QOTD: "You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist." - Indira Gandhi
Reading: Voltaire, Candide, Zadig, and Selected Stories
Listening to: Four Tet, Paws
Decluttering accomplishments: the CDs are more in less in a logical order
My quest for the perfect lamp for the den continues to be unsatisfied. I've seen a few lamps I like, but they're all more than twice what I want to pay. I expect that I'll reach some point when I'll decide that's just what lamps cost, but it isn't a real hardship yet. Actually, not having a lamp in the den saves me work because the bulk of what I have yet to unpack is in there and I can't deal with it without being able to see it. And my major way of dealing with the other stuff is sticking anything I can't decide what to do with in the den. This will work fine until I need to use the den as a guest room.
While I was out shopping, I also looked at what was on sale at Macy's. I saw a suit I liked a great deal, in two colors that are good for me. Think jewel tones - one was lapis; the other, amethyst. And they managed to have both of them in every size except mine. And, yes, I tried the suit on in a couple of sizes to confirm that it wouldn't work.
I had another couple of minor disappointments in the past few days. The first was a deadly slow day at work on Thursday. It may end up giving me more work to do because one way we filled in time was thinking about topics we probably ought to have white papers on for future reference. Being underworked may be an odd complaint, but I would rather be too busy than be bored. We did have a flurry of activity on Friday, so the week ended a bit better.
And today I went out to Takoma Park to sort of audition for a storytelling event. It didn't go terribly, but it also didn't go swimmingly. My take on it is that the artistic director for this event has a particular vision of what storytelling is that isn't necessarily consistent with mine. I will probably still get a gig or two out of this in the long run, but she's really looking for someone who will take her direction and, while she has some valid points, I'm not necessarily interested in that in the long run. Part of that is because I've never seen her perform (and I didn't care for three of the four performances at an event she organized), so I have no real basis on which to trust her judgement. On a more positive note, I had a phone conversation with someone who'd been at a story swap I went to and he raved about what I'd done with the story I told there. It's still going to be fun to go to storytelling in Los Angeles this week while I'm there on business.
After I left her house, I walked down to the Takoma Park Street Festival, which was also something of a letdown. The crafts vendors were not particularly enticing, for example. If you happen to be really into tie-dyed t-shirts, scented soap, and silver jewelry, it's probably more enjoyable. The musicians and food vendors were better, but it still wasn't worth staying for more than an hour, particularly as it was fairly hot out.
Despite all the above, I'm actually still reasonably content with being here. I'm just getting past the rosy honeymoon stage into real life. Reality never measures up to my fantasies. I understand and accept that.
But that doesn't mean I'm giving up on finding the perfect lamp at the perfect price. Besides, how bad could life be when the Source of All Evil in the Universe has already been eliminated from post-season play?
Copyright 2002 Miriam H. Nadel