August 17, 2009
THE ASSHOLES ARE WINNING
yesterday, a young man in slouching (falling-off) pants got in the elevator with us on our way down to the ground floor. when we reached the bottom, he stood to the side with his hand "holding" the door open so i could exit before him. i am not kidding when i tell you that bill and i were shocked.
NOT because of what he was wearing. if you've been reading this blog long enough, that wouldn't have even entered your mind. my college-professor kid has more tattoos than his brother, the blues guitarist (aka barrista). and one of the saddest days of my life was when jax called to tell me he cut off his nearly waist-length hair.
nope. we were shocked because i can count on ONE HAND the times a young person stood aside in the building and opened a door for me or let me enter or exit first. less than 5 times in FOUR YEARS.
that's where we are now, folks. bill and i are not elderly by most standards. but we ARE at least 20 years older than the average age of the residents here in this downtown apartment building. and i use a cane. the average resident in this building is around 30, college educated, "upwardly" mobile. pfffft. they don't have the manners of poop-flinging monkeys.
manners are passe. at least the ones that are meant to show respect/consideration to elders, women, handicapped. i have noticed a disturbing thing. we stop at a lot of starbucks stores (duh). it's more likely that someone is illegally parked in a handicapped spot in an affluent community than at a store in a middle-class or struggling community. "sense of entitlement" is not just a theory.
fuck.
Chocolate
I have long touted the Velvet Tango Room, its quite interesting and ever-accommodating host, Paulius, and its atmosphere; but after you have dinner on the 2nd Friday of the month, stop by Lilly Handmade Chocolate, which stays open on those nights until 10, before you head over to the V.T.R. for your after-dinner cocktail.
I went to a local court this morning. Ahead of me was a guy, obviously realizing that he was going to court and wanting to make the best impression he could on the judge, wearing a coordinated T-shirt and shorts, matching elaborate, embroidered designs on shirt and shorts, the shorts hanging down a not inappropriate amount for his purposes. He didn't make it through the metal detector the first time.
The police officer asked him to take off the belt he was wearing. He did so.
His pants fell to the ground. He scrambled to pull them up; but he wasn't wearing boxers, he was wearing those weird boxer briefs, black in color. How unimaginative.
August 13, 2009
WHAT AN EVENING IN TREMONT!
you may have noticed that we're not around much anymore. we're busy with work, we're busy with room 12, and we don't have the taste for blogging that we used to. meh.
anyway...
friday night, a friend of mine hosted an "event" at her gallery in cool, cool tremont for room 12. we called it "an introduction to room 12."
we put up a tent over the patio, rented tables, linens, and a stage, prepared food (we also had some awesome dishes donated by a local restaurant!), strung lights, got together some musicians (of COURSE, jackson played!), etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. i was running on empty by wednesday before the event. thankfully, i had a LOT of help!
it turned out BEAUTIFULLY. the place looked beautiful. the music was terrific. the food was wonderful. and we had about 200 people through the evening. i met some wonderful people who are wanting to help. in every way, the event was a success!
this is the only picture i have so far. and, OF COURSE, it's jackson. i hope to have more soon. obviously, i wasn't walking around with a camera; i am at the mercy of those who were taking pictures to share them with me. soon.
August 12, 2009
August 04, 2009
What the Future Holds
There is a psychic down the street. She was hanging out outside the coffee shop with a couple children, probably, her grandchildren; and she said, "Don't run into the street!"
Neither one of them was near the street. Neither one was running around. They were very quiet, not annoying anybody.
But she's a psychic. She knew one of them was going to run into the street.
Wow! What a cool thing. She knows what's going to happen; so, she prevents them from being hurt ... or worse. How's that for a babysitter.
But then I got to thinking. She's changing the future. She's interfering. She's violating the Prime Directive.
How do we know that the kid wasn't supposed to run out into the street and discover some kind of wormhole in space which would have taken him to a place where the inhabitants gave him secrets to curing diseases and making people nice to each other?
She ruined it for everyone.