My Launchcast music station is going to be my cure-all & my savior from manotony and aggravation once again.
So tired this morning. My boyfriend bought me some pretty candles and wall sconces as a gift. I love them so much. I hung them over my bed - the perfect spot - and stayed up way too late last night basking in their warm happy glow. He is working from home now so it is twice as difficult to get out of bed in the morning. I just wanted to stay right there snuggled up to his cozy shape until he had to get up too. No such luck.
I dragged myself up and into my Friday casuals: black velour jeans and stretchy t-shirt. Got out of the house in a hurry but had to run back inside twice for my scarf and metrocard. Jogged to the train. Got a seat on the N. I napped happily all the way to Union Square, cozeyed up in a two-seater next to a huge fat lady engrossed in the latest Lillian & Vernon catalog. For some reason, I didn't mind the fact that she was infringing on half of my seat. She just felt warm and soft and when she dropped her umbrella on the floor my eyes snapped open and I leaned over to pick it up for her because I knew she wasn't going to be able to. Something about her felt familiar like maybe she could have been my aunt or something. I was almost sad when the ride was over. I didn't want to get out into the cold station and transfer. I just wanted to stay there and sleep, just as I had earlier in the morning in my own bed.
I have a love-hate relationship with Friday. It always drags but there's that beautiful light at the end of the tunnel. The work week is almost over and tomorrow, the world is my oyster. I also have a love-hate relationship with Monday. I hate knowing one is coming, and I hate all the little things that for some reason seem more frustrating and difficult to overcome after a nice relaxing weekend. (That doesn't make any sense!) But what I love about Monday is that it tends to pass very quickly. The polar opposite of Friday.
This Friday is acting more like a Monday though. Lots of annoying obstacles, infuriating discoveries such as the fact that my specially ordered heavy duty staple remover has been lifted from my desk and shows no sign of returning. Ever. Filing to do. I hate filing. Me and every other human being who has ever had to do it. Then on to the 70 page MS Word doc which has been completely mucked up by some total idiot who has no business even touching a word doc, much less attempting to format one. (I never cease to be amazed by "secretaries" who barely know how to use computers and refuse to learn anything new when it comes to word processing and other office tasks that can be done more efficiently if you just pay attention to a little bit of technology). So I was stuck in that morass for awhile. The document is beautiful now. They don't call me the styles-nazi for nothing. If you don't know MS Word styles, don't fucking use MS Word to create 70 page documents. Or even better: go to one of the helpful training classes that the firm provides!!! That's all I have to say about that.
Nother pet peeve: If you ask me to fax a fifty page document that is stapled in several places, don't wait for me to bring it back to you faxed and stapled back together just as it was, and then tell me that you actually need me to make a copy of it also. You can give me more than one instruction at a time. You can say "please fax this and make one copy." Don't wait for me to reassemble it and bring it back to you!
Oh god, today, I could go on forever about all these stupid things. But they are trivial and really not that big of a deal when placed in perspective. So I'll move on. Kathleen just called and said that Frannie called her and said we should all go for BBQ tonight. Just the thought of having that to look forward to at the end of this day -- BBQ and beers with my friends -- makes me really damn happy. That's one of those things I love about Fridays. The things you get to excitedly anticipate....
Posted by Maria at April 2, 2004 11:55 AM | TrackBackI love the part about the lady on the subway Maria.
I know that feeling about someone seeming familiar. There's this perfectly ridiculous soap opera I watched years ago "Days of Our Lives". I've caught it a couple of times over the last week and it seems the long-time beloved character Dr. Marlena Evans is a serial killer (I actually made Neil laugh the other night when I took a steak knife to the box of Cheerios in the cupboard and made like I was pummeling it with the blade. I said "What am I."?? He said "I don't fucking know..." I said "I'm a cereal killer")
Anyway. The matriarch on that soap is a character named "Alice Horton". Turns out she's the latest victim of the serial killer. The woman is the mirror image (Alice) of my grand aunt and looking at her face all those years ago, and now as a ninety year old woman, gave me this wonderful homey feeling. Now she's just been killed off after umpteen years on that soap. I couldn't believe I actually got a bit misty .. all I could see was the loss of that wonderful old Aunt of mine who said, endlessly, "Nevermind the others. You and I know what's inside you and you'll go miles beyond the rest".
How I miss her sweet face.
Have a great Friday night Maria. Karen and I spend this evening together like some foolish ritual, but we both look forward to it all week. All told I like Fridays I guess. I see it's as raw and nasty in the City as here on the Cape. Seems endlessly bleak.
Thanks Richard! It's been a sort of crazy weekend. I am now reduced to a lump in front of the computer with a humongous cup of coffee powering me through this day. Maybe it will inspire me to do laundry. haha.
That's cool you and Karen keep that ritual. I see my best friend almost every weekend too and I count it as a blessing because for so many years we lived in different cities though we always found lots of excuses to visit eachother no matter what the city. I always feel so excited when we get to spend time together, just me and her, with no boyfriends or anyone, just the two of us...oh god now that song is going to be in my head. Last weekend we walked down to the bay and watched the ships and the passersby and all the lovely NY scenery. It's a gift to have a friend like that. I feel like she and I have been across the world together, but it's really only been all over the United States.
You crack me up with your soap opera. When I was being homeschooled I sneaked in All My Children and One Life To Live every day while my mom was at work. I even ordered "soap opera digest" or something over the phone when I was twelve and it showed up on the bill and somehow my parents never said a thing about it. Damn that makes me laugh when I remember it. I always felt like I was a little bit of an odd kid. I just loved drama and sexuality so much as a young girl. I was so into Madonna and Tina Turner and I was a little lustmachine. Something about soaps really fed into that.
Posted by: Maria at April 4, 2004 04:23 PMYou mean Kathleen huh?
I hear ya. Karen calls me nightly (or I her) throughout the week. Generally it's just kind of a 'whatcha been up to' thing. But every now and then it spills over to our commonality. She's got a pretty good life going for her. Super guy she's married to... and she has a handsome son with a steel trap for a mind. But as Karen puts it "too much testosterone" around here. (Ha! That's where I come in I guess)
But more than that our lives have paralleled one another's. We both sustained early and severe traumatic loss within our immediate families and when something happens, now lo these many years later, (be it to me or to her) we're on the 'horn' to each other instantly. She's the sister I've never had and the champion everyone should have in one very good friend.
Our families had beach cottages on the Cape near to each other (how we met) and now we're the 'next generation'. We even tried the boyfriend girlfriend thing for about ten minutes. (Knew something was awry when we kissed and started laughing).. And I still maintain she's about the prettiest girl around.
However, it may possibly have something to do with what I think of her. Ya think?
Just finished a remarkable PBS special on Joni Mitchell (another passion Karen and I share). Ha, lots better than that soap opera stuff... however it's the camp appeal that pulls me in. I swear it is!
Posted by: Richard at April 4, 2004 04:52 PM