Wednesday, August 27, 2003

TAX FREE HOROSCOPES! (8/23/03)

Oops - about to let another Wednesday go without a horoscope. With quitting smoking, my brain is finally coming out of the fog. But it’s been a very, very slow process. I don’t wish this process on anyone, well, anyone who doesn’t smoke. If you do smoke, do consider quitting. Although TERRIBLY hard, once you succeed, you won’t regret it.
However, if you don’t want to quit, then don’t. I don’t think anyone can force someone who smokes to quit. That person has to be damn well ready to quit.

========================
So, last week I asked the following:
It’s 3 AM, you hear gun shots outside. Would you leave your apartment/house and find out what is going on? Would you stay inside your house and call the police? Would you even wake up? I am curious. Please let me know.

Some of you answered:
-- NO I will to run down 5 flights in the wee hours of the morning to check out some action on the gritty street of the crack central. -- No, will not go out to check activity. likely to gawk from a safe window, or gawk at the site 3 days later!
-- If I heard gunshots outside at 3 am, I would look out my window and see if I could see anything. If I could see the trouble, I would definitely call 911. Otherwise, I would take my cell phone and go outside, cautiously. And then call 911 as I applied pressure to the bleeding person’s wound. :-)
I tend to be the kind of person who stops and gets out of her car to help at
an accident-if there aren’t already police or other a bunch of other people
helping. Or if a woman or family or decent looking guy is broken down on
the side of the road, I stop to offer my cell phone. Geez I sound like a
goody-goody. And I guess I kinda am. I like the feeling of helping
someone; it makes my own troubles seem less significant. But really it’s
that I like to be where the action is. I like the rush of crisis. So
there you go.
-- Running out into a gun battle without a gun -foolishness.

My answer: I would sleep through the whole thing. Once, when I lived in Greenpoint (Brooklyn) above the Greenpoint stop on the G train, I woke up to find my roommate dragging herself around the kitchen. She looked like she hadn’t slept a wink. I asked her what was wrong and she said to me incredulously, “You didn’t hear the gunshots and commotion last night?” Nope. I sleep like a log. A giant sequoia with moss all over it. Turns out that there were gunshots in the subway around 1 AM and then cops and ambulances and fire trucks showed up outside out door. Or window really. We lived on the second floor.
And I didn’t hear a thing.

========================
This week’s horoscopes go out to:
> The sun, for coming out and giving us one nice weekend this summer. It
was glorious.
> Ertischek, great seeing you
> Mark, thanks for the book!
> Mars, I want to be close to you, just you and nobody else but you!
> SUNITA AND GREG!!!! 4 MORE DAYS, 4 MORE DAYS!!!!! (They are getting
married on Sunday)

========================
Note: If you ever plan on sending me something, please do not send it to my home address, but rather my work address. As I have no doorman or super (i.e., I am very, very low on the NYC housing totem pole. I am a couple of levels shy of living in a cardboard box. Actually, I do live in a square-ish shaped apartment, but at least mine is in Manhattan, thus keeping me a little higher on the unreal estate scale), large mail is attempted, but usually is sent back to the sender. Now, this is not a plea for presents :) or a plea for empty boxes to be mailed to me. But just a note to let you know that I live in a place where I can’t get mail.Another note: just in case you don’t know, I changed jobs a year ago. If you need my new work phone/address, please let me know.

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

I love tomatoes (8/20/03)

I was talking to my Friendster Jeeyun (yes, I am a member of Friendster. It’s FUN) and she told me a tale of how someone she knows will run outside or look out the window if this person hears activity (such as sirens or shouts or gun shots) outside. Doesn’t matter what time of day it is—this person will go outside, down 5 flights of stairs, to see what is going on. One time, this person walked a couple of blocks to see a fire being put out.


This was in the middle of the night.


Now, I find this unusual behavior, but Jeeyun knows another person who heard gun shots one night and then went outside to see what was going on. There was a gun fight between some gangs and one person died. And Jeeyun’s friend saw this.


What would you have done? It’s 3 AM, you hear gun shots outside. Would you leave your apartment/house and find out what is going on? Would you stay inside your house and call the police? Would you even wake up? I am curious. Please let me know.

============================
I have been smoke free for five days! Congratulate me!

============================
This week’s horoscopes go out to:
>> ELECTRICITY
>> Mike, Jen and Graham
>> Jeeyun
>> Irene, Maggie, Jude, May, Kimeka
>> Carey and Steven
>> Michelle E.
>> Mark
>> Lori
>> Francine & Lynda
>> Ann & Dabney

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

I'm special, sooooo special..... (8/13/03)

Someone you know is turning 31 on Friday. She is quite pleased about this, but not jump up and down happy (see story below). However, time is relative and relatives are good in small doses. So, let's sing me the birthday song:
1...2...3...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU (MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU (MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MICHELLE (MEEEEEEEEEEEEE)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU (MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)


:-)
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This week's horoscopes are dedicated to:

>> Mark - try and stay cool in London. Obviously the gods took someone seriously when they prayed for the rain to stop
>> Ertischek - congratulations on the condo!
>> Sandy - good luck with the painting!
>> Lori - thanks for the ring - Wonder Twin powers activate!
>> Lynn - Go, Lynn, Go, Mini-Tri Queen!

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I tried this new exercise thing yesterday at my gym (yes, I actually worked out). It's called Urban Rebound. Basically it's aerobics on a mini-trampoline. The instructor was this tiny, cute, little compact girl.

She wasn't skinny small, more Tonka truck hard, really. Sort of scary cute. You know she was the captain of her cheerleading squad, smiling widely on top of the human pyramid or being tossed high in the air by big bulky guys who joined the squad to get chicks or there wasn't a gymnastics team at their high school so they joined cheerleading. She seemed to be the kind who would be encouraging one minute and in the next shouting "GO TEAM" in a terrifying roar.

Anyway, she assured me that the class would be easy on my knee (I have a bad knee - I don't know why, but one day, it hurt and then it got worse. Turns out I have a luxating patella. It's an injury that small dogs usually get), but a little hard to get used to. Of course, she said, go at your own pace. Which you know is license for me to slack off.

Well, you would think that bouncing on a mini-trampoline would be fairly easy. Well, you're wrong. It's quite intense as you are bouncing (not too high up, mind you. Your head is to stay level while your legs do this continually squatting jump), kicking your legs this way and that and flinging your arms this way and that. And then there are these intense short sprints where you go triple time. Well, other people went triple time. I went a little faster. I didn't keep in time with the music or the instructor or anyone else in the room. I was creating moves that no one else was or should be doing. I went at my own pace, laughing all the way.

Everyone was so serious. They were concentrating really hard on all of the actions and pushing themselves to be stronger and faster. But what made it all funny is that we were all on little trampolines, bouncing, bouncing, bouncing. It was an intensely funny thing to watch.
I had a great time. I kept my own pace through the whole thing, sweating buckets all the way. The person next to me said it takes 3-5 classes to get the motions. I am going again. Why not? It's fun jumping on a trampoline.

Wednesday, August 6, 2003

I need to move to the equator (8/6/03)

> The New York Times
> August 5, 2003
> And the Forecast Is . . .
> By MICHAEL RUBINER
>
>
> Wednesday in New York : Rain. Heavy at times. Followed by periods of
> precipitation.
>
> Thursday : Lingering showers throughout the day.
> Chance of rain 800 percent.
>
>
> Friday : Moist. Damp. Sodden.
>
> Saturday : Rainish. Showery. Precipitacious.
>
> Sunday : Light rain followed by heavy rain followed
> by pouring.
>
> Monday : Unseasonably rainy in the morning.
> Uncharitably rainy in the
> afternoon. Unconscionably rainy in the evening.
>
> Tuesday : Endless showers broken up by occasional
> flooding.
>
> Wednesday : Remember “Waterworld”? Like that, only
> with more rain.
>
> Thursday : Not sunny. The opposite of sunny. Just
> forget about sunny, O.K.?
>
> Friday : Clearing just long enough for you to make
> weekend plans. Followed
> by obscene amounts of rain.
>
> Saturday : Take a wild guess.
>
> Sunday : Incessant, spirit-crushing rain. The kind
> of rain that makes it
> futile to get out of bed in the morning. The kind of
> rain that seems as if
> it will never end. And guess what? It never will.
> Ever. Do you understand?
>
> Monday : Please go away.
>
> Tuesday : Ample, brilliant sunshine throughout the
> day. Wait - did I say
> sunshine? I meant rain. Really hard rain.
>
>
>
> Michael Rubiner is a screenwriter.
>
>
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> -------
> My sentiments EXACTLY. We survived seven months of
> cold, gloomy weather -
> snow, sleet, rain, rain, rain. And then we had
> about 1.5 months of sun.
> Moderate sun, mind you. Nothing to write home
> about. Well, maybe one
> letter. I have to say, I was ecstatic that we had
> any sun at all. And now
> this. All up and down the East coast. Rain,
> clouds, peeks of sun, rain.
> And humidity. I and my hair just can’t take it
> anymore. We are delicate
> flowers!!!! My house plants which don’t get much
> sunlight in the first
> place are drooping (and yes, I did water them).
>
> You know, I was reading Time magazine this week
> (yes, I have started reading
> the rag and no, I haven’t sent Ethan, the winner of
> the haiku contest, my
> subscription yet) and there was an article about how
> major cities actually
> create rain and bad weather. The heat absorbed by
> the buildings, black tar
> roofs, cement walkways, etc., warms up the air by
> 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit
> (-16.944444444444446 degrees Celsius). The heat
> rises, makes clouds and
> rain, etc., etc. The article suggests that
> buildings should you light
> colored sun reflecting paint or insulation on their
> roofs. Personally, I
> think all city dwellers should begin wearing white
> to reflect the heat.
> White should be the new black.
>
>
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> -------
> Have you seen Spellbound? YOU SHOULD. Saumya
> Ramarao and I went to see it
> last Saturday and we both found it to be
> M-A-R-V-E-L-O-U-S and
> E-L-U-C-I-D-A-T-I-V-E. The movie tracks eight kids
> as they progress through
> regional spelling bees and make their way to the
> National Spelling Bee in
> Washington DC. These kids come from all sorts of
> backgrounds and cultures.
> Some put a lot of pressure on themselves to succeed
> and others are pressured
> by their parents to succeed. Overall, the story
> really shows how kids in
> America survive. Definitely worth the $10 movie
> ticket price.
>
>
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> This week’s horoscopes go out to:
>
> >> Saumya
> >> Carey
> >> Francine and Lynda
> >> Holly