Areas of Unrest

QOTD: "One of the major causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs." - Robert Firth

Reading: James R. Ross, Fragile Branches: Travels Through the Jewish Diaspora

Listening to: Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Decluttering accomplishments: threw out some old magazines, wrote ad to sell exercise bike that's been sitting in storage

14 April 2002 - Jello Barbie and Fortunetelling Fish

There are some times when I feel like I'll never learn. I started off the week badly, by forgetting a major rule of how to handle weekly staff meetings. Namely, one should never say something needs to be done unless one wants to do it oneself. What annoyed me was not so much putting together the briefing charts in question, but that they suddenly became urgent, so I dropped everything else on Monday to do them. And then the person who wanted them so urgently didn't have the decency to acknowledge them until I asked him on Thursday.

But, as usual, Robert is the greater source of stress in my life. The particular crisis of this weekend came about because he bought me a book. A book that I aready had. A book that I already had because he had bought it for me before. Apparently I am a bad person because I didn't just graciously smile and thank him, but told him that. Which set him off on this whole bit of being mad at himself. All through dinner I had to listen to him saying how stupid he was. And, of course, saying that it wasn't stupid, that it was no big deal, and that he didn't need to give me gifts wasn't the right thing either. I'm not sure that there is a right thing I could have said. Apparently, I also should have gotten huge flashy red eyeglasses with a sort of pointy shape instead of little round blue ones that he thinks are too conservative.

Which makes it sound like the weekend was a disaster, but it wasn't really. Robert is just as devastating as ever and our relationship seems to work just fine as long as I don't actually say anything. We had a very nice dinner at Red Herring and both our fortunetelling fish curled up completely, which is the right answer. (These are little red celluloid fish you get with your dinner check. You put them on the palm of your hand and use the package to interpret the shape they take. Curling up completely equals passion.) I went to a baseball game Saturday (I offered to get Robert a ticket but he needed to do his taxes) and enjoyed PacBell Park and seeing Barry Bonds hit number 574, though the game wasn't a very exciting one otherwise. And a book browse turned up the information that there's a biography of Tom Crean out, though I didn't buy it yet. The other book I noticed was one that I interpreted as a self-help book for people involved with Red Sox fans. I suspect that isn't right, but there's probably a legitimate need for such a book. Especially on weekends like this when they were playing the Source of All Evil in the Universe, causing people like me to undergo rapid mood swings and measurable changes in blood pressure. Chapter One: is it a heart attack or just seventh inning trauma?

I also had to browse toy stores and saw Jello Barbie. She comes in a red and white dress and has a box of pink jello. I'm not quite sure what to make of this but it seems awfully kinky to me. I have this vision of filling the Barbie bathtub with Barbie jello and throwing Ken in. I'm pretty sure that isn't what Mattel had in mind.