2011 6 of 8
MONDAY, 7/25/11: Wake at 6:18AM, maybe doze, and out of bed at 8:08AM to have pancakes for breakfast while watching the first part of "Point Break," recorded this morning. Mail the last Netflix movie AND my FIA Card Services check on the way to Dr. Sai, getting in at 10:03 and out at 11:22AM, see MEDICAL:7/25/11. Find the Heights-bound bus B41 on Livingston, getting off to check my HSBC balance of over $10,000, and then to Key Food for my shopping which should have been done earlier, but I'm happy that I'm getting it done NOW. Back home to get a message from Marj, wishing me a good trip, and I'm determined to catch up on my busy-busy journal before phoning her before lunch. Hungry now at 2PM, having gotten a call from someone at OAT changing a hotel in Turkey and wishing me a good THIRTEENTH trip! Even met Bill Petersen in Key Food, so I could give him his "pick up my Times" dates AND the France show on 9/7. Mail is still not to the K line when I come in, so I don't know if I've gotten my check yet. Call Marj at 2:04PM and talk till 2:20---she's delighted that I have permission to have wine with dinner---when I realize I have to have lunch to get to the gym on time, so we hang up, I have a second breakfast to equalize what HH meals I have left, watch the end of "Point Break," not really remembering any of it, and not thinking it QUITE as "homoerotic" as New York Magazine did. The gym is tiring, and it's RAINING when I get out, and I don't get an Albright-Knox check in the mail. Go over the SANTAFE notes with Marj 5:12-5:45, and then do a reasonable Spider 5:45-6:20PM to 51.42868 to 727 up after 2 wins, my eyes actually CLOSING while doing it---I guess I'm looking forward to an early bed---could this be partly caused by my 1/2 melitonin that I took at 3:30 to start my jet-lag treatment? Type this to 6:30 and start packing in the delightful non-humid 70 coolth, happy that I'll be missing the predicted high temperatures in NYC toward the end of this week. Well, I don't pack, but have dinner while watching "Reefer Madness," free on FiOS. Then think for one last Spider session before bed, playing 10:15-11:30 to GREAT 51.43811 to 732 up after SIX wins, now second highest on this card. Now to bed! Again take an ambien and a valium before going to bed at 11:43PM. Fall asleep quickly.
TUESDAY, 7/26/11: Pee at 6:52AM and up at 8:47AM, noting that I'll be in INSTANBUL in 24 hours! And all I have to do today is pack, and do things associated with the trip, like phoning for the car and changing my phone message and taking the sheets off the bed. Note amusedly that I'm the THIRTEENTH person on my THIRTEENTH trip! Now to empty my wastebasket. Look through old Turkey souvenirs and take a map of Cappadocia along. Copy My Pictures file 01 to Edge 9:15-10AM, and then MC from 10-10:03AM, and will turn my computer off when I go. Nothing on DVR to watch during breakfast, so I sit at computer and look out window as day heats up. Will be hot today here, with a few showers in evening; Instanbul is 80s during day and 70s at night for the next week, usually partly cloudy. Sounds good! Now 10:14AM and I've two meals left to eat; copied the tour-member list; started filling the dining-room table. Washed dishes and cleaned the stove top; tried Turkish Airlines and couldn't get an e-ticket for today, so I called OAT and they said that my PASSPORT now had all my information attached to it, all I had to do was present that and my BOOK itinerary. Called for a car at 8:15 for $45, and then phoned Mildred, who was in a good mood, said we should forget about the past, and wished me a good trip---"If there's an empty seat next to you, call me and I'll join you." And then she laughed. Obsessively, I finish this to date at 12:25PM, less than eight hours HERE, less than twelve hours to get to Istanbul. Now to the PILLS. Get rid of the last "trip bag" junk, mainly by putting pens into a box beside my calendar in my desk drawer. Hungry, but food is difficult to choke down as I debate taking another valium for anxiety. Just wish the time would PASS! Go down to see if my check arrived at 3PM but the mail's not finished being delivered yet, so I'm up to finish lunch with my daily melitonin and down again at 3:45 prepared to go to the bank---to find no check, just two new magazines, which I read through, eyes closing as I work the New York Magazine puzzle, time passing SO slowly. It's 88 and uncomfortable even with the air conditioner on. Type now at 5:10PM and think to check Turkish Airlines for departure, and it's still on schedule. Now I feel like I might be able to shit. But I can't. Keep on packing, and when my suitcase is only 19 pounds I decide to take a SECOND jacket, the blue velour, in addition to my rain jacket in my shoulder bag---and in case it's freezing on the plane. Have a few moments of panic: WHERE was the adapter plug? On the dining-room table all the time, not in the various bags in which I frantically looked. Almost forgot spare glasses! And MAYBE I'm taking two combs, but I couldn't find one in my dop kit when I came to "comb" in my checklist. Put the Birch check back in my drawer for when I get the Albright checks on my return. Counted that I'm taking, by some coincidence, $444, and my shoulder bag weighs ten pounds and my black bag now 21 pounds, a total of 31 pounds, less than the 33 maximum for CHECKED luggage. Now at 7PM the sky is cloudy in the north, but I still hope it doesn't rain tonight before we leave. Certainly not hungry. Recorded my phone message, locked my suitcase and put my key inside my already-sweaty jeans, and look at the pills waiting for my dinner, of soup and the last of the HH veggies and peanut butter. And the last of the apple juice in the container to be rinsed. Can't think of anything else now at 7:04PM. Have soup for dinner, turn off everything in the living room and turn on the bedroom air conditioner to write this at 7:37PM and will end, guess what?, playing Taipei to 8PM, washing face, peeing, opening a bloody pimple on my forehead, putting on my shoes, changing shirts, and typing this at 8:05PM, the END!
TRAVEL:TURKEAST July 26 - August 14, 2011
MONDAY, 8/15/11: 12:38AM: Pee and shit a bit, take melitonin and Cipro #4, and bed at 12:57, only to get up at 1AM to jerk off to 1:46AM. Start note 21 "on 21st day of trip." Try Actualism, but it doesn't go very well, although I look at the clock at 3:16AM so I must have dozed SOME. Still love lying in my bed in perfect 71 air. 3:41AM: But think of all I want to DO! 1) Gym, 2) Phone Mildred, Spartacus, Marj, Charles, Carolyn, Bill Petersen, John, and Piri, 3) Look up Ani for what I missed, 4) Check e-mail, 5) Unpack, 6) Do UN flag sort. Make this list to 3:57AM. Decide to get up, since it's been 9.5 hours since I went to bed, though I was up about an hour to pee and jerk off. Do a quick mail sort to 4:30, start downloading e-mail from 4:31-4:41 to get 184 messages, including updating Verizon In-Home Agent. Check e-mail to 5:04. Have breakfast of oatmeal, scan the three new magazines, and do two TV Guide sudokus. Cum again and watch a Torchwood episode to 9:15AM. Call Mildred to 9:50, Charles to 10:45, Arnold to 11:40. Have lunch of a Spam sandwich and watch two Torchwood episodes to 1:50PM, eyes sometimes closing. Go to gym to 3:30, getting an eyepiece for my glasses for $2 at Grand Opticians. Get Times from Bill to 4:25, do the first two puzzles and finish a tuna casserole dinner at 7:15, really tired. Brush teeth well, gluey between teeth with flossing, take a melitonin and get to bed at 8:37PM, two hours later than last night.
TUESDAY, 8/16/11: 1:47AM: Type DREAMS:8/16/11. 2:06AM: Take two aspirin, a melitonin, and Cipro #6. Get up at 4:55AM, still feeling groggy, type another dream, and pee. Start a Tuesday-Do list: 1) 7/30 Times from 5:10-6AM. 2) 7/31 Times to 6:30. 3) Start Neo transfer 6:10AM and at 7AM start transferring file 2. 4) Finish next two puzzles by 8:47AM and get out to MEDICAL:8/16/11 from 9:08-10:46AM. Back home at 11:07AM. Lunch to 11:40 because I'm feeling slightly dizzy; call Marj and talk to 12:12PM. Watch more Torchwood and three National Geographic disaster-film programs while having more tuna casserole to 3:13PM. At 3:40PM start transferring photos to laptop (after wondering why the plug into the DESKTOP didn't work for me). Edgardo calls! I call Marj, foolishly, to talk about technology with my photos being transferred, having talked to Edgardo, gone to Schwab to find I'd lost $660+ today, and my WordPerfect notebook open, from 4-4:15. At 4:35 I have to RESTART photo download because my batteries gave out and I couldn't recover. Call John 4:40-4:48 to thank him for plants and his plans for our trip on August 24, calling Charles to invite him along, and e-mailing both results. Images finished at 6:20PM, and I edit TURKEAST-2 photos to 208 to 7:10PM, eyes glazing over, checking TURKEAST-1 to 7:20PM and then decide to catch up with the notebook to 7:50PM, REALLY tired. Got HH meals today, but don't really feel hungry enough to eat one now. Maybe watch TV until it gets dark and get to bed only a little later than the 8:37PM of last night. Watch disasters on video and get to bed at 9:43PM, again eyes closing!
WEDNESDAY, 8/17/11: Pee at 2:22, and take melitonin and three aspirin. Shit a bit, read, and get back into bed at 2:49AM. At 3:25, not able to go back to sleep, decide to jerk off. Do that to 4:15, sort of an "in between" orgasm, and then watch three Eberts to 5:33AM. Look at map and try to organize non-seen UN flag countries to 6:20, coming to no great conclusion: 1) Miss only Liechtenstein in Europe. 2) Middle East has 16, six possibly grouped for Arab quickies: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. 3) North Africa has 6, all out of the question. 4) Mid Africa has 27, six possible with Saga Tours: Benin, Burkino Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Togo; eight adjacent in West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Cote D'Ivoire, but rather unlikely; five to seven in little South Africa: Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi, maybe the Comoros and Seychelles would fit there, and Burundi, still unlikely. 5) Asia has 8 widely scattered. 6) Caribbean has a good possible four: Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, and St. Kitts-Nevis, with a chance for a freer Cuba. 7) Pacific has five good little groups: Marshall Islands, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Tuvalu, with the possible addition of Papua-New Guinea. But ALL these are just DREAMS; though I HAVE more or less forgotten about "islands east of Bali," since these aren't added COUNTRIES, unless Ken REALLY wants to do some stretching. Breakfast to 6:50, watch TV on Finnish men in saunas to 7:30, and note that Ljubljana is in SLOVENIA, which I think I DID visit! Finish 8/6-7 Times by 8:05, finish penultimate Times puzzle to 9AM, and the LAST, harder doublecrostic, to 10AM. Lunch at Grand Canyon while waiting for Freilich at in MEDICAL:8/17/11 to 12:32PM, shit to 12:50, proof to page 7, line 9 in TURKEAST to 1:36PM, and then, maddeningly, play Spider 1:36-6:05PM to good high of 51.44057 at 734 up with SEVEN wins, high on a few cards, but 735 is still "local" high. Catch up with MEDICAL file and NOTEBOOK to 6:37PM, feeling accomplished enough to feel good about it. Leave word with Spartacus to tell me how to bus to Peter Luger for Ken's dinner tomorrow. And put out Sai and gym for tomorrow's activities! Then go through the mail that I'd sorted out to be handled, constantly putting stuff to be saved in the discard pile and putting discard papers on top of the saved pile, and throw away the discards and put some of the saved stuff: the Puritan's Pride catalog, the Reliable catalog, the HIP statements for treatments and drugs, into their proper places, yet leaving a clutter on my desk. Still haven't gotten the check from Albright-Knox. Have dinner of the last of the tuna casserole while watching "Angel on My Shoulder," which annoyingly isn't FINISHED on the DVR recording, and then two episodes of the just-recorded "Morgan Freeman's Universe," which actually has some new stuff about the "Chameleon particle" that I hadn't read about before. My eyes close during the last quarter of the second episode and I have to watch it again, but manage to stay up until 10:40PM, marking the fourth hour out of my seven-hour jet leg from Turkey since Sunday, knowing I'll have to remain alert during Ken's birthday dinner at Peter Luger tomorrow night. Take simvastatin and melitonin and get to bed at 10:48PM.
THURSDAY, 8/18/11: Pee at 1:04AM and again at 3:38, feeling sore and weary. Take two aspirin and a melitonin and cough syrup for my sore and raspy throat. Type DREAMS:8/18/11 at 6:43 and continue with notebook typing until 7AM, happy to be caught up at least with THIS part of my life. Still have to unpack, proofread my trip journal, organize the humungous photo files, and start tackling the enlarged pile of things to do on my coffee table. Thoughts of taking another trip have faded with my knowledge that no more UN flags would be added if I took the Bestway trip to Komodo and other islands in Malaysia (or is it Indonesia?). Fantasize that I may have picked up malaria in Gazientep which is causing my malaise that only SEEMS like jet lag. Play Spider 7-7:30AM, when I stop for breakfast before subwaying to Dr. Sai's office at 8:13AM for MEDICAL:8/18/11 to 9:03. Back to Spider 9:30-10:50, great after 3 wins to 736 up, the highest EVER. Call Piri 10:50-11:05, and she thanks me for phoning her. I then play Taipei 11:05-11:40, winning TEN STRAIGHT. Mildred calls to ask "Why haven't you called?" We talk for a bit. I proofread TURKEAST to page 18 by 1PM. Have lunch while watching the last part of "Maria Chapdelaine" with Madeleine Renaud, directed by Julian Duvivier. Then get to the gym, unfortunately finding on my way there that my "perfect" schedule of gyms on Thursday, Sunday, and Wednesday before the gym closes Thursday through Sunday is RUINED by the newly scheduled trip to New Jersey all day Wednesday. BUMMER! Struggle through the exercises anyway, feeling so tired when I get back home that I actually lie down for a bit. Spartacus calls to tell me I take bus 61 or 63 to get to Peter Luger's, and I play more games just to pass the time before leaving at 5:30 to get to Jay and Tillery to see NO signs for the 61 or 63 buses, so finally knock on the door of an out-of-service bus driver, who tells me my Brooklyn bus map is now out of date: it's the 62 bus, and I take it over in front of the "Faith" sign. Wait from 6-6:15 for the bus that supposedly runs every nine minutes, and sit at the window to be leaned against by a sleeping black-woman-who-turns-into-a-white-woman-who-turns-into-a-white MAN with beard and mustache. Out in the suddenly pouring rain at 6:50 across the street from Peter Luger's, and get in to have Ken wave cheerily at me, and then I chew him out for insisting on coming here. We make it up when he agrees it's not the best, though I like the tomatoes more than he does, and the "small" steaks are enough in size but mediocre in quality, and he agrees to go with me to Ruth's Chris sometime. He has two glasses of wine, which puts out total bill over $170, and I had forgotten they take only cash, and had only $63 in my wallet, so I owed him $5 after my $4 bacon slice, $7.50 half the tomatoes, and $35 for the steak and $10 for the decent hot fudge sundae that fills me to completion. Out at 9PM to walk down Broadway before realizing the bus must TURN OFF, and see one pulling away at 9:01, but another comes at 9:08 and I get out about 9:30 and get home to watch two more hours of Morgan Freeman's Universe, one only playing a week from now but available free until 8/22. Bed at 11:51PM, again almost falling asleep.
FRIDAY, 8/19/11: Have awful leg cramps at 2:30 when I get up to pee. Pee again at 5:12 and get up at 8:04AM, expecting Charles's call, taking me an hour from 8:15-9:15 for him to send his first e-mail. Have breakfast and feel turned on while watching the end of one of Freeman's programs, and play and play from 10:30 to 12:25. Talk to Spartacus about last night, and TV programs, and he says I can come over for DVDs in half an hour, so I start Spider 1:15 and play until 1:52 when I leave for his place, waiting a long time until he finds the Streisand special, and then go to the bank to deposit my $13.04 Birch check and withdraw $200 cash, happy to see that I have a balance of over $5000. Back to finish a FANTASTIC Spider session from 2:50-3:55 to 51.45345 at 741 up, by FAR the highest ever, after 6 wins, GREAT! Have my first HH lunch while watching much MORE of "Maria Chapdelaine" on Spartacus's DVD, and then play Taipei to pass the time between 5 and 5:40 and leaving for Sharon. The trip takes the whole time, and I get out to watch a rain and thunder-and-lightning storm approach, watching the temperature drop from 72 to 62 in about twenty minutes, filming what I can, and then decide to catch up on this by 8:32PM. Finish the notes on the session by 8:42PM, tired of typing. Oh, yes, Spartacus called about "Zarkana" and "Hero," both of which I hope to enjoy, and Ken called about an Abercrombie and Kent "luxury" tour to Cuba for 11 days for $5000, which I said was just too much. Watch "La Bandera" by Duvivier with Jean Gabin in the French Foreign Legion, have dinner, and then watch and discard some of the movies I made of the thunder-and-lightning storm this evening. Get to bed at 12:09AM, again too tired from the too-long day.
SHARON B. 186 8/19/11
Get into her heavily air-conditioned office at 5:55, and she calls me in. I start by saying I can't decide whether to start with the bad or the good, and start with the bad: the AWFUL feeling of age just WALKING on the street, feeling as if I weighed 300 pounds, or aged ten years since the trip. HOPING it might just be jet lag, and SHE offers the idea that it might be the strain of the mule ride on seldom-used muscles. Would that it be so. I described the trip and group as being very good, then went into detail about my two bouts of diarrhea, helped by my adult diaper and two of Malcolm's Cipro courses; and my day's delay in GETTING to Istanbul, and then my disappointment about not feeling safe to come out to the compatible group because of my suspicions about two or three of the other single males, and noted the irony of checking Malcolm Smith Calendar and getting someone from the Seattle Gay Center. Said that I was disappointed that the group, although well-traveled, talked ONLY about travel and VERY little about themselves. Described Murray the comedian, Joan the ugly third-oldest, Dennis the closed off, Malcolm the "leader," the good guide, the long-winded biggest OAT traveler when not with his wife, and the unattractive upper West Sider who might have talked about the Gay Center, but I didn't want to know. Held out hope that the week would bring photos of me on the mule. Sharon complimented me on my energy of going on the mule, keeping up with the group, seeing the sights, enjoying the trip though it was punishing and I didn't like the food. The time went quickly; I even mentioned my cuming four times this week and the fuss with Peter Luger and helping Charles with his first e-mail. Again, talked about everything, ending with the comment that I had VERY few dreams, as if the trip satisfied me in many ways so that I didn't have to relegate anything to dreams. She said she'd look forward to my slides if she could see them. I mentioned nothing about my laziness in clearing up from the trip, though I DID say I enjoyed watching TV as much as I did, and the freedom to CHOOSE to be erotic because I was alone and COULD do what I wanted.
SATURDAY, 8/20/11: 5:15AM: Take two aspirin and pee. Wake at 7:33AM, lie in bed for a few minutes, type DREAMS:8/20/11, get the Times, and finish this by 7:53AM, hoping to have a very productive day. Start with the puzzles, finishing the easy first one by 8:20AM, taking until 9:30 to finish the crossword, and eat breakfast finishing with the paper itself by 10AM. Then decide to finish unpacking, putting everything away until 12:10PM, and then figure out the accounts on the TURKEAST trip, checking the HSBC and Visa statements, adding them to the lists, and check the current Visa statement, phone Mutual of Omaha to find it's OK to send a late void check for my payment, and at length fill out the OAT evaluation form. That all takes to 2:30, when I have lunch while watching "Pepe Le Moko" with Jean Gabin playing himself and everyone else is a slime or a rich neer-do-well. Catch up with this at 4:15, checking back to find that I'd proofed to page 18 by 1PM Thursday. Finish proofreading TURKEAST and have the grit to continue with the Summary Page to 8:05PM, then catch up with this to 8:07PM, extremely contented with what I've done today. Actually, only 1) pages to print out, 2) calendar pages to fill in, and 3) photos to edit! And four Internet addresses to look up. Finish day with dinner and more Jean Gabin: "Grand Illusion" and "La Bete Humaine." Eyes closing again. Bed 12:42AM.
SUNDAY, 8/21/11: Pee 6:22AM. Take unreadable note of a 5:12AM dream. 7:07AM: Shit and get Times. 7:18: Make a Chin-list: 1) Cardio results, 2) dermatology OKs, 3) Ken's neuroPSYCHOLOGICAL tests?, 4) Cipro prescription. 8AM: Start j/o, and try vainly and painfully, but fail by 9:48AM, resorting to watching "Torchwood" with breakfast, reading the Times, getting out at 1PM to finally get the Minetta Burger at Minetta Tavern, not worth going back to, though the fruit galette was good. Can't hear much of "Tricks the Devil Taught Me," and the Texas accents, same people playing two generations, and scenes set toward the top of the huge stage-space didn't help, as didn't Leon's hearing losses. Not the best experience, though we missed the rain before and after we were outside. Water the plants late in the day. Finish the day again watching television: "Capriccio" with Renee Fleming, an opera NEVER to watch alive again, and three hours of "Wonders of the Universe" with an oddly young Ian Scott (or whatever his name is). Bed 11:55PM, eyes closing AGAIN.
MONDAY, 8/22/11: 7:45AM pee and type DREAMS:8/22/11. Up at 8:37, finally rested at last, have breakfast while watching a Nova program on Kilauea, print out four DI pages and four NL pages and catch this up to date by 11:46AM. Now to start printing out TURKEAST. By accident I print WHOLE FILE, which means I can't do anything while it's printing, so I play Taipei 11:48-1PM while all pages print out. Fill in the calendar pages to 1:35PM. Then I do the photo-page printout, and look up wildplanetadventure, asking for a catalog, and look at shutterstock, bigstock, and istock, thinking shutterstock most direct and professional looking, but don't do any signing up by 2:25PM, when I'm ready for lunch. ONLY photos to organize, and then "only" 18 piles on table---and at that moment I get a weird Russian-accented telephone message that I don't understand AT ALL! Decide to start photos since I'm really not HUNGRY yet! Edit to #112 to 3:30 and then have lunch. Then determined to clear up videos, watching "Touchez Pas le Grisbi" and first 40 minutes of "Le Desordre et la Nuit," then "Barbra Streisand at the Village Vanguard" and "Gueule d'Amour (Ladykiller)" with Jean Gabin. Later hear that Bill Petersen went by ambulance, "disoriented," today. Edit photos to #509 from 10:30-12:10AM. Bed at 12:24AM.
TUESDAY, 8/23/11: Pee at 5:49AM, 64 outside: first cool night of autumn! Make a 12-item list (with ten items in it, since I didn't have a #6 or a #10) to 6:45AM, doing a good Actualism, and then start to jerk off at 8AM and finish at 9:45, feeling good about it. Then watch Jean Gabin as a rescue-boat captain in "Remorques," or "Stormy Waters" in English. Talk to Ken and Spartacus. Talk to Marj 11:55-12:13PM, and call Rita, who got back from Canada by coincidence YESTERDAY, and talk from 12:14-12:54PM. Go to the gym 1:30-2:50, picking up my five prescriptions beforehand, cashing in my $10 Time-Warner gift Visa card, and about 1:50PM, at the start of my warm-downs, I hear a woman on an exercycle calling across to a friend about an "earthquake in NYC." I didn't feel anything. Get home to find a message in the elevator about the building being safe, and upstairs to find FOUR messages: 1) Spartacus at 1:54, right after the quake, 2) Marj at 1:55, asking if it WAS a quake, 3) Mildred at 2:27, asking where I was, but she didn't feel anything on the upper east side, 4) Ken at 2:50, saying he wasn't going to call, but he felt he had to after feeling the quake. I call them all back and let them all hear the messages, and when I go to sit in the chair by the balcony, I see that my McGill Masterplot tiny bookcase has toppled all the books, and the Indian statuettes beneath them, onto the sofa and floor. I photo my personal quake damage. Talk to Rita again at 4PM and even EDGARDO phoned at 4:05PM, and Paul C. calls on Thursday about it. Watch "Le Jour Se Leve," with Gabin killing a man and then himself in his odd rooftop apartment in a building standing alone (metaphor!) from any other building. Meet Spartacus at 6:20 to get to the Koch Theater at 6:45 for our tickets to "Hero," top two levels closed to the audience, not a very successful imitation of a Broadway show, but some interesting train effects, and I liked the young girl who played Lingling. Out late and home for soup and bed at 11:45PM, sorry that I won't be getting eight hours' sleep before the trip.
WEDNESDAY, 8/24/11: Look at clock at 12:25AM. Pee at 5AM and get out of bed at 6:03 to have a HH breakfast of fruit and cottage cheese, and then an oatmeal breakfast. Phone Charles at 6:55AM to remind him of the trip, and phone John to hear he's leaving at 7:15AM, earlier than I think necessary, so I leave at 7:20 to the A train, getting my $4.25 ticket and looking for, but not finding, John. On train and get to Summit to find John and no Charles. Susie leaves a message on Charles's machine. We go to Willowwood, get talked to by the County Manager, and walk those gardens before having a good lunch 11:45-12:15 of Susie's chicken salad on pita, slices of ham and cheese on pita, potato salad, some of John's wine, Susie's water and cookies and pickles and coffeecake. Then walk hot fields to Bamboo Park, watching a vulture circle while John lies on the sidewalk and the same Manager bends our ear about THIS place. We go into the house, where I finally manage an uninterrupted shit, and then walk back the correct way, without the detour, which makes it seem much shorter. Have more cookies at the table, and I put my head on the backs of my hands and close my eyes while Susie and John talk more, and then we leave about 4:30 for us to catch the 5:32 train, back about 6PM to a TERRIBLE message from Charles that I play for Susie and John and Mildred, but since Mildred talked to him that morning, I felt he'd recovered, and we talked later to about 11:30PM. I watched "Thief of Bagdad," rather disappointing the eighth or ninth time around. Bed at 11:50PM, feeling quite tired from the day.
THURSDAY, 8/25/11: Note DREAMS:8/25/11 at 5:30AM, and then pee. My throat is sore, so I take a spoonful of Tussin. 8:40AM pee and shit, and back to bed at 8:58 for a good Actualism session to 9:30, after which I jerk off to 10:45. Call Marj to 11:14, playing HER Charles's message before erasing it. Call the office to find that Bill's family HAD been contacted, so I tell the secretary that I no longer feel any responsibility for Florence Bass or Beverley Schnipper, to whom the office talked, for Bill's condition. Watch "L'Air de Paris" with breakfast, and then do a draft of the OATLETT to 1:05PM. Watch "Hands of Orlac," a VERY slow silent film with Conrad Veidt during which I fall asleep a few times, and then start speeding through the overlong silent sections, having lunch too late before Aldea tonight. Apartment is a mess because I didn't even finish paging through the new Scientific American and New York Magazine that arrived yesterday. Leave for Aldea at 6:30 and get there to be surprised to find Ken sitting at the bar facing the kitchen, but their activities behind the bar are interesting, the appetizer foie gras very good with fruit, and the pork with peach slices is just incredibly good, as are the sonhos with hazelnut-chocolate, rhubarb puree, and salted caramel, each better than the one before. Ken liked his three tiny ice cream scoops. Good meal and home to watch the end of silly "Leviathan" and bed at 12:02AM.
FRIDAY, 8/26/11: Pee at 5:01AM and note DREAMS:8/26/11. Up at 8:35, feeling rested at last, and have a HH breakfast of pancakes, clean up the apartment a minimal amount, and then can't resist starting Spider at 10:25AM, going MUCH too long to 12:30PM, ending at 51.44873, down to 739 up after 3 wins, DAMN! Then catch up with notebook to 1:30, emptying the wastepaper, mailing the raffle slips to Marjorie Grimm, ordering HH meals for next week, and getting rid of all the notes that I can. Sweaty and tired already, but determined to finish and print out the OATLETT. Do that to 1:30, then watch "Spy in Black" with Conrad Veidt and get out to Sharon at 5:55PM. Decided to go to Key Foods to stock up before the storm, and everyone else is doing it too: long lines for the Express Checkout and for regular checkout very well controlled. I get everything I need, waiting 15 minutes for checkout while reading my magazine, and lug home 43 pounds of groceries in four very heavy bags, being cheated by being charged for FOUR sets of Progresso soups when I only bought THREE, being charged an extra $5.98, but who's counting. Then look for the longest thing to watch on TV, being "Il Trovatore" from the Met in 2011 with a lot of names I don't know, and the plot seems much SIMPLER than it did before. Watch some of the weather channels and the storm doesn't SEEM to be very bad, but the Mayor is certainly covering all the bases: evacuating 370,000 people (including the posh apartments in Battery Park City!), stopping the subways and busses at noon tomorrow, closing the airports except for departures, and piling sandbags everywhere. And then Sharon, Shelley's sister, called to postpone Shelley's memorial service on Sunday until some time later. It's humid: I've had both air conditioners going, and put on the fan as I get sweatily to bed at 12:10AM.
SHARON B. 187 8/26/11
Someone comes in to ask if they can xerox a sheet and Sharon says yes. Calls me in and I say it's been an eventful week: 1) Earthquake: fill her in on the messages on my phone, my not feeling it in the gym, the books on the sofa, and the calls from Italy and Paris regarding it. 2) Bill Petersen, with Sharon agreeing that "I'm not his father," as Beverley put it, and I did what I could and am now out of it. 3) Caught up from the trip except for the photographs, and even excused myself for not looking at the "what the airlines owe you" article that Spartacus proffered, saying that if they REFUSE my letters, I can always shoot back with more ammunition, and Sharon said I was to be commended for doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. I then felt I had nothing much to say, and brought up Mildred and Marj and Charles and John, and even Edgardo and Paul, prompting Sharon to say I must feel good to have so many attentive friends. I ended by saying that I didn't really have much to talk about, and she said that I appeared much more rested and calm than I had last time, and it was good to have a quiet session with nothing to talk about. I left with someone waiting in the outer office to see her.
SATURDAY, 8/27/11: Note DREAMS:8/27/11 at 3:22AM. Pee, and forget second dream. Pee again at 7:01, and bring in the Times, headline about the 370,000 evacuated from low-lying suburbs and Battery Park City. 7:30 make a five-item Saturday-add list. Then start an Actualism session at 7:48 that puts me back to sleep until 9:34AM, when I get up and have breakfast of oatmeal while reading the three magazines, then finish the doublecrostic by 11:30 and the puzzle by 12:15PM. Finish the paper itself by 12:30, and then take a shower, the first in my own apartment in ages, until 1PM, feeling relieved of the sticky flesh from not having washed, but sweated a lot, since Tuesday. Then played Spider 1:10-2:25PM, again too long, ending at 51.45018 at 740 up after 4 wins. Check e-mail and reply to Eugenio that it's raining out, and told him about the fifteen volumes falling on his head had he been sleeping here during the earthquake. Also tried to check if there was another earthquake at 9:49PM last night when the volumes fell AGAIN, but I can find nothing of value on the Internet. When it stopped raining I went down to Great Wall for my house-special egg foo yung and picked up two pieces of mail. Then watch "Torchwood" while having lunch, and a Nova about fractals, and Ebert. Make the last of self-popped popcorn, adding that to the new Key Food list, and phone Rita at 9PM to return her call from when I was at Great Wall. Not much to say. Check HSBC bill and Wildlife Adventures brochure: very expensive even WITHOUT international airfares. All papers very limp due to high humidity outside, but temperature is down to 71, so I think I'll close the windows now at 9:47PM. Skim through the channels on the weather, watch "Tron," and get to bed at 12:10AM.
SUNDAY, 8/28/11: Pee at 4:11 and watch TV about Hurricane Irene until 5:40AM. Pee again. Do Actualism and sleep to 7:15AM, type DREAMS:8/28/11, and look outside to sheets of rain coming from the east, 68 at 7:25AM. No Times, but our hall light has burned out, with soot marks from all the side vents. Pee. Up at 9:48AM, still tired. Turn on TV to watch results of now Tropical Storm Irene, including very high water way north on the Hudson River. Downed trees, flooded streets, cars submerged to their windows, but not as bad as it could have been. Have breakfast. Spartacus calls at 10:18AM to report that water came down some shaftway from the roof and dripped an inch of water on much of his living room carpet. Julio came up with waterpads to absorb the water, and he'll call Julio back to see if they still have the water vacuum they used when my hallway got flooded from an overflow from floor 24. Ken calls about 10:50AM to say that all is OK with him, and he sympathizes with Spartacus's wet carpeting. I watch TV until 11:30AM, when it starts repeating, and check e-mail at 11:40 to find nothing but MTA announcing no service six times. Print out a dream page and a notebook page and put up the McGill Masterplots the THIRD time, this time NOT on the wire bookcase but on the top shelf of the wooden bookcase, with the Indian statuettes scattered about around them. Close the windows and put the bedroom air conditioner on 77 just to get rid of the awful HUMIDITY at 12:10PM. Then---guess what?---to Spider! That goes from 12:15-2:25PM, again too long, ending tied with the highest at 51.45129 at 741 up after 3 wins, and then I go to Taipei from 2:25-3:45PM, losing more than I win, and getting tired of games and ready for lunch. Wind has picked up again, so I'll go back to watching weather TV during more yummy egg foo yung. Watch until about 5PM, but there's nothing much new, so I revert to watching about six or seven "Doctor Who" episodes, finishing the cookies and crumbcake, so that I don't even feel hungry enough to have soup for dinner, and get to bed at 11:40PM.
MONDAY, 8/29/11: 6:50AM: Pee and shit and get Sunday Times at 7:15AM! Start to jerk off in bed at 7:35, reordering the porn sheets from the bottom file drawer and smoking two bidis and even using vibrator, but nothing works and I give up the process at 8:47AM. Have breakfast while channel surfing, Maury Povich being particularly repulsive, and there's not much weather news so at 10:30AM I return to Spider for an incredible session to 11:45AM to 51.46068, the first over 51.46 since 6/26, ending at 746 up, by FAR the highest after 6 wins. Put that away and turn back to editing the TURKEAST albums, calling Mildred to give myself a break about 1:30PM and getting a VERY negative response from her: WHY hadn't I called her about her message to me about Heather on Saturday? I must HATE her and she now hates ME because I've changed so much. I reply, quite calmly, that she should take this up with her therapist: I haven't changed, but her OPINION of me has certainly changed DRASTICALLY for a note-very-good reason. I said I was working on the slides so that she and Charles could enjoy them, and she says rather cruelly that she's certainly not interested in that NOW. Chastened and depressed, I finish the editing and immediately decide to start transferring the second TURKEAST card to the EDGE, for security purposes, which goes from #573-840 before the program stops because the batteries on the camera have become exhausted. Label that New Album TU 573-840 and then have to read in the entire card AGAIN to retrieve 841-974, which includes some 19 NYC shots since the end of the trip. So after starting with 1835 shots in all, I add the 1021 that I've reduced the first card's album to to the 335 from the second card to get a total of 1356, about 3/4 the total, really not small enough yet. Get a call from Marjorie about my apartment number, changing it from 19K to 20K, and I schedule my Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda - gorilla show with her for 1/17/12. Keep looking at the slow shot-transfer numbers past 5PM, getting really hungry for lunch, and heat up the last of the egg foo yung and finish it at the computer, finishing the TU 841-974+NYC album, and start the FIRST card without checking the space available on Dell's C: storage, which I told Spartacus, when I called him to check that the water in his living room seems to have dried OK without problem, I suspeted was still being used for some unknown reason, even though I kept the Olympus program on EDGE, and watch the first card transfer to about 150, until I get bored, about 6PM, and start watching more Conrad Veidt movies, checking back until I find that the program has stopped for lack of space, C: down to 660mb free, and label New Album TUA 1-617, which takes it to 8/04, just about halfway through, and I'll have to do some heavy checking and freeing of C: space before I can re-transfer the entire first card AGAIN and make ANOTHER TUA album---FOUR in all! But making a map of the Dell laptop NEW FOLDER\2011, I find that, at least at the beginning, it SAVES CHANGES, with the doctored shot FOLLOWING the input shot, so maybe I can find how an ALBUM differs from a FOLDER in the Olympus system. Just shut everything off and watch three more Veidt movies: "A Woman's Face," with Joan Crawford with a scar that Melvyn Douglas removes so that she can be made a governess to Veidt's nephew, who she doesn't kill, shooting Veidt in the process; "Whistling in the Dark," with a surprising Red Skelton playing The Fox who doesn't come up with a plot to kill Veidt's enemy, sending him to jail; and "Escape," which I've seen twice before, with Robert Taylor romancing Norma Shearer to save his mother, Nazimova, from Veidt's death sentence, while Shearer gives Veidt a heart attack to prevent him cancelling the pair's flight to safety out of pre-war Germany. Bed at 12:22AM.
TUESDAY, 8/30/11: 5:55AM: Type first of DREAMS:8/30/11 to 6:09; shit and read to 6:28, sun RISING between two looks at the clock outside; brood about Mildred and the clearing of my nasal sinuses; at up at 9:35AM to type the second dream, both probably worth remembering for Sharon on Friday. Finish typing the dream and print a page, then catch the notebook up to date, printing another page, by 10:23AM, feeling virtuous, looking forward to a day of the end of the Veidt films AND the solution to my computer-shot-space problems, probably heavily using flashdrives and DVDs. Watch "All Through the Night," with Humphrey Bogart and a one-shot German singer whose father was held prisoner by Veidt and had to help the Fifth Columnists until Brooklyn bullies broke them up. Then go to the gym at 1:45, feeling virtuous, and pick up the mail and am reading it when Marj calls at 4:10, is interrupted by Mildred, who I call back after Marj FINALLY gets everything said by 5:15, and Mildred agrees to see the TURKEAST photos either Thursday or Saturday at 6PM, so I leave word with Charles to that end, and watch "Jew Suss," with Veidt being hung for being Jewish after he backed the wrong tyrant. Continue with "Contraband," interrupted by Charles calling to say that Thursday will be OK for TURKEAST, almost totally incomprehensible with boats and spies and trains and suitcases and drugs, and then finish with Veidt with "Above Suspicion," with Fred MacMurray and Joan Crawford heavily disguising themselves but who get trapped anyway, until they escape despite Veidt's best efforts. Finish with an hour of "Doctor Who," getting to bed at 12:37AM, tired.
WEDNESDAY, 8/31/11: 6:37AM pee and type DREAMS:8/31/11, then check e-mail and play Solitaire to 7:02, when I pee again and get back to bed to think of all the good things I'll do today (HA!) and get up at 8:08 to prepare to jerk off by going through photos again, and then start at 8:33 with sorted photos, which don't do it, so I "graduate" to the video porn at 9AM to cum at 9:35 and shit and read to 10AM. Then call Mildred to 10:07, having a good talk, all looking forward to Thursday. Talk to Marj 11-11:20 and then have breakfast, finding I'd seen some of the recorded "Doctor Who" episodes, so I watch all three to the end at 2:15PM, when I check e-mail and play Spider 2:15-4:45, again too long, but ending at 51.46356 at 748 up, another highest, after 4 wins, and then catch up with the notebook to 5:05PM, not having lunch yet. Get a call for a neurology appointment in Brooklyn, but discover at 5:07PM that it conflicts with my Wednesday FRANFOOD at 55 Pierrepont! Have to call tomorrow to change. Decide to do Taipei to 6:25 and dinner with Ken, rather than trying to have anything like lunch beforehand. Get to Mehtaphor before it got busy and noisy, but the food's not that great and Ken couldn't find drinks that he liked. Not the best choice to dine. Out and feel sorry that I exhausted everything to watch on my DVR, so I channel surf and finally watch the last 45 minutes of "Inception," not really following but liking the effects. Bed at 11:38PM.
THURSDAY, 9/1/11: Pee at 6:10AM, 7:25 start Actualism, and pee at 7:52, fixing up the apartment by getting the "souvenir boxes" off the floor and onto shelves, also moving Steve's stamps to a better location. Then to Spider 8:25-9:55, AGAIN long, but ending at THE HIGHEST SCORE EVER: 51.47294, finally exceeding the 51.4697 set back on 2/5, almost 7 months ago! Now at 753 up after 6 wins, feeling great about THAT. Then phone Ascher's office to change my Wednesday appointment, and find that it's for a scan, but she's "seeing a patient" and will call me back. Meanwhile, Steve calls to say that Bill had an emergency gall bladder operation and was in intensive care for a LONG time, up to yesterday, when he was supposed to be moved to a regular bed. Steve's been in touch with Florence, and Bill's sister, in her 90s, in Iowa, who can hardly be Bill's executor for his VERY old will, and Steve's next in line! I thank him, and he mentions the cute Alex Pardieu who's been visiting Bill at the hospital almost every day. I catch up with this by 10:45AM, getting a call changing my sonogram to Thursday at 11PM. Order Met Opera tickets, arbitrarily choosing dates for me and Charles, and order EIGHTEEN omega-3 bottles, enough for over a year and a half, simply to get a 10% discount on purchases over $125. Leave word for Chin to call back about my cardio results (he doesn't), and call Pam, who checks that my checks (ha) will arrive next week. Copy MC to the EDGE, just to get rid of THAT chore. See if it's possible to accumulate Mildred's $10,000 by the end of the year, and it'll ONLY be possible if I can keep my Visa bills down to WAY under $1000/month, practically impossible. Check EDGE\BOB storage. Go through Jugoslavia to find that I HAVE been to all six countries devolved from it, as I'd noted on some page in 1988. Set up the Dell and go through many photos in different formats, thinking how entertained Mildred and Charles (I HOPE!) will be with my presentation and editing. Then have lunch about 3:40-4:23, getting a call from Charles at 4PM to make sure he's coming, and then finish reading an issue of New Yorker by 5:20 and can think of nothing better to do than do catch up with this and play Taipei for the rest of the time before my guests arrive, both together at 5:50! We stand on balcony and look at city, then talk, then Charles says he wants "Iolanta" and the Skyscraper Museum, while Mildred only wants the latter. I start slides about 6:30 and Mildred demands dinner about 7:20. Charles VERY slowly---he TALKS too much!---eats a whole bowl of pea soup, and then eats only the non-nutritional meat, leaving the skin, of a baked potato with sour cream. Mildred gives up on nagging him. Back to slides 8:40 and Mildred leaves about 9:40, having seen maybe 700 photos; Charles lasts to the end of the 1021 of the first album by 10:10, when he leaves, looking VERY tired. I put things away and finish my evening with Solitaire 10:32-11:35PM and get to bed at 11:44PM.
FRIDAY, 9/2/11: Wakened at 8:05AM (over eight hours!) by Chin's secretary's call: I tell her I want cardio results and a dermatology referral, and she says he'll call me back. I check my Chin-list and want to ask him, in addition, about Ken's neuroPSYCHOLOGICAL tests and for a Cipro prescription, just to HAVE it. Pee after taking the call, and, tired, back to bed to 8:31, when I get up to pee again and start my day by calling Mildred to ask about last night: she realizes the futility of getting Charles to eat; she was reluctant to criticize my slides (though I told her the session satisfied MY need to identify possibly 400 more slides to delete), but thought it was so interesting she might want to see the FINAL show. That made me happy. Talk to her 8:35-8:50 and catch this up to date by 9:03AM. Call Mutual of Omaha to check my check having gotten there for automatic payment, and get a recording that says to leave my phone number and they'll call me back in 3-4 minutes, which they do in 30 seconds, and I find that auto-pay can ONLY be monthly, so since it's set up already, I say OK. Another pile taken care of. Make a (sort of) definitive pile count of 19, and start a "piles left" card on 9/2 with 19 on it, hoping it will galvanize (HA!) my energies about taking care of these. Then I cheat: I make a bright red card reading "Make definitive website do-list" and put it on top of the website pile. AND I decide NOT to count the "piles left" card as a pile. So I can start on my 19th pile: proofing Marj's work, but only after I have breakfast now at 9:22AM. This is getting TOO compulsive! Breakfast of pancakes while reading New Yorker, then file Bill Petersen under P in my index file to "get rid of" that pile about which I could do nothing more. Write "make exhaustive website do-list" note and put it on top of the website pile to "solidify" the task for that project. Start working on SATRIP about 10:40AM, stopping to call Marj for a TERRIBLE call in which she accused me of not tolerating the stories SHE wanted to tell ME, and then, paradoxically toward the end, saying that all I had to do when I had enough of some topic was to SAY that I had enough. We talked from 11AM-12:20PM, rather draining me, but I went back to the SATRIP note answering until she called me back at 2:15-2:52 with some other stories. I said I'd get my revenge by calling her with my responses to her notes! I work through to 3:50, when I'm hungry for lunch, having the final meal of last week's HH package. Start watching "Conviction," knowing I wouldn't be able to finish, and leave for Sharon at 5:45. Back by way of CVS, which HAS Chin's prescription for Cipro, with the ironic notation to "stay out of sunlight," and I mentioned that I used my LAST prescription of Cipro in 103 heat in eastern Turkey, but with a sunhat and long-sleeved shirts. Interested to see that I got 14 tablets for a seven-day treatment. Look through the mail, finishing "Conviction," and catch this up-to-date by 8:30PM, figuring to go back to proofreading before dinner. Do more from 8:35-10:22PM, then have dinner while watching a still-recording "Torchwood," with next week as the FINALE, then Bill Maher being interviewed by Piers Morgan, and then skim through channels to watch a few minutes of "Six Feet Under," and to bed at 12:33AM.
SHARON B. 188 9/2/11
Get there early again, no one with her before or after. I go in saying "What a roller coaster this week has been," and start with Mildred WANTING to hurt me because I didn't return two phone calls, and my BEING hurt, and CALLING her on it, and ending up with a good show on Thursday evening that she enjoyed with Charles, even agreeing on Friday morning to seeing the show a second time. Then went to Marj, with whom I started on GOOD terms, talking for AGES on Tuesday about her reactions to the hurricane, mainly because it deprived her of some special tennis programs usurped by the weather; then this MORNING, after tolerating her going ON and ON about her supermarket-cash tragedy, I had the nerve to say "Unh" in an uninterested way, and she flew into me with a RAGE that I was being unutterably RUDE for not respecting what she wanted to talk about, REGARDLESS of whether I was interested in it or not, and it took me quite a while to get her back to equilibrium, where she could joke about the "revenge" I would return on her by calling her with answers to her notes on SATRIP. Sharon asked how I felt about such happenings, and I said it was very like curves that Spartacus and I went through with each other, ALL of us being members of a SUPERFAMILY who could argue with each other but, at the end, finish with remonstrations, particularly from the women, about how much they loved me. Sharon complimented me on how well I handled these situations, after I said I was OK with Mildred and still slightly recovering from the vehemence of Marj. I said that I'd DETERMINED to take no more vacations this year, because I had to keep my expenses down in order to pay Mildred back her $10,000 loan by the end of the year. I insisted that I didn't feel that I was DEPRIVING myself, but only being reasonably conscientious about a debt. It was the start of my "real life," measured now by handling piles of things to be done. Then I brought out my DREAMS I page 18, with dreams from Monday and Tuesday, and agreed that they had a "foreign" sound, particularly the "flecks falling from the ceiling," which I connected DIRECTLY to my slide of the damaged house just downhill from the Three Kumbets. Also said that it was GOOD to go through the TURKEAST show, even WITHOUT negative comments from Mildred (withheld, she said, because Charles was there, even though she agreed that HE was part of our family too); I could see what out-of-focus photos should be removed so as not to diminish the impact of the BETTER photos. She said she'd look through the printed page of dreams I gave her, since it was near the end of the session and I was about to go. I said this week was certainly different from LAST week, when I sat for some minutes wondering what I was going to say next.
SATURDAY, 9/3/11: Up at 7:58AM, sneezing four times. Start a very complicated special puzzle, linking paired clues for putting in squares numbered with the sum of the numbers of the paired clues, and the very low and very high numbers are easy, and gradually the whole thing works out with help from Google for "Alley-oop" for the basketball midair action, and "Deejays" providing the last enigmatic answer. Have breakfast while reading book review, and then phone Marj at 11 to find her line busy, do more of the puzzles and call her at noon, and we go through six pages from 12:07-1:45PM, so I have to admire her tenacity. We continue to talk to 1:55PM, and then Ken calls about Alliance Francaise's "I Like Penises" dance program and tells me about a restaurant he wants to go to, and I say no. Realizing the gym closes at 5PM I get out at 2PM and get out by 3:30, feeling exhausted. Then I start on the other puzzle, centered around the disgusting "ic" factor, and that goes to 5PM. Have lunch, and can think of nothing more to do than play Spider from 6:30-7:20PM, to 51.47461, again highest at 754 up after 2 wins, and don't want to leave the thoughtlessness of the computer, so I move to Taipei from 7:25-8:35PM, winning many of them, and end with a marathon Solitaire session that almost gives me a headache from 8:15-10:25PM. THIS is the evening I watch "Torchwood" until 11:20 and end up watching "It's Complicated" to the end and get to bed at 1:42AM.
SUNDAY, 9/4/11: 7:18: I pee, take three aspirins because I feel slightly sick. Get the Times and get back into bed to suffer with my clogged nasal sinuses. 8:39AM: DID Actualism, in "just-do-it" mode, with lots of compulsive thoughts, telling myself finally to JUST GET UP for 1) shaving, 2) calling Ken about my "All or nothing" modes (when he asks me to do something when I'm in my "nothing" mode, in which I'm going to die tomorrow and can't possibly do ANYTHING other than what I already have piled up to do, I'll say no, but then I'll change to my "all" mode, in which I want to do everything possible, and then I'll say yes), and he later calls to say I should come to his place at 6:45 tonight so we can dine around the corner from his place in the "modern" Chinese restaurant that he says has gotten dynamite reviews. I'll try anything in my "all" mode, 3) at 8:43 I check my 32 e-mails to 8:48!, 4) breakfast to 9:45AM, reading my magazines at last, and then proof SATRIP until Spartacus calls around 11AM to want to visit with his brother-in-law, and I say I'll call him back after I supposedly talk with Marj, disappointed about not having finished SATRIP yet, but when I call Marj at 11, 11:05, and 11:10AM her phone is off the hook---so I'm off the hook. Call Spartacus at 11:25, and he says he'll phone me before he comes over, coming at 12:20-1PM, his brother-in-law in early Alzheimer's (he asked what I did for a living FOUR times, only remembering he'd asked before on the FOURTH time) looking rather like the older Jean-Jacques, whom Spartacus had never met. Then I get through to Marj at 1:07, she pauses to shit, and we FINISH with the SATRIP proofing notes at 1:55, and continue talking until 2:05PM, and I finish putting spaces into the Summary Page until 2:30, not bothering to put TURKEAST onto her flashdrive, and putting an additional 4 on her SECOND envelope when she calls to say she'll send 52 pages of Scotland and Spain03 in a few weeks, and is now 26 pages into the SWISSALS 52 pages NEXT shipment. I then read the Times, have soup for lunch, and catch up with this to 5:15PM, having put the Delta $100 form away because Ken will give me $100 to let HIM use it, and having watered the plants, the only task I'd given myself to do today. Type the MEDICAL:9/2/11 entry from Dr. Chin's call, put the Dell back on its shelf, and put the camera stack on my desk as the task to tackle NEXT. Now to return to games to finish out this productive day, having printed out two more pages. Play Spider 5:15-6:25PM, when I stop to go to Chef Wang's from Ken's, not good, though Ken LOVED it, and get home to return to Spider 9:10-11:15, UG, ending at 51.46943, down to 752 up after 4 wins, and get to bed at 11:22PM.
MONDAY, 9/5/11: Pee at 4:52AM and start a MISERABLE few hours: sinuses totally clogged, feeling terrible, so that when I get up at 7:16AM to pee again I take a guaifenisin and three aspirins to try to relieve my discomfort. Is there something WRONG with me? Toss and strain for breath, finally clearing at bit at the end, when I probably nap for a bit, and get up at 9:56AM, feeling dragged out. Have oatmeal breakfast while trying to retrieve my awkward two-quart bottle of milk, and then go back to Spider 10:55-11:45AM, barely OK back to 51.4711 at 753 up after 3 wins. Tackily humid already, so I put on the air conditioner at 77 and try to start on my camera-storage humungous task. At first I can't get the E: drive to open, but after about the 15th try it opens, and at the end Spartacus suggests I LEAVE a DVD in the drive, and, having tried it FOUR times just to make SURE it always works, IT DOES!!! Duplicate Tunisia and something else and all of 2011, which means I can erase those from my desktop, freeing up 13Gb of memory! What a great suggestion, which he said was just reasonable, but I had't THOUGHT of it. Endless times for transferring thumbnails, and then the images, and then the checking of the images. Do that until 6:40PM, when I play Taipei to 8:15PM, and then have dinner while watching "Sex and the City 2," which I'd watched the END of before, but didn't realize that the FIRST part was a GAY WEDDING! Watch the whole thing again and get to bed at 12:16AM.
TUESDAY, 9/6/11: No sleep to 2:08AM! Pee---though I did have two dreams which I typed into DREAMS:9/6/11, so I MUST have slept. Type dreams to 2:15 and get to sleep. Pee at 4:52, when it's 62 and raining. Pee THIRD time, too much, at 7:40AM, and start transfer of TurkEastB photos. Back to bed for a GOOD Actualism session, and up at 8:45 to watch the second set go through to 9:43AM, and then check "only" 11 e-mails (8 spam) to 9:48 and catch up with this by 9:57AM, still raining out, my windows streaked with drops, which means I'm STILL glad I still haven't washed my windows, but will have to do it soon before WINTER makes it too cold to do! Emptied out the wastebasket and bound up another huge white bag of paper trash to take down when I go to the gym today, since I can't go tomorrow because of the show at 1:15 at 55 Pierrepont. Managed to get the projector out of the closet without moving the sofa away, and remembered to detach the WGA (or whatever) wire from the TV and put it atop the projector for tomorrow. THINGS ARE MOVING, but I still haven't reduced the piles below the 17 that I recorded on 9/4, having adding things, which is all to the good, though things like clipping toenails, getting a haircut, and some other things STILL aren't dignified with piles yet. Stop now at 10AM for breakfast. Have NO idea what I did the rest of the day, except that I watched "Religulous," not really showing Bill Maher in his best form; quite unsatisfying. Bed 1:33AM.
WEDNESDAY, 9/7/11: Pee at 6:36AM and scan TV to 8:06AM. Review FRANFOOD 9:35-10:20, figuring it'll be a fast show. Have breakfast and fix apartment for Susie's arrival at 11:50, waiting for Charles until 12:35! He eats fast and we leave to find chairs already set up. Piri's there, as are Leon and Elsie! I'm DELIGHTED. Show goes LONG and Susie's tapped on the shoulder at 2:25 and reminded that I have five more minutes. I speed through last slides and put things away to GREAT approving comments by many strangers and friends. Back with Steve, who has to leave about 3:30, and Charles leaves before John and Susie and I leave for Tutt's Cafe dinner, not the greatest, but pleasant in the blowing rain. I'm back to watch four episodes of Doctor Who, not even bothering to put the projector and material away. Bed 11:35PM.
THURSDAY, 9/8/11: Pee at 3:23AM. "Phone rings" at 6:40AM, after DREAMS:9/8/11. Pee again. Leave at 10AM for my sonogram at Maimonides, see MEDICAL:9/8/11. Watch three episodes of Doctor Who, and then record the awful GOP debate (no TV listing for REPUBLICAN debate!) and its aftermath. Play Spider 9:20PM to 12:15AM, MUCH TOO LONG, to 51.48526 at 762 up after 4 wins, by two points the HIGHEST, and it's followed by a series of DISASTERS! Bed 12:42AM.
FRIDAY, 9/9/11: Up at 9:02AM! Think it was today I looked up Strandbeests on New Yorker [YES! It WAS today; I could check my password-card for New Yorker, dated today!], then go to YouTube and e-mail to 11:06AM! Have breakfast late, and then determine to send New Jersey photos to Susie and John. Find that #990 is Susie's back, 989 shows the two of them under a hydrangea, and 986 is the atmospheric duo in bamboo. Search through TURKEAST to find P6080329 of the penis sorbet, and sent them to 12:41PM. Compulsively to Spider 4:45-5:45PM, not finishing in order to leave for Sharon. Back to "play" (in MISERY) 8:05PM-12:35AM, getting up to EIGHT LOSSES, just a DISASTER at 745 up, and I don't even bother to record score. DREADFUL! Couldn't resist watching the last episode of "Torchwood." Bed 1:52AM. Then did something else and recorded that I got to bed at 2:22AM!
SHARON B. 189 9/9/11
She calls me in a bit late and I leave a bit late. Lament my getting taken in by the GOP debates, and she loves my idea that I should tell the world that they shouldn't vote for anyone richer than they are: your representatives should REPRESENT YOU, and if they're richer than you, they represent THEMSELVES, and NOT you. She likes that. Talked about the success of the FRANFOOD show on Wednesday, and the group at my place after that. Mentioned the dream about the plane's wing possibly hitting a high-tension line, and she asks what I feel about that, and compare it to my anxiety about the upcoming 9/11 anniversary: something MIGHT happen, and that's not pleasant to contemplate. [Now at 12:13PM Sunday a helicopter hovers over the Williamsburg Bridge.] Talk about the conversation with my sister about loaning me $5000 if I need it. [Mention other things, but I just don't feel like getting into them: really don't feel like keeping up with the journal at this point!.]
SATURDAY, 9/10/11: Pee at 7:53AM and get Times. Look at clock at 10:22! Up at 10:35! One of these days [turns out I'd ALREADY noted it on SUNDAY! So it goes!] I checked Spartacus's recommendation of Noctu on YouTube, and they weren't very good after the first, short, sexy, white-undershorts trio. [Spartacus calls me Tuesday to say they're on Audience Extras for Tuesday, but I disappoint him by saying I watched them on YouTube and wasn't impressed.] Meet John at the gym and he says he didn't get my photos! Think to check them later, but then he sends me an e-mail saying he DID get them! Watch an episode of Doctor Who. Meet Spartacus at 6:25, rushed from the gym, for "Zarkana," most impressive for Radio City Music Hall and its increasingly loud and impressive organ prelude, but some of the acts needed editing, and the clowns were DREADFUL. The 2:20 show started at the dot of 8PM and was over at 10PM. We pass Tad's Steak and I suggest we go there rather than walking down to 42nd for Dallas BBQ. My filet is reasonably tasty and properly cooked, but his skirt steak was VERY chewy. The orange liquid (butter it wasn't) was greasy on the potato and bread. Leave at 11PM and home almost at midnight. Bed 12:10AM.
SUNDAY, 9/11/11: Up at 6:23AM, pee, and type DREAMS:9/11/11. 6:37AM: Finish typing two dreams and think to start looking into MTP TODAY!! And Google Map, and maybe even my collection of National Geographic maps! Feel energized, but want to check for the Times and get back into bed with two aspirin for my aching body. Think, with pleasure, that in some parts of the Pacific it's already MONDAY, past the terror of 9/11! 7:30AM: Back to bed; Times in; start Actualism, but don't DO it by 8:17, but get up to type about my idea of DVD lists! 8:22AM: Another kind of organizational mania takes over: DVD LIST: At first I thought to have a prefix, like A = At TV, D = Desk, C = Computer files, T = Travel, with the idea that all numbering would start with 00N, so that I could accommodate up to 1000 DVDs in some kind of sortable order. But then I thought that the prefix and number could be COMBINED: 1NN would be At TV, 3NN would be Desk, 5NN would start Computer files, 7NN would start Travel files, leaving, maybe, 9NN for Videocamera films. At first I thought to put a sticker on each DVD case, even though they might dry out and slip off, but then I figured I really SHOULD get a new plastic-and-DVD-marking pen to WRITE the number on the DVD case, so that nothing would fall off. AND I could "permanentize" the labeling on the photo-archive DVDs I created last week. Now realize that the 3NN would INCLUDE the 5NN Computer files, so 3NN should be changed to Photo-archive DVDs. 1NN, At TV, NOW includes some 7NN, Travel files, from Videocamera films---so they're not even 7NN but 9NN ALREADY! Each would have a date and a description, which means that SOME of the 5NN would ALREADY be OLDER and NEWER WP51 saves, and MC saves, and even individual computer-file saves, like ATLANTC, as I recall from Friday's survey of DVDs. Got to transcribe this to a SHEET for my future guidance! In doing so, I classify the hundreds-number ALPHABETICALLY: 1NN for At TV; 3NN for Camera-archive DVDs; 6NN for Files, computer, DVDs; 7NN for Geographic-travel-videocamera DVDs; leaving 2NN for Bought DVDs; 4NN for Desk-near DVDs, whatever I decide later these may be, DIFFERENT from the others for future expansion; bringing 5NN for Expansion DVDs; 8NN for Higher-function DVDs; and 9NN for Infinite-expansion DVDs. GREAT! To 8:43AM, ready for breakfast so I can have soup for lunch before leaving for Games Group. 12:08PM: Started watching YouTube for Noctu, not so great, and then went into muscles and teen boys and ended late, to watch two helicopters hovering over the Brooklyn Bridge---9/11/11 more than half over! Turn on the 9/11 Memorial and watch to 1PM, deciding to buy a DVD-marker at CVS and take the 4/5 to Piri's. But I change my shirt, into which I'd put my subway card, and find it missing ONLY when I'm about to step into CVS. Not sure I'm getting the right marker [test it later and it works, thank goodness] until 1:15, agonizing about returning to my apartment for the subway card and getting to Piri's late, but made it by 2:15, just before Barbara arrived as the fifth, Alexandra calling as she's stuck in traffic coming up through New Jersey and won't be able to make a sixth. We play Boggle, Make a Plan, and Scattergories, ALL OF WHICH I WIN! While gobbling cheetos, taking the rest home to finish while watching the recording of the reading of the names through the Zu's. Then watch three more episodes of Doctor Who. Bed 12:28AM.
MONDAY, 9/12/11: 7:44AM: Type DREAMS:9/12/11. Take two aspirin, shit, and back to bed at 8:05. Up to start J/O at 8:20 and finish at 9:20. Breakfast and get out to Atlantic Avenue at 11AM for LONG wait for MEDICAL:9/12/11. Walk back to look for coin purse in three places before finally buying TWO just to BUY something, and then stop off at KFC for a breast and awful mashed potatoes and a dry muffin for $2.82, by coincidence having the change from my two coin purses! My bill is stamped at 2:10PM. So out of it that I play Solitaire 3:30PM to 9PM, thoroughly disgusted with myself. Watch second GOP debate, somewhat more acrimonious than the first, but still terribly depressing, including someone from the audience shouting out "Yes," when "responding" to a hypothetical situation in which someone who CHOSE not to be insured needed six months in the hospital---should he just kill himself? Bed at 12:42AM.
TUESDAY, 9/13/11: Pee at 3:47AM. Type DREAMS:9/13/11 to 3:57AM. Sit on toilet, pee, and read to 8:10AM. Back to bed. Actualism to 9:12AM. Vote. Pick up mail and read it to 11:30, including sudoku of TV guide. Breakfast of last of last week's HH meals, and play unrecorded games (Taipei and Solitaire) to 5:20PM!! Watch "Madonna: Truth or Dare," that I'd watched in DECEMBER of 1991! Also watch two episodes of Doctor Who. 11PM: TOTALLY MISERABLE! WASTED day, except for voting for a JUDGE in the primary, which I thought might be important, but it sure wasn't! Played Spider 7:30-11PM, AWFUL to 51.43868 at 740 up after 3 wins. SECOND DAY OF DISASTER! To make amends, I start transcribing notes from the days, finishing that at 11:35PM, but haven't even done MEDICAL entries. STILL haven't done MEDICAL entries by 11:56PM, but I'm hungry and tired so will leave that for tomorrow. Have clam chowder while finishing three magazines and get to bed at 1:07AM.
WEDNESDAY, 9/14/11: Pee at 6:25AM, and type DREAMS:9/14/11, drink water, blow my nose, and pee again, then return to bed at 6:37AM, 68 outside. 8:26AM pee again, and do Actualism well by 9:10AM. Attack notebook additions and print four pages by 9:55AM, finishing with the "notebook" pile by 10:15AM, happy to have done it, but depressed that keeping the notebook doesn't seem as important as it did in the past, mainly because I'm not doing anything TERRIBLY constructive! "Fantasize,"---and let's HOPE that's the word---that IF I had lung cancer, I'd squander much of my money on travel. But feel energized enough that I empty the hamper of OLD bedding, and get a HUMONGOUS pile of laundry to take out: two pillowcases, four sheets, two pairs of pants, and FIVE shirts. Decide to get a haircut BEFORE going to the gym today, FUCK the barber who might not like my not-that-greasy hair! Verify that I STILL have 17 piles to get rid of! Now for a too-late breakfast! Distribute pills to 10:36; breakfast to 11:02; laundry out ($35! for two sets of bedding (2 pillowcases, 4 sheets), 2 pants and 5 shirts) to 11:20, haircut (keeping to "every four months") to 11:45, and home at 11:55AM. Try answering Chin AGAIN to 12:05PM, when I'm CUT OFF, and don't call back, expecting him to call ME back, but he doesn't! Don't care to see Julie Andrews's special showing of "My Fair Lady" at Alice Tulley Hull, which Spartacus would offer me if his friend in New Jersey refuses. That goes to 12:20, when I go to the gym, call Mildred when Charles says her phone is out of order, which it isn't when I call, and THAT takes to 2:15. Leave word with Ascher to fax sonogram results to Chin at 2:30. Look into the Seattle jerk-off group, finding that "Jack" was born in 1958, so he's 53, which he admits, and to 3:50PM I read his blog back to August 5, 2010, which is what's also in his Archives, and I figure I'll send HIM the entry for JOYI in ZOLNERZONE and let him read MINE. Have lunch and watch Doctor Who and read mail to 5:25, then do my daily Spider, making a slow up to 51.44045 at 741 up after 2 wins to 6PM. Catch notebook up to date by 6:13, having already written and stamped the envelope for my FIA card after checking it out. Now which of my (currently) 18 piles do I tackle next? AGAIN Chin's office calls to say he doesn't have the sonogram fax. At 6:15 I note that Marj hasn't called yet to say she's received my mailing, and I phoned her Friday and Saturday to get her busy signals and decided I'd let her call ME next. Then at 6:20 start through the 1020 photos in TURKEAST-1 and by 8:13 reduce them to 792, 77.6%. Continue with TURKEAST-2 and by 8:40 reduce the 335 to 248, making a total of 1040 from the original 1835, or 57%! Then start watching another Doctor Who, the first of a two-part, the second of which follows while I have dinner and popcorn, and then finish by watching the Nova on IBM's Watson for "Jeopardy" competition. They STILL don't mention the machine buzzer-push advantage over the humans! Bed at 11:49PM.
THURSDAY, 9/15/11: Pee at 4:30, and dream of TV quiz-winner answerers moving off-grid on opposing sides, not worth transferring to DREAMS. Up at 7:55AM, Google ZOLNERZONE to review Carolyn's CADGEY.BLOGSPOT, and reply to Rosenberg with JOYI to 9:35AM. Breakfast of HH pancakes, then decide to wash bedroom windows, at least, to 10:45 and catch up with this by 11AM, phoning Marj to 11:20, and she's SENDING me something tonight; and Spartacus about "Penises" to 11:23PM, and I can use his FIAF card if I want to. Leave for the Met at 11:30. Get there early, and Charles arrives 12:35PM. To "Night Vision: Photography After Dark" from 12:43-1:13, and "Frans Hals," some good, 1:21-2:13, and across museum to "Mother India," just a few pieces, but good, and then exhausted to lunch 3-3:45, over $19 for a ham and cheese sandwich with a banana-strawberry smoothie and a dulce de leche cupcake, huge and dry. Walk painfully through "European Cabinets, Caskets, and Cases" 3:51-4:26, and out in drizzle to huddle under an overhang waiting for the second, uncrowded, bus and home about 5:30.
Spider 11:45PM-2AM: UGH! down to 51.43767 at 740 up after 3 wins. Bed 2:10AM.
FRIDAY, 9/16/11; Wake 8:22AM with slight feeling of dread. Rehearse dreams in my head, pee at 8:34, and then type DREAMS:9/16/11. Watch two episodes of Doctor Who with breakfast, watch a good "Tamara Drewe" with a great British cast and plot and setting. Spider 3:20-3:45, and continue to 4:40, slow up to 51.441 at 742 up after 2 wins. Probably play an unlisted Taipei until I leave at 6:05PM for Sharon. Watch "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" for lack of anything better to watch, Sally Jessica Parker particularly annoying and---can't remember the name of the British lead---singularly unprepossessing. Bed 12:40AM.
SHARON B. 190 9/16/11
Get there at 6:15PM per her phoned request earlier today, and don't get to see her until 6:25, OK because I'm finishing up the New York Magazine issue on 9/11. Mention my concern about "the increasing time for the penny to drop," citing my realization about 5:30PM that my "dread" on waking MAY have been the not-recently-seen "typically Jewish" feeling that "when things are going well, something bad is BOUND to happen," and my coming tonight to say that I can't make next week's Friday meeting at 6PM WITHOUT thinking to bring any alternate dates! She suggests my old slot of 4:45PM on Wednesday, and I find that it's OK, but would have been MORE annoyed if I had to phone her back for ANOTHER alternative. Then started talking about a number of topics, and in the middle I KNOW that I'd started a thought without finishing it, that I considered important, and I FORGOT what that WAS, making me feel even WORSE about it. She excuses everything, saying it's normal, and I'm super-sensitive to such things, and I agree, but there it is anyway! Mention the good movies I've been watching on BBC America, a remedy for lousy Hollywood output recently. Say I'm particularly sensitive about end-life thoughts because of Mildred's operation yesterday, Shelley's up-coming memorial lunch, and Steve's concern about Bill since Steve is his contingent executor after Bill's older sister in Iowa. But I insist that I'm getting things done, though I DID have the thought that if I WAS diagnosed with, say, throat or lung cancer, I'd plan a lot of expensive trips to "spend down," since I wouldn't have to worry about supporting myself to age 105. She laughs. I keep looking at the clock, having trouble determining what 45 minutes from my entry at 6:25 would be, and leave, mumbling, about 7:07PM, only later realizing that 45 minutes from 6:25 would end at 7:10PM.
SATURDAY, 9/17/11: Pee at 5:50 and type DREAMS:9/17/11. No Times yet. Pee and get Times at 8AM. Do Actualism, and probably nap, to 9:48, DETERMINED to DO things today. Breakfast with Times to 10:45, finish the difficult diagramless at 12, Carolyn calls from the road up from North Carolina to remind me of our dinner with Charles, which she wants "some time this month." Finish the crossword at 1:10PM and the rest of the Times at 2:30. Lunch and finish two 9/11 magazines (with their forboding covers) at 3:45. Go through the mail to 4:10, which includes pages from Marj! Call in prescriptions to 4:15, and do Spider 4:15-5:50PM, up to 51.44643 at 745 up after 2 wins. Check e-mail to 5:55, and I should probably NOT bank on Zolnerzone getting a good boost from Paul Rosenberg. Wash balcony windows to 6:35, strangely not getting as "dizzy" as after washing my bedroom windows. After Taipei 6:35-8:40PM, Spider again from 8:40-9:30PM, up to 51.44809 at 746 up after 2 wins. Call Charles to set up dates for Carolyn's dinner. Watch more TV with---half a pound of sausage and a glass of red wine with honey added for sweeting---dinner and bed 12:04AM.
SUNDAY, 9/18/11: 3:20AM: AWFUL reflux from sausage or wine or honey. Throat sore. Pee and take 6 Tums. 4:07AM: Can't sleep and take 6 Tums and Ambien. Wake at 8:54AM, pee, get Times, and get up at 10AM, tired. Look at paper with breakfast and talk to Marj 11:05-11:35. First Spider 11:35AM-1:35PM, too long and NOT up, to 51.44154 at 743 up after 3 wins. Watch "Torchwood," a repeat of their new start, and have lunch at 3:10. Finish Times and bind newspapers and magazines and take them to disposal room by 4:25PM. Spider AGAIN 4:45-5:20PM, just stopping in TOTAL disgust after 4 losses, and then at 7:25-9:15PM REDEEMED at 51.44264 at 744 up after 7 wins! Watch another "Torchwood" and start Emmy Awards for 2011 about 10PM, figuring I should watch "Mad Men" and "Friday Night Lights" and "Happy Family" (or whatever) on Netflix, since they seem to be winning all the prizes. Get to bed at 12:53AM.
MONDAY, 9/19/11: Pee at 2:39AM. 7:25AM: Pee and type DREAMS:9/19;11; pee again and back to bed at 7:43AM. 8:20AM: Think to do Actualism, but just get up and start Monday-Done list! 8:30AM: The combination of DREAMS:9/19/11, Steve's questions about Bill's apartment, and my current "piles" have energized me. Thought of, for instance, getting rid of my saved, white-composite bookshelves, or my three canisters of Lego blocks, or old New York City brochures---but first taking a photo of them to start a "thrown-away file" of pictures of what I've managed to throw out. Then of trying my backup disks of photos in my Dell laptop to make sure they can be read on a computer OTHER than my Dell desktop that burned them. Then of getting out books, Sturgeon's, for example from BEHIND the mirrors onto the VISIBLE shelves, replacing the "non-visible" travel brochures that can't be "read" from their too-narrow spines. Then think to call Charles about visiting the Feast of Sam Gennaro on one of the three first evenings of this week, including pizza at the Ray's on 27 Prince that might be closing soon. But first, even before breakfast (but after putting in dental bridge), of my daily (one hopes) Spider! That goes from 8:38-9:25AM, OK! to 51.44629 at 746 up, tied for best on card after 3 wins. I go down to office to find that secretary has talked many times to Bill's sister, so she can call and get the value of his apartment. I call Steve then, and we chat until 10 about his problems and solutions, telling him he can call me and stop in when he's coming to get things for Bill from his apartment. Breakfast to 10:40, of two boxes of giveaway cereal from the gym, tasty, but too sweet to buy. Put in tooth-whitener at 10:43; update Netflix with "Kennedys" to watch online and two other titles; call to reserve dinner on the 28th at Corton; Steve calls to say he'll be ringing my door in about 45 minutes; sort out to 11:25 old eyeglasses to give to the box in the office; and Steve's here 12-12:20PM, giving me a set of old (1977) Canadian stamps depicting Inuit art, Nunuvut having become a territory in 1999 per my Scott catalog. He enjoys looking at my Machins and catalogs and albums. I remember to take out tooth-whitening forms about 12:05. Then concentrate on the notebook and dreams and getting rid of my card pile. OAT calls at 12:32 to say that all EARLY people had been put on 2PM flight, which then filled, so I had to be put on 11PM flight, and LATER tourists came after 11PM flight CLOSED and 2PM flight OPENED AGAIN, so I "fell into the gap." I said I was glad to hear it wasn't because of my request for a window seat. No talk about any compensation at all; told him I'd already BEEN to all their new destinations. I repeat my praise of the trip, the guide, and the group to 12:43. Finish updating NL at 1:26PM. My sadly unofficial pile-count is now up to NINETEEN, but hope to get rid of a few more today. Maybe even calling the Egyptian-apartment fellow from the Stamp Club meeting in APRIL! Type the DVDH list to 1:50, and start in on the DVDs for the DVDS listing, and I go OK until I try to find when the musical DVDs were produced, and encounter the problems described in COMPCHRO:9/19/11, working away with frustration to 9:45PM, when I stop to watch the roast of Charlie Sheen, really very unpleasant, to 11:45, and then get to bed at 11:57PM.
TUESDAY, 9/20/11: Pee at 5:29, 6:32, and 7:25AM, when I can't TAKE the swirl of thoughts, can't THINK of doing Actualism, so I get up and start DOING, noting that I dressed to 7:37 and THEN encountered, again, the problems described in COMPCHRO:9/20/11, to my GREAT frustration. During an intermission, I checked Paul Rosenberg's blog to find that the September 6 entry is still the last one, and I can't manage to comment for some reason. The system also asks for a FireFox 6.0.2 update, and I have no idea whether I should do it or not. I finally finish at 9:45, and call Mildred, who says she loved my calling for her birthday on Sunday, but she's making breakfast now, feels awful, and will get back to me later. I have breakfast to 10:20. Ask the fellow vacuuming if he's heard any complaints about Verizon phone service, and he says I should phone Maintenance. Talk to Mark at 10:35, and he said he's heard nothing. I start updating COMPCHRO and talk to Marj 11-11:20. Then do Spider 11:25AM-12:07PM, OK to 51.44795 at 747 up, the best of the current card after 2 wins. Then, weary, I play Taipei without many wins from 12:10-1:05PM, and then go out to find that Chin hasn't called in my Tamsulosin prescription yet, and I complain to CVS that they should phone that my prescriptions are ready only when ALL my prescriptions are ready! Pick up laundry with my credit card for $35, having taken two large shopping bags in which I put the three parcels of laundry, my shoulder bag, and then the mail that I pick up downstairs. See Paul getting into the elevator and ask HIM if anyone's complained about their phone service, and he says that HE can check my connections after he sees to a problem on 17, and he'll be right up. Well, I put the laundry away, look at some of the mail, and then catch up with my notebook until 2:30, and he hasn't showed up yet, so I'm going to fix my lunch of more egg foo yung whether he comes or not! And he doesn't show up at all. Do another Spider 4:20-5:05PM, OK to 51.4516 at 749 up (the best on the card again), after 3 wins. Then start proofing Marj's notes at 5:15PM, and force myself to finish with SCOTLAND by 8:10PM. Waste time on television the rest of the evening with dinner: an episode of Doctor Who, a disgustingly unpleasant Tosh.0 for two hours, who seems to want to become another Jackass, and then watch an episode of 30 Rock at 11:30 that turns out to have been from 2006, probably the first season, which I don't remember at all---but I DO want to note that I seem to be making MANY MORE typos as I catch up with these notebook entries! Bed 12:20AM.
WEDNESDAY, 9/21/11: Up at 9:11AM, remarkable that I slept 8:51 without waking! Note DREAMS:9/21/11. Pee and shit at 9:20AM, ACTUAL NINE HOURS after bedtime! Have an embarrassingly impacted hard turd which takes about half an hour to pass, and then I have to flush the toilet TWICE to get it down. Take two Stool Softeners. Start Spider at 10AM and record that I stopped at 10:35AM + more, interrupted by many telephone calls, ending at 51.46031 at 754 up, again best of card, excellent after SEVEN wins. Talked to Marj 11:05-11:35, who wants to call me later to go through the SCOTLAND notes, and at least I can have breakfast. My Spider session continues after that, maybe even until she calls back at 2:45PM, to complete the SCOTLAND notes from 3-3:55, saying that her index pages are coming in later this afternoon, so she won't be available for the SPAIN'03 notes for a couple of days. We talk to 3:57PM, exhausting both of us. I play unrecorded Taipei until leaving for Sharon at 4:30PM. Then go directly to the subway to meet Charles at 6:08PM, when he records that I still owe him 3 minutes of lateness, having been 5 minutes late at the Met Museum. We stop for ice cream, which he doesn't finish, and drop into Ray's Pizza for lots of people taking archival pictures of this seminal "Ray" 1959 place which is due to close after the San Gennaro Festival. He doesn't finish his mushroom pizza, which I don't feel like finishing after my filling pepperoni slice. Sadly, it's raining when we get out, so he puts up his umbrella and I raise my hood as we move through the sparse crowds on Mulberry Street. Wait under an awning until it mainly stops, and then sit in the San Gennaro Church for maybe twenty minutes; I don't remember having been in here before, but I probably was. Not interesting eating, drinking, or buying, and there's not much in the way of tourists to look at, so we walk up to Prince Street and go west until I enter the R line, Charles saying that he won't have to see another San Gennaro Festival for ANOTHER ten years. Home to watch the last half of "2012" while having my fruit and cottage cheese breakfast for the rest of my dinner, and get to bed at 1:20AM.
SHARON B. 191 9/21/11
Talk mainly about Edgardo's phone call, not only RINGING my malfunctioning phones, but repeating his statements that he wants me to visit him, and even saying that WE SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN MARRIED! That leads Sharon to talk about my previous liaisons, my saying that with most of them I KNEW they wouldn't be permanent, except possibly with John, and I rehearsed my NOT wanting to move to Washington state, which he never moved to ANYWAY. But if I hadn't left him, I probably wouldn't have the great apartment I now have---though we could BOTH, maybe, have moved into a TWO-bedroom apartment! Talked of my frustrations with computers and Dr. Chin, praised my progress yet again, and remarked of my more-than-glance at the $750 RT flight to Milan before dismissing it. Left her a bit early to shit a bit in her toilet before leaving for Charles at 5:30PM.
THURSDAY, 9/22/11: 7:05AM pee and type DREAMS:9/22/11. 7:15AM: Woke at 6:57AM with palpitations, and really consider that I might die from a heart attack. But then feel that maybe it's just the unnatural warmth (it's 68 out), and I press my right hand to my chest for a few moments, get up and pee and type this in an attempt to console myself that it's not my final hour yet. But depressed, anyway. The right corner of my right eye is sore for some reason, tearing (not taring, but teering) behind my reading glasses as I type. How awkward the English language can be. Play a GOOD Spider 7:30-8:45AM to 51.46574 at 757 up after 5 wins, GREAT! Watch a strange "Real Men" with breakfast, and back to Spider 12:45-1:53PM, good enough to 51.46529, still at 757 up after 3 wins. Quick lunch of soup before going to gym just at 3:30-5PM. Again unrecorded Taipei, winning most of the first round, to 6:30, when I leave for Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, noting the KFC on 14th and Second and glad I brought my discount-ticket book. Read programs and get in to a VERY disappointing "I Like Penises," which has, as one might fear, absolutely nothing to do with penises, though the two main gay dancers have nice-enough bodies to watch, but the single woman is unpleasant in affect and movement. Out at 9:20 and have GOOD cole slaw with three crispy pieces and a good large Doctor Pepper, which I urinate out in the shop before I leave to catch the bus across the street and subway back on the 2 line. More TV, another 30 Rock, and move toward bed, but can't resist another Spider jaunt 12:05AM-1:35AM, good but late, to 51.47058 at 760 up after 4 wins, almost THERE. Bed at 1:50AM.
FRIDAY, 9/23/11: 4:07AM: Pee and type DREAMS:9/23/11. Find NO check to Ken for "Atys," so I put out a check to take to dinner for him. Salve itchy balls and back into bed at 4:22AM after peeing again. 5:34AM: Pee a third time. 6:45AM: Pee AGAIN, and get up at 9:05AM. Another great Spider 9:15-10:35AM to 51.47411 at 762 up, tied with former best, after 4 wins. Watch another 30 Rock with breakfast of free gym cereal with the last of the souring milk from the two-quart container gotten before Hurrican Irene hit. Then watch the Mexican tour with the President of the country, seeing many places I've seen, and leave word with Mildred at 12:25PM to see how she is. Then, determined, catch up with the notebook to 1:10PM, feeling good about doing it, raining VERY hard outside, with dense fog. My Tamsulosin isn't ready at CVS YET, and I leave an annoyed message with Chin to phone about TWO things now: 1) sonogram results and 2) prescription renewal. Put tooth whitener on at 11:40AM and forget to take it off until 1:12PM! I have only 2-3 applications of the gel left, and then the totally unknown stick, and I'm FINISHED with it! My piles are just BARELY at 15, including different ones for the two separate Chin requests. Now at 1:18 I guess I'll tackle SPAIN'03! Finish, pausing at 2:30 for lunch, to page 15 by 4:35PM, just time to wash and dress for Scopello, getting there even before Ken at 5:35, and have good lentil soup and chicken on their $25 fixed-price menu. Walk in light drizzle to BAM for "Atys," decent seats (for $157 they better be!) for supertitles and a rather dark, but lavishly costumed production that had me wishing they could "turn up the volume" on some of the singers. Pee during both intermissions, and we're DELIGHTED that the middle part is just GREAT, so good that I copy some of the gems from the libretto into my New Yorker: "Innocent comtempt of the gods is impossible," "Ineffectual virtue---le me BE," "Why am I always astonished by his attractiveness?" Also noted wonderful surprising castanets for one dance; the Sleep sequence most gloriously sung and orchestrated; Idas's "astringent" voice is PERFECT in duet and trio, though grating solo; loved Milissa's miraculously expressive face; intricate plot but nevertheless easy to follow: psychologically complex and very MODERN. Home to watch a Doctor Who episode and then can't resist another Spider from 1:05-2:15AM, to 51.47565 to 763 up, NEW HIGH after 3 LATE wins. Bed at 2:22AM!
SATURDAY, 9/24/11: Pee at 4:04 and 6:30AM. Note DREAMS:9/24/11 at 8:42AM. Back to bed, having gotten Times, to do Actualism to 10:02AM, obsessing about 1) the SeV trip and, 2) my "landmark-fraction birthdays." Come up with an exhaustive list 10:05-10:55AM, see LISTS:BIRTHDAYS, have breakfast while looking at the magazine, the puzzles are rather hard until about 3PM, and then I finish the rest of the paper. Don't recall the rest of the day, probably a lot of unrecorded Taipei, and shopping for 51 pounds of groceries for $104!, until my next Spider session at 8:20PM to 10:55, too LONG to 51.48059 at 766 up, HIGH after 6 wins. But then insist on continuing with it, noting a miserable 5 losses at 11:37PM and finally just STOP at 1AM, disgusted with myself. Watch two Torchwoods during the day, one at night, and bed at 2:11AM.
SUNDAY, 9/25/11: 6:41AM: Note DREAMS:9/25/11, then pee and get Times. Do another Actualism, and pee again at 7:33AM. Up at 8:33AM, ACTIVATED, have breakfast, brush teeth, put in the tooth stuff for maybe the penultimate time at LAST, proof the last of SPAIN'03 10:05-11:15AM, call Mildred to find she's still unhappy, though happy to hear my voice, and talk to Marj 11:20-11:30; she'll call me, maybe Wednesday, to take last of notes. Balance HSBC statement and wash dishes to 12:45, TIRING! Do Spider 12:45PM-2PM, then down to "new-tenant" party because I'm starved for dinner, having a big Italian-sandwich slice, good lemonade, and grapes, chips, and cookies and brownies for dessert, talking to Mona in 8K and James (from Village Playwrights and gym) in 13K: how selective can I be? Back to Spider to 5:10, then out for Tamsulosin before CVS pharmacy closed at 6PM, have my third and last KFC dinner, and pick up 30 more pounds of groceries for $66.81, including savings. Finish Spider 8:05-9:50, just STOP, at awful 756 up! Then tackle the computer: 1) reply with my data on Paul's blog, 2) birthday Lorene on facebook with my website, 3) e-mail Olympus about sharing albums, and 4) order 4 750ml bottles of booze with Suzie. 5) and try and fail to find Trip of My Life at Sev. Then catch up with notebook to 11:35PM, opening window to still-humid outside at 72. Aware that this NL is now at the bottom of its final page; still have to catalog unproofed files on Marj's flashdrive and add new (partitioned!) DREAMS and NOTEBOOK files. Still LOTS to do, hoping to finish LISTS:BIRTHDAYS now at 11:40PM, before bed. Finish BIRTHDAYS by 12:05AM. Bed 12:30AM.
MONDAY, 9/26/11: 6:54AM: Note DREAMS:9/26/11, then pee. Take three aspirin for hip pain. During 7AM Actualism, make note at 7:15 to check if music CDs play on the RADIO. Up at 10:51 (missing Mildred's call at 9:45AM) to type second dream. Then fuss with facebook passwords and entries and content to 11:15AM. Can't resist Spider this early, and play stupidly from 11:15AM-12:45PM, ending at 51.46009 at 757 up after 3 wins, TOO LONG. Then register for the Met Lottery which actually started when the season started! Have breakfast while watching two 30 Rocks and then a mediocre "Curiosity" special on Discovery Channel about Atlantis being identified as being on Thera. That goes to 3PM, when I catch up with this and dress to go to the gym, having started a new notebook file, NM, having finished and printed NL page 100. Back from the gym for lunch, watching TV, and then back to Spider 5:30-6:45PM, getting only to 51.45964 at 757 up still, after 2 wins. This was the last day for my tooth gel, with great relief. Watched junk TV, at one point trying to record something when "Terra Nova" was recording, and then watch it when it's finished, not that good, even for the dinosaurs, but the lead man has a fetching body. Back to Spider when that's over from 12:10AM to 2:40AM, noting five losses at 2AM, CRAZY to 51.45306 at 754 up after 4 wins, just NO GOOD. Bed at 3AM.
TUESDAY, 9/27/11: 8:57AM type DREAMS:9/27/11 and pee. Then do another stupid Spider session from 9-10:25AM, to 51.46514 at 760 up after 4 wins, some progress. Have breakfast late, then at 12:25PM phone Olympus at 888-553-4448 to be definitively told that I can NOT access my albums, they're only available through the program on the computer that houses the program. I suppose, in desperation, I could put the program AND the albums on a flashdrive and give it to someone else, but that doesn't seem to be worth the effort---and who would be interested in it anyway? Marj calls and we finish the notes on SPAIN'03 from 1:05-2:20PM. I can put THAT away at last, though I still want to coordinate the data on the flashdrives. Back to Spider 2:20-3:50PM, still bad to 51.46072 at 758 up after 2 wins. Watch a stupid movie called "Altitude," with kids creating monsters in the air, while having lunch, and then make card #67 for Spider from 6:30-7:45, which I end at 758 up, and, encouraged, continue to 8:30, to 759 up, madly continuing to 9:05, to 760 up, interrupted for fifteen glorious minutes of perfectly placed fireworks, which DO sometimes vanish into the low-lying clouds, from 9:30-9:45PM---just SO happy to have this apartment! Continue Spider to 9:55 to 761 up, closing in on the magical 766 high from 9/24, and continue to 10:50, totally MAD, to 51.47092 at 764 up after 2 wins, the last game being TOTALLY OBSTRUCTIVE, as if it INTENDED to mess me up with TERRIBLE card distributions. Stop for dinner, a large HH meal while watching an interesting 20 stories about Paris in "Paris, je t'aime," to use their noncapitalization. Bed at 1:18AM.
WEDNESDAY, 9/28/11: Pee at 4:12AM. Pee again at 8:31AM, noting a second dream, and up at 9:58AM, still tired, to type both dreams and then start day with Spider AGAIN from 10:35-11:15, noting a CRAZY GAME, ending at 51.47268 at 765 up, tantalizingly close to record after 2 wins. Have breakfast while watching pre-recorded Science TV about earthquakes and disasters, and back to Spider 12:36-2:10PM, ending again at 765 up after 3 wins, and can't resist continuing to 3:35 to STOP at 51.46979, slipping down, to 764 up after 2 wins. Have lunch while finding that I'd recorded only 45 seconds of "Fargo," for some reason, and looking at my schedule, find that I've overlapped some recordings, though I guess it CAN do two at once? Only just not when I'm WATCHING something different. Get to the computer at 4:30 and keep myself away from Spider to catch up with NM to 4:55PM, getting THAT done anyway. Humid and sticky out, will be uncomfortable getting to Corton at 6PM, but decide to pass the next half hour with Taipei. Play till 5:30, and leave about 5:37, fearing to be late, but get there at 5:55 to find Carolyn slurring her words at the bar as she reaches for her Tiffany bag on the counter in front of me, three seats away from her, drops her purse on the floor, and carries her glass of red wine to the table at 6:02. Charles arrives, looking VERY pale, at 6:10, saying he confused the location of the place, as CAROLYN had done, thinking "Broadway" was "West Broadway." "I didn't know there were THREE Broadways," she protested. I order by Kir Royale, Charles has a ginger ale that he says is very good---and it was only $4, while Carolyn's wine was $19 and my Kir was "only" $18. We get the menus and both of them, kindly, opt for the $115 tasting over the $155 tasting. We get about 12 courses anyway, many itty-bitty and multiple-ingredients, some of which Charles protests are much too salty, many of which I think are incredible in tiny quantities, and all of which Charles manages to EAT, except for some Yukon Gold potatoes that I finish for him. Carolyn gets increasingly slurred, insisting that the seeds under the cream-enclosing amuse bouche were edible, making me wince as she crunches down on the inedible nuggets, and then tipping the small bowl that contained the pistachio crisp to dust the cloth in front of her with orange sand, needing ME to tell her to move her hand so the waitress can brush it from the table. The service is incredible, even explaining the dish that was served to the table when Carolyn was in the john, like others having three multi-ingredient components to the side, when she returned from the john. Truth to tell, with the anxiety over the misbehavior of my dining companions, I didn't enjoy the food as much as I had before, and it was REALLY of rather small quantity, even though I opted for BOTH the "dark and stormy night" and "maitai" macaroons, ALL FOUR of the chocolates, and TWO of the root-beer chocolate-dusted balls. We leave at 8:50, after I told Charles to increase his $30 tip to $38 on his $215.02 bill, and he goes off north with the tipsy Carolyn while I go south to Franklin Street. Watch two "Dark Matters" programs on TV, then can't resist another Spider session 12:01-1:01AM, getting to bed at 1:15AM, and then getting up at 1:20 to check Paul's blog to find that I put my comment in a "read more" section which is OUT of the mainstream of comment, DAMN! Back to bed at 1:33AM.
THURSDAY, 9/29/11: Pee at 4:12AM and up at 9:20AM to call HIP AGAIN, getting through to Millicent after some idiot says I have to COME IN and sign a release form before getting my results. She says she's in Chin's office, will check on getting the fax from the number for Dr. Ascher that I give her, and will be in touch with me. I sure hope so! Take the time to get me and Charles tickets to "Iolanta" on December 8 for $105, and catch up with this by 10AM, and, guess what?, go to Spider. Have a mad and POOR session from 10-11:20AM to 51.46713 at 763 up after 2 wins, talk with Mildred and Charles and Spartacus, then have breakfast while watching an incredibly tacky third episode of "Dark Matters." Back to Spider 1:25-2:30PM, OH GOD to 51.46832 to 765 up after 2 wins. To the gym, feeling virtuous (and the session is EASY) going after three days rather than my usual lazy four days, getting clothes soaked in the downpour coming home. Back to another Spider 4:45-5:25PM to 51.47007 at 765 up after 2 wins, and then GO ON to 6:10PM, when I STOPPP at 51.46832 at 764 up after 2 wins, disgusted. Dress for BAM and get to Spartacus waiting in front of 10 Clinton for me to ALMOST KILL MYSELF trying to halt a bus leaving the---can't think of the name of the street, starting with T!---Tillary!---stop, almost falling into the street under the bus! We get to BAM Harvey in good time anyway, get last-row seats for Thor Company's "To the Ones I Love" for at least ONE good tall black dancer in a mediocre program for exactly one hour. Then I persuade Spartacus to dinner at Dallas BBQ, walking there to give him an appetite after his burger late lunch, and it's noisy and good, and I indulge in twenty ounces of Bud Lite with my fifteen packets of butter for my potato and cornbread. Home after 10PM to Spider AGAIN 10:25-10:50PM to 51.47007 at 765 up after 2 wins, and GO ON to 11:35PM AT LAST to 51.47369 to NEW HIGH of 767 up after 3 wins, hoping to be RELEASED from its mania now. Bed, VERY tired, at 11:45PM, having called Spartacus to say that Chin's office phoned me at 8:04PM to say they haven't gotten my sonogram results YET.
FRIDAY, 9/30/11: Bitter taste of reflux at 2AM, when I pee, take four Tums, and my lower back is SORE. Pee at 6AM, noting first of DREAMS:9/30/11, and pee again at 6:50AM on my 75-1/2 birthday! Up at 9:05AM and type second of dreams, also catching up with notebook to 9:27AM, feeling virtuous, and going to TAIPEI for my morning game, rather than risk smirching my record-high Spider score. Play Taipei 9:28-9:42AM, winning most. Watch the making of "War Horse," and I probably should see it, and then, putting back the DVD of Porn 1, decide to try to jerk off. And I tried, and MAYBE came, but nothing really came out until after I peed. But I "counted it" anyway, just to make TWO cums in September! Watch two recorded Nova programs and paint my teeth and play unrecorded games before going to Sharon's at 6. The mail furnishes many MORE things to do: question Verizon bill, schedule City Center dance performances. Back for three 30 Rock programs in all, and, alphabetizing as Google would have it, watched "Haunted World of El Superbeasto, Rob Zombie Presents: The," which is surprisingly soft-core porn with every word in the English language. Wanted to catch up with the notebook, but played Taipei again 8:05-9:20PM, until I got tired of it, and even slightly dizzy, and went back to watching junk TV when I couldn't find anything good. Bed at 1:50AM, wishing I'd gone to bed earlier, and getting up to change my calendar page to October.
SHARON B. 192 9/30/11
Entered saying it had been a VERY busy week, and I went through practically everything: almost getting killed trying to stop a bus on the way to the BAM dance program, having a beer with Dallas BBQ after, noting Ken's reaction to my ejection fraction of 75; the whole set of conversations about Carolyn's martini and glass of wine before dinner at Corton; Charles's problems with the increasingly feeble Bill; my four brief eye contacts with super-handsome men at the gym, and she loved my coinage of "daunting beauty," and I even quoted my reverie over HAVING fantasized when I was younger, and not having chances to do that AT ALL recently; my not-quite-cuming this afternoon, which---I said---I just had to accept; and she ended up saying I sounded quite content and almost happy, and of course I was winningly attractive, which was why people were attracted to me: I even brightened up HER day, as I'd remarked earlier I'd brightened Mildred's day. Said I'd been briefer in my notebook entries, and noted I was somewhere about 190 sessions with her, but she said I was doing well, should certainly continue, and she'd definitely tell me when she thought I was talking about irrelevant material. Even confessed to 9.5 hours of Spider one day and 6 hours another, yet accepting it, feeling good doing it because I could CONTROL it, as I couldn't control people, billing, indexing, or computer glitches, talking in detail about my telephone ringing/not ringing and my computer problems. Left feeling bouncingly good.
SATURDAY, 10/1/11: Pee at 7:20AM and up at 9:20, tired, getting the Times. Look at the magazine with untasted salt in my oatmeal, do the cryptic puzzle to about 11AM, the regular crossword to noon, and the rest of the Times to about 1. Then watch junk TV: "She-Devil" with Meryl Streep and Roseanne and a nicely bodied Ed Begley, Jr., and "The Blob" from 1988 with Kevin Dillon. Ugh! Then play about another hour of Solitaire, too disgusted to keep time, and catch up with notebook by 7:32PM, wanting to do SOMETHING useful today aside from the Times. DID arrange with Spartacus to try to order our tickets for Fall for Dance tomorrow, as well as "Kings of Dance" for February for $104! Tried clarifying Verizon bill, and did, somewhat, but still have to check tomorrow to make sure I'm billing automatically! So WILL I start on flashdrives? Doubt it. Spider 7:35-8:53PM to 51.47324 at 767 up AGAIN after 3 wins. Then unrecorded Taipei and Solitaire and TV with dinner, then RECORDED Spider 12:01-12:45AM to 51.47685 on new card #68 to 769 HIGHEST after 3 wins, egad, and bed at 1:11AM.
SUNDAY, 10/2/11: 8:13AM pee and type DREAMS:10/2/11. Get Times and back to bed at 8:28AM for a great Shelley-centered Actualism to 9:09AM. Think of the unique people who LED UP to her: Joe Easter and Vicki Moss and Sherryl Feinstein, and people I met THROUGH her, like her family Sharon and David and Daniel, and Norm and Dale Kahn and Carol Tanenbaum. And then I think to CHECK GOOGLE to see if I can find WHAT HAPPENED to Andre Eryol, Joe Easter, and Vicki Moss. Type this to 9:25AM, busy day ahead with Fall for Dance for me and Spartacus at 11, Shelley's lunch 1-4, and gym. Nothing for Andre Eryol or Joe Easter on Google (though Joseph Easter is an artist, I know it's not JOE!), and Vicki Moss has (self-?)published three novels, stories, and poetry, with "Lust Chart" scheduled for 2008, as site says. That goes to 9:32AM, and in e-mail I send a response to LinkedIn to John Googe to 9:32AM. Try phoning City Center from 11AM, but it's constantly busy. Get on-line for position 3525 in queue at 11:20AM, and it only goes down to 1492 by 12:25PM, when I leave for Fishtail, which turns out to be a David Burke restaurant, with a lovely party room where about 40 people have gathered. The Kahns said they probably wouldn't be able to make it. Carol Tanenbaum, vibrant in red, appears just as I'm looking for someone to talk to. We chat nicely, and she sits across from Nina and her husband, family name somehthing like Sprinkle, long-time friends of Shelley. Dinner is quite good, and in my grab-bag men's gift I get a 9-Irish-author T-shirt from the James Joyce Museum in Dublin, quite appropriate. Leave about 4:30 and home to play Spider 5:45-6:15, just STOPPING after three depressing losses. Watch "Dorian Gray," not very good British adaptation, and pause for wonderful fireworks 7:30-7:42PM, slightly south this time. Other junk TV and get to bed 1:01AM.
MONDAY, 10/3/11: Pee at 7:50AM, and at 9:30AM pee and take my third-last Viagra, just to DO it. Cum about 10:30 and watch "The Great Buck Howard," with a good John Malkovich channeling the Amazing Kreskin. Very late breakfast after another Spider 12:20-2:05PM to 51.46838 at 765 up after 3 wins, terrible. Called for a flu shot, which finally gave me my "no obstructions" sonogram report, see MEDICAL:10/3/11. Get to the gym at 3:45 and they let me in with no problem. Home at 5:30, watch "Megamind" on free pay-per-view, then the end of "Nine," watching the first part tomorrow, the two-hour "Terra Nova" premier, not great, and a "30 Rock" episode. Also FINALLY finish with TOOTH WHITENER! Bed at 12:08AM.
TUESDAY, 10/4/11: Pee at 4:30AM and note DREAMS:10/4/11. Up, tired, at 9:06AM. Really ADDICTED to trying to improve SPIDER, and ALWAYS FAILING, trying 10:10-11:40AM, 1:25-2:30PM, 5:30-6PM, stopping after 5 losses, and 10:45-11:30PM, ending drearily at 51.44763 at 755 up after 3 wins, too depressed to mark ALL the intermediate scores. Sharon called to ask me to pick up "The Sea" about 3PM, and she fills my ears about her problems. Skim the book and Marj calls in the middle of it. Watch "I Am Number Four" on free pay-per-view, not that great, and watch 3 episodes of "30 Rock." ANOTHER WASTED DAY! Bed 1:10AM.
WEDNESDAY, 10/5/11: Pee at 6:12AM, look for Indian plaque, and back to bed at 6:57AM. Up at 7:32AM to write THOUGHT-CLOUD. Encounter COMPCHRO:10/5/11 problems. AWFUL SPIDER 8:35-9:15AM, and then 10:15-12:55PM, ending at a terrible 51.44072 at 752 up after 2 wins. Get to notebook at 1PM, after calling Charles to leave word to remind him of tomorrow's opera, Call Dr. DiMatteo to make an appointment for a checkup tomorrow, and then actually call Richard Fier, the stamp-club-Egyptian apartment guy, and he says I can come over at 3PM! Leave word at 1:50PM with the Kahns about Shelley's memorial, and finish this at 2:15PM, ready for lunch before Richard's. Have a tiny peppered catfish sandwich, call Verizon to find they didn't set me up to charge my checking account yet, and I shout at them for their incompetency; and I'm about ready to leave when Norm Kahn calls and we talk to 3:10PM: Dale fractured her femur merely standing in the bathroom! And is in a nursing home for rehabilitation for 3-4 weeks. Call Richard to say I'll be late, and he admonishes, "Don't hurry." I get there about 3:30, a red-walled apartment JAMMED with Egyptian busts, books, and photographs, sharing the walls with his loved "Splendor in the Grass" posters. He talks on and on, and ends asking if I would share some of my porn with him, and I say no. He treats me to cheesecake and iced tea at Celeste, talking ALL the time. I'm impatient to leave him, relieved that HE'S off my list. However, the number of piles still hovers around 15: I've gotten rid of the tooth whitener and Richard Fier that have been piles for months, but have added "Book of Mormon" and City Center tickets and Gandharan Art and "Trip of a Lifetime." Read the mail and do the TV Guide sudoku, and hook myself into TAIPEI, ENDLESS cycles, winning many, losing many, from 7:15-10:25PM!! CRAAAAAZY! Check e-mail, take a "civics" test from Susie and astound myself by getting 22 of 33 for 66.7% where college professors average 55% and the public averages 49%. True astonishment! Try Publishers Clearing House for $1,000,000 + $5,000/week for life---chances of wining approximately 1 in 1,750,000,000! Well, I can dream. They draw on 11/30/11. Finish notebook at 10:50PM and go to have dinner. Watch the first half of the three-hour documentary on George Harrison and get to bed at 12:52AM.