Monday

Sept. 10, 2001

preparation

So much of life is spent preparing to do something. This is especially true when speaking and traveling are concerned. That's my life right now...preparing to speak and travel. This feels so much like doing nothing. Business travel is especially this way. But even travel for pleasure puts me into a spiral of trying to decide what to take, how to pack it, etc. and worrying about the efficacy of the trip.

At work I whack away at one presentation. I like a number of the slides and it's better than one I put together on the subject but it it too long and has some inaccuracies. I feel real uneasy about it until I've whittled it down and checked a few things. Then I feel better.

SuRu and I go to lunch. In her car, she asks, "Where shall we go?"

I say something like, "Hamburger, fries, sweet drink? Schlotzsky's? Thundercloud? Edge City? Mezzaluna? Z'Tejas? Ala Carrera? Whole Foods? Manuel's?" I'm just saying as many nearby eateries as I can as fast as I can. She asks if there is another Chinese besides the cheap one across the street. I'm sure it has a name, but I don't ever remember it. I say there is another near Ala Carerra that has a buffet.

But we go to the one across the street. We eat an order of spring rolls and lunch specials. The spring rolls are huge so SuRu doesn't eat the egg roll with the meal. But I eat all of it. Our fortunes are cryptic. ("Pleasure awaits you company." What could that mean? SuRu initially thinks that 'company' means the company where one works. Still, it doesn't make much sense.

I make a comment that the suggested lottery numbers on the back are flawed for Texas as they don't go over 50. I suggest that the lottery people are punishing people who are sticking with tried and true combinations by rigging it to always have a number over 50. SuRu points out that the six numbers on the back of her fortune are further flawed. One of the numbers (48 if you need to know) is repeated. See how exciting my life is?

After work, we attend a Red Ribbon Dinner at Zoot. With the restaurant donating some food and Beaulieu Vineyards donating wine and all of us paying $100, it raises money for Aids Services Austin.

The food is delightful. An amusé of duck, a green gazpacho with curried mussels, salmon with collard greens and Lima beans. I even had a little gelato for dessert. They offered appetizer, entrée and dessert choices. So the restaurant put up a pretty good challenge for themselves. And met it very well.

I'd suggested that a friend start a journal called 'The Invisible Man' after he sent me a note with a subject of something like 'To the Visible Woman from the Invisible Man.'

Meta:
In fact, dear reader, don't you think I should change my journal to The Invisible Woman? Hiding in plain sight and all that?

JUST TYPING
Efficacy is an efficient word
Standing in, as it does,
For the longer and contorted
effectiveness.