I’m enjoying a little down time this MLK Day afternoon. I must say this has been the most pleasing long weekend I’ve experienced in a long while, despite the arctic turn in the weather.
Maybe its because last week at work at work was hellish. The Man decided to have the Holiday Party after all and at the last minute, despite our protests and suggestion to donate party contributions towards disaster relief - which is absolutely appropriate since our language service’s regions were the most affected. Like I predicted he got penis envy when he was marking territory at the other office parties throughout the agency before Christmas, and since our event is famous for its extravagant amount of food, and everything has to be a pissing contest with him, he decided to hold our bash, um, two weeks after the holidays were over. He has no idea how much work, logistics, money-collecting, and planning go into these things – and how hundreds of uninvited guests show up to fill up several plates - and how it all falls on me to organize and the efforts of those who are busy enough trying to cover the news with limited staff - yet he takes all the credit when the event is smash. Which it was, once again this year, but I don’t want to stick around much longer at this gig to try and pull off another one next holiday season. Security has always been tight in our building and even worse as the goddamn inauguration (the headquarters are across the street and our building is on the route so we have been infiltrated by storm troopers for the last couple of weeks) is approaching – it is not fun putting endless loads of Asian food through the X-Ray conveyer machine and regardless to say my clothes were stained with spilled greasy food well before the event started- I looked like I had spewed down the front of my shirt, pissed in my pants, and wet shat down my trousers all day. I ain’t eating Chinese carry out for a long time. The whole thing is such a vulgar display and I don’t feel like griping about it in detail because…
This weekend has really been nice and I’m grateful to have this extra day to relax a bit. I’ve got some things to organize and some work to do but I thought I’d share a few of the highlights whilst I’m feeling calm, centered, and reflective:
I’m babysitting The Kid at my folks’ house Uptown while they are in Asia for two weeks and he’s been well-behaved and hasn’t pulled any dramatic shit (yet). These Standard Poodles are way too smart and they can really play ya…. he’s been eating well but only because he makes me spoon feed him. Solid, regular stools have been a plus. I’ve even been able to trick him into swallowing his meds (he normally hides them in his mouth and spits them out later – which is really messed up because he’s getting some of the good stuff) – so The Kid is a bit less neurotic and calmer than usual. He’s actually been good company although definitely clingy; its nice snuggling with him in bed but ultimately at some point in the night his ass always winds up by my face on the pillows. My sister kindly took The Kid out after work Friday so I was able to enjoy a much-needed and rare (Friday nights are for laundry!) evening out with an old friend – she is absolutely amazing and one of the most fun and beautiful people I know and I always have a blast with her – lemme tell ya, I have to deal with a lot of serious twats most of the time so laughter is especially refreshing. Especially with some one who has known me since I was a baby! We had a blast in my little Hood, a little bit of Saint-Ex, some Chi-Cha, and we made a new friend - I was pleased to discover that after some period of recluse my match-making powers have not been lost. (This was just stirring the water a bit and but a lark; my talents, when I’m focused, have resulted in several marriages and more than a few long-lasting unions!). The night was all quite civilized but thoroughly satisfying- we worked it a bit. My old pare Roberto was in town (blogroll, please) from Chicagoand we were able to get together for some coffee and heated conversation. The guy is really smart and I’m more laissez-faire whatever and not good at debate but the question of the day seems to be is there a sizeable market in the USfor a good, fiction, or quasi-fictionalized book about the Philippines. I dunno, I think, as wonderful and rich a subject it is, popular interest outside these days outside the Pinoy community stops these days at Imelda and her shoes, and it would be hard to sell even the most excellent of material. I say work hard on the book first and then try to sell it. I was able to mess around on my old piano in the basement a bit. I still can’t find most of my volumes of vintage sheet music that were in storage but I fooled around with what was around. In my next life I want to be a soundtrack composer I think. I was trying to work out from my head some Georges Delerue pieces but then got frustrating and started taking it out on the keyboard a la Herrmann’s Psycho. Guess I still have some of my chops but I wish I had actually taken lessons instead of teaching myself because my fingering is off and I could have used the discipline.
My new crack: Kellogg’s® Eggo® Waffles. Stocked up big time in my freezer this weekend. I was never allowed to eat this shit growing up, and more often than not, we were living in areas where the product was unavailable. I got hooked about a week ago – some kind of random urge at the Safeway or something. Man, just pop ’em in the toaster, smooth some butter on top, and I can’t stop. The Kid likes them too. Favorite flavor: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (I think its in a limited run so buy it while you can!).
To balance, I should mention than I’ve developed quite a pomegranate dependency over the last couple of months.
Oh, and I saw a bunch of films which I would write about now.... but The Kid really needs to go out for a walk. Nice weekend indeed.
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