09 Jan 07 Tuesday
The Closing of the Closeout Store
Current mood: giddy
There’s a closeout store chain (Mace’s) that’s going out of business in town here. While I should have been doing some sort of work, I spent a good hour meandering through the store. I got some decent deals on lotions and crap like that. But I also got a few interesting items:
* A Gang of Four cassette tape — Shrinkwrapped
* A Buffy the Vampire Slayer script book — Season Two, Vol. 3
* A double-feature DVD — The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (Steve McQueen) and Gangster Story (Walter Matthau… Walter Matthau? )
* Another DVD (not a double feature) — Warriors of the Wasteland (How can you pass up a movie whose synopsis begins, “In a post-apocalyptic future…”?)
I’m looking forward to listening to the music and watching the movies. Maybe I’ll start later on this evening.
I also got black nail polish. I read somewhere that black is the new black. (WTF? ) Remember when only punks and Halloween witches wore black nail polish? Now it’s apparently de rigueur for haute couture. So I put up 50 cents to be in fashion.
In all, I spent $13.58 for 10 items. The most expensive was the Pond’s Purely Polished micro-dermabrasion anti-aging kit. Yeah, so I’m trying to preserve my youth. Like you’re not.
04 Feb 07 Sunday
A Night On The Town
Current mood: bouncy
Category: Parties and Nightlife
Last night a friend and I met in NYC to go to a club and see a few bands. We met up fairly early and settled into a nearby pub for a drink and some food before we wandered over to the club (Rebel).
What fun to have to show ID to get into a club! The venue was crowded with kids. Jeez, do I feel old. Many of the kids there were not old enough to drink (as evidenced by the big black “X”s on their hands). We stayed for one band — Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer. The songs all sounded alike — though not bad — and the banter with the crowd was decent.
Still, we couldn’t stay. We both felt like den mothers at a Cub Scout meeting. Plus the place was wicked hot (temperature-wise). We were happy to get out into the cold February night air. If it had been 10 or 15years ago, I would have really enjoyed this place. It’s proximity to Penn Station would have made it great fun for a night out for a Long Island kid. I suppose it still is a good night out for Long Island kids.
Back we went to the pub where we’d started our evening. It’s a nice Irish pub on 8th Ave. They had a decent jukebox and we got to hear some Clash, Thin Lizzy, and a bunch of other stuff that made us feel much more at home than we did at the post-punk Rebel.
Today I’m sleepy and dehydrated, but very psyched because Ian Hunter just announced some UK tour dates! Looks like it’s going to be a good May.
04 Mar 07 Sunday
Depositions
Current mood: relieved
Category: Life
On Thursday last week Eric and I had to go for depositions for the car accident lawsuit. (Briefly: We were in a car accident in November 2005 as a result of a cabbie who blew a red light. Eric had a broken rib; I had a broken thumb). I’ve never been deposed before, so it was somewhat nerve-wracking. You answer questions as briefly as you can: “Yes.” “No.” “2 PM.” “42.”
I was fine with many of the questions, but when I had to think about every second of the accident, it was upsetting. It’s very hard to answer questions about what happened during a specific second of a car accident. It’s especially so when the whole thing happened in slow motion. I don’t have fast and slow versions of the accident bouncing around in my head. The only memory I have is in slow motion. It seemed to take a very long time, though it couldn’t have been more than 5 – 7 seconds.
But it’s done. That’s a good thing. They’d postponed it several times since December. Now I can look forward to several postponements of doctor appointments. Apparently I’m going to have to prove to some disinterested third party that my thumb was broken. I’m not worried about that part of it at all. X-rays can clearly show that the bone was broken; a scar on my right hand shows where they went in to set the bone. I even saved the two metal pins they’d stuck into my thumb to keep it together while it healed (the bone had broken into three distinct pieces).
The good news is that it looks like they might settle with us. That would be good for everyone involved. I’m looking forward to putting the whole thing behind me.
15 Apr 07 Sunday
Stunning Discovery
Current mood:TALL
Category: Life
For years (and I mean years), I led my life believing that I was 5’1″ tall. In fact, I recall lying on my driver’s license because at the time I got it I was only 5′ and a half an inch tall.
This morning I discovered that I am, in fact, 5’2″ tall!
What makes a 43-year-old woman measure her height? I’m glad you asked. My friend Susan had stayed over and she is 5’1″ tall. This morning we were both in bare feet and I noticed that I’m actually taller than she is. So the reality was that one of us was not 5’1″. We did the only sensible thing and took out a ruler and took turns standing against the wall while the other drew a little line on the wall in pencil to indicate how tall each one was — like everyone used to do when they were kids.
It turns out that Susan is 5’1″ and I’m 5’2″. I have no idea when this happened. But it explains the discrepancy between my height and that of my Grandma Drews (RIP). She always claimed to be 5 feet tall. In my utterly charmingly sarcastic way I always said, “That’s one hell of an inch!” (read: “You shrank, Gramma!”) when noting that it appeared that I was more than one inch taller than my grandma.
Well, yes. It was one hell of an inch. It was two inches.
I feel like a giant!
–Mary