Areas of Unrest

24 March 2000 - Aged and Unseeing but Doggedly Hectic

QOTD: "In a way, television may be the ultimate labor-saving device. It's easy to use, it creates little or no mess, and it saves all the hassles of having a social life." - David Brittan

Reading: Dervla Murphy, South From the Limpopo

Listening to: Christine Lavin, Beau Woes

You'd think that an entire week at home would be ample opportunity to catch up on housework. Instead, I've managed to have a hugely hectic week. I knew that Monday night would be occupied, since it was Purim. That most riotous of Jewish holidays is always mildly exhausting, between the noise of the groggers we use to drown out Haman's name and the party that follows the megillah reading.

I tried to go to bed early, but the phone rang at about midnight. I was soundly asleep and in the middle of a rather threatening dream (something to do with distant relatives and knives) so I was particularly startled. It turned out to be a wrong number. In the process of hanging up the phone without turning on a light or putting on my glasses, I managed to drop the receiver behind the nightstand. Fishing it out proved more violent than I'd expected, resulting in my breaking the plastic of the jack. It won't be hard to replace but I need to find the time to go buy a new one.

Tuesday was an all day design review in Azusa. Which was deadly dull enough without being slightly sleep-deprived. There is one woman who works for our contractor who I am almost convinced used to be a man. It isn't just her rather coarse features and her amazingly deep voice. Those would be hints enough - but she actually scheduled a meeting with no breaks for over 4 hours! No real woman has that strong a bladder.

I took advantage of being east of everywhere to spend the evening in Pasadena and go to the monthly meeting of San Gabriel Storytellers. It was a pretty small group. Nick told me they only get a big turnout when Cal State L.A. is in session, since students from Katy's storytelling classes often show up. Nick told a Chelm story (nicely done, but I cringed every time he said "Chelm" which he pronounced as "Helm"), Clark told a rather long-winded version of the Haitian story, "Owl", and Leslie told a story he is using with elementary school kids to encourage them to read. There were three other people I didn't know. One was an actor who recited a poem. Another told an original saint story and the third talked about a folk tale she is trying to learn. I told "Thank You, Miss Tammy" largely because nobody else had told a personal story. It's been a while since I told it, so I was a little afraid I'd leave something out. I'm pretty sure I didn't, but it still seemed shorter than I'd remembered. That may just be because we were sitting around a library table telling and I usually do a certain amount of dancing (it's about ballet lessons) when telling it on stage. It was fun, anyway. Except that I got into a dumb argument with Leslie because I mentioned to him that Donald Davis has a new book out about using children's oral language skills to help them transition to reading and writing. Leslie said, essentially, that he could write such a book himself and he doesn't need to see what anybody else has said. Which wouldn't have gotten me pissed off if he hadn't them gone on to assume that the kids Donald Davis works with are all privileged. And that, therefore, none of the book would apply to the black and Hispanic kids he works with. I was tempted to point out that if his racial argument is all that valid, then it's no wonder he has no success with the Hispanic children, but I just didn't want to get into a whole debate that late at night. Race is a sensitive enough subject as it is and I knew that if we went on all that would happen would be one of Leslie's tirades about how white liberals can't ever understand. It would have been interesting to hear what Nick (also black, but younger than Leslie and from a middle-class San Diego household, instead of a Saginaw, Michigan ghetto) had to say, but he kept his mouth shut.

By Wednesday night I really needed an early night. But I had seen an ad for an Old Blind Dogs concert in Denver, which led me to their web page to see if they'd be in California at all. And, sure enough, they were doing one night in Los Angeles. The concert was at St. Ambrose Auditorium over in Hollywood. I'd forgotten how much I hate driving in that area, since the traffic is just absurdly heavy. At least they had parking. The concert was worth the sleep deprivation. It wasn't quite up to my experience in Edinburgh, but it was still very good. They have a new lineup and only two of the original members are left. Their new drummer, Paul Jennings, was impressive, but I prefer their previous piper (Fraser Fyfield) to the new one (Rory Campbell). Still, the heart of the group is that Jonny Hardie is an awesome fiddler. They played a good mix of songs and tunes, including "Bedlam Boys" (more or less their signature song) and "Trip to Pakistan" (a personal favorite, though Rory Campbell doesn't make it sound as Eastern). I would have liked them to play "Pills of White Mercury" but I didn't think to ask them at the break.

The concert didn't end all that late (a bit after 10) and, that time of day, the drive home was only about 15 minutes, especially since I know the area well enough to have a good idea of how to avoid traffic. But I was fairly hyper when I got home, so was up later than I should have been. Three nights of little sleep made me a zombie all day Thursday. I should have forced myself to stay awake until at least 9, though, instead of taking a nap as soon as I got home. I slept five hours and was full of energy afterwards. So I scurried around the living room, sorting out paperwork, and didn't get back to bed until after 2. I'm not sure it counts as eight hours of sleep if you have a four hour gap in the middle.

Today was busy at work, with three urgent voicemails to deal with, as well as a meeting I had set up to look at some results from my engineering support guys, and the usual all-hands, which I had to make briefing charts for. I had just enough time for dinner before trivia, which went on a bit later than normal. So no catching up on household stuff tonight either. This weekend is going to have to be dedicated to errands. Sigh. At least I've been busy with fun, instead of bringing work home.