Friday. Music will be my salvation until the end. It started off okay. A little tired and indignant at the typical demands of morning, but nothing unusual. The train from Bay Ridge felt exceptionally smooth and swift and I seemed to avoid all obstacles on my way through and around busy transfers and pokey passengers. It felt almost as if I was drifting through an invincible euphoric haze. When I got to my office building, the Lipstick Cafe was handing out free chocolate croissants and bagels and orange juice and coffee to the tenants. I happily accepted their offering and continued on up to my floor.
On the way up in the elevator I had an entertaining exchange with a good acquaintance. Moseyed to my desk generally on time and settled in. Looked around at all the photos of friends and family I have posted and framed along the relatively vast oval of my work space and felt comforted by all the faces and memories. Turned on my computer. Checked my email. That's where the irritation began. Right there in my Microsoft Outlook Exchange Server. First was the fifteen spam emails that posted to my blog overnight. I gulped down my orange juice and got a cup of coffee before I started to delete them one by one, repressing my urge to yell about how bad it pisses me off. Deep breath. Nother gulp. Nope, urge irrepressible.
I direct my attention to friend Brett and tell him about the spammers who target blogs now and how much I wish they would fucking die. He says I should relay my sentiments to them in an angry message written in 36 point font from a temporary email address. Done that. So I've overcome that irritation. I'm used to it, and even though it pisses me off to no end, I am already accustomed to the fact that this is a form of torture that I am going to be forced to live with. Considering the fact that I can't even fix my blog sidebar, not much this bitch is going to be able to do about spam demons from hell. (As David Sedaris eloquently wrote once "ain't nothin you can do about it motherfucker so you might as well sit the fuck down and eat some motherfuckin candy.") Ah yes. Where are those M&Ms I had?
Then there are the other annoyances that naturally occur in my daily life as a result of being an administrative assistant to several attorneys. Of course, I anticipated that when I decided to make this my living, so big deal right. Sure. Big deal. Not to mention that I wouldn't tell you if it was a big deal because I'm not an idiot and I do realize that anyone can read this whenever they wish. Therefore I will say: I love my bosses. They are three fabulous people (I genuinely mean that) who only occasionally rack my nerves. But that's permitted, because that IS what I get paid for and as long as they are not tyrants (which they are not, thank god) it's all going to be just fine. Is my nose brown? Only a little.
Nonetheless, at some point between my euphorically hazy morning commute and sitting here at this desk, my blood pressure rose considerably. It has dropped again as I have been listening to my launchcast station all morning, and as usual, I am super impressed with my own taste in music. So far, I have heard Pink Floyd, Prince, Pavement, The Verve, System of The Down, Madonna, Modest Mouse, Talking Heads, Lucy Pearl, Jimmy Cliff, Glen Lewis, NoFx, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nine Inch Nails, Tupac and now Bauhaus. I am so glad that Bela Lugosi's Dead is a fourteen minute song because if it were any shorter I just wouldn't get enough. And there aren't that many songs you can say that about.
So during the course of this menagerie of minor irritations and musical entertainment, the snow has finally stopped falling outside, and the sun has mysteriously emerged from the sky which has incessantly showered us with snow for the past four days. I forgot how beautiful sunshine is and for some reason, I suddenly feel as if there isn't anything that could bother me right now.
Posted by Maria at March 19, 2004 12:51 PM | TrackBackMy "pop" tastes in music are severly limited. I began classical piano at four and stopped at 20. I was discouraged by this rather out-of-step Yankee family of mine to "not listen to that sort of thing".. so my pop tastes have been a revelation to me. I adore Brazilian vintage Jazz. (Joao Gilberto, Stan Getz, etc..) However I have a particular fondness for "Pink Floyd". That ancient album 'Dark Side of the Moon' stands alone. Also, more recently found is this amazing woman named Sasha Lazard. There's an "other worldly" quality to her singing and she's incredibly good. Her music is a combination pop, classical (she's a classically tranined opera singer), and Eastern traditionl music. It you get a chance Maria her CD "Myth of Red" is transcendant. I know you get snag a link on Google where there are audio clips.
With respect to this seemingly endless winter I'm in total agreement. Friday we got another 4 inches of the white stuff and all last night the wind howled and the rain pelted the house. (In truth I rather like the sound of it laying in bed with the elements swirling around). But I'm "all set" with winter, no question.
I don't know if this is of interest to you or not but the premier of "Actor's Studio" is on tonight on Bravo. It's a two our special with La Streisand and the promos look pretty damned interesting. (As a gay man I am compelled genetically to watch.... I know you'll understand ;-)
Hope you have a good Sunday.
Posted by: Chosesinconnues at March 21, 2004 09:18 AM