Happy Feet

I met Wahz this morning on one of my first real forays out into the world after about a week of sitting home, nursing my rather sore person. The fact that we met up at the much detested Starbuck's was of no importance to me, the fact that it was not my apartment was more than compensation. The music being piped in was swing era music. At one point a song came on and I asked W. "Is this a very young Ella Fitzgerald singing?" W. didn't know and I by that point had become distracted anyway. Over near the creamer station was a middle aged couple. The man was getting his groove down. Brown tweed sports jacket, chinos and those half shoe, half boots that used to be called Wallabee's when I was a youngster.

His wife was ignoring him as he danced. Yes danced, grinning moving back and forth, then around his wife. She continued to address the deficiencies of the coffees with cream and sugar, not even glancing around. He, for his part, seemed equally unmoved by his wife's indifference as his feet shuffled around in precise steps. Really, he was pretty good. Then, his wife finished her ministrations to her morning brew and turned to go. Just as abruptly, he stopped and still grinning opened the door and they headed out without a word.

It's moments like these that make living in the city worthwhile. Some Waspy looking businessman, dressed in a way that couldn't be more dowdy, breaking out as Fred Astaire on a Saturday morning, in a place that couldn't be more dully uniform than Starbuck's. It's times like this that make me happy I'm alive, and as though I really did fall down the rabbit hole when I moved to the city.

the missing meme

I was on my daily blog crawl yesterday when I pulled up Alexander Chee's page. He posted about participating in a meme. It is a list of scene's for a movie about your life, you create the soundtrack by pulling up iTunes and setting it on random play to create the soundtrack for the movie. For the hell of it, I tried it out, writing my songs down on the back of a grocery receipt. (I stop myself from ranting about the cost of living) and included a few of the more amusing or strange ones in my comments.

Unfortunately, Alexander has created a link so that people could see this list on my blog. The list is currently in the trash somewhere. I would have tried to retrieve it but I cleaned the cat box. 'Nuff said. Therefore in the interest of promoting silliness, I have decided to recreate this experiment, though I have to say I am really hoping I will get "It Should Have Been Me" again for Wedding. Okay folks, here goes nuthin'.

Opening credits: Country Down to My Soul, Lee Roy Parnell

Waking up: The Tiki Bar Is Open, John Hiatt

First day at school: Laudate Dominum, Rachmaninov, Vespers, Op. 37

First Love: Noche De Farra, Celia Cruz Y La Sonora,

First Couple Song: Fallin’ Apart, The Tractors

Breakup: Ferma briccone, dove ten vai! Don Giovanni

Prom: Overture, Don Giovanni

Driving: Goodbye, Emmy Lou Harris

Flashback: You Are Everything, Patty Loveless

Coming out: If Teardrops Were Diamonds, Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson

Leaving Home: Walkin’ After Midnight, Patsy Cline

New Love: Hope You Like The New Me, Richard Thompson

Wedding: We’ll Get Over, The Staple Singers

Birth Scene: Op. 102 No. 5 (The Joyous Peasant) Mendelssohn

Final Battle: I Got to Let You Know, Los Lobos

Death Scene: Rose Marie, Don Walser

Funeral Song: Do’ve Lucia, Lucia di Lammermoor

Final Credits: Wicked Rain, Los Lobos

I am still trying to tease out what the plot would be on this one. Though I love the idea of showing up at the prom and having something as threatening as the Overture for Don Giovanni going through my head, considering what all high school social occasions were like. Hope You Like The New Me, for new love? What does that conjure? Frankly, anything from Lucia di Lammermoor for funeral music suggests I probably will come to a bad end at my own hand, driven mad by lost love. What I am getting largely is that my musical taste is all over the map, and quite possibly that I need professional help.

I will accept any and all plot lines for this one, for my part all I can say is that this is what comes of having 9.4 days worth of music in your iTunes files.

Mommy, I'm booorrrredddd

I have about exhausted the possibilities of sitting around the house. I have been reading, writing, web surfing and watching movies. I have also been bitching to myself and fending off Alice, who is delighted that she has me all to herself, and pissed off because she keeps getting shooed off my lap. 14 pounds of moggie jumping into your lap when you have active shingles is not something to look forward to, though it has led to a certain amount of excitement for all. Happily for Alice I still can't move too fast, so she has escaped death, and can give me reproachful looks from a safe distance.

I know you are all just dying for me to give a detailed description of the afflicted area. Too bad. I don't even like to look at it. The good news is that the inflammation is going down and I am hoping that I'll be able to button up my pants before the weekend is over. Ordinarily, the Ganome is looking for an excuse to unbutton his pants, but this is just not as much fun. Until this nastiness clears up, the Ganome intends to keep his pants up, at least in public. Umm. I mean in company. While I am sure there are a lot of people we'd like to see in a state of undress regardless of the location, the Ganome is not one of them.

Anyway, thanks everybody for your concern. I also want to say thanks to C., Wahz, Buttermonkey and Fuzzbelly for keeping tabs on me, keeping me company and making sure I am not going to starve or die of boredom.

Shingles

I have refrained from posting about my current state of well-being, or rather the lack thereof. I am currently suffering with a case of shingles. Initially, this was a distressing state of affairs, but after a consult with the doctor, his best guess is that it has been brought on by a combination of a lingering cold, and work related stress. This did not stop him from ordering labs and taking about a gallon of blood, but while the jury is still out, the early judgment is that there is nothing to worry about. Simply a rather unpleasant condition to be sat through until it goes away.

The upshot of this situation is that I can't button my pants without sounding like I am suffering from Tourette's syndrome, and as a consequence I have missed a lot of work, which at this point is much more worrying.

My friends have been checking in and making sure things are okay with me, which led to this conversation with C. last night.

"Just don't put any alcohol on it."

me: Gaaaaagh! It hurts just to think about that! Ow!


C. proceeded to tell me that he had been told a story by a mutual friend about someone who thought that an alcohol bath on the afflicted area would be soothing! She wound up in the emergency room. I can not even begin to imagine.... okay, so I can, but.... Gaaaaagh!!!

While I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, even I wouldn't do that.

I repeat, Gaaaaaaghhhhhh!!!!!!!

mini critique

Fellow blogger Square Jawed Action Hero got what my pal Buttermonkey and I have taken to referring to as the JoeMyNod today, when one of his sketches got posted on Joe My God. I was chatting with Monkey online tonight and this is my 3 line review.

Monkey: he does some really nice stuff.

me: yeah he really does, and this is Mr. Former Professional Art Fag talking. He really does have a lot of talent and I like the playful nature of his stuff. Sort of a bear loving Schiaparelli.

Monkey: grin!

I can't think of any part of that statement I don't love.

If you haven't checked out the artwork, then you oughta', it really is pretty great.

I cried

I was checking out my usual round of blogs this morning. I am not ashamed to say that this made me cry.