piss poor shuffle feature

2004-09-27

Okay, I'm cold. It's raining today and supposed to be fairly warm out, but the office is freezing, and I am not clothed warmly enough. I think I need to keep an afghan in my office to drape myself in when the air-conditioning is working overtime. The boss has never said we Can't wear blankets; therefore, it would be acceptable. I have spoken.

Yesterday I got a sore throat again--a whole other kind of sore throat than the one I had last week. I believe I'm getting a cold (I'm a little congested), and I'm craving foods/beverages that will hurt my throat. Things like salsa, hot and sour soup, ginger (last night I was tempted to grate about a teaspoon of fresh ginger and swallow it real slow-like, but I didn't), whisky, etc. I even dreamt about shopping for throat-hurting foods and beverages for a little while last night. Today so far I've had a half sandwich of pastrami with hot mustard (for breakfast), two cups of lemon-ginger tea (steeped a long time so it would be strong), and some lentils and rice, into which I stirred a shitload of salsa. But what I Really want is a juice drink I used to buy at the Wild Oat market in Pasadena, CA. It was called The Doctor, and it contained (if I remember correctly) orange, carrot, and beet juices, plus a large hunk of ginger and several garlic cloves (put through the juicer). It hurt so good, that beverage, and of course I also had to buy a tin of altoids for afterwards, because it was just as stinky breath-making as it sounds. Oh Doctor, why aren't you a fixture on every juice bar menu?

Boy had a friend spend the night on Saturday night (the same friend who came over on Friday afternoon) and yesterday morning we rousted them early and took them to breakfast and to the flea market. I saw some cool stuff at the flea market, but it wasn't cool enough/reasonably priced enough to make me buy it, and plus, there's nowhere to put the cool things I saw. As we were getting ready to meet up with the boys and go home, we passed a semi-permanent used formal wear shop that had "vintage" ruffled tuxedo shirts, $5 apiece for boy sizes. We went through them and found one light blue and one gold one that would fit the boys, and though we knew they might hate them, we bought them anyway. Not only did they not hate them, they were very excited and made plans to wear their shirts today. Hopefully Boy's friend followed through on that, because Boy wore his (the blue one) today with jeans and a t-shirt, and I think he would be embarrassed if his friend wimped out. He looked so cute! I hope the assholes (so prevalent in junior high) aren't harassing him too much, because it would be fun if he wanted to start wearing clothes that were a little less mainstream. Fun for ME, since I could do all that purposeful thrift shopping. I wish we had an Aardvark's Odd Ark in this area--that would kick ass.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to go up into the small town we sort of live in (we're in the unincorporated part of town) to walk around and take pictures. It was really fun at first and then it was too hot, but still I walked and I took some interesting pictures. Nothing I would call a masterpiece, but a few I liked. Apparently there was a parade pending in town yesterday, but I didn't realize that until I saw people starting to set up folding chairs along the main street. I hadn't seen any signs for a parade, and I didn't actually stick around for the parade because I was quite hot and sweaty and not in the right parade frame of mind, but I got a couple pictures of the "crowd" waiting for it. Then I drove home and drank a lot of water, read the latest Smithsonian magazine, and decided I need to learn morse code. I am adding that to my To-Do list.

I have my RealPlayer going, on Shuffle, and RealPlayer really likes James--it's been on Shuffle for one hour, and so far has played 3 James songs. This is out of 525 song possibilities, mind you. It's also played 2 Justin Timberlake songs, so basically, it's not shuffling enough. Shuffle, my ass.

Francisco and I went to the gym this morning to lift weights, and as we were lifting, I said good morning to Otto. He said it back and I think we could've initiated a conversation with him, but we didn't, which is probably good. If we'd started a conversation Otto might've told us his actual name and then I couldn't call him Otto anymore. Though it might be worth it to have some gym friends, and I've eavesdropped on Otto and Jeremy Northam often enough to believe them to be our kind of people. And maybe if we got to be friends with them, Otto would let me call him Otto though that is probably not his real name. So I guess if I get another good opportunity to converse with Otto, I will take it, though I don't think I'll say good morning to Daisy Mae again, because I said it this morning and she completely ignored me. Probably she was distracted because God Boy was nearby--she has Such a huge and transparent crush on him, and there's something weird about those two. They never speak inside the gym, but Francisco brought it to my attention that they almost always leave at the same time, and they talk in the parking lot. This morning that happened again, and Francisco was watching them from inside the gym. I'm like, "Dumbass, they can see you. If you're going to spy, you have to spy from inside the aerobics room, because it's dark in there." He was apparently never taught the finer points of spying on people; we have a lot of work to do.

Speaking of Francisco, he and I ride-shared this morning (I was driving) and at one point we had an exchange I found pleasing. It was when I was waiting to turn left and the people in front of me were being slow:

ME: Come on, people, now. Smile on your brother. And by your brother, I mean me. And by smile, I mean...
Francisco: Get the fuck out of your way?
ME: [emphatically] Get the FUCK out of my way.

It was a little thing, but I liked it. Francisco's the most fun person to hang out with, EVER. No question about it.

Saturday I went to a little shop I like that has a large and eclectic inventory, including clothes, toiletries, jewelry, beads, yarn, shoes, and really just every damn thing a girl could want. I went there specifically to buy two circular needles (size 7); one 24 inch and one 16 inch. This is so I can start making Francisco's sweater. I have knitted a swatch, but since I practically go blind every time I try to count the stitches, I'm not sure if I have 4 1/2 or 5 stitches per inch. Once I've determined that, I will know how many to cast on and can start. I figure what I'll do is cast on for the body, knit one round, and then put it aside and have some aquavit. This is because, based on other, much smaller projects I've done, casting on and knitting the first row/round is the most aggravating, since you have to avoid twisting stitches and etc. Since I'll be casting on at least 200 stitches, that's a lot of aggravation. I was going to make a small sweater first--a prototype--so that I'd know exactly how to do it, but then I decided there's no need for that and I can surely figure it out as I go. I probably shouldn't let the Universe know I'm thinking that way, but I'll take my chances.

Okay, James song number 4 now--this is stupid.

Dear RealPlayer Inventors,
You couldn't have spent a little more time writing the code for the Shuffle feature? You were clearly just phoning it in at that point. Don't you feel ashamed of yourselves?
Tattoobelly

....aaaand Justin Timberlake song number 3. Perhaps you think I'm the one who should be ashamed, for having Justin's music in the first place, but you, my friend, are missing the point. Those are only 13 songs out of 525!

I was thinking yesterday that what I should do with all those empty Altoids tins I have is decorate the outsides in some funky way and then write notes to put inside them. I would then, in this scenario, hide them in public places for people to find. This seems fun to me, based on how much fun it was on Sunday to write a note that said Meow 67 (in a little graphic-arts kind of way) and stick it in a hole in the brick of the wall of the restaurant in which we were having breakfast. I'm not sure what the Altoid tin notes would say--maybe they could be poems (other people's--I don't write poetry) or very short stories or just sketches. The most important thing is that I wouldn't sign my name, and maybe I could put tiny gifts in them too. Like candy or beads or other things which are small. I don't know--maybe that wouldn't be fun after all, but maybe it would, and maybe I'll do one or two when I get a chance, just to see where the project falls on the Fun-O-Meter. But first I should make a Fun-O-Meter. Ai yi yi, my work is never done.

Oy, I'm tired of babbling now, and I need to find something to hurt my throat. All I have left to eat is the apple and peanuts I brought as a snack, and neither of those things is painful. Before I sign off, I want to point out that I really, really love the song 'Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven', by Godspeed You Black Emperor!. My love for the song is at least 60% because of the title (maybe 70%), and if you want to download the song (for free, because the band is being so kind as to give it away, you can get it here.

Love,
E |

cats-kittens

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