Come-On of The Week

I'm standing at the music rack by the check-outs downtown at the Cleveland Public Library Main Branch looking for Kenny Rogers. I've got my messenger bag, but no books or anything. I've just walked in. This guy comes up to me and sort of mumbles "Did you find any good books?"

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just you look like my ex, Susan. She was from Alaska. We were going to get married until her parents broke us up."

I look at him. This isn't mistaken identity. It's a come-on situation. And it's one of the weirder ones I've been in.

"Well..." I say. "I'm sorry to bring up bad memories. Have a nice day."

And then I flee into popular fiction.

It's not me, it is? I'm apparently cute and approachable. But from the guy rubbing himself on the train, to the ones who try and talk to me on my way to work, to this---I have got to get out of this town.

I've Been Good

Not only did I not go to the Nicholson House Sale last Saturday, but I am not going to the big Case Book Sale next month. Let me stay strong, for I have too much stuff already......

For those who'd like to hunt some rare used books, I'll pass along this link: Books Cleveland

Andy Warhol

So I am throwing the Andy Warhol party on August 6th. I've been reading up on the man in preparation, and I'm really amazed at how on point his thoughts were. I wonder how much of it is a sort of depressive, cynical Eastern European spirit that I share, because I've never met anyone who admitted to similar thoughts. This quotation is my philosophy:


"I suppose I have a really loose interpretation of 'work' because I think just being alive is so much work at something you don't always want to do. Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery. People are working every minute. The machinery is always going. Even when you sleep."

Chuck Palahniuk

Dang it! "Radio 360" is not playing the Elvis Costello interview today. I was really looking forward to it. Instead they are replaying the show with Chuck Palahniuk, which was excellent if only for the story of his dad's death and this exchange.

"So you're really interested in how people experience of violence within their family...." (like family violence is some completely novel thing confined to exotic cultures and the lower classes.)
"Yeah, but who hasn't?"
"Well, I haven't actually."

Oh, Kurt Andersen. You are such a tool.

The Weekly Update of Chaos

So yesterday I got into a car accident. I was at a light and thought the minivan in front of me had started moving, when I was just confused and distracted as usual. Bang!

I'm sore, Ghost Girl is a bit banged up but driveable. The minivan had minor damage. This is the first claim I've had to put on my insurance since I started paying my own after college. I also had gone about 5 1/2 years without a ticket, too. This was an excellent record for my family--by the time I was 16, I had been in at least 10 different accidents as a passenger in my family's vehicles. I am never upset in car accident situations. I'm just used to it.

Today I am cataloging. I am tempted to write part of my notes on this activity in the style of David Foster Wallace, but am unsure if the instructor will get the joke or enjoy it.

More Life Struggles

Cain's butt is so dirty that I have threatened him with a bath. He was outraged last night that I wiped him with a baby wipe. How audacious! What an insult!

Please. I didn't sodomize him.

In more news of my flakiness, I lost my mortgage payment on the stairwell at school for several hours last night until I remembered that I had walked downstairs earlier in the day. What a relief! Plus I also looked at the health class syllabus and realized that my final project was due today and not Thursday. Whoops. Works out better for me though. I have also been nauseated and headachey and icky feeling for the past two weeks and I can't decide if it is stress, allergies or A Dread Disease.

But, work is going well.

I almost don't see the point in going to vote tomorrow, since I am sure that these new electronic voting machines are proof of a global conspiracy. Ah well--let Blackwell win, and I know that I'm doing the right thing to think to leave the state for greener pastures.