paisleypiper's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- monday noise in my head �Bush is a war monger.� This is a quote from our neighborhood president, the great 88-year old German lady and my dear friend Citizen Gerta. She had been to a big protest yesterday, to which I did not go. And she was surprised. Not only does she drive, she volunteers, recycles and attends liberal protests. She had her sign in her living room, next to the television, which read �NO MORE BUSHIT.� It is nice to go to her house for a short visit when it is so hot outside, because keeping her house cold is her one extravagance. Well, that, a glass of wine each day, and the occasional TV dinner or a couple strips of bacon for her second breakfast. After we finished our official neighborhood business, I am the treasurer, she brought out her pictures� I like to look at other people�s family photographs. I like to observe the dynamics of people I do not know in family photographs and ask questions to test my hypothesis. It is, I believe a good exercise in sharpening my observation skills. Citizen Gerta grew up in the Black Forest, but, due to the political climate and the part of Germany in which she lived, her mother made certain that she had French citizenry. At age 18, she left under the cover of night, on foot, with a suitcase, headed for France. She got a job in an office, worked her way over to England and then worked her way over to America. She speaks fluent French and sometimes we speak French when I visit her and pretend that we are cosmopolitan. She arrived in New York at the age of 30 and settled in Brooklyn, where she met her husband, got married and ran a store. They lived over the store and had a bathtub that was eight feet long, if you can imagine. I adore other people�s odd trivia. Last night, I could not sleep. No matter what strange position I got in to find a cool inch or two of sheet. No matter how I pounded my pillow, shook my pillow, took a few sips of water. Then, the ambulance come racing down the street and parks, lights flashing, right in front of our house. Our neighbor is diabetic, and for some reason, the ambulance comes almost quarterly. But the lights were dramatic at 2:00 a.m. and cemented a fitful night�s sleep, for me and for Quinn. So today was an extremely tired day. The Esquire came in wearing her most expensive suit with hand-sewn top stitching and was in an increasingly bad mood as the day progressed. She forgot her contacts and her glasses and could not see. As a glasses wearer, I can't imagine how she manages to do this, because she really does need the contacts... but she accomplishes this about once a quarter. And with her face scrunched up, she looked like a high-class Medusa from _The Rescuers_ or Cruella de Ville. She did tell me I had pretty hair, and gave me a full run-down on her weekend�s adventures. When the boss lady herself sits down in the visitor�s chair to share, I do feel obliged to be incredibly interested. But, I must confess, it is rarely worth all the fuss I make. It is true that I am shameless, but in our office, that is the culture. The object, especially between the Esquire and the manager is to see who can be more fake. I have a humbler interpretation. But, I must admit that I have my moments, and today, because I was tired, and it simply was easier to feign interest than tackle what I really needed to do, I scraped up some intelligent conversation about her bucking and bailing story. I guess I don�t have much today. Working on the Travis Pick style of rhythm guitar and working on some old English ballads on the solo guitar side. This week I am either Peter, Paul and Mary, a Worried Man or a bunch of Simple Gifts. Neither option is overly appealing. But that is what Mondays are about for me, choosing between the dull and duller and having to debate it. I tried, today, to exist only in the minute. It worked until her directorship snapped at me because I did not know who was paying for lunch for her two-person lunch appointment. All of the sudden the moment got to be too much and I found myself with a lot of noise in my head. 10:01 p.m. - 2002-07-01 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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