Thursday

Oct, 25, 2001

coming to grips

Getting up after staying out to late is very, very hard. I just drank good wine, though, pretty much and I don't have a hangover. Except I'm hungry all day, even eating when I get up.

As I think I'm coming to grips with all the demands on my time, I see something else looming on my schedule or find an e-mail that requires explanations, redirections, forwards, copies, head scratching. A staff job with no apparent deliverables can be enormously time-consuming.

After work, I stop by my parents' house to get my mom's insurance and Medicare card and 'copy them front and back' for one of her doctors. This is the electronic age but the insurance and medicos still put everyone through nine gates of paperwork. I think they hope that one will fail the paperwork test and then they don't have to pay. In my piles, I found a demand from my insurance to know if anyone covered was otherwise covered by insurance. Which they also ask for each and every claim. It demanded that the information be updated by a date in the past when I was still in Europe. I call an 800 number and give my ID number and name no less than three times before someone writes down 'no other insurance.' And I haven't even been to a doctor in a couple of months nor has FFP. Still they throw up expensive hassles.

My dad has finished reading a book about The Blitz that was kind of academic and tough going. He's rewarding himself by reading a Dick Francis I found in Half Price Books for a buck.

FFP makes salmon cakes (his current favorite thing at Central Market), squash and salad. It is all good. And fresh. As was the salad and half sandwich I had for lunch at Texas French Bread. Still, I drink a cup of coffee and eat some goat cheese (soaked in wine, hence called drunken goat) for 'dessert.' I've been hungry all day, like I said, getting candy from my co-workers' offices, grabbing cheese on the way to work this morning, eating some free chips in the kitchen. Hmmm.

I am a veg after dinner. I read some of the old newspapers. They happen to be the ones right after Sept. 11. I start the crossword puzzle in today's NY Times. (Yeah, it's Thursday but I get a couple of words.) I don't make much of a dent in the pile. This weekend, I promise myself. For sure. I'm going to get the piles of newspapers, magazines and travel stuff all completely under control. Yeah, right.

When I got up this morning, I told myself that I was going to come to grips with who I am and what my purpose was. Today. But I didn't. I came up with a handful of air. Maybe we aren't all nothing. But we are headed to nothing, for sure.

the Smart car is a smart idea in Florence

but still subject to parking enforcement

as are the scooters

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace..."

John Lennon, "Imagine"

Meta:
We'll just be keeping Lennon's radical lyrics here indefinitely until I have the wherewithal to look for quotes. What do you want from me?

JUST TYPING
One should occasionally.
Examine one's routine.
And exclaim:
"What am I doing? Or for that matter, typing?"