Monday, January 10, 2005

Shabby-chic.

Please vote for me. I haven't got a chance but it would be nice to get a few more votes. I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.

The flooding around here is terrible. We are fortunate enough to live on a rise, but most of this county isn't that lucky. We went for a drive yesterday afternoon to check out the damage, and I lost count of the homes that are submerged in water up to the porch light. Some of these houses had the room lights turned on. Wouldn't that be dangerous? I guess the people are living in the upstairs and fishing out the windows for dinner. Hub took us to the nearest dam, but the dam itself was not to be seen. It looked like a HUGE wide river, flowing fast but smooth. Not even a lump to show where the dam was. Gawkers (like us) were all over the dam fences, taking pictures and looking like tourists on a holiday of horror. For some reason, I felt like I was picnicking on the Auschwitz courtyard. It just wasn't right, that people were laughing and taking pictures and pointing at something that had leveled so many people and their homes and livelihoods. I stayed in the car, which I'm sure made up for the fact that we were indeed gawking as gawkily as any gawker there. Sigh. On a global scale, this flooding is as nothing, but on a local scale, it has wiped people and their homes off the map as surely as did the tsunami on the other side of the world. Please don't fault me for the comparison; anyone who has lost his home and/or loved ones is to be pitied and helped, whether the disaster was a large or small scale one.

A lot of schools are under water. Isn't that too bad, kids?

Today I went back to work after a too-long vacation. It looks to be a good semester.

I want to thank Target for sending me that special flyer about their new line of linens. I feel so honored, to think that the PR people of Target consider me a potential customer for them. I must admit, they were beautiful. Far more elegant than anything I have in my home at present. While I am admitting things, though, I must also admit that anyone who would pay $149.95 for a plain beige tablecloth has more money than sense. In fact, I would have to say that such a person has no sense at all. In fact, such a person is an idiot, plain and simple. Also, in regard to your advertising these linens as "shabby-chic," I need to tell you to cease and desist at once; no more flyers. I don't need them. I'm already halfway there. I need not tell you which half.

People with $149.95 to blow on a tablecloth don't buy it at Target. I hate to tell ya.

My new students today were very surprised that I knew all about Tenacious D. What's the big deal, boys? I'm old, but I'm not dead. Jack and Kyle rock. Although I must admit that I have to be in the right mood to think so. But when I am, I think so.

Right this minute, though, I'm listening to Louis Armstrong's "La Vie En Rose." Belle loaned it to me. Along with Green Day's "American Idiot."

Did I mention that I have somewhat eclectic tastes?

While in the City today, I picked up Zappa and took him out for seafood. Our waiter was having a very bad day. First, he dropped an enormous platter of china back in the kitchen. Then, as he was scurrying to the back with my credit card, another waiter clipped him across the mouth with a full heavy tray and ripped his top lip open, necessitating a trip to the emergency room and several stitches. For a while I wasn't sure I would get my card back. Whenever there's a delay I panic, due to previous delays caused by the insuffient funds thing. And when I learned about the blood and the stitches, I felt bad for being impatient. So I left him a big tip. I usually do, anyway; it's a carryover from when I waited tables to send Belle on a big band trip back in high school.

That's my day, so far. It's not over yet, and you never know what's around the corner. Look sharp. It might be a tall waiter with a heavy tray, and it might clip you across the mouth and make you bleed into somebody's crab bisque.