2/22/2009

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Greetings! I hope this entry finds you well, and enjoying the weekend.

I've been carrying around my moleskin notebook with me jotting down my ideas when they come. However, doing so has made me realize that my New Year's resolution (to write once a week) may have been unrealistic. It's not because I don't have time, but simply because some weeks I just don't have as many ideas as I would've liked. So I'm amending my resolution, limiting it to simply doing a better job of keeping track of my ideas (Which I am doing!) and posting them when it feels right.

February is a very celebratory month regarding history. We've got a couple presidents' birthdays, the other President's Day and Black History Month, to name a few. My friend Jess K. had a pretty cool idea for celebrating Abe Lincoln's birthday: Creating your own personal Emancipation Proclamation. I think it would kind of work like Lent does for Catholics - pick something in your life you want to abolish (except there's no real timeline associated it). I decided to emancipate all of the food in my fridge that had gone bad. I'm also thinking about abolishing the ties I have with old socks and underwear that are stretched/holy and ready to go. Anyway, what might you abolish? Any habits worth changing?

And by the way, I sort of wish I knew someone whose last name was Birthday. Because then I could go up to them and sing (a la Marilyn Monroe), "Happy President's Day, Mr. Birthday!" I think that would be funny.

Something ironically humorous happened recently. My friend Tony teaches a fitness class at a local college and invites his friends to come and participate. However, the administrative folks frown on it because of liability and insurance reasons, what with non-students risking injury on their property. I'd gone to the class a couple of times before we had any real trouble. A lot of the other non-students who attend the class are either former students who have old IDs or others who have created fake ones. That's where I think it's ironic... all those college students jumping through hoops to get fake IDs so they can reap the benefits of being older... all the graduates jumping through hoops to get fake IDs so they can reap the benefits of being younger.

A few days ago as I walked down the stairs of my building on my way to work I stumbled into a $20 bill just sitting there. Knowing it could only belong to one of the other three people who live on the higher floors of my building, I didn't feel right picking it up. It's hard to pass up a free $20. I hope the other two people whose $20 it was not also took the same course of action and it made its way back to its rightful owner. I also hope that karma hits me back for following the Golden Rule.

Maybe I'm crazy.... but I'm just thinking about this whole digital switch for TV and how it just got delayed another 4 months, and I smell conspiracy. Think about it... struggling economy.... nice, new flat-screen TVs collecting dust on store-shelves... why not just delay the switch another few months to get people to pony up for new TVs and get some money into the economy?

One day last week, I was making my way to the john at work to do my 'duties as an American,' as I like to say, and as I entered my usual stall - SURPRISE - out walks my boss. It was kind of like walking in my boss sleeping with my proverbial wife (just think Peter's nightmare in the movie 'Office Space.') I just couldn't take the idea of using the same facilities my boss had so freshly vacated... so I had to go to a different, less preferred stall. Oh the absurdity of it all.

And lastly for this post, a semi-philosophical rant. I frequently get lost tracing courses of events in my life backwards, marveling at how each couldn't have come to be without the previous one. I go back farther and farther and realize how long it takes a series of coincidences to line up in order for something to happen. People you meet, places you go.... all brought about by seemingly minute events years ago. It all adds together in some weird, connected way to produce what we call the present. It's kind of like the whole butterfly flapping its wings 1000 miles away and starting a tsunami, or something like that. It's mind-boggling.