Sunday, June 29, 2003
I was thrilled when Nordstroms came to Houston. Finally, a store that understands shoes!!! I'm cheap, so when I paid $130 for two pair it was a big deal. But the leather - oh, the leather. Soft, supple, smelling so wonderful. The vamp nice and low, the custom stitching in that perfect contrast color, the perfect leather sole.
SLIPPERY is what that damned perfect leather sole is, and, as of yesterday at about 6pm, I have no skin remaining on my left knee thanks to those damned perfect buttery leather shoes. I can't decide what hurts more - bending my leg or unbending my leg. The irony? I slipped on a handicapped ramp. Had I taken the stairs, I would have been fine.
I haven't taken a fall this bad since 1997. My brother came to visit at the time and saw the bloody awful mess that had once been a knee and was very concerned that my 6'4" boyfriend (now husband) had been messing around with me. He couldn't believe a grown woman could be such a klutz; assumed it had to be abuse. There's a REASON they didn't name me Grace, OK?
Ouch, whine, ouch.
SLIPPERY is what that damned perfect leather sole is, and, as of yesterday at about 6pm, I have no skin remaining on my left knee thanks to those damned perfect buttery leather shoes. I can't decide what hurts more - bending my leg or unbending my leg. The irony? I slipped on a handicapped ramp. Had I taken the stairs, I would have been fine.
I haven't taken a fall this bad since 1997. My brother came to visit at the time and saw the bloody awful mess that had once been a knee and was very concerned that my 6'4" boyfriend (now husband) had been messing around with me. He couldn't believe a grown woman could be such a klutz; assumed it had to be abuse. There's a REASON they didn't name me Grace, OK?
Ouch, whine, ouch.
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Note to self: Harvest from cutting beds BEFORE the mosquitos come out for the night, stupid.
I went to junior high with a guy I'll call Swim.
His name popped into my head last week and stayed there, and on this past Sunday, I popped his name into Google to see what would show up. Since Swim is such an unusual name, I thought that, if he had any kind of web presence, that he would show up.
Well, he did indeed show up.
On Amazon.
My little Swim has apparently written a book. A real live, bound book.
I like to think I'm a nice person. A generous person, who wishes good towards my fellow man. On the way home yesterday, I gave a sandwich I had with me from lunch to a homeless man. I like to think I'm generally a warm and caring person.
I don't like to think what I thought when I saw Swim's book.
I thought... 'That rat bastard! How dare he become a literary success! He was a freaking train wreck when I knew him!'
But there he was.
Published.
I was a little happier when I saw that his book wasn't a "book" per se but a "collection" of poetry. Then I felt a little better, even, when I saw that it was "gay poetry". I thought, well, if you have to use your sexuality as a crutch to get published - bwahahaha.
See, I remember when Swim couldn't figure out if he WAS gay, when he was so afraid of his holier-than-everyone grandmother that he couldn't even begin to allow himself to think of being gay. I remember giving him his first blow job because he was so upset that he didn't think he could even get it up with a girl. (Have I ever worked so hard in my life at anything???)
And here he is, pandering that hard-fought-for sexuality that I was so instrumental in so many ways in bringing out. Houston might be the 4th largest city in the country, but it's got a very small town mentality, even more so back in the 1970's. I remember being in 6th grade with this guy and telling him it was OK to be gay, and him being so confused...
TANGENT CONTROL TANGENT CONTROL
Back to the issue...
So: I nurtured the man and here he is, a successful, published author.
BUT
Then I read down a little further and saw...published by...Swim.
And the evil little person in me who is small and greedy and needy was SO HAPPY!
Swim published HIMSELF! It's a VANITY book!
HA! There is no Random House beating on his door! There are no little Penguin editions laying around on people's bookshelves!
I felt better knowing that, even though I may be a literary failure, I'm not the only one.
And at least I have the pride to not do a vanity book.
But I sure would love to be on Amazon..... sigh.....
His name popped into my head last week and stayed there, and on this past Sunday, I popped his name into Google to see what would show up. Since Swim is such an unusual name, I thought that, if he had any kind of web presence, that he would show up.
Well, he did indeed show up.
On Amazon.
My little Swim has apparently written a book. A real live, bound book.
I like to think I'm a nice person. A generous person, who wishes good towards my fellow man. On the way home yesterday, I gave a sandwich I had with me from lunch to a homeless man. I like to think I'm generally a warm and caring person.
I don't like to think what I thought when I saw Swim's book.
I thought... 'That rat bastard! How dare he become a literary success! He was a freaking train wreck when I knew him!'
But there he was.
Published.
I was a little happier when I saw that his book wasn't a "book" per se but a "collection" of poetry. Then I felt a little better, even, when I saw that it was "gay poetry". I thought, well, if you have to use your sexuality as a crutch to get published - bwahahaha.
See, I remember when Swim couldn't figure out if he WAS gay, when he was so afraid of his holier-than-everyone grandmother that he couldn't even begin to allow himself to think of being gay. I remember giving him his first blow job because he was so upset that he didn't think he could even get it up with a girl. (Have I ever worked so hard in my life at anything???)
And here he is, pandering that hard-fought-for sexuality that I was so instrumental in so many ways in bringing out. Houston might be the 4th largest city in the country, but it's got a very small town mentality, even more so back in the 1970's. I remember being in 6th grade with this guy and telling him it was OK to be gay, and him being so confused...
TANGENT CONTROL TANGENT CONTROL
Back to the issue...
So: I nurtured the man and here he is, a successful, published author.
BUT
Then I read down a little further and saw...published by...Swim.
And the evil little person in me who is small and greedy and needy was SO HAPPY!
Swim published HIMSELF! It's a VANITY book!
HA! There is no Random House beating on his door! There are no little Penguin editions laying around on people's bookshelves!
I felt better knowing that, even though I may be a literary failure, I'm not the only one.
And at least I have the pride to not do a vanity book.
But I sure would love to be on Amazon..... sigh.....
Monday, June 23, 2003
Very exciting stuff! My blog survived the night! It's still THERE! Yeah, you might not think that's such a big deal but I had my doubts.
Sunday, June 22, 2003
Not being a geek, figuring out how to actually create and publish this blog has been an exciting learning experience for me. Too bad, I don't really like excitement. Learning is ok, unless it's hard. This was...challenging! I did a little Blogger, I did a little HTML, I did a little cursing. I triumph! I have no freaking idea how the archives feature works, but I figure I have 8 days to learn. So far so good.
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Today a woman driving an older, beat up, dirty car, honked at me for apparently going the too-slow speed limit.
She then pulled around me as if offended and cut in front of me.
We were travelling in the right lane of two lanes.
She put on her left blinker and proceeded to not change lanes for three blocks.
She then began to ride her brakes for two blocks.
Then she turned off her left blinker, and turned on her right as we approached a red light.
We both stopped.
There wasn't any cross traffic, and there wasn't anybody in the lane to our left, so she proceeded to go through the red light and execute a left hand turn.
I just nodded my head and said... "uh-huh."
She then pulled around me as if offended and cut in front of me.
We were travelling in the right lane of two lanes.
She put on her left blinker and proceeded to not change lanes for three blocks.
She then began to ride her brakes for two blocks.
Then she turned off her left blinker, and turned on her right as we approached a red light.
We both stopped.
There wasn't any cross traffic, and there wasn't anybody in the lane to our left, so she proceeded to go through the red light and execute a left hand turn.
I just nodded my head and said... "uh-huh."
