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July 20, 2004
you are jealous
I can tell. I have advanced seating for Barry Manilow on October 1.
It's okay. You can weep.
I even got them for free.
Wait...you are laughing at me. You are!! But you also have the Copa Cabana running through your head too.
At the Copa! Copa Cabana!
You would chuckle even more if you knew I named my childhood little black cat, Mandy...
Posted by crystallyn at 10:00 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
July 19, 2004
Summer Stars
Bend low again, night of summer stars.
So near you are, sky of summer stars,
So near, a long arm man can pick off stars,
Pick off what he wants in the sky bowl,
So near you are, summer stars,
So near, strumming, strumming,
So lazy and hum-strumming.
Posted by crystallyn at 05:59 PM | TrackBack
July 15, 2004
random cool things
I'm recovering, slowly. Just left with some stuffiness to my nose, taste still slightly off and a rattle when I breathe. Lovely, huh?
But to brighten my day, I've come up with a bunch of random cool things...
First off, a gem that makes me think that maybe I could take up bike riding after all...a little beauty called The Betty.
Wishing on a star:
I'm thinking that I really need to get myself a Dream Log to decipher dreams like the one I had the other night, about my parents divorcing and my father taking all three cars and half the pictures off the walls and me trying to convince my sister that if we found an apartment together that we wouldn't kill each other.
LINENS! Yes yes, cool dishtowels:
Keep going...
And it's peach season! Time to try a Peachmolitan!
Or what about a very expensive soccer ball?
And finally, for some really wonderful summer reading, you must check out David Lehman's edited collection of Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to the Present.
Posted by crystallyn at 06:51 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
July 13, 2004
the equivalent of no fun...i.e. pity me
Scenario:
Canada. Remote college town.
Me. Meeting new colleagues for the first time. Desiring to make a good impression.
Me sick.
Me getting sicker.
Me with watery eyes during meetings.
Me carrying a box of Kleenex with lotion to these meetings.
Me with a runny nose that won't stop.
Me with a cold drug-induced haze clouding my senses.
Me unable to sleep at night despite a gorgeous hotel room and super cozy bed.
Me with cough syrup that doesn't help on the nightstand next to the bed.
Me waking up every twenty minutes every night long.
Me not tasting a single bit of the expensive meal my bosses boss paid for last night.
Me wanting nothing more than to be at home curled up with my kitty, cold compresses on my eyes and Joe hanging out with my miserable self.
Posted by crystallyn at 03:54 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
July 10, 2004
turkey time!
So I've started a new job...filling in for a woman who is out having triplets! That poor girl. I just can't imagine. She won't sleep for a year.
It's a six month stint, but the pay is good and I needed a change from what I had been doing before. The old job wasn't challenging and it was a strange strange place.
So far so good! The new job is EXACTLY what I have been looking for...crossing my fingers that it turns into something permanent. But the people are nice and normal (WOOHOOO NORMAL PEOPLE!), the work is challenging and it's perfect for my skillset. It's 20 min from home, decent hours, did I say normal people?
But the abnormal bit about it is that there are lots of turkeys around. It's a very rural area in one of the most historic towns in the country. I usually see a couple turkeys each day, out the window that looks toward the woods. Coming from the West coast, I never saw wild turkeys till I moved to New England. Truth be told, I think I thought that there weren't any left, that, like chickens, they were mostly domesticated for good eating. The first time I heard a turkey gobble in the woods I was amazed. Then when I saw one! Wow, very different than the squatty types that I was used to seeing in books or that I assumed I was eating. They are huge birds, with really long legs, necks and freaky long wattles. Nearly as tall as me, I would bet, if they stood tall with their necks high.
When I met the controller for the company, she told me about how a few years ago a female turkey flew through one of the windows at work. I was incredulous...first of all, we're on the third floor, and second of all, turkeys could fly??!! I guess it had never really occurred to me. In my mind, turkeys still held the status of eating bird, looking a bit like these:
They don't fly.
Wild turkeys look a bit different...taller for one thing. Their legs are much longer and their heads are a bit smaller. Their tallness makes them look much more foreboding when they are walking around.
The other big difference is that wild turkeys do fly.
The woman who was telling me about the turkey that flew through the window says that in the winter you can see the whole flock...about twenty of them, flying. Crazy, huh? How terrifying would that be, to see a whole flock of 30 lb birds darkening the sky?
As for the turkey that shattered the window and freaked out the poor people sitting in the cubes there, it turned out to be alive and okay. Bit banged up but animal control came and took it to a vet where I'm sure they rehabilitated it. Or maybe had Thanksgiving dinner.
Wild turkeys are really freaky, I think. I wouldn't want one coming after me! In a way, I can understand why Ben Franklin wanted to make them the national bird. In a letter to his daughter he wrote...
"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.
"With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country....
"I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."
Interesting...perhaps America has lived up to the image of the Bald Eagle in many ways. Maybe Ben was on to something.
"Don't fuck with Ben Franklin," Joe says.
Incidentally, Joe makes the best turkey gobbling noises.
Posted by crystallyn at 06:36 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack