'll get it all taken care of, soon. Cost of the War in Iraq
(JavaScript Error)
Recent Entries: It Was 40 Years Ago Today - 9:44 a.m. , Friday, Oct. 12, 2012 Dead Black Cat - 9:07 a.m. , Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 As Seen From Outer Space - 1:07 a.m. , Saturday, Dec. 05, 2009 I Survived to Tell the Tale - 7:29 a.m. , Friday, Sept. 18, 2009 Reading My Life - 12:55 p.m. , Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009 
  |