The week was less quiet than I expected at work, because a budget document dropped on Monday and we had to figure out what its impact was. It was still not particularly hectic and I did have time to work on some fun tasks. In general, I like doing things were I can either: a) learn about something that I knew nothing at all about, or b) can pontificate about things I know a lot about. It's the in-between tasks, the ones where I know something but I'm not really an expert, that are the least interesting. Of course, there are also silly staff work things that just have to get done, like the panic to rewrite a staff summary sheet when the front office decides that we should include somebody we didn't or we shouldn't include somebody we did. That stuff is just a pain in the neck, but it's part of the nature of life in Washington.
The news held several items of interest, but just a couple I'll mention. The celebrity death of the week was Jerry Orbach. I suppose most people think of him primarily as a television actor, but my first mental association is of him as El Gallo on the original cast recording of The Fantasticks. And, of course, he did a lot of other work on Broadway, though I don't think I ever actually saw him perform in a musical.
The bigger news item is the tsunami. Since I had actually considered going to Sri Lanka over Christmas, I have a definite "there but for the grace of G-d go I" feeling. I've been intrigued by the accounts of survivors. I guess the thing to do, should you be caught in a tsunami, is to try to find something strong to hang onto.
But, at the risk of sounding horribly shallow and callous, the news stories have not answered a key question I have. Namely, how did the coffee do? Sumatra was devastated, but coffee trees are fairly hardy, right? How did Sulawesi fare? Will those magical beans become even more expensive or downright unobtainable?
This is really a matter of public interest, because the thought of inflicting an uncaffeinated Miriam on the world at large is truly scary. I can be bitchy enough under the best of circumstances. Deprived of my morning boinge (a very nice Sumatra coffee bean) and it's hard to imagine the consequences. Several years ago I tried a New Year's resolution to give up caffeine. Within a week, my colleagues were dragging me off to the coffee cart.
I was going to write a whole long essay here about how I came to love coffee so much, about the whole ritual of making and drinking it. But just thinking about it makes me want to go off and make some. Decaf, given the hour, but still a delight.
Please tell me the coffee is okay.
Copyright 2005 Miriam H. Nadel