So, yesterday I got up early, well not as early as I wanted to, but I still managed to be out of the house by 8.30a. I wasn't going to work early, I was going to run errands before work. I couldn't do anything before yesterday because of the whole money issue.

O! And I wanted to crow that for the first time in my entire life, practically, I had to get by on a tiny amount of money, and I did! I didn't spend one penny more than I had to, and even with the extra $1.75 that I ended up with, I didn't go on a spree or even just buy an extra soda. So now I know, if I only have $18 to live on for the week, it can be done. You know, as long as I have all of the groceries and cat food that I need, and my Metrocard hasn't expired.

Hooray! I'm a grown-up! Or at least, I was one for four days, that's quite enough.

Anyway, I left the house at 8.30a in order to run errands. Ended up getting caught in extreme tunnel traffic--it took over half an hour to get to the tunnel from my stop, which shouldn't take longer than three minutes. Five, if you're feeling generous. But I had plenty of time, so I didn't mind much.

Got into the city, then went to the bank and was very happy to see that the insertion of my bank card meant for the excretion of $50 bills on the part of the machine, and grabbed a bus down to B&H. I needed some film for the party today, you see. Yes, all that film I bought just two weeks ago, all used up! I overshoot so egregiously, I really need to stop leaning so hard on that shutter.

I got there at about 9.20a, which was perfect, since they close at about 9.22a on Fridays, and it wasn't too crowded, so I was in and out fairly quickly, and I even remembered to buy the negative sheets that I need and will likely forget to bring to the darkroom the next time I go, but that's only to be expected. I should have bought some paper as well so I can stop paying the frankly usurious prices at the darkroom, but I didn't think about it until now, which is slightly after the nick of time.

Then I went farther downtown to pick up the contact sheets from my colour lab, getting out of the subway at Union Square to be surprised by the Farmer's Market. Hey, I'm never there on Friday, I had no idea it was open that day as well as Saturday. In celebration of my actually having money, I bought a really nice looking little apple pie from a stand--the crown is so high that it almost looks like a crusted softball in a pie tin. I haven't tasted it yet, but it looks like a real treat.

Then I decided to make a quick stop in Barnes and Nobel just across the park, and as I was walking towards it, I suddenly hear this guy behind me say in the loudest voice be could possibly muster without actually yelling, "My God, did you see that? A grown woman walking around looking like that? Have you ever seen anything so ridiculous? A GROWN WOMAN appearing in PUBLIC like THAT!!!????!!!" and he just kept on and on, and I finally whipped around and said, with a huge smile on my face, mimicking his tone of joyful jeering and incredulity, "At least I'm not an ASSHOLE!!" then turned and kept walking.

I immediately realized that I should have said stupid motherfucker rather than asshole, but there was enough laughter from passersby after what I said that makes me think that I won the encounter. But honestly, I understand making fun of someone peculiar-looking on the street to your friends, but what is the point of doing it loud enough for the jeer-ee to hear? That's just plain mean-spiritedness.

Of all the comments I get on the street, this was really only the third one that wasn't positive, at least that I've heard. Once I was passing a ranting preacher and he started talking about how I was a symbol of everything wrong with the city, which I certainly took as a compliment, and the second was when I was buying a soda at a bodega early one morning, and this homeless rummy with a hoarser voice than Harvey Fierstein was buying a pack of Tareytons, of all the terrible cigarettes in the world, and he looked at me, double-taked, then said in a condescending voice, "Well, I guess it takes all kinds!" But that was so funny, and it made such a great story to tell, that it neither hurt my feelings nor did I regret not saying, "At least I'm not a homeless alcoholic!"

Hey, if I'm going to make some bum feel good about his position in life, and think, as he drinks his lighter fluid, "At least I'm not that pink-haired girl!" that's cool by me. But this guy and his sniggering friends were just a bunch of pricks. I wish I had called him a motherfucker, asshole seems so tame. But the tone of voice really worked, because I really did sound exactly like he did. Ah well, I cursed him to get into a fiery car wreck, so that should happen soon.

Anyway, to Barnes and Nobel, where I bought The Dog is Not a Toy as a goodbye present for Bill, the accountant that left yesterday. Every day we would say to each other, "Did you see Get Fuzzy today? It was a really good one!" so I thought that made a good present. I'm going to miss him, he was the only person in my department that I could talk to about movies slightly more obscure than Spiderman.

There are plenty of accountants in the department that we would be happy to see the back of, plenty, but you can't pry them out of this place with a stick and the wrong ones always leave.

So then I went and got my colour contacts sheets (shit they charge alot for develop and contact! No wonder I prefer BW), then happily to McDonald's to get breakfast, because I had money, you see, and I hadn't had any for so long that I was due, and then I went to the subway.

I decided not to take the bus uptown, because I always get screwed royally and caught in traffic and am all startled about the fact that busses take time and so on, so I went down to the 2 train. It was 10.50a, I figured that a train would come relatively quickly and I would get to work ontime. "I had time to get caught in tunnel traffic, run four errands, have breakfast, and still get to work ontime! I should do this more often in the mornings!"

You know what happened then, of course, you are not dummies. I waited twenty minutes for a subway, and ended up getting to work at 11.37a. Ah well, it's end of quarter, there were a couple of brushfires to put out, but I wasn't cutting the six sets of checks I usually cut of a Friday, it didn't matter so much that I sailed in late.

I went out to get lunch, thinking "Hooray! I have money! I can eat anything I want!!" And then I realized that I had left my purse in the office, and all I had was whatever money I had stuffed into the pocket of my jeans, namely $3.34. So I got a bean and cheese fajita, which is only $1.18 and went back to my desk.

I am being forced against my will to stay on my diet! I am apparently conspiring against myself.

I left work at 8.30p and decided to go up to Barnes and Nobel, the one uptown, because I forgot to pick up a copy of Sister Mary in the morning. And maybe stop in at Tower, because there were a couple of things that I really wanted. Because I had money!

Of course, I couldn't get only one or two things and go, I ended up getting Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde (on sale), They Might Be Giants' No (didn't even know this was out), The Last Five Years (as seen on the Drama Desk awards), Laurie Anderson's Live at Town Hall New York City September 19-20, 2001 (one of the things I came specifically for), and The Langley Schools Music Project--Innocence and Despair.

That last one, I saw a documentary about this project on VH1 the other day that about blew my mind. It was about this DJ discovering this amazing album that was recorded in the mid-seventies of these Canadian kids singing rock songs, and he tracked down the music teacher that had recorded it, and had it released commercially.

And the show was about the kids and the teacher and the music and being a child in the 70's, and at the end there was a reunion of the kids and the teacher and I just burst into tears, watching it, and once it was over, I just sat there and watched the whole thing all over again, and vowed that I had to buy that album. So I did!

Anyway, after Tower I went to the candy store that sells the British candy, then got some dinner, then went to the van, and stopped on my way at Ben and Jerry's and got a black and white shake, ("I'd like a black and white shake, please." "We're out of chocolate." "Chocolate what?" "Ice cream." "A black and white shake is made with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup." "O, okay."), and then got home at 11p.

It was like the first summer evening, staying out late, shopping, meandering through the Times Square crowds. Appropriate, since it was in fact, the first day of summer!

"My God, did you see that? A grown woman walking around looking like that?"

Today's horoscope:
Restlessness is likely today. Don't tie yourself or the family down to a "must follow" routine. Keep everybody's options open.

One year ago today:
I'm planning on starting the First Church of TiVo.

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Last Updated Sun 23 June 22:39:09 2002