2012
new Calendar for $1 at 3:10 and leave at 3:10 to get to Radio Shack to pay $40.26 for a charger and earbuds at 4:05PM. Weigh 192.0# at some point. Out to the library to return "Execution" and check out the five books waiting for me. Talk to Spartacus and convince him to leave at 5:35PM for Java Rijstaffel, GETTING the rijstaffel, not as good as the previous four-person dinner, but a few dollars cheaper. Home on the wrong bus, transferring to the correct one, finish Bruni "Born Round" (he really does go ON about his weight!) and watch junk TV: "Africa Screams" complete with Abbott and Costello, "His New Profession" aka "The Good For Nothing" by Chaplin in 1914, then skim "Hook Line and Sinker" with Laurel and Hardy from 1930, "Frozen North" 14 minutes of Keaton from 1920, and "Tarzan's Revenge" from 1938 with "Olympic runner" Glenn Morris. Bed 12:47AM.
WEDNESDAY, 8/29/12: 7:51AM: Pee, weigh 193.2#. Up at 10:45AM! Shit. Weigh 191.8# at 10PM. Spartacus calls when I'm on the john, and he has to call Theatermania to confirm that his confirmation is for TWO seats to "If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet," with Jake Gyllenhall, for $7.50---so much for Ken's asking me if I wanted to see it for $100 a few days ago. Then, Alzheimer's operating perfectly, follow Spartacus to MoMA for a free ticket to "Death in a French Garden," aleatory enough, with a decent naked male, to make it worthwhile though quite random and, well, goony. Then to Mendy's for an overpriced at $11 pastrami sandwich and barley-mushroom soup, good with five round Ritz crackers. Back with another transfer---WHEN will my Metro card be delivered?---after 7:30PM. Read more short stories, then turn on TV about 9PM to watch the horrible lies at the Republican Convention, and bed 11:40PM.
THURSDAY, 8/30/12: 6:21AM: Pee and type DREAMS:8/30/12 to 6:31AM. Weigh 193.0#. 6:59AM: Pee-read to 7:36AM. 9:12AM: Pee, weigh 191.6#, do GUAS 9:16-9:37AM, and lie to 9:48AM. Breakfast to Spartacus call at 10AM for Sunday "Traces" with Audience Extras, the last ticket as it shows up sold immediately after. Leave word with Ken about seeing Gyllenhall yesterday. Finish this to date at 11:23AM, ready for day's tasks. Get to HIP to give blood without ANY sign left in arm, ready to phone Lisa tomorrow [don't!] to get results from Dr. Lee. Then across for cash, but my card won't read---ANOTHER victim of the MRA! Get $300 cash and TRY to get the replacement card quickly. Then go to gym to do 30 minutes with Bruchner symphonies blaring in my ears. Home to finish reading the short stories, get a call from Spartacus for my Audience Extras "Traces" on Sunday, and I start watching MI-5 while having turkey burger and an orange. Play Taipei, winning more than half, from about 7 to 10, then, still unrecorded, Solitaire to about 11:20PM, and finish journal to 11:42PM, ready for Sharon's session, which I finish by 11:44, and bed by 11:59PM.
SHARON B. 226 8/30/12
Tell about my "watching the week," and all the good news, and time passes and she praises my ability to look at each minute. I simply gloat through session.
FRIDAY, 8/31/12: Look at clock at 7:59AM! 8:06: Shit-read to 8:34AM, 189.0#! FU 8:35-8:57AM, lie to 9:05. Watch two "MI-5" episodes, and start moving sofas and cleaning for party. Spartacus not coming. Finish Terrence Holt's "In the Valley of the Kings," great first two stories, but then it loses steam. Clean, turkey burger lunch with reading, continue cleaning. Type this at 5:15PM after Taipei wins. Keep catching up on things, and Piri arrives first at 6:15PM. Then many show up, I'm confused between buzzing in people at the door and welcoming people here, and mess up Charles calling from HOME when I think he's calling from the phone downstairs! So we're down to eight, which I quite good, and I keep expecting Alexa to show up even after I start at 6:50PM. But she doesn't, so we order food at 7:15PM and get it at 7:45, eat until 8:20PM, and everyone loves the four dishes, Carolyn having just eaten, but she takes a bit of the wine that Fred brings and drinks almost the whole bottle. The show's over at 9:10PM, everyone saying it was great, and the four Manhattanites leave about 9:40PM, sitting around to chat after show's over early---everyone forgetting about my not knowing quite what the deal with Carthage was; Piri shows me up on many items. Fred stays last, saying he hasn't even had an erection in seven months, loving John's porno on my iPod, and leaves about 10:20PM, thankfully taking ALL the remaining food with him. Bed at 11:45PM.
SATURDAY, 9/1/12: Up at 8:40, having slept 8:55! Do Times cryptic 9-9:45, puzzle to 10:50, finish Times at 12:05PM, weighing 190.6#. Just don't feel like putting anything away, so I watch MANY episodes of "MI-5," reading some of the White essays while having meals. Marj calls about 1:30, and we get back to the notes for EGYPET from 1:45-2:35PM, her 50 minutes to my 1:50. Read more, waste more time, don't really do anything productive, and bed 11:02PM.
SUNDAY, 9/2/12: 6:16AM: Pee, weighing 191.2# at 71°. 6:33AM: FUAS to 7:03, lie to 7:08AM. Look up Carthage, VERY confusing in EB11, and finish Times to 8:35AM. Breakfast with "MI-5" to 9:30AM, finally clean apartment and move furniture and wash dishes to 11:30AM. Then back to EGYPET to 1PM, again 1:30 hours, but Marj's phone is off the hook. More TV, more reading, go to the gym with iPod, decide to wash clothes, getting more cash from "bad" card, and back to FIVESTAN 4:30-5:15PM, Marj still not picking up phone. Lasagna for dinner and out to "Traces" at 6:50PM, getting into long line for box office at 7:40, and to middle of balcony for screaming kids behind me, waiting until 8:30 for program to FINALLY start, and then it's the rankest amateurism until they break out the champagne for their final performance. Leave at 9:50PM, fairly disgusted. Weigh 190.2# before going to bed at 10:48PM.
MONDAY, 9/3/12: 6:40AM: Pee and still weigh 190.2# at 70°. 8:01AM: Pee, same temperature and weight, and do FUAS 8:02-8:23, and lie to 8:35, still tired. Breakfast with Charles's movies of Queen Elizabeth, then decide to look through what I've saved: start of Lady Gaga, most of Queen, Spartacus calling during that to be disappointed---not as much as me, of course---at my not liking "Traces" last night. He talks about a lot of stuff, and I return to watch start of Tsunami photos and other TV junk, returning to many episodes of "MI-5," even going BACK to get caught up by EARLIER scenes with EARLIER blond young man, Adam, waiting for what Spartacus said was the good introduction of Lucas. But get disgusted with TV, and in about 7PM to catch up with this, finishing to 7:37PM, not knowing what to do next.
WEDNESDAY, 9/5/12: 12:30PM: Phone Charles and he picks up! Ask how he decides whether to answer the phone or not, and he says, essentially, it's intuition. THEN he goes into TERRIBLE description of how, three nights ago, at 3AM, he woke for feel totally paralyzed. He thought to call Paul, "a saint, he's really wonderful, and supportive, and doesn't complain" (which, clearly, he can't say about me), but didn't have his number. Calling information only told him the number was unlisted. He couldn't call 911, he said, because he couldn't get to the door. He then hastened to add that the phone was right by the bed, which was how he could use it. He started something else, but a buzz in the background told him he was getting a delivery, so could he call me back in five minutes. I said OK. So I got off the phone and typed this, and, just to be crazy, printed out the previous page, so I'll have to start a ONE-TIME deviation and type days out of order. He still hasn't called back at 12:37AM, which, yes, is more than five minutes.
Continuation of Monday: Overeat tuna casserole. Do Taipei 7:40-9:10PM, and continue with Solitaire 9:10-11PM, total madness. Get to bed at 11:37PM.
TUESDAY, 9/4/12: 4:38AM: Pee, weighing 191.4#, at 70°. 7:45AM: Shit-read to 8AM, weighing a magical 189.8#. FUAS 8:30-8:51AM, lie to 9:10AM. Pee, still 189.8#. Find to my disgust that I'd forgotten to take night pills last night, so I take THOSE at 9:30AM with breakfast. Watch a few "MI-5" episodes, call Piri for the Sunday Games Group at 11:03AM, and leave another word with Pam Hatley at 11:06AM. Weigh 191.2# at 12:50PM. Finish the last bit of the tuna casserole, get to the gym for cardio 3:40-4:30PM, showering ever-so-slightly less, and check e-mail to 5:04PM. Call Marj and proof EGYPET and first few lines of FIVESTAN 5:04-5:50PM, play Taipei 5:53-7:23PM, and weigh 190.0# at 7:30PM. Watch first hour of "Walking the Amazon River," and more "MI-5," getting to bed at 11:59PM---actually, lying, because it was 12:01AM.
Back to Wednesday: 8:18AM: Shit-read to 8:30AM, weighing 190.0#. FU 8:31-8:51AM, and lie to 9:04AM. Breakfast of two scrambled eggs with too much water mixed in (soppy plate, but easy to finger up the last wet bits), watching more of "MI-5," and I keep NOT getting to where I started. Have a yogurt, weigh more than 191, and try calling Charles at 12:25PM. Then typed to date the mess previously typed. Now 12:49PM, and he's probably not going to call back. He called back at 12:50 and we talked VERY wonderfully to 1:29PM, both of us laughing at what the other had to say, which I hope was good for both of us. Well, I can always stop this and continue with Taipei, which I did while I called HIP at 9:07AM to put message through, SCREAMING at stupid girl to simply USE the number IN YOUR SYSTEM, which she FINALLY did, proved by my getting a call from Nicki, from Dr. Chin's office, who said he renewed the coumadin prescription, and when I finally called back at 10:48AM, it WAS renewed. I also made an appointment with him for 10/2---checking that Mildred and Charles and I have that "Book of Mormon" ticket for 10/21---and Charles and I have "The Tempest" at Met Opera in the following week: 10/27. AND I phoned Archaeological Tours to find that the 12/26/13 South India tour was $7985 for a double, with single supplement (which I asked to share, if I could) of $1790, both of which are, of course, without international air flights. Catch up with all this at 1:33PM, feeling like going back to FIVESTAN proof-notes. Do that, painfully, to 3:33PM. Lunch with "MI-5," read in two books when my eyes start closing over one book, and phone Marj at 5PM to go through more FIVESTAN for 47 minutes to 5:50PM. Then go to Thai Lantern to figure "the" guy is tonight the bartender: not quite as tall, not quite as broad, wearing a wedding band but exhibiting gayish mannerisms---not really who I wanted for "Gift of the Alien." Pity. Bring half (well, less than) of the Nightingale Nest home with me, go through lots of mail, back to Spider 8:10-8:40, OK to 51.76654 at 1017 up after 2 wins. Then decide to check additions to website, going through journals from 1977 to 2008 to 11:05PM, and that lets me get to bed, hungry but tolerant, at 11:23PM, weighing 190.8#.
THURSDAY, 9/6/12: 5:04AM: Pee-read to 5:47AM, weighing 189.6#. FU 6:42-7:02AM and lie to 7:31AM, feeling slightly off. Up to watch Jon Stewart, realizing that the Democratic Convention is this week, and watch the start of "Real Steel" to 8:31AM, not that impressive at the beginning. Catch up with this and return to checking website entries, aware of my noon appointment with the neurologist. Check journals 2009 to 2012 and 14 travel entries to 9:51AM. Tishuk meeting, see MEDICAL:9/6/12, goes well, nothing to see him about if nothing more happens to me. Back at 1PM to finish Nightingale Nest, watch more TV, look at more files, Spartacus calls with Theatermania to BAM Cinema for "Keep the Lights on," which he said got great reviews as an independent gay film. Get early to Sharon. I don't have much hope for it, but my Metro card finally comes and I use it since we might bus back, but the director comes out and talks, not very interestingly, and we leave after 9PM. Home and 9:45 and weigh 188.6#. Bed at 12:18AM.
SHARON B. 227 9/6/12
Sit and read for ten minutes before she calls me in. I tell her about my "closure" with the Thai Lantern guy, how the neurologist said that I'm through with him also, and how the website is increasing with its material. Tell her all the bad news from Charles, relate how the Tunisia program went at my place on Friday, going from 10 attendees to 7, and then Carolyn didn't even eat. Talked about the birthday on Saturday, the Games Group on Sunday, and after everything positive the session was over.
FRIDAY, 9/7/12: 7:36AM: Pee, weigh 188.6#. FU 7:40-8:01AM, like to 8:19AM. Clip toenails to 8:40AM, consolidate table to eight piles by 9AM, and print all the pages to ZoneHealth by 10AM. Finish Piri's article on the Barnes Foundation to 12:45PM. Finish reading Edmund White's "Sacred Monsters," finding nothing to talk about it except to say that I started over a week ago and finished today. Finally watched the second hour of "Walking the Amazon." Watch two new episodes of "Futurama" and meet Spartacus at 5:25---he's even early!---for Bice, which we enter at precisely 6PM, finding other parties even finishing soon after we arrive. Fixed menu makes choices easy: the amuse bouche is a trivial salad of tomatoes and lettuce, the gazpacho is tasty and the calamari OK, but the best parts were the beef cutlets in my dish, his chicken being very ordinary. The prosecco was almost tasteless, but cold and bubbly. My tirimisu dessert was better than his two scoops of rum raisin and hazelnut ice cream. He finished his limoncello and I my port, which was NOT Manishevitz, as he slyly suggested. Service was quick and we were out of there by 7:30, as it started to get noisier. The bill, after my $99 voucher, was only $5 and change, so I left $24 and change for tip on $105 meal, and Spartacus gave $65 to me without complaint. But I won't do anything like it again. I used my last subway transfers. Back for more TV and bed at 11:30PM.
SATURDAY, 9/8/12: 6:01AM: Pee, weighing 190.8#, not that much more from big meal last night. 6:48AM: Pee, FU 6:52-7:03, FUAS 7:03-7:23AM, lie to 7:30AM. Breakfast with two impossible puzzles and leave at 8:20AM for Port Authority at 8:50PM, waiting in line at Suburban Bus Lines to get told I should have Senior vouchers from other windows, and get a BOOKLET of them, having to give the guy TWO since I'm getting round trip for $16. Expensive! Crushed by being told that 9:30AM was FRIDAY departure; Saturday is 9AM and 11AM! I get down at 9:10AM and of course 9AM bus has left. Read New Yorker while watching ENDLESS parade of out-of-towners flocking past to various New Jersey busses, delighting in my living in New York ITSELF. Stand for growing line at 10:45, having phoned Carolyn's line, BARELY hearing her, to tell her of my delayed arrival. The bus ride out is wonderful: it's my first "trip" since Italy ended in April, over five months ago. The dock facilities around Staten Island loom on the horizon for miles. The oil refineries on the way down are splendid in their functionality and smokiness. Then we're into countryside and drive off exit 8A to Monroe Township, happening to RAIN JUST as bus lets me off. I go across to Rossmoor cottage, where I get a message from Tori, copy down her phone number, and get told Carolyn is in the HOSPITAL after a STROKE, and Tori will be picking me up in a golf cart. By now it's sunny and hot outside, so I wait under a tree, wondering what's taking her so long. When she arrives, she talks a long time with her horrendously fat neighbor who's just run out of gas as I remake the acquaintance of her sister Jane and Jane's husband Tony, who really seems one of the family. Finally we're driven to Tris's house, quite nice, with a wonderful sun porch, and Jane and Tony use the john while Tori goes to drive the neighbor back home, where she'll call Costco to bring gas for her car. I say I'm hungry, so Tony gets an enormous cantaloupe to cut into chewable pieces that go into the fridge while Tori fusses first with whole wheat toast: I demolish both pieces of that with ginger-spiced peach preserves while she burns two or three pieces of date nut bread. Finally Tris returns from the hospital and we're off for the half hour to Vince and Kimberly's for Juliana's fourth birthday party, Tony driving Jane with her walker in their car. About thirty people celebrate, Vince AGAIN praises my website when I praise his devil makeup a few Halloweens back, and even tries to tell a friend of his, to whom I give my card, to real the "great sex." I'm really flattered. Give the bottle of prosecco I'd bought last night, on Spartacus's urging, for the house, which may go back to Tris and Tori if it's not used at the party, and check with Kimberly, who raves about the greatness of my suggestion (via Spartacus) of the Small Kids National Geographic subscription. The party is the usual congery of odd relatives, reasonably well-behaved kids, and languid older relatives. The sheet cake is expertly cut and distributed, its ice-cream icing melting in the sun, by Vince. We stand around until 4PM, when we decide it's time to get to the hospital to visit Carolyn. The countryside is incredible with its gated communities and old houses surrounded by trees, and then the hospital is extraordinary: only a few months old, a curved glass facade of six or seven stories, each room private with a bed that can stand on its head if needed, shower and sink and toilet in each room, a CONCIERGE desk to say what room Carolyn is in, and a wheelchair for Jane so she won't have to shlep her walker. Carolyn shows off her restaurant-style menu, says she feels great, but will have to stay overnight nevertheless. It rains torrents down the triple-paned glass and we don't hear a thing from the artificial lake with its wind-twisted fountain. She gets served dinner about 5PM, and Tris has spent minutes with various devices to choose the "Nelson Center" for my return bus, driving AGAIN through INCREDIBLE southern New Jersey back roads and villages and suburbs to get to the underground station and be told at 6:35 that the next bus is at 6:55PM. I keep reading, board the half-full bus when it comes on time, cruise back in 45 minutes with One World Trade Tower almost constantly visible to the northeast. I'm delighted with the transport and the area and the second-class citizens relegated to bus riding. Into Port Authority in a long bus line to its parking, and get to Times Square mesmerized by people, people, people. Disoriented on the subway, but get home about 8:30, lots of mail, lots of TV, weigh 192.2#, and bed at 12:33AM.
SUNDAY, 9/9/12: 8:31AM: Pee-read Times to 8:52, weighing 191.0#, less than I would have thought after the various foods yesterday. FU 8:53-9:13AM, lie to 9:28AM. TV and breakfast and get out Tanzania slides to make sure they're actually THERE. Leave extra-early at 12:45PM for Piri's, but long wait in Central Park for traffic gets me to her place just at 2PM, first anyway. I spent the time on the bus fascinated by the greenery in all its variegated leafage in Central Park. Alexa called her to say she wouldn't be coming to the Games Group, but didn't mention Friday's show at all. Mystery. Ceasar enters with his friend, fat and semi-friendly, and we're nine by the time we all get there. Five of us end up playing Boggle and four do Quiddler, until we join for Charades, having a lot of fun with jolly entries. Six of us leave for Moulin a Cafe, and today's Croque Monsieur is enormous, with a huge salad, and I have nothing more---NEEDING nothing more. STILL can't think of Ch---'s name! [CLAUDIA!] She's outrageously complimentary, and INSISTS on excusing herself for blowing up at us for NOT getting "our" as part of her Charade. Get on the bus after 8PM, totally dark out, and back to page through all the Times, still not finishing the puzzles, weighing 194.2#, and get to bed at 12:01AM.
MONDAY, 9/10/12: 8:27AM: Shit-read to 8:57AM, weighing 193.0#. Three-line bio to Marjorie Grimm by 9:37AM to satisfy her message from yesterday. Talk to Carolyn to 9:43AM, glad to get her on her cell phone, and she's supposed to leave the hospital today, get a physical therapist at home, and will call me when she does get home. Check e-mail and send Clare memo on items needing a copy editor to 9:56AM. Charles ANSWERED the phone when it rang for 13 times, and he's STILL not mobile, but we talk to 10:18AM. Make SHELF for ZoneHealth; piles down to five at 10:22AM. Put weight-card in daily calendar, reducing piles to four by 10:23AM! Agata and Valentina (mother and daughter) website wonderful at Google, enabling me to substitute THAT for a VISIT, so I can FILE the card with the name, address, and hours, and my piles are reduced to THREE: slides, photos, and website!!! Watch NY Arts with breakfast, and Spartacus calls to 11:30, and then I call Marj from 11:14AM-12:17PM: she confesses that NO ONE has called her yet, with her unbusy telephone, but she's made GREAT progress with proofing my stuff, getting all the way up to FRANFOOD! I'm determined to do good stuff today: pick up prescription for Carvedilol from CVS, give blood for my coumadin dosage, and get to gym for another thirty-minute cardio session, up to level 5 and 160 calories in the half hour, back at 2:15PM. Resist sitting down to lunch and TV and print out THREE WHOLE PAGES of journal to 3:50PM, NOW ready for lunch and TV!! Finally catch up with "MI-5" programs by watching many from before when I stopped before, and ending with new ones from 2010 season. Then watch "Wagner's Dream" about the new Ring at the Met, from 8-10PM, and more TV, and bed 11:39PM, still 194.2#.
TUESDAY, 9/11/12: 1:40AM: Pee, 194.2#. 5:20AM: Pee, 192.8#, 58°. 8:26AM: Shit-read to 8:48AM, weigh 191.6#. FU to 9:08AM, lie to 9:18AM, breakfast with TV, leave word with Pam Hatley on her cell, and leave 11:53AM for Met Museum. Bus goes 12:33PM, I enter Museum 12:50, go directly to farthest Contemporary Art corner mezzanine for 1) trivial "Born in 1912" five artists 12:55-1PM, with an AMAZINGLY sexual Pollock; long walk to 2) Italian Renaissance Illuminations from the Lehman Collection 1:08-1:14PM, followed by stroll through main Lehman Collection, incredible, to 1:34PM; long walk to 3) Rylands Haggadah---turns out we SAW the Rylands collection in Manchester---a single book from 1:38-1:45PM; detour downstairs to intricate 4) lace at Antonio Pratt Textile Center to 1:52PM; and finally 5) Coe Collection of American Indian Art, astounding in its UNKNOWNNESS from 5000BC to current art of souvenir-making Indians 1:55-2:18PM, tiring enough to leave at 2:24PM, on bus at 2:34:56 for time-symmetry, on subway 2:46PM, and home 3:13PM, for a very satisfying three-and-a-half hour visit. Pam Hatley calls to leave message, saying they got an in-house indexer, but she'll keep me in mind---yeah, sure. That's the end of THAT! Lunch of hamburger, and continue to eat orange, grapes, and almonds while watching "Das Rheingold" after spending more time with two Times puzzles and book, and get to bed at 11:18PM when TV is finished, satisfied with day.
WENDESDAY, 9/12/12: 1:56AM: Pee, 192.2#. 5:04AM: Pee, 191.4#. 6:24AM: Pee, still 191.4#, 62°. FUAS 6:30-6:50, thinking how MANY things I want to do today, and lie to 7:01AM, getting up to start WED-DO list: 1) e-mail check and note to phone Bestway about possible ARABIC tour in November or December to 7:30AM, 2) Met Museum next trip not needed until 12/31, which is a nice relief, to 7:45AM. 3) Catch up with this to 8:05AM, having caught up with stuff on the desk, leaving Bestway phone to afternoon since they're in British Columbia, and wondering if Susie will come, since she left word while I was watching "Rheingold" that her ear had been bothering her---adding HER to the list of walking wounded, with Mildred and Charles and Carolyn, who DOES call, and she MIGHT show up for show at 1:15PM, and I have to call HER to see if she has any of the Barry Sears books---ah, put a hold on all three at BPL by 8:25AM! GREAT when computer WORKS! Breakfast and "MI-5" to 9:30AM, go through Tanzania again to 10:05AM to make sure I had the spiel down well, talk to Carolyn to 10:30AM, who might actually show up while Susie and I are having lunch before the show. Fix the place for the party to 10:55, finish Adam Haslett's "Union Atlantic," taking the book back without recording the pages that I'd outlined for recording: primarily Nate's odd "homosexual" couplings with Doug---without any kissing!---ending with his kissing a new possible partner at the end of the book, in college. I figured it just wasn't worth the time to record it. At 11:22AM Chin called to say that my "balance was high," and that I'd pick up a new coumadin of 4 mg/day at CVS, and my next blood test is in two weeks. Started reading the next-last book, by Gibson, slow in starting, until Susie comes in the door at noon, unloads her red alcohol-less wine, her two canisters of nuts and box of crackers, and her lunch. I heat (no, I don't "make" it!) an ear of corn to eat with her, with cashews on the side. Then Carolyn comes in at 12:25PM, has something to eat, and leaves with us at 12:45PM as I walk ahead to the group gathered even WITHOUT the calendar telling of my show, for which the woman apologized when I gave her my program of "Pacific Islands, from New Zealand to Hawaii" for November 7th. Show goes very well with a good verbal introduction by me from 1:05-1:15PM, and the slides go leisurely to 2:15PM, right when Carolyn is leaving, and many give me very positive statements of enjoyment. Pack up, Steve leaves to get chocolate milk, and pass Bill Petersen for the second time. Up for drinks, John finishing the limoncello, thinking he'd finished the Irish Cream, and they agree to go to Park Plaza to find new screens and views open to the back with repairs still going on in front. I have the Big Mess, eating about 1/3 of it, and take Susie to the subway, where she gets the 5:50 train back, which delights her. Back to clean up a bit, and watch "Die Walkure" to 12:05AM, turning off more ads and getting to bed at 12:34AM, weighing 191.8#.
THURSDAY, 9/13/12: 5:09AM: Pee, weighing 191.0#. Up at 9:26AM, amazed, shit-read to 9:46AM, weighing 189.4#. Watch the end-interview after Walkure with breakfast, then watch two "MI-5" episodes before dragging myself out to the gym, after going to the library to shout at them for losing "Executions," but they finally give me a slip with only two books left. To the gym, hating every movement, and back to Taipei 2:27-3:40PM, and to have lunch of the whole wheat roll and chicken that Susie gave me while watching another "MI-5" and getting off to Sharon. Back to record the session to 5:37PM and catch up with the rest of this to 5:53PM, getting out early to Relevant Octogenarians. Get a seat on the side, but move to aisle to watch TERRIBLE interactions among Ed Koch (the best of the five), George Mitchell (previous Senate biggie), Pete Peterson (biggie in everything financial and head-size), Paul Volcker (enormous in person, small in mind), and Muriel Siebert (truly ugly), moderated by a self-conscious Leonard Lopate, and I was happy when it was over just before 9PM. It was so bad it even made me forget I urinated all over the men's room floor! Home to have dinner of hamburger, only two left, and watch the first act of "Siegfried" and get to bed at 11:59PM.
SHARON B. 228 9/13/12
I sure did a lot of talking about a lot of nothing: referred to "no more indexes because they hired an in-house indexer;" and Carolyn's 4th or 5th stroke, though it was a good weekend because I saw parts of New Jersey that I'd otherwise never see; Sharon wasn't in on Wednesday, but the presentation went VERY well, I "qvelled" about my apartment to my visitors, part of my "general upness" during the week; pissed at the Brooklyn Public Library losing my "Execution" return, though they had the OTHER, AND they ended by saying I had just the two books out---but I was still pissed!; Charles still sick, mainly self-caused, which is NOT NICE of him; Spartacus has been very busy, but that didn't stop me from scheduling Audience Extras for Thursday and Saturday evenings; I've been up during the week except when I've been down: she decided that maybe I needed an upcoming trip to be anxious about: I certainly said that I would have jumped on the November 24 trip to Arab Sheikdoms had it been available---as it still might! Even asked if this was really therapy: I just came in and talked about what happened during the week; and why did I have to feel sorry because I had to REFUSE: 1) a hard photo to Marjorie Grimm for her Tuesday Evening grant, 2) "drinks" with the friend of Piri who wanted guidance on her upcoming group trip to China and Vietnam---but I'd been long ago, a group would provide her with everything---I guess at bottom there was nothing in it for ME, so I said NO! Sharon said that was OK because I was just choosing what to devote my valuable time to. Did NOT relay my stroke to Edgardo when he called, telling of his broken ribs the first day of his vacation, prompting Sharon to observe that I'm surrounded with a lot of sickness. But I don’t have to continue being "the good guy" if I don't feel like it; I don't have to ENJOY going to the gym; I'm not obliged to do everything everyone asks me to do for them if I don't want to! I thought Wagner's Ring would pep up my week, but there were the low points when that wasn't the center of my concentration---and I'd never intended to watch the final performance through to 2AM. Really wanted to get this transcribed by 5:37PM on the very day I had the session---so there!
FRIDAY, 9/14/12: 4:33AM: Pee and type DREAMS:9/14/12 to 4:44AM, the first since 8/30, and weigh 191.0#. 6:17AM: Pee, weighing 189.6#. 9:01AM: Pee-read to 9:18, down to lowest in a week of 188.6#. Type a second dream to 9:24AM, do a quick FU 9:25-9:45AM, thinking to call Ken on dieting, lie to 9:50AM, when I DO leave the diet-message with Ken, and talk to Carolyn to 10:05AM, then go to breakfast of oatmeal after scanning Carolyn's book loaned to me, "100 Best Foods in the Zone." Not much new, though amused that it included emu. Watch the last two acts of "Siegfried," wonderfully acted by Deborah Voight, aged 51 in 2011, when opera was recorded, stimulated by the astounding Jay Hunter Morris, aged, amazingly, 48---I thought there'd be at LEAST 6-7 years age difference. That went to 2PM, after which I put stuff from Wednesday away until 3:30PM, including the last of the HealthyHeart forms to 3:40PM, then checked e-mail to 3:45PM and did Taipei, winning about half, from 2:56-3:45PM, indulging in that before finishing off this by 4:05PM, ready for lunch and more TV. Probably more "MI-5" episodes and other items that I'd DVR'd. Proofread FIVESTAN 6:15-8:20PM, two hours, with five minutes talking to an irate Ken about my suggesting a diet to him. Read more of Gibson's book going past 9PM, having the next-to-last (and slimy) hamburger, while watching the first PART of the first act of "Gotterdammerung," turning it off and getting to bed at 11:29PM.
SATURDAY, 9/15/12: 8:11AM: Shit-read Times to 8:46AM, very happy to have slept (though I had trouble getting to sleep) as much as 8:42, weighing 189.4#. FU 8:48-9:08AM, up at 9:09AM. Watch the climax of "Gotterdammerung," the first act being VERY long. I was really amazed how the COLORS brightened the "machine" of the 24 slabs, particularly the colors of the rainbow bridge to Valhalla, and then the GLORIOUS EYE that took a large part of "Walkure." In the subsequent operas, bugs and snakes crawling over tree roots, flowers being kicked around on fields, the fire around Brunhilda's mountain, and other projections onto the slabs were amazingly lifelike, though the forest bird was so pixilated that it really couldn't be shown in close-up, really a mistake to having it displayed on Siegfried's chest. Then in the last two operas they convincingly showed rooms and "areas" with tree-rings of color, though these wavered when seen in close-up. Siegfried's Rhine Journey went on very long with a horse bobbing up and down on a raft, and the finale wasn't the best part: Siegfried's pyre looked skimpy and the slabs really had to come down at a precise instant to efface Brunhilda's backward-bent body hurtling toward the pyre on the back of a semi-effective Grane. Her acting really made the last three operas, but the book problems of "Gotterdammerung" still managed to overwhelm everyone's best efforts. The Norns just DON'T make sense---it would have been better to have more of the ever-mystic Erda. And then the Gibichung family is just so SICK: Gunther assuming he can just take Brunhilda to wife as Gutrune assumes she can "have" Siegfried merely because she needs to marry "up." And, of course, Hagen is so BLACKLY a villain that his believability is impaired. But Voight's Brunhilda certainly aids the cycle, as does Terfel's Wotan, yet why did Erda have to be two different singers? Because it's still fresh, I'll keep it on my DVR though the percentage is over 68%, maybe to watch it once more? I'd checked my notebooks to find that I'd now seen "Rheingold" a total of 8 times, "Walkure" the most at 12, "Siegfried" at 10, and "Gotterdammerung" also at 8. The sole productions in 2007 were Gergiev-conducted on TV, and my live rings were 1961 at the Met and 1988 at Bayreuth; all the rest were TV except a few live "Rheingolds" and "Walkures" for the joy of the opera itself, and then again the full cycle on TV in 1988. That made for a total of 38 productions, or 9-1/2 Rings. Imagine: it's been 24 years since I saw it at Bayreuth! Then phone Marj and go through FIVESTAN proofing from 1:20-2:20PM, promising us both that I'll be finished tomorrow. Watch more on TV and get out at 6:50PM for "Something Wild" at Abingdon Theatre on 36th Street, for a Pook's Hill production of three plays by Tennessee Williams: "27 Wagons Full of Cotton," "Hello from Bertha," and "This Property Is Condemned," all rather over-acted by the women, two of whom, ineluctably, reminded me of Marj. Rather uncomfortable sitting until 9:50PM without an intermission after the 8:10PM start, but a powerful evening of theater indeed. Also, sadly, I seem to be getting a COLD, having sneezed a number of times today, and having to suppress sneezes twice during the play. Watch another hour of the ever-wild "Boss," with great acting work, and get to bed at 11:43PM, under blankets against the cold.
SUNDAY, 9/16/12: 5:18AM: Pee, 190.4#. 6:23AM: Pee, 189.8#. Up soon after that, simply because my nose has cleared up and I feel I'd better act while I'm feeling pretty good, rather than waiting for the cold to get me down. Breakfast with "Doctor Who" in a rather scattered Western place-keeper, and a VERY strange "Dream House" with Daniel Craig going out of his mind seeing his killed wife and two daughters while fending off a live Naomi Watts across the street. That goes to 9AM, when I get back to proofing the last pages of FIVESTAN from 9:05-11AM, phoning Marj, getting a busy signal, trying a few times, and when I get into the kitchen she phones at 11:10AM, saying she forgot to put the phone on the hook, and we proof the last pages 11:14-11:50AM with perfect expeditiousness. She announces that she's finished Iceland at 21 pages and Labrador at 21 pages, which will be the next package, the following Dubai at 46 pages being a package of its own, followed by FRANFOOD at 48 pages. I watch "Bill Mahar" while having lunch of pulled pork with the last of the whole wheat bread. Check e-mail for a dozen subway outages, and renew the remaining two BPL books until 10/9/12. Then off to the gym for cardio, feeling my cold in actual abeyance, but then I'm back to sneeze a few times and get stuffy-nosed. Get a message from Charles at 2:48PM that he's in NY Presbyterian Hospital, room 220! Phone the 800 number given in the Brooklyn phone book to get two numbers: Columbia and Weill, which I try, having to give my zip code and Charles's surname. Charles is having a TERRIBLE time: had to wait 36 hours in a broom closet, Paul found Bill on the floor surrounded by hundreds of dollars of broken glass and a gash in his head; Charles can't walk, and his CLOTHES have been stolen, and they REFUSE to give him any prescribed medicines OR painkillers! We talk 4:25-4:37PM, when he asks me to call him back. I phone Spartacus 4:38-4:55PM and Marj 4:55-5:18PM to tell them about Charles's troubles. Phone Weill and get his DIRECT number when his line is busy, this time being asked for Charles's surname and FIRST name. Start typing the journal, trying Charles's busy line, and finally get him 5:30-5:48PM. We talk more, he says he'll keep me in mind if he REALLY needs something, and HAS talked to Mildred, who's coming to THAT hospital on Tuesday for HER spinal tap. I type more, and Ken calls at 6:35PM to suggest a Wednesday dinner at Calliope on E. 4th Street, and then calls BACK to talk about a fine meal he had from a North Carolina restaurant called Pistou which is opening this week in Manhattan, but he'll wait until next week to call them for a reservation. I say I hope he's not mistaken in thinking he can get an instant place. I finish this at 7:05PM, having printed two pages, looking to see that it's 70° outside and I'll shut the windows to keep the heat in. Will start a tuna casserole for dinner. Watch "Dark Passage" with dinner, and end day with skim of "Steuben Day Parade," glad to have such a spectacle in New York, yet happy with a half-hour skim to replace actually seeing it. Bed at 11:32PM, again wrapped in blankets to try to get rid of cold.
MONDAY, 9/17/12: 3:45AM: Pee, weigh 190.6#. 7:32AM: Pee-read to 7:50AM, weigh 189.2#, or 190.6# with bathrobe, which mean that bathrobe weighs 1.4#. Lie thinking of all that I didn't say before: 1) that Bill had to be taken to a different hospital (because, as Charles says, it's remarkable that the CITY has a monopoly on ambulances by insisting everyone call 911, which takes you to the NEAREST hospital: Charles called a car service for $24 to take him to Weill, but couldn't get Bill onto anything similar, so he had to end up in Beekman Downtown, which Charles opined was one of the worst in the city)---could this actually be the cause of death: Charles impotent because he couldn't walk, Bill sent to a different hospital where Charles said Bill would not understand where he was, without Charles, and not have any alternative but to die (not that Charles would put it into those words); 2) Marj described her mother as being totally self-sufficient until she was 86, when she had the stroke which froze one side, making it psychologically impossible for her obsessive mother to scrawl writing with her left hand, though she survived as helpless until she refused medicine, "committing suicide, which can only be done by the strong," at the age of 92; 3) Spartacus saying that he'd be totally occupied with work until this time NEXT month, praising his constitution which enabled him to remain so active at 83; 4) Mildred phoning to visit Charles, five months younger than Spartacus at 83, complaining about her fourth (or fifth?) colostomy operation, still not having apologized to me for cursing me out for not listening to her, while I had been complaining to HER that she was not listening to ME; 5) myself, lying with thoughts of MY death, due to my cold, the first in AGES, finally getting up at 8:28AM to fill in this data, and catch up by 8:54AM, calling Charles, and remarkably we talk until 9:32AM, when he gets a message from someone else trying to phone him, and I say I'll call back later. He CLEARLY enjoys talking to me: he spoke of the person he hired to sit 24 hours a day with Bill, to reassure him that he's not alone; told of how he CAN differentiate between goose foie gras and duck foie gras; and get into my tale of asking (disastrously) Ken to DIET on THANKSGIVING, a day noted for over-eating, even though most best restaurants are NOT at their best on such days, because the main chef isn't there, and most of the meal is pre-cooked for volume clientele. His voice even seemed stronger at the end of the conversation than at the beginning. AND, at this point, I'm STARVING for BREAKFAST---having already updated the due date of the two remaining books to October 9. Breakfast while watching "The Departure," which I didn't understand on first watching, but was TOTALLY CLEAR the second time around. Then check e-mail and get Tris's memo allowing me to check off another 22 entries, finding a couple of mistakes, some of which I just noted as text, others that I sent to him, one to change, two pages not in memo just to be hard-headed. Checked earlier for what I THOUGHT were "sex" pages left out, but I couldn't find any! Finish at 1:53PM, not exactly sure WHAT to do next. Well, do Taipei 1:54-3:45PM! Cold getting me down. Watch "Blow," an unbelievable story about the benefits (how could there have been no competition to sell marijuana and coke at the beginning?) and negatives (how could his MOTHER keep setting him up?) of blow, ending with a truly ugly photo which MUST be the real guy, and he can even get out of jail in 2015? Follow with "American Masters" about the early days of Channel 13, and did I EVER know that WNDT meant "New Directions in Television"? Then the incredible "Max Payne," with a wooden Mark Wahlberg, which turns out to be a movization of an Xbox game! Is that why it's so bad? Bed 11:42PM, after eating maybe the THIRD yogurt after having the first three-course (half the seven-ounce ham, a medium portion of peas, and a clump of applesauce) dinner in a long time. Anything to take my mind off the cold.
TUESDAY, 9/18/12: 4:19AM: Pee, weighing 190.2#. 6:21AM: Pee, weighing 190.2#. 7:15AM: Pee, down to 189.4#. Just can't clear my stuffed nose; TWO handkerchiefs sodden with snot. Up at 8:13AM, figuring at least to get to the gym to shower before lunch with Carolyn. Check e-mail, to find two Barry Sears books waiting for me at the library at 6AM today, and check "Max Payne" on Google to see that it's Xbox based. Then, slavishly, catch up with this by 8:37AM, just hoping to get through lunch and the Tuesday Evening Club with my cold. And when am I going to have a good shit? And a white plastic bag just floats by at the 18th-floor level, heading for Henry Ward Beecher's courtyard. And I HAVE a good shit next! Watch "The Insider" with breakfast, and decide that I really DON'T need to go to the gym: I should pamper my cold-wracked body! Leave at 12:30PM for Water's Edge Diner, looking like rain, finding it on the WEST side of Columbia, unexpectedly, and Carolyn's been waiting for me for a long time, since her clock says 1:13PM while my watch says 12:58PM!! We move to the window to get away from the screaming kids at the next table, and the $6 hamburger is just fabulous with cheese and mustard, while Carolyn's Blue Sea Burger is good with avocado and blue cheese, and she takes her whole side salad home to have with dinner. I ask her to pay only $5 for her $10 meal, and leave a Visa charge of $27.48. She wants to dawdle on the way home, but I rush off, caught in a quick shower, and get home by 2:30 to feel so enervated by the walk that I lay down for an hour! Up at 3:30 to first THINK that I have to leave for the Tuesday Evening Club at 4:30, but then ALSO think that I'm CRAZY, and it's not until SIX, so I do Spider 4:30-5:10, phoning Charles when insisted by Marj, telling him I'll call him back at 9PM, and then I get out to buy papaya chunks, almonds, and banana chips at Lot Less and THEN realize that I should have joined Marjorie for DINNER at 5PM!!! Rush in, have trouble setting up the projector, helped by helpless old fart, and end up showing slides IN the frame, since I can CONTROL it from there, not being able to raise the screen to access the slide-show pause from 3 to 15 seconds. Small group, but very complimentary, and Marjorie says she left a message, hoping I didn't forget the whole thing! Pack up and get back home in rain at 7:45, finishing the Spider to 9PM, ending at 51.77071 at 1020 up after 4 wins, and then call Charles at 9PM, again at 9:15PM after he was given medicine, and talk till just before 10PM, when he says he'll eat his sandwich and get to sleep for his 7:30AM operation tomorrow. Watch Salman Rushdie on Charles Rose and get to bed at 11:53PM, weighing 188.6#, not the least of the day.
WEDNESDAY, 9/19/12: 4:32AM: Pee, weigh 188.6#. 9:14AM: Take two Fisherman's Friend for sore throat, pee, and weigh 186.8#, a new low! Try calling Charles but get no answer. At 10:02AM pee and weigh 186.4#, putting on clothes and weighing 189.0, so it's 2.6# of clothing. Call 2 North to find I have to wait for him to get back to room. Cut off 2 North at 11:22, not back yet, though Spartacus says not to worry. Breakfast with Charlie Rose and Martin Amis and watch second half of "American Experience" Death and the Nation, great! GET Charles 12:30-1:35PM, and figure my BMI is HALFWAY to 168 pounds! Call Marj 1:35-1:47 to catch HER up, and e-mail to 1:52, and send out Visa bill and put things away and mention good "American Experience" to Spartacus, who hangs me up on the difference between Ken and Rick Burns, which really doesn't concern me! Print another page and finish journal to 2:45PM, ready for small lunch. Watch many "MI-5" during the day, and leave at 6:30PM to get two trains FAST and get early to Calliope, which turns out to be WHERE the Swiss restaurant had been that we'd been to as recently as last year. They gave me one egg that I asked for, maybe as atonement for having no Cassis for a Kir Royale, and the red sparkling wine wasn't very good. Ken liked his rabbit; my beef neck was on the tasteless side, maybe because of my cold, but the Stone Fruit (plum and apricot) Tart was good for dessert. We both took the F home (in two different directions) and I watched more TV and got to bed at 10:50PM.
THURSDAY, 9/20/12: 10:08AM: After 11:18!! Shit-read to 10:42AM, weigh 186.8#. Lie to 11:19; j/o, not even sure that I came, 11:45AM-12:15PM. Watch four hours of "Frozen Planet" before talking to Charles 3:13-3:37, when he has to stop for something, and then I have lunch and get to Sharon. More "Frozen Planet" and then watch silent films on TCM until bed at 11:09PM.
SHARON B. 229 9/20/12
Remarked that the week seemed very SHORT: Maybe because I had a cold, maybe because it was sort of devoted to Charles in the hospital, maybe it was part of my losing my mind. Told about the convenience of Charles having the phone that he ANSWERED in his room; Bill's staying in another hospital with 24-hour attendant, moving to near Paul's soon. Told about my constant hours of TV watching, and found myself confessing to being STARED at by Ken at dinner on Wednesday, saying that I felt that Ken and Spartacus put up with my negative points because they had both, within the past few years, STILL indicated that they'd go to bed with me if that was OK with me at the current time. I felt self-conscious about saying this, but it was part of talking to Charles about what PICTURE we gave of ourselves, and I'd said that I'd changed by thinking more of others since talking with Sharon for the past six years, and kept on trying to be more honest about myself; Sharon asked why I chose NOW to say such a different thing, and I gave Charles as the reason. Talked about the coincidence yesterday of talking on the phone with Charles about BMI, and finding that I'd lost 18 pounds to today, from 205 down to 186.4, and would have to lose 18 MORE pounds to get to 168, which would give me the highest BMI for NORMAL weight. Mentioned that Charles was MUCH less than this, though he'd weighed more in high school, and that Marj was less than normal also. Talked about fearing it might be raining out, and Sharon raised her blind to show that they'd put BOARDS on her windows; hoping the repair work to the lobby would be done soon---though it didn't seem to be progressing when I looked at it from the street. Complained about the week speeding by, since it implied that I was spending less time "in the moment," though Sharon tried to say that it was also because I had things to DO during the week, even if it involved lying down after my half-hour walk back from Water's Edge Diner on Tuesday. Also confessed that I probably DIDN'T want to go to dinner on Tuesday, which was why I "forgot" about my 5PM appointment, but I said that I felt terrible letting Marjorie worry about whether I'd GET there or not! Left a bit early because I went in a bit early, and someone was waiting for her in the next room. I could actually notice it was getting DARK as I left now.
FRIDAY, 9/21/12: 8:22AM: Pee-read to 8:47AM, weighing 187.6#. FUAS 8:48-9:08AM, lie to 9:52, still 187.6#. Watch many "MI-5" until 2:30, when I decide I MUST go to the gym, getting back to call Charles, who has to break off for the john, and I catch up with this by 5:23PM, just nothing more to say about my doings. Oh, did send seven items to Susie if she gets to the cheap liquor place upstate. Also played computer games that I didn't bother to record. Bed at 11:34PM.
SATURDAY, 9/22/12: 5:21AM: Pee to 5:22, type DREAMS:9/22/12 and back to bed at 5:50AM, weighing 188.0#. Up to try to start the puzzles, but both of them remain unfinished after noon, when I have a late breakfast and get out at 12:50PM to get to the Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre to see "An Enemy of the People," from Audience Extras. Great scenes with Boyd Gaines and Richard Thomas doing what Marj, tomorrow, says she hates: shouting essays at each other. Treat myself to a hamburger with cheddar cheese and bacon, and lots of overcooked French fries, partly in the bright sun off the corner of 9th Avenue and 45th Street at the Five Napkin Burger, including a tall glass of cold beer, that serve to put my diet off by a couple of days. But the food is delicious; I finish every bit of it; and I treasure lots of sexy guys passing on the street, leading me to think I should come to places like this more often as "casting director" for my plays. A totally wonderful afternoon, completely free, absolutely self-satisfying. Back to watch "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," which clearly I didn’t watch earlier this year or late last year, and it's VERY affecting about 9/11, and the participation of luminaries like Tom Hanks and John Goodman and Zoe Caldwell give the impression that they became involved because they WANTED to be very affecting about 9/11. Talk to Charles 9:50-10:25PM, weigh as much as 190.0#, and get to bed at 12:28AM after watching more TV and FINALLY finishing both puzzles.
SUNDAY, 9/23/12: 9:01AM: After 8:33 complete sleep, I shit-read Times to 9:19AM, weighing 189.0#, FUAS 9:20-9:42AM, and lie to 9:58AM, putting the phone near my bed in case Toba sees clear to call this early in the morning [and he doesn't by 12:45PM Monday, either!]. My mind is awhirl with thought, and I get up at 10:05AM to write a "Where Am I Now?" Play Solitaire after I finish that to pass the time to 11:04AM, when I can phone Marj, talking with her 11:04AM to 12:13PM, both ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED that I'm going to be sending her my file of DIRECT files to proofread to generate a SCRIPT for "The Director," which I haven't been able to do since 1997. She said it would be good to have the dates I last worked with them, and going to C:\WP51\MC\PLAYS gives me a list that I edit and "Print Screen" for, making a xerox for my own use: aadirf.doc, to 12:27PM. She tells me that she's FINISHED proofing FRANFOOD, though she hasn't taken the few days to type up the notes, and so she still has "only" Martha's Vineyard, TURKEAST, and ITAPUGLI to finish to COMPLETE the travel files, which will take TWO MORE MAILINGS, and probably not be finished before year-end. Water plants, go to gym, watch TV, play LOTS of unrecorded Solitaire, and finally call 2 North to find Charles's room has been changed to 16A, probably 216, only two rooms from his prior 220, and we talk 9-9:45PM. I read the rest of the Times, watch more TV, and get to bed 12:15AM.
WHERE AM I NOW? 9/23/12
10:05AM: Thought a lot about EVERYTHING to be caught up with, now that it's the first day of AUTUMN. 1) Weight: indulged in a dessert at Calliope on Wednesday and a Five Napkin burger and fries on Saturday, so I've gained from my low of 186.4# on 9/19, which I celebrated as losing 18 pounds from my high of 205, and only 18 pounds from my aim of 168, which would put me at the highest BMI for "normal" at 5'9": exactly halfway! 2) Bedroom window shade: it's only something I've wanted to do for almost ten years now, but wouldn't it be nice to get it DONE and now have it on my list of things to do? 3) Travel: if I do NOT travel for the rest of this year, it would follow my set pattern of one trip this year, and if ONLY the trip to Ajanta and Ellora take place at the end of next year, that would be a HALF-TRIP (REALLY!) next year, the PERFECT follow-up---leaving a question about the following year: a QUARTER trip??? To take a look at my "final bucket," a) I've had a request for a partner for the West Africa trip for over a year now, but with dangerous activity in Mali, that trip is permanently on hold; b) I've put in a request for a partner for the Arab States for November and December, and it would be nice if that came through, but I don't hold much hope for it; c) I've got the flight request in for the remaining islands of the Caribbean with Cadman Travel, but I doubt that will be satisfied this year---or even next; d) Then I've not really heard from Ken about his joining me in the December, 2013, trip to Ajanta and Ellora, but I'm willing to do that even as a single, I guess, if that's REALLY ONLY the next trip; e) I suppose it's always possible to "start" the last of the final bucket trips by getting Cadman to just LOOK at the three WAY out of the way places in China, with the idea of combining them into a two-week trip that would actually, in a way, coalesce my proposed Scottevest trip into one, actually doable, trip. 4) Charles: can't resist the idea of permanently changing HIS life by pointing out that he's actually FREE of Bill NOW, and could REMAIN free, in relatively the same way, by getting a 24-hour attendant at HOME, so he could STILL sleep with Bill, yet be RELIEVED of the pressure to be with him 24 hours every day. 5) $10,000 investment in my own plays: tempted to return to places like Five Napkin Burger to search for the perfect cast-members for "Gift of the Alien." 6) Shows at 101 Clark Street: actually ASKED Toba about this yesterday, and he said he'd call me sometime to talk about it. 7) Marj's proofing: thought to give her all the disjoined "Direct" files and asking HER to put together the "best" "Director" script from them, now that she's almost finished with proofing the travel files. 8) Slide conversion: that could actually, finally, get rid of the THIRD pile of website tasks on my desk. 9) Living-day-to-day: a) I should go to the gym for cardio today, b) I should catch up on the journal today, c) I've got to read the Times, and have breakfast, and water plants, before phoning Marj and getting a call from Toba today! At least I managed to make this list fewer than ten!
MONDAY, 9/24/12: Still weighed 189.0# at 12:14AM. 2:55AM: Pee, still 189.0#. 5:26AM: Pee, now 188.0#. 8:54AM: Shit-read to 9:10AM, weight down to 187.2#. Start watching "Boardwalk Empire," have breakfast, fill up the pill box, and stop it to catch this journal up to date by 1PM. Phone Charles, just to make sure he hasn't changed his room again, and he pleads that he'll call back in about an hour, if that's OK with me. I say I'll be here all day; I just want to make sure he hasn't changed his room again. Finish typing this by 1:06PM. Watch TV until I go down to check mail, getting package from Marj, and strangely find that DUBAI has no RED underlines; lots of green, but no red. She doesn't understand it when I call her at 5:04-5:55PM, talking endlessly about trivia, and Charles call-waits when she calls, so I call him back 5:55-6:33PM, he saying he'll call ME at 7PM tomorrow. Arnold calls; I take over two remotes that work on his VCRs; he gives me a remote that ALSO works; he also gives the 2012 Emmy's, which I watch, recording that "Modern Family" won a lot, and that "Homeland" took over from "Mad Men" and "30 Rock" in winning everything. "Game Change," the Sarah Palin movie, won many too. Watched a lot of "World War II in Color" to fill up time, and recorded a lot to watch tomorrow and following. Weigh 189.6# when I get to bed at 12:12AM.
TUESDAY, 9/25/12: 8:49AM: GREAT SLEEP; pee, weigh 188.4#. Do FUAS 8:55-9:15AM, and shit-read 9:17-9:47AM, weighing 187.6#. Check e-mail, have to RE-register for Virgin Mobile, which has a silly WEBSITE as well as message. Play unrecorded Taipei, winning a few, and catch up with this to 10:47AM, amazed the morning goes so fast before breakfast. Proceed to watch TV ALL DAY, annoyed with myself for doing it, yet wanting to get through all the things I'd taped: went to "History" on DVR to record the remarkable list: Da Vinci's Lost Code (Kissing Angels painting explored: from his studio, not from him); King Tut Unwrapped (finding father, mother, and grandparents); 2012 Emmy's (removed; watched yesterday); Rameses: Wrath of God or Man? (confused in that his first-born was EITHER killed by Biblical plague OR was killed by the re-flooding of the Sea of Reeds Moses parted OR was killed by Moses himself); World War II in Color (three episodes, good footage, though many repeats); In the Life (half-hour went quickly, but episodes not memorable); Metrofocus (more political than entertainment; erased before fully watched); NYC Arts (nothing new); Masterpiece (I guess I can stomach Benedict Cumberpatch now that he's moved to contemporary London, but it's all so FACILE with everyone being so SMART and coincidences RIFE!). Took off part of the day to start proofing ICELAND 2-3:30PM, not bothering to phone Marj, who phoned me about 5:05PM and said, maybe, that she found how to find titles from the flashdrive. Also, Charles called to say he'd moved to rehab center, not being able to even VERIFY that Bill was in the same BUILDING, and that's why he didn't phone me at 7PM last night. Weighed 189.6# when I got to bed at 12:15AM.
WEDNESDAY, 9/26/12: 8:05AM: Had first mympths in five-and-a-half months! Weigh 187.2#. Pee-read to 8:30AM. FU 8:32-8:52AM, lie to 9:21AM. Note: MUST START BEDROOM WINDOW SHADE! Weigh at 188.0#, clearly impossible since I took in or let out NOTHING since I weighed 187.2# an hour ago. Finish reading the sleep article, containing not much, from the Sunday Times, by 9:35AM. Check souvenir box to find that my first passport was issued for my 5/62 trip to Europe, by coincidence over FIFTY YEARS AGO, checked to 9:45AM. Find that my first gym card was in 1/81, not 1/80 as I'd recorded for the past many years, by 9:58AM. Put the box back into the closet (easy, with the sofas moved a bit out from the mirrors) at 10:05AM. Found that my aborted Stamp meeting poster was done for 4/12/11 by 10:18AM. Have breakfast while watching Hitler to 11AM. At 11:20AM leave to give blood, finally out at 12:07PM, and go to the gym, back just before 2PM, having killed much of the day. Back to finish the chicken patty-burgers and watch MORE TV (again from DVR History): Adolph Hitler's Last Days, Inside Hitler's Bunker, Inside Hitler's Mind (his niece pissed on him), JFK's death limo (CLEANED at the hospital!), and JFK's death in Dealey Plaza, still harping on the wooded knoll, disqualified in the PREVIOUS program---any bullet from there would have continued through JFK to kill Jackie! I did more of the ICELAND notes 2:45-3:35PM, when Charles called, talked to 3:58PM, and had to go, telling me to call him at 7PM. I tried at 6:45PM, getting a long pick-up by someone who didn't speak, and then hung up, then got a busy signal, then got a no answer; when I tried again at 7:15, AGAIN someone picked up, fussed with the phone, and refused to respond to my constant "Hello?" tries. When Spartacus tried, he got a busy signal. He made a reservation for us to see the Columbus statue in November. Checked the notes with Marj 5:08-5:48PM, when she had to hang up. Ended another full day (except for all the other stuff noted above) of TV with episodes 1 and 2, not very impressive, of "MI-5." Weighed 189.2# when I got to bed at 11:55PM.
THURSDAY, 9/27/12: 8:17AM: Still AMAZED at my CONSTANT sleeping OVER EIGHT HOURS STRAIGHT! Type DREAMS:9/27/12 from 8:12-8:17AM. Shit-read to 8:43AM, weighing 187.2#. Note that it's BEEN about that level through the month of September, still not bad, since it IS eighteen pounds less than my previous high of 205#. Figure I'm "consolidating" in preparation for the loss of my NEXT eighteen pounds. [Two military helicopters fly, unusually, directly south over my building, now at precisely noon.] FUAS 8:45-9:05AM, lie and think to 9:29AM! MUCH has been started; now I'm just WAITING for action: 1) Travel (with 1) MTP Mali, 2) 2013 India, 3) company-wait Gambia, 4) company-wait Arab Emirates, 5) Cadman-wait Caribbean, 6) tell-Cadman Chinese three?); 2) Blind, 3) 101 shows, 4) Charles, 5) slide digitizing, 6) Direct to Marj, 7) Tris-files, 8) web-publicity (which I did THIS MORNING with Facebook LOTS!), and 9) Clare-file in October. E-mail and Facebook to 10:18AM. Try Charles with ten rings at 10:18, eight rings at 10:32, 6 rings at 11:12, all no answer. Have breakfast with Salman Rushdie in New Yorker to 11:10AM and finally finish this to date by 12:07PM. Try Charles's phone and get BUSY signal. Had actually printed TWO more pages! Sharon calls to say she's not in today, and suggests 4PM tomorrow. Print Neo dreams to 12:35PM. Dupe MC to Edge to 12:40PM. Back to proofing Iceland to 2:20PM, Charles busy all the while! Read Sears book, and have lunch to 5PM. Marj calls at 5PM and we work 5:18-5:48PM, leaving a lot of "OK as is" that sets up the argument for tomorrow. I work on LABTRIP 8-9:45PM. I watch TV the rest of the evening, including a new "South Park," deciding to have NO dinner, and weigh 188.0# when I get to bed at 11:22PM.
FRIDAY, 9/28/12: 2:43AM: Pee, still 188.0#. 6:23AM: Pee, down to 187.4#. Type DREAMS:9/28/12 6:26-6:32AM. 7:13AM: Pee, down to 186.6#. FUAS 7:16-7:36 and lie to 7:44AM. Decide to SEND the package to Marj without DIRECTs, which I do to 8:10AM. Read more of Gibson: Zero History, pages 64-152 from 10-11:20AM. Ask Roku at 11:20AM why there isn't any ClassicalTV, and told to remove program by putting selection on and pressing * button, which takes it off; then go to Store to get HUNDREDS of choices: Classical not among then, and after talking with her over an hour, find that it's a PRIVATE company that I send e-mail to at info@classicaltv.com and request service. They respond to me on Saturday, saying they're having trouble with licensing, but should be back in October. Wanted (ha ha) to go to the gym, but find myself watching TV and playing Taipei and Solitaire. Also get an e-mail introducing me to the new site thebesttravellers.com and spend about an hour recording my trips there. Then go to Sharon at 4PM. Have an INCREDIBLE argument with Marj, while proofing ICELAND 5:07-5:52PM, about my "OK as is" responses to many of her current corrections, not really realizing that they ARE corrections, and not that "negotiable," marking about a half-dozen items to change---when I get the file back. Think to do more proofing, but just don't FEEL like it. Pee at 7:46PM, still at 186.6#. More TV, have a large dinner with two more "MI-5" episodes, and bed 11:16PM.
SHARON B. 230 9/28/12
Walk in on her since I get there at 4:01PM, the tiniest bit late; she was just going to come out and get me. Complain about not being able to get Charles on the telephone: relating two "long hang-ups" and subsequent busy signals. Pat myself on the back for getting ahead of myself with the proofreading. I complain about Marj taking endless time talking about her stuff, and how, now, she can't tell me about her FAILED efforts to get work, though she still feels good enough to tell me about new JOBS she gets. [Pity that her blow-up at my "OK as is" is AFTER this!] Still feel at a loss of someone to TALK TO when something happens. Talked of Charles at last thinking of getting help with Bill when they finally get back to their apartment, having survived the rehabilitation center. [Other things from the session I've forgotten as I type this on Neo at 3:20PM on Monday.]
SATURDAY, 9/29/12: 6:52AM: Pee-read Times to 7:34AM, weighing 188.4#. Type DREAMS:9/29/12 to 7:37AM. Lie to 7:59AM. Make list of questions for Toba [which become academic on Monday, when I get the note under the door about the POETRY readings he's set up for 10/11!]. 1) Show dates for 101 Clark, 2) First Thursdays at 7PM? 3) Is there a SCREEN for the room? 4) Flyer to announce? [Maybe just verbal on 10/11?], 5) Refreshments---that which makes EVERYONE want to come, no matter WHAT is going on! I'm thinking LOTS about death!! FUAS 8:01-8:23AM, lie to 8:27AM. Made a mini-do list: 1) e-mail to 8:42AM, 2) Facebook look to 8:54AM, 3) back to The Best Travelers (BT) and reach traveler #65 at 64 destinations by 9:32AM, 4) continue and reach traveler #43 at 154 destinations by 10:33AM, finding, by coincidence, that there are 1221 destinations! 5) Check website and find North America travel complete, South America missing Bolivia from 2006, Asia doesn't have the Trans-Siberian, and Europe is still missing 1962, 1969, and France 1982. 6) Still nothing in Jewel Box at 10:46AM. Phone Marj at 4:04 and we finish Iceland and go to LABTRIP until 4:40, when Paul C. calls, and I tell him about my mini-stroke, he compliments me on sticking with Coumadin and talks about his 90-year-old mother getting more of a problem living alone. I call Marj back and we do more 5:30-6:08PM, as far as I've gone. Watch three episodes of "Doctor Who" and one of "Boss." Weigh 187.8# before I get to bed at 11:35PM.
SUNDAY, 9/30/12: 7:54AM: Shit-read Times to 8:18AM. Weigh 186.5#. Type DREAMS:9/30/12 to 8:24AM. J/o(?) to 9:12AM, TV to 9:51AM, now weighing 186.6#. Still not below LOWEST of 196.4#. Decide to use LAST TWO EGGS for breakfast. Have breakfast while watching TV to 11:20AM. Do puzzles, read Times, and finish Gibson: Zero History. Do cardio at the gym. At 8:50PM the Dell desktop computer fails, see COMPCHRO:9/30/12. Watch TV the rest of the evening: "Simpsons" episode for a half-hour funny as always; "Once Upon a Time" for an hour, couldn't follow it, not very interesting; "Destinations of Doctor Who" for an hour, interesting. Bed 11:36PM.
MONDAY, 10/1/12: 7:52AM: Pee-read to 8:23AM, weighing 188.4#. FU 8:25-8:45AM, lie to 8:54AM. Shit-read to 9:05AM, weighing 187.6#. Search for Dell receipt to 9:55AM, finally deciding to go by note saying they only issue insurance for five years after purchase, and I bought it October 18, 2003. Everything noted on COMPCHRO:10/1/12. That goes to 11:09AM, after which I phone Marj to 11:18AM and Spartacus to 11:33AM and then have breakfast, watching "Dexter." Skim "Revenge" and watch "666 Park Avenue" to 2:50PM. Call Spartacus at 3:40PM to ask him to register for the Met drawing today, but HIS computer is down! Start Neo file 3 with data from 9/27 note. With no computer, I watch "Graham Norton" with Gerard Depardieu, Damian Lewis, Dominic Watt (who played the villain in "John Carter," which doesn't look worth watching), and singer Olly Murs. 7-8:25PM: Rather extraordinary conversation with Charles: he has been refused to share a room with Bill, and he's been very frustrated with that. Unusually, he asked me about love, saying that his therapist really didn't know what to say when Charles said that he really couldn't understand the INTENSITY of his affection for Bill---that he wanted to be with him as much as possible, without really understanding how a person 93 years old could engender such an intense feeling. He wanted to be near him, to make him comfortable, to entertain him, praising his cheerful personality even though he couldn't see and couldn't move around. Maybe Charles was only trying to build himself up for the inevitable, SOON, departure of Bill from this life. Think to go to gym today, but I play lots of unrecorded Taipei and Solitaire and it's suddenly dark and I've missed my chance (ha!). Then "30 Rock" and weigh 190.0# when I get to bed at 11:37PM.
TUESDAY, 10/2/12: 8:23AM: Pee, weigh 188.2#. Type DREAMS:10/2/12 to 8:31AM. FU 8:32-8:52AM, and lie to 9:13AM. 9:17AM: Typing on Neo: So much is different when my computer is down and I can't just, at random, play hours of Spider or Taipei or Solitaire to pass the time. I get Marj to send BOTH DUBAI and FRANFOOD, even though they total 94 pages and will surely be over $1000, since she'd actually FINISHED with both of them. She is now working on MVTRIP and still has TURKEAST to go through before getting ITAPUGLI from me on the next flashdrive, along with DIRECT files, which we're both eager for her to get to. I tried to catch up on WP51 entries on this Neo yesterday, but got very confused with typing information for three different dates at the same time, and the editing with the Neo, of course, is far inferior to that with WP51. Checked last night that the white box, which I'll have support the computer for the Dell technician's visit later this week (oh, I sure HOPE so!), is just visible atop the old file cabinet, under an empty Puritan's Pride box that I may have to substitute for the collapsed box that supports my gym bag in the front closet. At least that will get rid of an unwieldy stack in my bedroom! The task of keeping up with the daily journals is becoming increasingly problematic: now that the computer isn't available, TV viewing is interspersed with reading old books from the library like the Gibson and the "Infinite" book, with skimming new books from the library, like the current two Zone books and the one I've had to pick up since 9/27. The library is theoretically open 1-8 today, so I should be able to get the new one. That fits in with trying to satisfy my recording urge with the Neo and proofing stuff on my laptop, which gratifyingly still works. Marj assures me that HER experience with the Dell technician fixing her laptop was wonderful: everything on the computer ITSELF was still there after the core was replaced, which I hope is also true in my case. Now it's 9:40AM and I've really got to have breakfast! 10:35AM: Watched the first episode of season 2 of "MI-5" with breakfast, and then, for the fifth time, determined to put in new prescriptions at CVS. ALL THREE "regular" prescriptions require renewals! 10:45AM: I'm managing to micro-control meaningless activities while ignoring hours of "major" activities like proofing, reading, or watching TV. Or talking to Charles, like I did last night from 7-8:15PM. Didn't mention making a call to Carolyn's machine to try to get HER computer to make the Met Lottery call, and the fact that Piri got to SOME site that was NOT the same site I used to register my name, and I excused myself and got off the phone as quickly as I could. Called Marj as an emergency yesterday at 11AM, which she accepted, saying she'd send the envelope quickly, having no concept of the TIBET file on the flashdrive that still has the "white, unprocessed" file designation, even though the file WAS processed---the upshot was that I could remove it, so that the only "white, unprocessed" indicators were to the few remaining trips that she hadn't yet tackled, which at this point would be only TURKEAST, since I haven't sent ITAPUGLI yet. Really IS getting to the final phases of that, though I have to consider a bill in excess of a thousand dollars from BOTH Marj AND Tris, bringing my HSBC balance down to under $4000 for the first time since 4/18/12, when I had a huge deposit ($7334) from God-knows-where. Now at 10:55AM to make my reservation with MAN that has been sitting around since Saturday, talked about with Steve when I talked to him about entertaining Susie on 10/24. October is filling up as a "special activity" month, what with "Book of Mormon," the date of which I impressed on Charles as a date for which he has to be prepared, along with the date, a week later, of "The Tempest" at the Met. At least I have THAT ticket to get rid of if I have to. Charles still hadn't talked with Mildred about Paul's taking her "Book of Mormon" ticket if she feels it's "too much" for her. But October even now includes Olives Restaurant on Thursday of this week; my doctor's visit, Poetry evening, MAN, and Games Group the next week; ABT, Carolyn's birthday, and phoning for Ken's Thanksgiving dinner on the last week; quite a full month, considering. Now at 11AM debate phoning Marj to find if she managed my mailing with all the OTHER stuff that she said she was tied up with---but decided I could leave it for HER to call ME! Look out the window (which I have to clean before Dell guy appears later this week) to see them putting up construction frames at the corner of Henry and Orange, so THAT will obstruct my view for the next year. One World Trade seems stalled at the 110th floor, no work on the awful "tiara" started yet, as they haven't completed the top of 3 WTC, or whatever building that is at the southeast corner of the site. Now at 11:05AM figure I can start moving the white box down for the base of my computer. 11:20AM: The white box fits very well under the printer table; I could get rid of a WebTell set of wires to a router that remained after I got the new wireless router over a year ago! Put both speakers in the bottom of the box, and though the chair is now closer than ever to the computer tower, it'll do until the motherboard is replaced. Now at 11:25AM I'll just get dressed and hope to get my flu shot BEFORE seeing Chin at noon. AND I have a bag of papers to take down from this morning's emptying of my ever-full wastebasket. 11:35AM: Clean both pairs of glasses, comb hair, and put on deodorant for doctor. Get there just before noon, see MEDICAL 10/2/12. Got flu shot, go to gym to push through exercises, and home to watch TV. Weigh 189.2# before getting to bed at 11:28PM.
WEDNESDAY, 10/3/12: 7:07AM: Wake to find I'd forgotten to take my bridge out! Pee, weighing 187.6#. FU 7:17-7:37AM, pee again, still at 187.6# at 7:44AM. Lie to 8:12AM. 8:16AM: Obsessing with death again: thinking how much time would pass before someone would call often enough and not get me---Spartacus? Charles? Carolyn?---and would force the building to enter my apartment and find my body. Also still obsessing about things to do: talk to management to get my bedroom shade process started, waiting for Dell to call with my technician with a new motherboard, multiple tasks on the website: 1) finish proofing Marj's notes for LABTRIP, 2) get Tris's update on files added to site, 3) start sending slides to be digitized. Think of so MANY ways I'm not able to access my computer: 1) e-mail about a) the Zone site, b) Susie's activity on 10/25, c) anything new; 2) Audience Extras entertainment for my vacant time tonight, 3) HSBC statement, 4) Schwab information, 5) BT follow-up, 6) games I'm not able to play to fill my brain with thoughtless thought when I'm tired of thinking about what I've described above. Now 8:23AM and I've GOT to think about dressing, and having breakfast, and shopping at Key for necessary milk and meat, and watching more TV. Still so foggy out I can't even read the temperature---and I can't check it on my computer, either, though my in-home thermometer is registering at a not-quite-believable 76 degrees---it feels four or five degrees cooler. Pee-read to 8:42AM, weighing 187.0#. Clothes bring me up to 191.4#, which means they weigh 4.4#. 11:17AM: Watched "A Thousand Words," pretty awful with a facially gesticulating---can't think of the Black's name---can see his face, and he's been out of movies for a long time, though he still has a (special effects?) good body---Eddie Murphy! And then the last 45 minutes of "Boardwalk Empire" of Bone For Tuna, an Americanization of Buon Fortuna, keeping the plot going. Maybe THIS Neo is a better way of keeping a daily log than WP51 is! I sure GET to it! Now I've done everything I wanted to do except finish proofing Marj's notes for LABTRIP. Oh, also got a call from Olives, confirming tomorrow's reservation, AND from Dr. Chin's Niki, making sure I hadn't forgotten anything yesterday, actually seeing that my slip IS in for the end of the month's blood test. 1:15PM: FINISH Marj's notes for LABTRIP. She goes through notes with me 5:02-5:47PM. I watch three episodes of "MI-5" and then the first Presidential Debate 9-10:30 and an hour of commentary: how sad that Obama "lost" the debate. He just seemed TIRED to me. Bed 11:33PM.
THURSDAY, 10/4/12: 8:20AM: Shit-read (stuffing toilet for three flushes) to 8:47AM, weighing 188.2#. FUAS 8:47-9:07AM, and lie to 9:21AM. NOTE: Check HealthyHeart balance. NOTE: Call Dell: when is technician coming? At 10:45AM decide to follow with COMPCHRO 10/4/12. 9:41AM: At least I have this Neo on which to take out my time-waste: Angel, from Dell, will call me back in 5-10 minutes about my problem. Called to check my trouble ticket, but he kept asking for some other number that I found only later, my order number written on my Visa-charge card, but it was past the point that my Dell contact needed that. One pain! Second pain was walking into the bathroom and finding my simvastatin pill on the sink: I'd forgotten to take my two night pills last night! Took them at 9:27AM, figuring that I could just consider this a VERY late night!!! Also made a note to myself---where these thoughts come from at night, though I already KNOW this is a productive period, is a continuing wonder---to check that I exhausted ALL my deposit with HealthyHeart before stopping them. And then I have to ignore the sensation that my having taken two NIGHT pills this MORNING is affecting the way that I FEEL! Told myself I should have breakfast by 9:30AM, since that would make precisely ten hours before my dinner with Ken at Olives at 7:30PM, amused that Ken called me last night to confirm the time, since his handwriting was indecipherable to him as to the time. Now 9:47AM and Angel's past his time to call, but I still have time to waste. Well, I can go to MEDICAL in file 4 here! Finish that at 10:05AM, Angel STILL didn't call! GOT to start breakfast! 2PM: It is an ineluctable fact that I cannot read certain kinds of books (philosophy, uninvolving fiction, for example) without my eyes closing. And at that time I have to put down the book and consider doing something else. I guess my eyes have never closed while typing on my Neo. So to continue "doing," I return to the Neo and get rid of some of the note cards that have been accumulating on my desk since my computer died. I should also say that Santiago has not called back, by this time, with the time of the visit of my Dell technician. It might not even be until Monday. Details of Marj's package still fall into the day's events: I returned from my cardio session in the gym, happy that it wasn't raining, to see the mailman in front of the D line, say, with his back to me. I looked at the foot-high stack of mail in front of the K line, and it had primarily two sets of mail with two sets of rubber bands separating them---and at the top of the lower set appeared the characteristic formation of the three stamps on Marj's larger package. He noticed me standing behind him, regarding the K-line of mail, and asked what I was looking at. I said that I was sure that that particular envelope was one for which I had been waiting. He picked up the stack, verified that such was the case, and unrubberbanded it to remove my envelope and hand it to me. Wonderful! I thanked him. Amazed on opening it to find two major things: 1) a dollar bill which on Marj's post-it was "Your change from paying $596.00 for $595.00 bill." I looked at her bill: $595.00. I looked at my checkbook: made out for $595.00. How could my check have been for $596? 2) the two stamps on the smaller, enclosed, envelope were lightly pen-cancelled, and the envelope appeared to be FIRMLY sealed. I couldn't resist phoning Marj about 12:45PM. She accepted my call as relating such extraordinary facts that it warranted my phoning during her business time. She also told me that she makes a copy of my check (the only record of the transaction, she says), and will send me a copy of it with her next envelope. She was about to say she would send me two new stamps to replace the pen-cancelled ones, but I said a better idea would be for me to [on a whim, decide to phone Charles at this moment, 2:13PM, and he answers, saying someone is there, and can he call me back when the person leaves. I say yes.] drop the envelopes in the mail. It'll get to either her or me. If it's cancelled in ADDITION to the pen-cancellation, the latter is SO CHARACTERISTIC it would still be discernible. She agrees that my solution is better than hers. She can only think that she simply didn't SEE that the stamps were cancelled. She explains the difficulty I had in opening the smaller envelope---not to mention my surprise in finding the flashdrive inside---by saying that it's ALWAYS difficult to open. I'd never noticed. Make file 5 COMPCHRO. Type this on Neo at 2:55PM, having not heard from Santiago yet. Leave another word with him at 3:55AM, and he just doesn't get back to me. To Sharon 4:16-5:16, dash home, call Marj 5:28-5:55PM, and then I call Charles back, who called while I was talking to Marj. The conversation with Charles to 6:40 doesn't really go anywhere: I warm him that "Book of Mormon" is in two weeks and two days: he said that Paul wouldn't be interested in a FREE (Mildred's) ticket to it, but he still thinks Mildred won't be well enough to go. So I start getting ready for Olives at 6:40PM. FANTASTIC views from window: blue sky and fluffy pink-and-white clouds hovering over a blur of gray fog below. Get there a bit early but he's already there, and bitching about the NOISE. I finally say that he's being childish; we get an enormous appetizer of six or seven heaps of food, and I end up eating MUCH too much. He likes the beginning bubbly so much he orders a second glass, and is appalled when it ends up costing $20. My main course---forgotten already---is also large, so we're not THAT disappointed when the dessert is a rather small one, shared between us. He pays the tip and the rest of the bill, and it's only the next morning that I realized I undercharged him. Leave about 9:15PM and get back to watch debate follow-ups and get to bed at 11:36PM, weighing 192.0#.
FRIDAY, 10/5/12: 6:32AM: Pee, weighing 191.5#. 7:09AM: Pee, down to 190.2#. 8:49AM: Pee-read to 9:05AM, down to 189.0#, lost three pounds in 9:29!. FUAS 9:06-9:27AM, and lie to 9:42AM, OVER ten hours "in bed." 10:04AM: I'm getting a Dell technician TODAY! 10:18AM: Get a call from Lisa Silverman, who wants an INDEX on a sewing book: 370 pages, twelve pages for index, turn-around in a week. I'm DELIGHTED! And I'm reading a chapter in Deutsch on OPTIMISM!!! 11:10AM: Spartacus calls with $7 tickets to a 7:30PM concert at Manhattan School of Music, so we'll leave at 6:30PM. Also agree to buy his $31 ticket for Sunday matinee at 3PM! I read on to page 215 after those two wonderful calls! I start reading Marj's notes on DUBAI 2:15-3:20PM, stop for lunch, and continue 4-5PM. 5PM: Try Marj's number THREE times in rapid succession around 5PM, but always get a busy signal. Again busy at 5:04! What's WRONG??? Got a call at 3:05PM from the Dell technician, see COMPCHRO:10/5/12. Marj is still busy at 5:06PM; I'll bet she just FORGOT to put the phone back on?? Well, but she had it ON before? FUCK!!! She calls at 5:45PM and I tell her technician is here. Spartacus calls---and for the second time Travis England asks if it's Dell and I have to say no---and I say we should meet at 6:40PM. We go down in the elevator together, and I later see him in the Clark Street Station going into the deli. Spartacus arrives late, about 6:43PM, and we're AGAIN walking the streets unknowing where to find the concert hall. In about 7:25PM, get our tickets, and the place isn't nearly full. "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" isn't ideal: some of the instruments are sloppy, and the climax isn't nearly as powerful as it could be. I don't think I've EVER heard Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major---and I may never hear it again. The Mahler Symphony #1 isn't any better. We leave, catch a bus down to try to find the College Inn, but it's not there any more. Settle for the Deluxe, where we both have the fish and chips, and I add a caramel milkshake. Both delicious. I pay with Visa and on getting home I note the CROWDS: 11PM: Leaving the restaurant I still don't know the name of [Deluxe], where Spartacus and I had fish and chips when the College Inn was no longer on the east side of Broadway between 112th and 113th Streets. It was only this morning, in my FUAS after transcribing the incredible dream of 10/6/12, that it occurred to me that what I saw last night had more than a little to do with the bizarrerie of my dream. What did I see? The five-hundred pound man in his floppy pale-yellow shirt that undulated over his---what---seventy inch?---middle as he waddled past us at the sidewalk table. Other women, particularly the vision of the light-skinned Black woman wearing a horizontally striped sheath of three colors, all shades of black and white and gray, over stockings on obese legs, tapering down to jet-black high heels of startling contrast to the inverted pyramid of flesh they supported: unreasonably high black heels for, again, an over-two-hundred-pound body. Then what I called (as Spartacus retorted, in the "Bob-dictionary") the UNISEX groups, by which I meant the groups of ONE SEX (admitting with part of my brain that, indeed, the term unisex, primarily applied to tonsorial parlors, pertained to the fact that they took BOTH sexes): phalanxes of five or six overweight girls, united by their avoirdupois, with clear indications why there were no men with them; trios and quartets of young men from Columbia, usually containing ONE sexy guy who had the others around him almost as a shield against people staring at him---as I was convinced the solitary male encountered after Sharon's session on Thursday was so beautiful that he habitually wore the "Oh, please, don't look at me" air I supposed he adapted when he thought I might have been casting a cursory glance that would reveal that he WAS wonderful to gaze upon. Can't remember how that sentence ran, so I had to just stop it. The solitary young man with an ethereal face carrying an orchid with five or six pale-blue blossoms fire-crackering up from its leafless stalk. Other fatties in small groups. Wayward gays walking alone, not having yet mastered even the first touches of cruising. Clueless women tricked out in lamé skirts the size of handkerchiefs, sporting unrealistically high heels---unrealistic because it must be realized it's impossible to WALK in such towering instabilities. Groups of young men whose sexuality might not even NEED to be specified in this era of advancing gay-rights toleration. Cocks and tits and asses and chests and arms and biceps and triceps and abs all parading past in the faux-fall warmth, allowing shorts on the men and naked legs up to coozes on the women. Surely sources for my freaks of my dream. Noted that I watched "30 Rock," "South Park," "Masterpiece: Sherlock: The Great Game," and "In the Life" on TV. Bed 1:24AM.
SATURDAY, 10/6/12: 8:10AM: Pee, get Times, weigh 189.6#. Back to bed, pee again at 10:15AM and shit-read to 10:56AM, weighing 188.8#. FUAS 10:57-11:19AM. Type last night's passing menagerie to 11:33AM. Talk to Marj to 11:36AM. Breakfast with Bill Maher, pee again at 11:40, weighing 188.0#, again losing three pounds. Talk again to Marj 12:50-2:19PM: ITAPUGLI has 40 pages, she estimates to finish TURKEAST by 10/19; I should call her some time Sunday. I check Bank of America and Chase e-mails by phone to find BOTH are PHISHING! That goes to 2:43PM, I talk to Marj to 2:53PM, and leave word with Steve re Susie to 2:56PM. Delete to 56 e-mails in inbox to 3:55. Fix NN with WP52, saved from Friday's computer re-start, and Neo's file 7 to 4:15PM, and then load NN, COMPCHRO and MEDICAL from Neo to 4:45PM. Lunch to 5:20, puzzle to 5:50, and decide to go LATE to gym for exercise, getting out at 7:32PM, just after closing, and home at 7:40PM. Talk to Charles 7:55-8:57PM, watch "Boss," and get to bed at 12:24AM. At 12:28AM get out of bed to check DREAMS, which are, by mistake, in the NN file. Back to bed at 12:34AM, weighing 191.2#.
SUNDAY, 10/7/12: Still awake at 1:03AM. 6:41AM: Get Times, pee, weigh 189.8# from the cashews I couldn't resist last night. 7:43AM: Type DREAMS:10/7/12 to 7:50AM, FUAS 7:52-8:12AM, lie to 9:14AM, still weighing 189.8#. J/o(?) to 10:04AM, licking blood off thumb, and Steve returned my call while I was "occupied." Watch "Cowboys and Aliens" to 10:55AM, when I dress and have breakfast. Continue watching "Unstoppable," pure trash with Denzel Washington and an intensely blue-eyed Chris Pine. Marj and I start on her DUBAI notes 1:50-2:15PM. Get out at 2:20PM for the ballet, and get off at 55th and 7th at 2:55PM to look at the ticket and see that it's at Koch! Subway doesn't seem workable, so I walk fast, quickly passing two people asking for spare tickets outside Koch, and get shown my seat on the extreme right side of the First Ring as the conductor bows at 3:06PM. I'm breathing so hard the woman in front of me turns and asks if she can help. See "Two Hearts," good by Millepied, "Year of the Rabbit," poor, with awful "music," and "Les Carillons," mediocre but with good Bizet music. That lets out at 5:20PM, people raising umbrellas for no particular rain, and home by 6PM for a late lunch, then fireworks great from Brooklyn Bridge Park 7:15-7:35PM! Watch "Boardwalk Empire" (not very good), "666 Park Avenue" (not as good as first episode), "NYC Arts" (not much), "Hex" without Michael Fassbender, and "Bedlam" without its resident cutie. Weigh 190.6# after finishing cashews before bed at 11:55PM.
MONDAY, 10/8/12: 7:02AM: Pee, still weigh 190.6#, type DREAMS:10/8/12 7:04-7:10AM, and back to doze. Think to j/o 8:39-9:01AM but decide not to. Ignore the weekends' Times and watch "Plane Crash" for two hours, "Dexter" for one hour, "Misson: Impossible, Ghost Protocol" with a CGI Tom Cruise running, and part one of "Broadway American Musical." Check for a FedEx package with my index, but though it arrived, they didn't put out the signal, so I didn't get it. Weigh 189.4# when I get to bed at 11:59PM.
TUESDAY, 10/9/12: 8:05AM: Pee, weigh 188.4#, FU 8:13-8:33AM, lie to 8:40AM. Mark that I saw "50/50" by mistake today, but really it was yesterday. Today I checked Google and found I couldn't find the 19-year-old Avy it was dedicated to. Susie sends me an e-mail from Peggy Bank, in Omaha, for $.49/slide at 60% off, but it's only for "friends viewing" and ends about what the other place starts at. Talk to Charles 9:30-9:42AM, distribute pills for two weeks to 10:05AM, finding that I need folic acid, and watch "Graham Norton" to 11:05AM. Paul C. calls 11:07-11:22AM about an article about atrial fibrillation that evaluates a thromboembolic factor by adding factors from congestive heart failure, hypertension, age-over-75, diabetes, stroke, and vascular disease. He'll send me the French article, translating it later. Get the index and talk to Lisa 11:30-11:35AM, then Marj 11:35-11:58AM, who tries to get a handle on the difficult index until I just get impatient and say we'll talk later. Look through the pages 12-12:28PM, and then finish the Times and AARP paper to 4PM. Called for Games Group and watched "Frozen Planet" for winter, and parts are used in other segments. Forgot to record that I did Taipei yesterday 2:45-4:10PM and followed it with Solitaire 4:10-6PM. Today I did Taipei 5:35-7PM and followed it with Solitaire 7-8:56PM---UGH! Weigh 189.6# before getting to bed at 12:04AM.
WEDNESDAY, 10/10/12: Can't sleep, yet DREAM. Awake at 2:02AM. 6:42: Pee, weigh 189.0#. Type DREAMS:10/10/12 6:44-6:49AM. Pee again at 6:51, still 189.0#. FUAS 7:54-8:14AM, lie to 8:17AM. Check what pills I need to order to 8:51AM and order two items from Puritan's Pride by 8:51. Watch "Owning Mahowny" in part with breakfast to 9:50, then go down to find Mary Egrie who says she can't remember Toba talking to her about slides---first thinking that I meant a Slippery Slide! Then she says I must send her an e-mail about the whole thing for her board meeting on 10/17. She also says, at 10:15AM, she'll contact Carlos to send him to my apartment---but he still hasn't showed up by 4:40PM! Put stuff away for doctor's visit to 10:40AM, and start working with WP51, getting to 9/30 by noon. Spartacus calls at 12:02PM, and hangs up when I can't tell him what he wants to hear about Googling oneself. At 1:20PM I phone the number, who can't contact Fritzner, and finally he arrives at 1:52PM. See MEDICAL:10/10/12. He leaves at 3:10PM, I try to schedule with HIP, and Chin calls at 3:55PM to say they LEAVE emergency slots for 8AM calls in the morning, so I should call tomorrow morning to schedule with him. I get back to WP51 at 3:40, and FINALLY catch up with this by 4:43PM, having printed two pages of DREAMS, a page of COMPCHRO, and SEVEN pages of NN. Print a final page of MEDICAL at 4:48PM, really ready for LUNCH! Have an ear of corn while watching more of "Owning Mahowny," but shut it off because I want to get back to the index, marking pages 11-60 from 5:30-6PM, typing 113 entries to 6:55, marking to page 104 to 7:15, typing 155 entries to 7:30, marking to page 158 to 7:48, typing to 350 to 8:20, marking to 205 to 8:35, and typing to 496 to 9PM, working 3:35 today---essentially EXHAUSTING the $370 according to my REGULAR rates---and including the 30 minutes from 10/9, a total of 4:05 and I'm not even half done! Dinner of chicken burger with end of "Owning Mahowny," and get to bed at 11:20PM.
SHARON B. 231 10/4/12
Actually typed 6:10AM Thursday, 10/11/12! Odd session in that I kept talking about how UNCONSCIOUSLY I seemed to reveal things to Mildred, Marj, and Spartacus: Mildred said she KNEW me, and that my tone of voice UNCONSCIOUSLY told her more about me than I was even willing to admit to MYSELF; Marj said, among other things, that I UNCONSCIOUSLY thought that $595 was close to $600, so I made her check out for $596; Spartacus keeps saying that I make conversation not understandable to him---probably UNCONSCIOUSLY wanting to make myself better than he is, or more intelligent, or even more MYSTERIOUS. This connected to last week's session of my concern with REALLY knowing who I WAS, and how I constructed a person to meet the world which, maybe, was NOT who I THOUGHT it was. Had trouble expressing EXACTLY what I was thinking, or fearing, about how my UNCONSCIOUS might have to be taken into account when I REALLY interacted with people. I also talked about how having NO computer for the week affected how I led my life, though I had my Neo to partially replace the computer, though I was denied games, my BPL file, Audience Extras, and other facets like Facebook, Most Travelled People, HSBC, and Schwab. Much talk about movies watched on TV and "MI-5" on Roku. Much, sadly, forgotten from a week ago! Left to get back to talk to Marj about her notes.
THURSDAY, 10/11/12: Used Actualism to get to sleep, noting weight of 189.0#. 2:49AM: Pee, with AWFUL anxiety over index: 1) price RIDICULOUSLY low, and 2) MUST get MARJ more WORK! AND about butt-boil! Still 189.0#. Worry so much about Sew index that I get up and 1) DUPLICATE 240k file on A, so it DOES have room for a large index, 2) turn OFF G, to protect it and to prevent its bright blue light from bathing my room. This goes to 3:05AM. 3:08AM: pee, down to 187.8#. Debate trying Actualism to get back to sleep again, but at 4:23AM can't resist typing into Neo file 3. THURSDAY, 10/11/12: 4:23AM: Thinking, thinking, thinking: 1) Concerned about phoning HIP at 8AM for a Chin appointment for my butt-boil; 2) Sewing index problems: a) horribly underpriced: $370 as $1/page should be at LEAST $4/page, or $1480; for 1750 lines, $370 is something like 22 cents/line, which is unheard of; b) previous edition's index a disaster: some items not alphabetized properly, sub-subs indicated by parentheses are almost impossible to "read," many "see" entries just aren't there, and editing is minimal---the previous indexer was probably grossly underpaid and unwilling to perform "free" work for little pay; c) either Lisa KNOWS and is indifferent, or is saddled by unpaying superiors; or she DOESN'T know, and needs tutoring; d) no matter what the case, I MUST protect any possible jobs that may go to Marj; 3) Shows at 101 Clark will be determined by e-mail to Mary Egrie: a) decided I can use MY screen to make a big-screen on a chair-rail-divided wall, b) can announce 101 showings at 55 Pierrepont, c) can draw my own posters for the first few shows, starting maybe with ten chairs, d) 7-9PM will give time for chat afterwards, e) shows will complement 55 shows. 4) Travis England should be followed up: keep as an indexing consultant if he's willing; phone him to say computer is working. 5) Keep thinking of Mildred: if she shows up for "Book of Mormon," try to at least be CIVIL to her if she's willing to be civil with me; if not, let the sky fall. 6) Thinking of Charles: hope he'll be able to see "Book of Mormon" and "The Tempest," or that I'll be able to sell his tickets at the venue. 7) Worried about my boil: what if it breaks and bleeds? 8) Actualism tried to get me to sleep after 2:49AM wake-up---looked at clock at 3:30AM and 4:20AM and decided to get all THIS off my mind by 4:35AM. 9) Decided to copy Saturday's dream to READ to Charles to show him that my extremes can duplicate his extremes. 10) Maybe pee AGAIN and see if it lowers my weight below 187.8#. 11) Pissed that I have to try for THIRD day to get SOME contact with Carlos about window-shade and apartment-heat. Mark, the fat one, and Mary, the manager, not doing their jobs! 12) Still 187.8# after pee at 4:39AM. Thank goodness I've got a "pillow of sleep" previously that will bring me through the busy day today---and maybe I can announce Tanzania show for first November Thursday at the Poetry Reading this evening! Note at 5:04AM that I missed typing the last Sharon session! Note on the Poetry Reading that the first slide show would be of Tanzania at 7PM on Thursday, November 1, noting lions, rhinos, hippos, and giraffes. Also note that the second show would be on December 6. 5:55AM: Just get up! 6:22: Pee again and still weigh 187.8#. Make a copy of Saturday's dream to read to Charles while I'm transferring the Neo dreams to WP51. So much done, and now at 6:53AM it's starting to get light outside, having noted lights on the next-to-top floor of the wrinkle-wall building. And now I can print out ANOTHER page! Check e-mail to 7AM and now ready to have breakfast. Breakfast with "MI-5" to 8AM, call HIP and make appointment with Chin for 4PM by 8:10AM. Decide to call Charles and talk 8:15-8:50, when he says he has to go to rehab at 9, though the next day he says that's scheduled for 10AM. Look at index and find three corrections by 9AM and e-mail test to Lisa, with whom I leave work at 9AM. Work on index 9-11:35AM, marking to page 315 and typing 885 entries, making 1067 lines. Lisa calls 11:17-11:23AM and says she'll ask about getting me more money, and that everyone there is impressed with Marj. I phone Sharon and say I probably won't make it at 4:30 today because I won't be finished with my 4PM appointment with Dr. Chin. Think to go to the gym, but don't want to damage my boil, so I watch three episodes of "MI-5" with lunch of the last chicken burger. Leave at 3:45PM, pass Rotunda Gallery and see that not only are they open, they're MEDIA IN BROOKLYN, and I resolve to stop on the way back. Get to MEDICAL:10/11/12. DO stop in Rotunda at 4:25PM, lousy art by eight women, and the young woman behind the desk knows nothing about the media part of the gallery, but finds a brochure entitled "How to get your own television show," starting with "Step 1: Open this brochure." Then get to Sharon and she smiles that she was JUST about to leave, and I give this as ANOTHER example of the goodness of thinking something GOOD will happen, rather than something bad, as Charles does. Back to get lots of mail and spend the rest of the evening watching TV, including the Vice Presidential debate, which I understand very little of. Weigh 189.0# at 11:53PM bedtime.
SHARON B. 232 10/11/12
Decided to try Sharon at 4:30PM, and she said I was lucky to get there by 4:31, since she was just about to go upstairs. I spend the whole session crowing: success with index [and get raise on Friday], just a pimple and not a boil on my butt [and it's practically gone for MAN on Saturday], not a terribly expensive October bill from Tris, hoping to announce my travel show at the poetry reading this evening [Toba said no, and seeing the program I understood], picked up brochure at Rotunda Gallery [and then Toba was filming Thursday evening!]. Mention Bill's OPTIMISM as opposed to Charles's PESSIMISM, and Sharon said that helps her understand Charles's attachment to Bill. Kept up the questioning of how my UNCONSCIOUS may change my personality; it's like I can't be sure how I'm seen if my unconscious "says" things that I'm not aware I'm saying! Mention the dream I'd thought to bring in, and she asks how I felt about it, and I said that, despite the grotesqueness of the inhabitants, I still sensed IN THE DREAM (not in real life) that I would have liked to stay there. She said I seemed VERY happy to be involved in so many projects, and I agreed with her. Probably there was more, but this must suffice.
FRIDAY, 10/12/12: 9:36AM: Phone spam roots me out of bed after 9:43 of sleep! Shit-read to 10:03AM, and weigh 186.6#. Look at Natural Habitat catalog to 10:20AM, then do TV Guide sudoku and lists to 11:55AM! Still weigh 186.6#. Breakfast late and then go to the gym, some older gentlemen even saying that I'm doing a difficult thing well lying in front of the mirror. Marj proofs DUBAI with me 5:17-5:52PM, and I'm back to watching TV. Weigh 189.2# before bed at 12:13AM.
SATURDAY, 10/13/12: 1:32AM: Pee, weighing 188.0#. 2:51AM: Pee, weighing 187.8#, and type DREAMS:10/13/12 to 2:58AM. Pee again, weighing 187.0#, at 3:02AM. 6:52AM: Pee, weighing 186.4#, 11°. 7:22AM: Pee, Times arrives, still 186.4#. Bed at 7:27AM. FUAS 7:35-8:05AM, lie to 8:13AM, JUST eight hours, but with THREE pees! Take fourth pee at 8:15AM and weigh LOWEST: 185.6#! Do puzzles, not able to finish the Cryptic, and talk to Marj 12:35-1:59PM, spending only 38 minutes of that on notes, but catching up to where she says I USUALLY write in PRESENT. I have breakfast before talking to her, and finish typing this by 2:45PM, ready to leave for MAN. Pant going up the stairs by 3:30PM, and the group is smallish at 55, so I can always find a seat. Dennis and I talk a lot; I have two sandwiches and FOUR brownies and THREE glasses of red wine. Everyone is leaving by 5:30, so I get my clothes and subway home, noting that the Clark Street station will be closed at 10PM all next week. Watch the building of Kykiut on "American Mansions," and not-very-sexy "Bedlam," though Michael Fassbender finally shows up as Azazeal on "Hex." Weigh 188.6# at 11:33PM bedtime.
SUNDAY, 10/14/12: Type DREAMS:10/14/12 7:21-7:29AM, and get Times. Pee-read Times to 7:59AM, and lie to 8:18. FUAS 8:19-8:44, and lie to 8:50. Pee and weigh 187.6#. Pluck ear-hairs to 9AM, shave to 9:15AM, dress to 9:23AM, talk to Charles 9:24-9:40 and 9:50-10AM, work on e-mail to Mary Egrie to 10:40AM, and have breakfast with Times, crossword easy, cryptic very difficult. Work on it until I look at clock at 1:10PM and realize I'm going to be late for the Games Group. Wait for both subways, and MTA people tell those waiting for bus at 79th and Broadway that a bus has to come from the East Side before picking us up, and I get on bus at 2:22PM. Piri calls me at 2:35PM, worried about my getting there. Arrive at 2:45PM and they haven't even started anything, waiting for me to be their sixth. Alexandra arrives in the middle of Boggle to be our seventh, and I totally mess up Caesar's quote from King Lear about "physic pomp" in Charades, but our team, Alex and Piri and me, win by two minutes anyway. Claudia brought three dozen, two-bite but wonderful, cupcakes from Crumbs, of which I had four, and then shared in two or three QUARTERS made from the six LARGER cupcakes she brought for us to take home, supplying plastic bags to make transportation easier. After Scattergories we end up at Yefsi Estiatorio (having to go to Google to check spelling) for a long wait for good Arni Youvetski, braised lamb shank over lazanki noodles with a cinnamon-flavored tomato sauce, raised from the $19 on Google menus to $21, for which I gave Diane $26 and said I'd pay difference later. Long chilly wait for the bus and home at 9:30 to phone Toba and be told it was too late to talk, he'd call me at 2PM tomorrow. Message from Rita that Denny is in the hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a 1x2x3-inch tumor on the right side of his brain that will be operated on for debulking on Tuesday! She's staying with Jan in Huntington, 25 minutes away. Denny should never drive again: the condition is "not curable!" Call Spartacus, who tells me to call him back at 11PM, when he calls ME, interrupting my finishing the Sewing index on which I worked from 10:25-11PM, interrupted by Spartacus phoning on the dot of 11PM and my getting a $28 ABT ticket for Friday evening, and 12:10-12:25AM, learning by doing how to edit five topics into run-in style by repeating words, taking a TERRIBLY long time to get Word to even WORK, restarting computer at one point, and e-mail index to Lisa about 1:30AM and get to bed at 1:56AM, weighing 190.4# thanks to Crumbs.
MONDAY, 10/15/12: Shit-read 9:01-9:19AM, weighing 188.6#. FU 9:20-9:40AM, and lie to 9:48AM, when I MUST get up, starting a Mon-Do list, with 1) wash eyeglasses, dress, check e-mail---needing to send an invoice number to Lisa, for which I choose 1203, and 2) enter Met lottery to 10:06AM, then returning to living room to work more on the stalled cryptic puzzle, and coming back to finish this by 11:32AM, doing WHAT I want WHEN I want it! Charles doesn't