Thursday, September 21, 2006

THE OUT OF TOWNERS AND SHIT
My Aunt Evelyn (Dad’s sister) and Uncle Jack are in town with their friends for a few days. I really like these guys. They’re good company and fun to talk to. Though they tend to say things that can get under my skin a bit, you have to take it with a grain of salt, or maybe a whole shaker of salt. Anyway, Cara found a nice little Italian place called Giorgione 508 near SoHo to meet them for dinner that had a great review in the NYTimes (we actually ate at the table in the foreground in the article photo), along with a reader’s complaint about the owner not allowing baby strollers in the restaurant. We both laughed when we saw a baby stroller tucked outside when we showed up, but didn’t laugh when all through the meal some mother and wailing child sat directly behind our table throughout our meal. Nothing worse than a modern parent who won’t discipline a fussy child. How about not allowing fussy children in the restaurant? I can handle strollers.

I had a small breakfast then went running around Central Park before dinner, so needless to say I was a little low on blood sugar when we arrived. I should have known the food would be in precious pasta portions and scant on the protein. I still felt kinda trippy after dinner with the kid squawking so much, so when my Aunt made some comment about all the sin in New Orleans being responsible for hurricane Katrina, I thought I needed to eat some steak or something. I heard it right though. God made the poor black people suffer some more for being poor black people.

After dinner we walked them to the subway so they could go see a Broadway musical, then Cara and I headed over to Trader Joes to get Clif bars and cheap food items. Weird to have Trader Joes here, and it sucks to haul big bags of groceries all over Manhattan on the trip home.

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My new Mac finally showed up today. I’m so delighted I can jump right back into work, cuz I just can’t get enough of the working thing, I love it so. So I’m applying for some work that seems interesting, some full-time gigs at Columbia University, and some print on demand place similar to the Shanghai position I interviewed for last year. Absolutely uncertain on what do to next.

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Sightings this week: Loretta Swit looking old and bad in a polyester outfit, and a cat on a leash taking a shit that the owner didn’t bother to clean up.

Oh, this reminds me of this unique NY phenomenon I see all the time. People cleaning up their dog shit but leaving the plastic bags filled with caca on the sidewalk. You see it everywhere. I guess it’s better than the shit in situ that’s you perpetually have to leap around, but it strikes me strange someone would go so far as to get the turds packaged and not bother to take them five feet to the trash can. I guess that’s the same logic behind taking a crap and not having to make sure it gets to the ocean. I mean, you got it in the toilet right? It’s not your problem after you flush is it? So let someone else take the dog shit to its final resting place. Right?