Category: Life

I’ve lived in New York for a year and a half now and still haven’t really taken advantage of the fact that I live near three major airports. I’ve had to play catch-up on finances, so I haven’t really been able to afford much in the way of vacationing. But that finally changed, sort of, and since it’s been more than 5 years since I was last in the UK, I figured that needed addressing. So I booked a flight with little to no planning beyond the purchase of tickets.

In addition to the many important lessons learned on my last voyage, this trip gave me still more opportunity for informative error. The first was booking a flight out of Newark at 8:00 a.m. I had debated taking the subway to Penn to Newark Liberty, but rail travel so early in the day is fraught with unknowns. So I took a car service. This was fortuitous because, while I had dutifully set my phone’s alarm for 4 a.m., I had neglected to remember that my alarm is set only to go off on weekdays. My wake-up call was the car service at 5 a.m. Fortunately for me, in the wisdom that only comes as one drifts off into sleep, I had decided I should take a shower in the evening rather than the morning. I was up and out the door in five minutes.

Continue reading UK Trip 2009

As the weather has gotten warmer, I’ve started changing into my work clothes at the office. Fortunately for me, I work 10 to 6, so fewer folks see me do this, and the bathroom is usually empty when I need to change. I’m doing this because my body is not well adapted to walking around in warm weather for long periods of time without producing prodigious amounts of moisture. I ruin shirts in the summer. Getting to the train, walking up and down all the stairs, standing immobile on the hot, stuffy platforms…it’s too much for my Scottish physiology. If I were to do this in slacks and a nice shirt every day I would be a disheveled mess by the time I got to work.

Walking to work in sandals, shorts and a t-shirt still doesn’t entirely prevent me from sweating up a storm, but it’s a definite improvement from the alternative. Plus when I leave work I feel freer, less constricted. I can more easily go do things without having to run home and change clothes.

So I do my dry cleaning near the office, usually on Mondays. I have to remember to pack socks and undershirts for the week in my satchel or laptop bag. I feel a little bit like Michael J. Fox in “Secret of My Success,” carrying a briefcase full of clothing to the office.

And speaking of odd feelings at work, often I find myself looking out the window at the economic epicenter of the modern world and trying to remind myself just how the hell I got here. A couple times a week as I walk home I’m still struck by the strangeness of it all: some fool from smalltown Arkansas works in this building, in this part of the city? He doesn’t belong here; who let this guy in?

Sorry for the long radio silence. I’ve been a peculiar combination of relentlessly busy and quietly inactive, neither of which lend themselves to regular blog updates. As per usual, I’ve been taking more pictures than writing words, so try my Flickr stream.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the various voices in all our heads. I don’t know about your mind, but mine on any given day seems to contain a constantly shifting committee of advisers. I think they’re even traceable to specific people. Here are some of the people who have successfully uploaded bits of their consciousness into mine, and examples of what they tell me:

Mom – Wash your dishes and clean up after yourself.
Dad – Buy that bargain CD or book. You never know where it’s going to take you.
Heather Gunter – Don’t be a chump.
Natalie Griffin – Relax and be good to yourself.
Heath Harrelson – You’re rationalizing. Stop it.
Katherine Whitworth – Eat something you haven’t eaten before.
DeLaine Ulmer – Say “Yes” to the unknown.

I just wanted to take the time to say thanks to those folks for being part of my brain trust.

I feel very fortunate that I’ve never had any serious healthcare needs in my adult life. That said I also have no idea about how that world works, and what the expectations are for everyone involved. Recently I learned a great deal the hard way.

Continue reading Adventures in Healthcare

This thought occurred to me on the subway yesterday: every declarative statement implies hundreds of opposites.

For example, if I say, “this chair is blue,” then the following statements have been implied:

The chair is not red.
The chair is not yellow.
The chair is not green.
The chair is not orange.
The chair is not purple.
The chair is not brown.
The chair is not black.
The chair is not white.

I found this peculiar, because while I’m acquainted with the notion that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, the idea that every statement has hundreds, thousands, or even an infinity of opposite reactions to be mind-boggling.

In much the same way, a statement like “God Bless America” implies that God should favor us over others, that God should not bless France or Eritrea or every other nation in the world. Why would he do that? Why would we want him to, but out of selfishness and arrogance?

Another example: you sit down at a table of women, and you greet one of them by saying she looks beautiful. In doing so, you’ve effectively stated that the other women at the table are not beautiful.

Language is dangerous.

Because I’m a complete pushover, I fell victim to a Carnegie Hall telemarketer a few months ago and signed up for a four-show series of legendary Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain. I made my way to the show this evening, and as I pulled out my ticket, I kind of stood and stared hesitantly at it awhile (after all, I have three more nights of Zakir to see in different combinations, and Wednesday features Edgar Meyer and Bela Fleck). I was quickly noticed by two alert fans looking for tickets. One needed two tickets but the other, an older Indian gentleman, only needed one, so I sold it to him at face value. He thanked me profusely and said he would gladly have paid more. He was so happy, the look of joy and relief on his face was more than payment enough.

I think I may embark on a non-profit career of scalping tickets at face value just to see people overcome with joy.

…but this is actually one of the most amusing things I’ve witnessed in New York. Granted I’m easily amused[1], but take a gander at the link. It’s a video I took last week of some pigeons.

1.) Especially by little things like unnecessary footnotes.