2012
Interlarding sections, so I guess it would BE better to distribute them---making it "more fun" for me to ASSIGN them. Decide to preface each file with "Z" to lump them at the end of the flashdrive, making it easier for Marj to find, and for me to make a directory list to print for her processing. 5) Next with the slide handling, for TODAY, to get down ALL THE REST OF THE SLIDES, HUNDREDS, if not over a THOUSAND, in two metal boxes of four loaded trays, and the plastic box. Look at the pigeons wheeling in the air before landing on ledges on floors 19-27 of 75 Henry Street. Guess I've finished with THIS!
[To continue with 11/20:] To gym to 2:30PM, lunch to 3:30PM with "Dust Bowl." Talk to Spartacus to 3:50PM, then work on slides to 6:20PM from the metal box, deciding to make an NYC show at number 46, filling up two boxes, and making room for a second "around-NY" show and an Adirondacks show from the metal box. It gets complicated with many files open on the table, with little paper stickers with the file name placed over slot #41. Play Spider 6:20-8:10PM, getting a first-time-in-a-long-time string of 8 wins to get up to 51.74854 at 1013 up, WOW! Continue with a losing set of Taipei 8:10-8:25PM. Back to slides 8:25-9PM, finishing half the top box of metal box #1, and then watch lots of DVR-recorded programs to weigh 188.6# before bed at 11:28PM. Bizarrely, think I hear my DOORBELL at about 11:45PM, and get up to check to find no one.
WEDNESDAY, 11/21/12: 4:39AM: Pee, still up at 187.8#. 7:51AM: Pee-read to 8:22AM, 186.4#, FUAS 8:24-8:44AM and just VEG OUT to 9:33AM, thinking that there's something special about this morning, and then have a quick breakfast and a quicker tooth-brush before leaving for Goldberger at 10:20AM, getting in to find SHE loves lying in her 1500-count flannel sheets! And she reminds me that winter starts 12/21 when, of course, the world ends per the Mayans. Her needle goes in so smoothly that I joke "Is it in yet?" and she almost turns red. The filling is most minor, NO big deal---except that she jokes I don't have any teeth left for the bite block! We laugh through to 11:01AM and I leave without even mentioning paying the bill. I deposit my forgotten $500 check from the October index, pick up three items at Garden of Eden after searching the rows for FIVE TIMES before finding the LAST box of unsalted soy nuts. End at Key Food with $33.29 spent, saving $16.46---and see that they charged me $13.82 for my $6.91 Cook's Butt Portion Ham! Phone at 1:12PM and she says I have to bring it in! Get back at 1:34PM, picking up the mail---so it took 22 minutes to get $6.91 back---only at Key realizing that they'd charged TWICE the amount! Left word at Spartacus---of such is news made. Will now put it in the oven to cook for the over-an-hour for lunch! Play games, unrecorded, except for Spider 3:25-4:30PM, so since I'd put the pork on at 1:44PM it was clearly done. And it was HEAVEN! Eat charred strips from the side before cutting off slides and having lunch with apple sauce, totally delighted with my cooking. Put the rest into a baggie, into which it JUST fit, in the fridge, and played a recorded Spider 6-6:40PM, ending at 51.7509 at 1015 up after 5 wins, GOOD. Then set out to watch the 3.5 hour marathon of "Doctor Zhivago," which sadly doesn't hold up in the intervening 47 years, so I have to eat an orange and popcorn to help pass the time, weighing 187.2# at bed at 10:47PM.
THURSDAY, 11/22/12: 5:49AM: Pee, 186.6#. 7:42AM: Pee-read to 7:56AM, 185.4#. J/o(?) to 9AM, watching "Mankind" for two more hours with breakfast to 11:15AM. Took time off to phone Rita 9:50-10AM, really DOWN: "he went to emergency room 7AM Wednesday morning, had CAT scan, [brain] cavity smaller, she got home at 2PM. His ammonia level was bad: too much meat. He's on steroids, wanting Doritos, had seizures. She slept last night 8PM to midnight, ate something, then slept to 7:30AM, will go to hospital soon. Thanks for calling." Phone Spartacus, who doesn't have anyone visiting, he just didn't return my call yesterday, from 11:15-11:55AM, then talk to Marj to 12:45PM, re-boot computer, check e-mail, and catch up with this to 1:10PM, ready for rest of day. Which starts with SPIDER 1:10-3:02PM to 51.75006 again at 1015 up after 2 wins, AT LAST! Now to slides! Make good inroads in the New York City show to 5:06PM, when I try buttoning the top button on a North Face shirt, but it doesn't work, so I have to revert to the old-faithful striped shirt which shows too much T-shirt in the too-big opening. Put on double-breasted suit that Ken actually PRAISES, to his astonishment. Get the A train instantly I descend to the platform, which gets me to Jean-Georges JUST as Ken enters the dining room. We do NOT get the table I asked for, but the tiny one suffices. The dinner isn't the greatest, and there's little choice on the $148 fixed-price meal: he has the salmon, lobster, and turkey, while I take the left-over parsnip ravioli, sea bass, and Wagyu beef, all quite mediocre, though my very very very dark Kir Royale is indeed very very dark. He doesn't like the almond cake with chocolate ganache covering that I think is divine, so he trades his for my just-OK ice cream; that ends up totally filling me up. Waiter splits the check, and my $208.73 bill just slips it into the 40s on my high-paying restaurant list. Food goes quickly, make nicer by a VERY sexy guy at the next table, and we get to the subway at 8PM. I get a quick C home by 8:30PM and change into comfortable clothes and get back to slides 8:40-10:40PM, making very good progress: New York is easy: BAD slides I throw out, GREAT slides I put into the New York City show, and those in the middle I add to the C-stack, not really thinking what I'll do with near-New York tomorrow. Pleased to weigh as little as 187.0# when I get to bed at 11:01PM. But I can't sleep; too much food makes me uncomfortable, though I'm not troubled with reflux. Just doze off when I "hear" a knock on the door, and get up at 12:13AM to lock door and pee again, still 187.0#.
FRIDAY, 11/23/12: 8:03AM: Shit-read Scientific American to 8:29AM, down to 185.6#. Don't do a FUAS, but get to Spider to wake me up from 8:35-9:25AM, just retaining 51.74981 with my 1015 up after 2 wins. Sufficiently roused to take the two-or-three-month-old sheets off for replacement with flannel this evening after the gym. Takes a LONG time for e-mail to start, mostly junk, and fill the humidifier and catch up with this by 9:45AM, still not hungry. Back to slides before breakfast. Work on slides 9:45-10:45AM and finish tin box #1. Breakfast with "NYC Arts" to 11:20AM, distribute pills to 11:32AM, wash dishes to 12:02PM. Work on slides 12:02-2:09PM, go to gym to 4PM, look at mail, and continue with slides 4:28-4:53PM. Lunch to 6PM with "My Life as a Turkey." Slides 6-8PM, and put LAST ones away by 8:45PM. At 9:07PM find LAST slide on floor, and make it M-35-36! Bask in totals to 9:15PM. Then read New Yorker before weighing 186.8#, foregoing dinner, and bed at 10:45PM.
SATURDAY, 11/24/12: 6:56AM: Shit-read Times to 7:20AM, down to 185.6#. FUAS 7:33-7:53AM, and up at 7:56AM. Times to 10:50, not quite finishing both puzzles. Breakfast and read magazine to 11:30AM, then move slides in bedroom into numerical order, finding thirteen MORE slides, a nude, and twelve slides from a foreign museum that I arbitrarily add to the end of C-14, making it a full box. Can THAT be the end of it at 1:45PM? I put screen and projector away, all the sheets onto a pile, ordering all the boxes yet to go on the dining room table to 1:45PM. Check e-mail and catch up with this to 1:58PM, not knowing what the day until leaving for the opera will hold. Play Spider 2-3:30PM, to 51.75623 to 1019 up after 5 wins, good. Continue with Taipei, winning many, from 3:30-4:30PM, when Rita calls, sounding better because Denny's still in the hospital. She got part of a feast in the next room yesterday, and I told her about my ham sensation. She's sleeping better with him in the hospital, and Paul complains about the hospital's stupid "sleeping pill on request" program that they didn't bother to tell Denny about! We both make each other hungry talking about food. I feel good that she called, and is feeling better, and catch this up before having ham for a good late lunch. Dinner, read, then catch up with more magazines before leaving for Met at 7PM, for a GREAT production of "Ballo" that I even clip article from 11/10 Times for. I also "invest" in an $8 brownie, hardly worth it, but the $25 seat in the center section, row BB, is good enough that I'm DELIGHTED with the production---that Fred didn't like, who saw it last Monday, having gotten back from Moorea LAST Saturday, not 11/25 as on my calendar. 187.4# at 12:29AM bed.
SUNDAY, 11/25/12: 8:18AM: Type DREAMS:11/25/12 to 8:22AM. Pee-read Times to 8:55AM, still 187.4#, and go back to bed! Up, reluctantly, at 9:17AM. Breakfast to 10:15AM, finish cryptic puzzle with the help of Pope's Franklin Spellmaster by 10:53AM, sorta finish crossword (saving it to check on Saturday) by 11:10AM, finish reading yesterday's mail by 11:35AM, finish Times to 11:58AM, and then call Steve and e-mail him and Susie to finalize 12/12/12 plans, and even phone Fred, who got back LAST Saturday, who says "I now like to travel alone---wouldn't you rather have the room to myself?" And he refuses my offer for dinner to talk about this at Henry's End---AND has "Warhorse" on December 6 so he can't see my Antarctic slides, but says he'll keep other dates on his calendar. Been a productive day already as I finish this at 12:53PM.
WHERE AM I NOW? 11/25/12
12:56PM: Keep thinking about LAST THINGS! Not the "usual" list of 1) Carlos, 2) Toba, 3) Slides, and 4) Marj, whose line was "busy" yesterday AND today, so I can't even TALK to her! But, for instance, the "bucket list" of travel: DO I start pursuing Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts, and Haiti as a spring trip to "DO" those? Probably not, since I'm SO involved in slides and "finishing" website by sending ALL LAST FILES to Marj to "date-regularize" so they can be DUMPED onto the website, leaving CONNECTIONS to much, much later. That brings me face-to-face, *klunk*, with Marj-proofing last travel items. But SOLVED the problem of what to do 12/12, and what to do about Fred and "not wanting to travel with me." All the "end-of-world" articles in NY Times today clearly brought this about: contemplating the end of MY world! OK, now to get to my HSBC bill and get to the gym! Balance HSBC bill by 1:14PM, finish watering plants, and get to gym.
[Back to day:] Back from gym at 2:55PM, check Healthy Heart meals billing to 3:53PM, which still doesn't work out---it seems either I got a large number of "free" meals OR they cheated me out of a large number of meals. But I file the menus and try to forget about the whole thing. Came across an attractive photo of Michael Biehn in the movie "Deadfall," and it's actually on Netflix! So I watch that: he's been in a LOT of movies, has a great face and body, but the movie, with a totally crazed Nicolas Cage, who's the brother of the director, Christopher Coppola, who's a nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, which makes the whole thing a mess, though, as the movie-book says, it has an expensive cast. Then heat up the wonderful ham for my fourth meal of it, this time with two slices of buttered bread as well as the apple sauce, and continue watching TV: "How the Earth Was Made," which I probably saw long ago, "Downton Abbey Revisited," as an add for next season, which starts January 6, three episodes of "Glee" with an increasingly sexy and dance-capable Michael Morrison, eating popcorn and yogurt to fill my stomach, and end with an increasingly unpleasant "666 Park Avenue," weighing a too-much 188.8# at bedtime at 11:31PM.
MONDAY, 11/26/12: 6:28AM: Type DREAMS:11/26/12 to 6:38AM, pee, down only to 188.0#, type more, and back to bed at 6:50AM. Wake again and do FUAS 8:20-8:40AM, very ineffectually, not really benefiting from the Actualism AT ALL. Shit-read, finishing another out-of-date New York magazine, to 8:54AM, down to 187.2#. Had started transferring dreams starting 10/13 from Neo to WP51, finishing and printing out six or seven more pages, having proofed them, correcting mainly dates that I'd remembered wrong. The dreams seem quite trivial, with innumerable subjects that don't seem to mean anything. Then back to the journals to catch this up-to-date by 10AM, getting a call from Diane, making an appointment to come here at 3:30PM to set me up with Medicaid. Note that I've got to give blood for my coumadin evaluation, and it's late enough so that I can register for the Met Opera lottery, though it hardly seems reasonable that I'm going to win two weeks in a row. Cold in the apartment now that the temperature is going below freezing, and I can now print out THIS page! Met lottery to 10:15AM, "Dexter" and breakfast to 11:25AM, go to HIP and give my blood for another coumadin test to noon, throw out 101 Clark fliers and pile up Medicaid information to 12:55PM. Check Tris's latest list of URLs to 2:15PM, finding many errors, but loads of files are now on site. Determined to get to Marj's notes, which I do to 4:15PM, and then have a quick lunch with the fifth serving of the lovely ham and the penultimate blob of apple sauce at 4:20, when Diane calls, apologizes for not being here at 3:30PM, saying she'll be here in five minutes. Finish lunch at 4:35, Diane still not here, and she knocks on door at 4:45, lucky to have found a place to park right in front of the building, which she comments looks nice. She tells me that ALL my monthly income over $812 must go to Medicaid if I'm to join it, and that just doesn't compute. I apologize for getting her here, but she seems to think it's normal. Go down with her to pick up mail, nothing of interest, and back up to call Marj and talk from 5:10-5:52PM, mostly her stuff, but she gets to thirteen minutes of notes to 5:45PM, not even a full page---but it's STARTED, and she says she's only got six pages LEFT of ITAPIGLI to proof, and then the notes to type up, and THEN she's ready to start the PLAYS! I watch two or three episodes of "MI-5," really getting involved in it again, and have watery penne soup from Progresso, and then, watching TV, can't RESIST getting out the butter and crackers and GORGING myself while watching TV until I weigh a bigger-than-a-long time 190.0# before bed at 12:12AM.
TUESDAY, 11/27/12: 5:02AM: Pee, weigh 189.0#, and type DREAMS:11/27/12 to 5:08AM. 8:08AM: Pee, down to 187.6#. FUAS 8:50-9:11AM, really a strain on the mentality, and get up at 9:13AM to pee again, still 187.6#. Breakfast while finishing another New Yorker, finally down to last weeks' issues, to 10:15AM. Put stuff away, including last of mail from yesterday, clearing desk, and indulge in Spider 10:55AM-1:10PM, a SECOND disaster of 51.72283 at 1001 up after 1 win, just not GOING well AT ALL! Then decide to REALLY bug Carlos, getting down to find mail still being distributed, and a young woman behind the maintenance desk, who calls Julio to my plight, and Julio pages Carlos to come down and talk to me! I sit and wait for him, and he SAYS he's ordered my shade, and will be picking up something for another apartment, and will do my work on THURSDAY! We'll SEE, but it looks like, at least, I'm on his LIST at last. Back to catch this up-to-date by 1:40PM, ready to grit my teeth and get back to page 7 of the 13 pages of DUBAI! Only get to the very top of page 9 by 5PM, having lunch of the SIXTH serving of ham at some time between those, and phone Marj at 5, starting with "You've reached the first plateau," which she takes as an INCREDIBLE slam: "Oh, you've answered the phone, how good for you and for me, that you've managed this act of normalcy when you're so crazy." And she goes ON about it until I cajole her into looking at pages 6-7 from 5:20-5:47PM, ending with a REASONABLE share of humanity between us, but end it feeling EXHAUSTED from her! Take solace with another try at Spider from 5:50-7:15PM, ending at 51.72924 at 1005 up after 3 wins, followed by Taipei from 7:15-8:10PM for surprisingly FEW wins. TV with more nibbles on ham, watching the increasingly unsatisfying "Mankind" and two more episodes of habit-forming (and what will I do when I FINISH with it?) "MI-5" and weigh 189.4# at 11:51PM bedtime.
WEDNESDAY, 11/28/12: 3:58AM: Pee, 188.2#, type DREAMS:11/28/12 to 4:04AM. Pee-read 7:08-7:44AM, get up at 8:21AM for a phantom doorbell ring, do FUAS 9:30-9:50AM, and shit-read to 10:21AM, weighing 185.4#. So MANY hours doing NOTHING, with NOTHING, really, to look forward to! Finish breakfast at 11:20AM, finishing another New York magazine, and read through another New Yorker by 1:05PM. PUSH to get to gym for exercises that feel alternately too hard and too easy, not really UNDERSTANDING what I'm getting out of them, except that I know I have to keep AT them to maintain what little energy I have! Back at 3:10PM and indulge in Spider 3:15-4:15PM, getting to 51.72722 at 1004 up after 2 wins, UGH. Finally put on the oven to finish the ham at the EIGHTH repast, feeling like a reincarnation of my butcher father as I hack into the hidden recesses between curves of bone to try to get to the last scrumptious slivers of tasty ham. No more DVR recordings to watch after I finish the last of the two hours of episode 3, so I watch three more episodes of "MI-5," at one point seeing that episode 48, say, is the LAST in the bulleted list of programs available, being the end of a season, despite the Netflix listing stating that there are 78, or whatever, episodes---and when I FINISH that episode 48, it blithely offers me the NEXT episode: I just don't even bother to try to figure it out. Watch enough to see that the two characters, Adam and Ros, who seemed to be making out at their point of death by drowning in the last episode of the prior season, are getting out of the same bed, showing Adam's ass---and I seem to recall they showed ANOTHER hunk's ass just before they killed him off, and they HAVE to kill Adam off, since he isn't IN episodes 50 and beyond that I watched previously. This series is a mystery in many more ways than one! Anyway, finish the last few crackers with a ton of butter before weighing 188.0# and locking door and getting to bed at 11:17PM, having trouble getting to sleep since I'm not really TIRED!
THURSDAY, 11/29/12: 7:36AM: Shit-read to 8:09AM, amazed that I slept so long without getting up to pee. Down to 186.2#. Type puzzling DREAMS:11/29/12 to 8:21AM, think to ask OFFICE if Toba has been away, and manage a FU 8:23-8:47AM when I unplug the clock, blinking at 12:00, when I check time. Have breakfast 9-9:42AM, reading an almost recent New York magazine, check e-mail, and forward my two-week-ago request to Toba AGAIN for his consideration at 9:50AM. Then to journal to complete now, at 10:20AM. At least the mail yesterday gave me the Scientific American that I started being concerned was lost in the mail this month, but then I thought maybe it just arrived EARLY before, and I had no reason to expect it TWO WEEKS BEFORE the next month, and so, this time, waiting bore its own fruit. AND, since I got a call through Joshua yesterday about 4:45PM from Carlos at the hardware store where he quoted me a price of $258, plus tax, for the "metal slat" blind that he'd pay with his credit card and I'd give him a check, I expect him SOMETIME today, though I won't bother clearing off the OLD shade and blinds, and moving the computer screen and keyboard to clear the area, until he ACTUALLY shows up. Then debate phoning Spartacus to pick up his MoMA card for tomorrow's show, since he might be out tomorrow and I might be busy here with Carlos today before Sharon. Also debate phoning Fotobridge again, after ten days, to check on their shipment of my first batch of digitized slides. AND debate phoning Chin about my coumadin prescription renewal, though I'm inclined to wait another few days for HIM to phone ME. At 10:25AM DO phone Spartacus, waking him: "I was up for three hours after sleeping for one hour," whatever THAT means. Go over for his MoMA card, getting a pile of stuff from him, saying that he'll give me details on the phone later, and he demands that he get the SHEET, which he said he has to hand in, though I thought that was only for Theatermania? Anyway, leave a note for Carlos on my door, saying "Back in five minutes," timed at 10:27AM, and I'm back at 10:37AM with no sign of his being here. Then print the AudEx response for Spartacus, after having to print out Toshi's map twice and the AudEx response twice MORE just to clear out the MESS waiting for the printer. That all takes to 10:53AM, though I FINALLY got a response from Toba, saying that he going to put announcements under the door AGAIN on Friday! He apologizes for not responding. Look through the stuff Spartacus handed me: an article on endless tasting menus, a biography of the newest ballet master who walked out of London's Royal Ballet, and a fabulous body from TimeOut. That goes to 11:40AM, and Carlos still hasn't shown up, so I decide all I can do, now that I'm again caught up with the journal, is to return to DUBAI at page 9, resisting the impulse to fill the last two lines of this page with junk so that I can print it out. Work on DUBAI to 1:20PM, then Carlos knocks, says he'll install the shade when it is delivered next week, but he needs a check for $278.72 to cover the cost. He raves about the posters of the bronzes of Riace, and I guess at 200BC for their origin, but Wikipedia says it's more like 450BC, as the Greeks are leaving the archaic era and that they're a "type" as they may have been cast from the same mold and altered later. I return to DUBAI 1:27-2:01PM, when Spartacus calls, greeting me with "Good morning." He reminds me that I wanted to make my tuna casserole today, so I put that on by 3PM and return to DUBAI to 4PM---it goes so WELL when I get IMMERSED in it, but I'm happy that I have only three trips left to process. I have a quick tuna snack, putting the still-hot casserole in the fridge at 4:15PM when I leave for Sharon. Back at 5:15, talk to Marj to 5:35PM, happy that I've gotten the package back from FotoBridge at last, and remark that I didn't notice that the scaffolding at 55 Pierrepont had been removed until LEAVING the building! She creams about Toba's response to my request for another flier on my travel show, but I find out on Friday morning that it's only going to be part of his newsletter---good in any event. Open the FotoBridge package and am just THRILLED: TWO DVDs, a meticulously labeled 25-per-page slide thumbnails that, on its 50 pages, shows that I processed exactly 1239 slides. Put both DVDs into my laptop, just to prove they're both the whole first batch, and only two slides are sideways, and the remounting is transparently perfect. Inspired to see how many boxes fit into the large USPS box, and figure to send TWO batches: making a copy of the letter describing one batch as being boxes 1, 38-42, and 102-150, the other being boxes 43-101, and, with repositioning the top layer three times, find that I can JUST squeeze in all 114 boxes with the last one fitting on a crammed-in angle. Seal it with two kinds of tape (the lady at the post office the next morning says that the fabric-like tape is no good, but the underlying, thin plastic tape is good) and weigh it the next morning to 22#. Feel good on accomplishing that to 9:20PM, maybe making a mistake by saying they can return the batches together or separately, as they wish. On second thought, I'd like them back separately, so I'll call them Monday to say that, asking how to differentiate actual shows for the final batches of, possibly, 17,000 slides. Watch "30 Rock" with Liz Lemon's marriage, "NYC Arts" for the British cutie in "The Heiress," and an episode of "Glee" to take me to bed at 11:19PM, weighing 187.8#.
SHARON B. 236 11/29/12
Sit down bubbling with the news that my first package from FotoBridge has probably arrived. Crow about Toba publicizing my next 101 Clark travel program, Carlos acting on my window blind, and Chin still not responding to my coumadin prescription. Then dwell on Marj, who Sharon says is really impossible, and I must feel on the edge from dealing with her, which I certainly do! But I DO say that talking it out with her makes it feel better. Repeat that my dentist noticed my weight loss, that the Thanksgiving dinner wasn't so hot but was worth it anyway, and even that the high cost of the blind is acceptable since he's doing it all. Even say that my having "nothing to do" has pushed me to the gym more often than in the past, and how even walking to her place seems easier now; and the exercises are remarkably easier. Praise my efforts on the website, mention my taking Spartacus's free ticket to MoMA, and my wonder about what to do when I finally finish "MI-5," and she says she knows exactly what it feels like to come to the end of something and have to decide what to do next. I remark again about my show at 55 Pierrepont on Monday, the 17th, and she implies she might be able to see it. I gesticulate more than usual, and she remarks that I certainly appear happier than I did in the past. Very up session, and I didn't even QUESTION whether it was useful or not, joking at one point when I talked about Marj compulsively taking notes at a point when SHARON is taking notes, and we both laugh about "the coincidence." Say we'll see each other next week as I leave.
FRIDAY, 11/30/12: 5:30AM: Pee, 187.2#. 6:14AM: Pee, still 187.2#. FUAS 6:50-7:12AM, still HASSLING the Actualism part, and lie to 7:16AM. Pee, down to 186.4#. Check e-mail to 7:26AM, look at "blue ray" on Google and get lots of apocalyptic visions of lights in the sky from Portugal, Singapore, and Fort Worth, all looking suspiciously the same. Nothing about the beam from Manhattan, which Sharon said she saw when taxiing across the Brooklyn Bridge the other night. Read a couple of summaries of "The Dark Knight," that Spartacus said I had to digest before seeing "The Dark Knight Returns" at MoMA at 7PM tonight with his membership card. Call HIP just after 8AM, the guy saying that he'll give my message to Dr. Chin about my coumadin prescription that I'll need BEFORE Monday. That all goes to 8:20AM, have breakfast while finishing another New York magazine to 9:25AM, then lug my package to the woman at the post office, who corrects my use of the wrong wrapping tape with reels of "Priority Mail" tape, and also talks me into paying an extra 75¢ for a Delivery Confirmation slip, terrorizing me by talking about a guy who didn't get one and had no way of proving that he delivered a package. That goes to 10AM, and I'm back to find no phone messages, and catch this up to 10:45AM, pleased to be ready for the rest of the day. Finish DUBAI at 11:35AM, still no call from Spartacus, who told me to call him if he didn't call by 11:30AM. He says he'll call me in half an hour. I continue to FRANFOOD at 11:46AM-12:45PM. When he calls I've finished everything I had to do for the day, including putting some of the tuna casserole in the microwave, so when he leaves I heat it up and wolf down a portion by 2:15PM, then subway to MoMA via the C and E trains, getting in at 3PM. The "Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant Garde" is just horrible except for three naked men photographed from the back, as in Sheldon, and I just can't see why anyone would be interested in ANY of it. Continue with "Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972," equally uninteresting. Then get to the floors devoted to the Quay Brothers, sitting for over half an hour watching a moderately interesting dance sequence by some middle European film-maker, and then sit a half hour, after I get my movie ticket, watching---forget his name, a young man who likes showing off his body, doing stupid quasi-art things like setting himself on fire and shooting himself in the arm. Went to Google with "young American artist who got shot in the arm" and came up with his name: Chris Burden! Then to loud theater for "The Dark Knight Rises" with an even louder sound track, and I really don't care for it: Anne Hathaway seems miscast, Christian Bale's mouth is really ugly under his Batman cowl, and what was the idea of having Michael Caine "see" him after he's killed himself in an atomic explosion? Christopher Nolan mumbles his first few replies into the microphone under his chin, but then becomes clearer though he really doesn't say very much in his expert interview from 9:55-10:10PM. Then I stand on the wrong West 4th Street platform, having gotten to the lower level by a seldom-ridden M-train from 53rd Street, so I don't get home until after 11PM. Have more tuna just to fill my stomach, adding two slices of buttered toast while watching the start of "The Dark Knight," which happened to be on TNT, that Spartacus was good enough to tell me about. But still weigh only 186.4# when I get to bed at 12:35AM.
WHERE AM I NOW? 12/1/12
SATURDAY, 12/1/12: 9:09AM: Loads of things on my mind to do: 1) Now that I have Saturday's Times, I can look at the solution to last Sunday's puzzle and get that pile off my coffee table. 2) That leaves, ideally, only TWO piles on my table: the website and photos. 3) With photos, I'm looking ahead to when the storage cabinet atop my two chests in the bedroom will contain the plastic enveloped digitized slides from FotoBridge, all 17,000+ of them. 4) With the website, I've run ahead even of what I've already digitized in the line of files and think of all the former LETTERS that are yet to be read, digested, and partially digitized in order to be added to the website in later years: love letters from three or four others that I've saved, not to mention data from all my letters from the pre-computer era. 5) Tempted to count the number of times I'll remove the recalcitrant plastic shade from my bedroom window before it'll be replaced by my already purchased shade that Carlos will install next week. 6) I seem to be getting even more absorbed in keeping notes hourly on what I do during the day, now that I have so FEW tasks with which to be occupied---realizing that it DOES manage to send me to the gym somewhat more frequently---that serves to make me even more conscious of the REDUCING number of years left to my life, reducing the number of things I can accomplish: adding to the website, traveling to, writing about. 7) But that drains the pool of the things on my mind to do (to echo how I started this), and now I can stop this at 9:17AM and get to breakfast, the Times, and getting back to Marj at 11AM to start on the MANY (DUBAI, FRANFOOD, TURKEAST, and MV) trips I have WITH Marj's notes, before filling up the flashdrive with all the files to be ADDED to it, for her editing of the dates, before she can get to talking with me about handling the PLAYS that she already has to work on next.
SATURDAY, 12/1/12: 7:36AM: Pee, 185.2#. 8:35AM: Get Times, pee, still 185.2#. FUAS 8:40-9:02AM, VERY sketchy Actualism session, and get up to write a "Where Am I Now?" to 9:19AM. Renew prescriptions to 9:34AM, breakfast with Book Review section to 10:15AM, talk to Spartacus, who called at 9:55AM, uncharacteristically, while I was eating my oatmeal, so I had to call him back, when we talk to 11AM, when I get off the phone to call Marj. We talk about my life to 11:38AM and she actually consents to FINISH DUBAI with me until 1:45PM, when I even start on the first lines of FRANFOOD, and she GOES ALONG with it until I joke that we really MUST stop---and she says she's astounded that she hadn't had even to go to the john! We continue talking our astonishment to 1:52PM, talking just eight minutes short of THREE HOURS! I take advantage of my "inner compliance" and get to the gym after picking up the four prescriptions at a CVS which has now JAMMED its entryway with all kind of SALES JUNK. Go through the cardio at the new level of 7, slightly out of breath, and get out at 3:40, starved for lunch. Have the roast chicken frozen meal, microwaved while putting the gym stuff out to dry, with the Style magazine of the Times, and then try the puzzles, getting through the crossword at last by sheer force of will, and decide to try Google for the crostic, coming up with my not-able-to-remember Salman Rushdie, and then continuing with Google for Yoruba (language of Nigeria), persona, (Jungian mask), Everett (for Boeing plant), and Newhart (for innkeeper series in 1982), and they all allow me to get the final quote, which is oddly silly, by 7:30PM. Then decide to call Charles, who ANSWERS (and says he was thinking of calling me, natch), and tells me about the trauma of paying a passing Black $20 to get Bill up the six stairs that the Ambulette driver from the nursing home REFUSED to do, as most of his home aides REFUSE to help with moving Bill around---I get SO angry with Charles NOT demanding his right for his money! We actually talk for 75 minutes, ending at 8:45PM, at which point Charles says he hears Bill calling him, so he has to go to him. Charles is down to 120 pounds, eating chocolate Toblerone bars, not being able to find anything to feel Bill that he'll eat, and is still feeling weak, though he KEEPS saying he'll call me and we'll go out to eat. I've told him about FotoBridge, MoMA, but not my brother-in-law, about whom Rita called Thursday night to say he's still in the nursing home. Leave word with Ken about Christmas, since talking with Charles reminded me that I haven't done THAT yet. Then, November finally finished with, I change the calendar sheet for December, and then finish the journal to date to 9:25PM, again not having managed to get to the end of the page to print it out. Ken calls at 10:05PM, saying Annisa would be OK anytime Christmas week: 12/23,24,25,26. I watch rest of "The Dark Knight," and it's just as mediocre as "The Dark Knight Rises," though a lot, I think, was EDITED OUT for the TNT showing, which also had lots of ads. Weigh 187.2# at bedtime of 12:22AM.
SUNDAY, 12/2/12: 3:12AM: Pee, 186.4#. 6:52AM: Pee-read Times to 7:14AM, 185.4#. 8:22AM: Type DREAMS:12/2/12 to 8:31AM, pee again, still 185.4#. Dress to avoid a chill. Breakfast and finish Times to 9:30AM and get to FRANFOOD. Paul C. finally gets a live me on the phone 10:35-10:52AM, arriving 12/22 in Newark at 6:25PM and leaving 12/29 from Newark at 8:30PM. I phone Marj three times just after 11AM, but her line is always busy. SHE calls at 11:12AM, laughing hysterically as she reports that she was cursing me out for not phoning as I said I would---until she noticed that her phone was still off the hook! With her to my end-point on page 4 of FRANFOOD at 12:25PM, another marathon over an hour, and I'm still DETERMINED to catch up with her notes BEFORE she phones me to start PLAYS. Hang up, exhausted, from Marj at 12:35PM. She even accepts my startled report of a HAWK chasing a pigeon outside my window. I clear coffee table to 1:10PM, and reserve three restaurants with Open Table to 1:42PM: Annisa for 12/18 with Ken, since there are no good times for Paul when he's here; and Bernardin and Bouley for Paul. Play a DISASTER of a Spider session 1:45-3:50PM to 51.71239 to 996 up after 1 win. Then can't even THINK of doing anything useful, so I have a paltry lemon-chicken frozen package lunch while watching three episodes of "MI-5," and I guess it WASN'T episode 50 that I started with? Have two slices of the wonderful wheat toast with lots of butter while watching the season finale of "Boardwalk Empire," not really following the plot. Ate the last of the oranges and yogurt before, and now have the last of the popcorn after a hunk of the penultimate tuna casserole as I watch "666 Park Avenue," which at least has a decent reading by Whoopi Goldberg. 186.2# at 11:49PM bed.
MONDAY, 12/3/12: 7:01AM: Shit-read to 7:28AM, 184.2#. FU(VERY brief)AS 8-8:20AM, and lie to 8:30AM. Pee, still 184.2#. Find that Paul came last December 16-23 and I dragged him to four biggies: Corton, Jean-Georges, WD-50, and Romera: the best of which was Corton: I verify it by going BACK to NM and reading our reactions to the four. So this year will be THREE: Bernardin and Bouley (both revisits after a long time, for him), and Corton, repeating from last year. Check his history to 8:55AM, get Chin appointment for January 4 by 9:02AM, play Taipei to 9:17AM waiting for HIP phone to answer, winning the first three games in a row! Breakfast to 10AM, reading New Yorker, CVS calls with a prescription that I call back to verify is only the carvedilol, and I do Met lottery, finishing tasks allotted for today. Call FotoBridge 10:10-10:20AM, getting perfect answers to my questions (and a surprised response to my "flaking black" that she says she's never heard before), and I divide my batches 2 and 3 by 10:45AM into 2A and 2B, and 3A and 3B, ready for her to phone back when she gets the delivery. Call Spartacus, waking him, 10:45-10:52AM, and he's happy that I'm happy with FotoBridge. Check e-mail, which seems to be going slower and slower, by 11:04, and fuss with journals until I finish this at last at 12:02PM, ready to get back to FRANFOOD before gym. Work on Marj's notes to 1:15PM, groaning about how SLOW the process is---and how arbitrary some of her notes ARE! Out to gym, picking up the CVS prescription (and I STILL have to refuse the enalapril!), putting up the travel notice at 55 Pierrepont, doing the exercises blindly---some surprisingly easy, some disgustingly difficult, and picking up another Great Wall egg foo yung for $9.25, and getting back to have lunch. Back to FRANFOOD at 4:15PM, to be interrupted by a VERY disturbing call from Tris: he has some kind of multiple myeloma that would explain his pain in every position other than a new recliner, his inability to walk or play tennis without pain, and maybe even the "cold" that he's complained about for a month and a half. I try NOT to think about how to replace his work on my website! We stop at 4:55PM, and I play Solitaire (winning surprisingly many) before phoning Marj at 5PM and commiserating with her ("It's because we're healthy and SURVIVING," she shouts) about Tris, and not getting to notes at all when we talk. I play a few more games and then call Carolyn to see if she knew, and she's surprisingly NEGATIVE about Tris's chances of recovery from THIS bout of cancer, citing his everlasting "festering sores" as part of her diagnosis. We talk to 6:12PM, I console myself with Taipei to 8:05PM, ending with 51.71524 at 998 up after 4 wins, progress! Find through e-mail that my package has been received by FotoBridge but I got no call about breaking batches into sections, and then resort to TV, watching "Dexter" for its third-last episode, another "MI-5," and then decide to go to bed without eating another thing! Weigh 184.2# at 10:18PM bed.
TUESDAY, 12/4/12: 6:02AM: Shit-read to 6:24AM, 183.0#. Thought: Now Christmas letter to do! FUAS 6:28-7:10, concluding this will be my LAST general Christmas letter! 7:18AM: Pee, still 183.0#. Breakfast to 7:55AM, then check nothing in two e-mails and finish this by 8:13AM, ready for FRANFOOD. Spartacus calls 11:20-11:55PM, and then I call Foto, and Gigi will call me back when she unwraps my letter. She calls at 12:14PM and I tell her how to get batches 2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B. Feel good. Check Met lottery for zero. Have lunch 12:53-1:30 of the middle egg foo yung, still catching up with last magazines. Do puzzles to 3:10PM in the three throwaway papers I got yesterday before ordering at Great Wall. Back to TURKEAST 3:45-4:30, shit-read to 4:40PM, play Taipei to 5PM, talk to Marj and at least finish FRANFOOD by 5:55PM, then do Spider 5:55-6:50PM to 51.7201 at 1001 up after 4 wins, progress. Continue with Solitaire to 7:50, and try to finish TURKEAST, finishing only on page 4, exhausted, at 8:35PM. Then decide I must settle ANTARCTICA slides, returning KENTANZ, BALTICS, and UKRAINE slides to their boxes and going through the 220 ANTARCTICA slides to find problems with them: have to AT LEAST put some sunsets at the END! KNOW that I'm leaving all the cleaning and finishing TURKEAST for tomorrow; phoned Spartacus to say we'll talk tomorrow "morning," his morning, that may go from 10AM-2PM, about leaving for "Thais." 185.4# when I get to bed, exhausted, at 10:48PM.
WEDNESDAY, 12/5/12: 7:02AM: Pee, 184.4#. FU(with another minimal AS) 7:06-7:40AM, and up, determined to WORK today, at 7:43AM. Pee, still 184.4#. Dress and down for mail, meeting Carlos in elevator to say my package hasn't arrived yet, but I actually don't even KNOW, since I didn't check the board for a tag when I got my mail. Lots of stuff, including both New York and New Yorker, that I go through to 9:05AM. Have breakfast to 9:40, reading penultimate New Yorker. E-mail to 9:45AM, lots of junk, and finish this at 9:55AM, ready for, I HOPE, my final session with TURKEAST. Spartacus calls 1:48-1:58PM and we agree to meet at 6:15PM at Clark Street for "Thais." I FINISH with TURKEAST at 2:05PM! Go to gym for cardio, then scrub toilet and kitchen floor, needing Zud to get the black off the cream tiles. Finish with vacuuming, and put the cleaner away at 5:20PM to realize I hadn't called Marj at 5PM! Call her, do only to TURKEAST page 2 with all her chatter, and hang up at 5:52PM to realize I hadn't eaten dinner yet! Quickly heat last of egg foo yung and gobble down most of it by 6:10PM, getting to Clark before Spartacus. We both read magazines on subway and walk up Broadway to Manhattan School of Music, get tickets, and the voice of Thais herself, Leela Subramaniam, is quite wonderful and the whole production is highly satisfying. Over at 10:24PM, bus to 96th Street subway, and home by 11:30PM. Weigh 186.0# at 11:52PM bed.
THURSDAY, 12/6/12: 7:12AM: Shit-read to 7:48AM, 185.0#. 7:51AM: FUAS to 8:14AM and get up at 8:30AM. Breakfast, finishing another New Yorker, to 9:30AM, and do TV Guide sudoku to 10:30AM. Set up TV to 10:45AM. Query Zagat on guide to 11:15AM, then get 37# of groceries for $51.32, saving $17.10, to 12:05PM. Mary Egrie calls at 12:10PM for BEDBUG check (neighbor on floor had them!) for Saturday, and I tell Marj about DOG here. Put ham on at 12:20 for 160 minutes, or off at 3PM. Don't have Spartacus recorded as SEEING Antarctica by 12:32PM. Spider 12:32-2:05PM to 51.72473 at 1004 up after 3 wins, progress! This to 2:20PM, printing another page, and getting to put sunset at end of Antarctic slides. Getting ham out of oven when it occurs to me to call Spartacus to join me for lunch. Call him at 2:50PM and he says he'll be here by 3:10PM. I set the table, open a can of green beans, open the apple sauce, and am JUST taking it out of the oven when he arrives. He loves it, slicing it thin, and I THINK slicing into my dining room table, though he insists he didn't do it. Eat lots and he loves it, and then waits around while I gather up stuff to take downstairs, and he takes two bags of stuff while I wrestle with the screen. Down to find Toba supervising the chairs, and I put up the screen, and set up the projector, but need cards to level it out, but by now it's 4:15PM and I tell Toba that I'll be back in an hour. Get to Sharon in good time, read until she calls me in, and have a quick session, leaving at 5:13PM, early. Back to find room empty. Upstairs for cards, putting mail and jacket away, and down to set everything up by 6PM, when I'm back up to change into clean clothes for my presentation. Fuss with starting slides, and then it's all done, so I sit and read until Bill Petersen is the first from the building to arrive at 6:45PM, rolling his eyes when Fred McKecknie returns with his awry hair from the john, having taken the OAT calendar as FIRST arrival. Then a wife says her husband will be down, but by 7:04PM there are only about eight people there, including Steve Hayes, so I start with the discussion of my trip, Beverly asking questions, and I use the maps a lot. We're all of ten when the show starts, and it goes VERY quickly, few questions, and everyone has their pick of the 28 seats for the ten people. It's actually over at 8:10PM, masseuse from next door thanking me, couple liking it, and reaffirming Galapagos for January 3. Fred helps me upstairs with all the stuff in one trip, and we sit and chat, he refuses the Root Beer Liqueur but wants apple pie and ice cream, so we go over to Park Plaza at 8:20PM, just missing Spartacus's call saying he DID fall asleep. I have Oreo cheesecake, good at the end for only $5, and I pay with my credit card when Steve gives me $8.50. He then leaves and I'm back home, not putting anything away, and check e-mail to find that Claudia e-mailed me about 4PM to say she wouldn't be here. Finish Steve's nuts, watching DVR end of "Mankind," and weigh 186.0# when I get to bed at 11:29PM.
SHARON B. 237 12/6/12
Start with Tris's multiple myeloma, and Sharon assures me that EVERYONE thinks of how someone's dying will affect THEM, and I certainly have compassion for the other person, which SOME people don't even move to. Say that I've thought lots of my possible death, having done much, though I still want to do more. Tell her about the dog coming to sniff out bedbugs, my progress with Marj's notes, and she says one of her clients DOES website construction for outsiders, and she might give me her card, if needed, though I say I'm not expecting ANYTHING to happen until it actually HAPPENS. Say I've enjoyed being busy, getting to the gym every other day for many days, moving from one thing to another with haste, enjoying the opera last night, treating Spartacus to lunch, and Sharon says that I seem happy. I keep saying I don't know how many people to expect, though I'm content with the possibility the group might be smaller. [I NEVER suspected it would be as little as TEN!] I'm antsy about getting back and say I'll leave early, but the clock outside says 5:13PM as it is! I must have said lots more, but it was mainly CIRCUMSTANTIAL, not emotional.
FRIDAY, 12/7/12: 3:36AM: Pee, 185.4#. 8:04AM: Shit-read to 8:21AM, down to 184.2#. FU with a VERY sketchy AS 8:22-8:49AM, and up at 8:58AM, having been in bed almost 9.5 hours! Do a survey of restaurants to 9:30AM: find it's only my fifth time to Annisa, Le Bernardin is THIRD for Paul from 1997 and 2010 poor with Mildred and about 14th for me, Bouley is FIRST for Paul and about 12th for me, and Corton is third for Paul in 2010 and 2011 and 9th for me. Then have breakfast watching "Glee" to 11AM, finding I have NO spare bottle of Omega-3, so I order it, getting it Tuesday, to 11:20AM. Play Spider 11:25AM, talking to Spartacus 11:55AM-12:38PM about last night, telling me about the "new" Lubitsch "Loves of the Pharaoh" on TCM at 8PM. Continue with Spider to 3PM, ending at 51.72709 at 1006 up after 4 wins, PROGRESS. Continue with Taipei 3-3:55PM. Should start writing Rita's birthday-Christmas letter, but I just don't feel like it. Have lunch with the wonderful ham, watching TV, and phone Marj 5-5:55PM, she gabbing on about nonsense and only covering three pages. It'll take us two more sessions to finish? Then I just settle in front of TV, seeing two hours of "Tora! Tora! Tora!" VERY slow moving and Japanese-oriented (hoho), but impressing with monstrous effects of bombing of Pearl Harbor. That last until 8PM, when Mankiewicz introduces "Loves of the Pharaoh," with most of the information about the reconstruction on the film itself, mentioning the missing 600 meters from the 2900+ meter film. It's actually somewhat of a bore, though it's interesting to see a younger Emil Jannings as the Egyptian king---and the manic Wegener as the Ethiopian king. Some spectacular crowd scenes, and the "stone-press" is the most surprising part. Lots of replacement titles for the missing 600 meters. Then sit through "Smiling Lieutenant" with a frozen Swedish meatballs and noodles dinner, but I start nodding out so I go to bed at 11:25PM, weighing 186.0#.
SATURDAY, 12/8/12: 6:23AM: Pee, down to 184.6#. 6:52AM: Pee again, still 184.6#. FUAS 6:56-7:27AM and up at 7:29AM, the Times arrives at 7:35AM with a "Thank you" written for my $10 in her envelope. I read to 8:40AM, get to Key Food for four more frozen dinners, the maximum of six Progresso soups, 3/$4, and toilet paper to 9:10AM, when I then have breakfast to 9:50AM, distribute pills to 10:10AM, and finish reading Times by 10:40AM, apartment CLEAN for bedbug dog. I finish mail from yesterday to 10:50, start puzzles, but then decide, "What the hell," and call Marj at 11:08AM. Dog comes in 11:50AM, bigger than the one before, and quickly goes around four rooms and finds me clean by 11:53AM, Julio saying "other side clear," so it IS the apartment on the other side of the elevator, that had maintenance STUFF outside it when I took out the garbage at 8:50AM. I push Marj through to 12:46 to FINISH the last file of TURKEAST, leaving her astounded. I am too! Finish the crossword at 1:25PM, and hassle through the Spiral to 2:07PM, having lots of lovely ham for the third lunch to 2:30, noting to get more green beans and apple sauce with more soups tomorrow evening. Succumb to Spider 2:50-4:30PM, astounding myself by getting to 51.73845 at 1013 up after EIGHT wins, REAL progress. Then, very reluctantly, drag myself to the gym in the darkening evening, going through the routine logily, getting back at 6:35PM with most mail thrown away, reserving to MAN next Sunday. Then indulge in Taipei 6:50-7:58PM, not winning very many. Then get to this, finish, finally, at 8:46PM, not doing it justice, but not shirking it either. Decide, at least, to type CHRISTMAS CARD LIST at 8:55PM. Finish WRITING Rita's Christmas card to 9:13PM. Now to TV and BED! Watch two "Glee" episodes and bed at 10:59PM, at 186.8#.
SUNDAY, 12/9/12: 5:59AM: Note that I forgot to take my bridge out last night! Pee, down to 185.2#. Type DREAMS:12/9/12 6:01-6:10AM. FUAS 6:24-6:46AM, and up at 6:49AM. Have breakfast while watching TV, and finish at 7:30AM, pleased that the Sunday Times has arrived and I won't have to worry about it being in front of my door for hours---or tell the desk to hold it for me. Leave, pick up a "BrooklynNow Guide" from the seat at Boro Hall, and make good contact with the trains back to Boro Hall and to Grand Central, getting there at 8:10AM. Take a picture of the Vanderbilt Hall sales area, and the terminal in general, and look at the Transit Museum that doesn't open until 10AM. Back to fret past the 8:29AM meeting time, and look at my wristwatch as he arrives at 8:32AM with a friend, to be joined by another friend, and the four of us settle into the 8:48AM train on track 112. Off at the Westchester Community Center about 9:20AM, having paid $10 for the round-trip rail, and pay our $10 (with Steve's $1 discount coupon) for entry to the jammed-with-stalls hall. I cruise up and down over half the aisles until my back just gives out about 10:30AM, so I sit on the stage and read New Yorker until about 11:03AM, when I re-meet Steve [and the printer GRINDS to a halt at 12:27PM, having not printed the last four lines of page 23. I try printing again, and AGAIN it grinds to a halt, and I find the ribbon has been SHREDDED, and the casing is slightly open at one corner! Reprint page twice, and it seems to work with new ribbon at 12:40PM.] and his friend, who has supplied them with a roll bought at Grand Central, clearly better than the junk served here. We agree to meet near the door at noon. I go up and down more aisles, taking my (out-of-focus) picture of tiny supplies in tiny boxes, and wait for them, then walk across to the station, where we sit waiting for the 12:28PM train back. It gets in to Grand Central just after 1PM, so I subway uptown and have a delicious $3.50 pepperoni slice at Gothan Pizza, reading New Yorker until advent of kids sends me to the street, and get first to Piri's at 1:56PM, admiring her new kitchen, and had to be TOLD that the cabinets and fridge and stove were new, and eventually we're seven, Alexandra phoning (interrupting our game of Boggle) to say she's not feeling well, stomach upset after coming home from Art Basel in Miami, so we finish Boggle at 4:10, Caesar winning in the 70s against Barbara at 66 or so with me only at 38. Then to delightful Charades entries from all of us, and then we sit around and talk Obama-politics until 6:30, when they decide to go to dinner and I wait for the bus and get to the Heights at 7:30PM, remembering to go to Key Food and stocking up on six more Progresso soups, five cans of green beans, apple sauce, EIGHT yogurts, and four more frozen dinners, for a bill at 7:52PM of $29.95 and a savings of $25.21! Back to get another indecipherable phone call from Yamaguchi and a CVS pharmacy call for a waiting prescription. Watch three episodes of glorious "Glee" until bed at 10:58PM at 188.0#, having gorged on lovely ham for the fourth time, plus yogurt, leaving me with a stuffed feeling that lets me sleep regardless.
MONDAY, 12/10/12: 4:23AM: Type DREAMS:12/10/12 to 4:26AM, pee, down to 187.0#. Drink water and bed at 4:30AM. 8:23AM: Shit-read Times to 8:41AM, down to 185.6#. Note that I forgot Sunday plant-watering! FUAS 8:42-9:03AM, water plants to 9:12AM, still 185.6#. J/o to 9:36AM, absolutely no ejaculation, but no DOUBT about the orgasm, not even needing bidis! Set up TV to 9:58AM. Yamaguchi calls, getting me finally, and he tells me about American Airlines luggage tags (though why these are important I don't know) that he had to order to be sent to me (in the US) so I can forward them to him in Japan, for which he'll pay me, he insists. Look and look, but I lose the earplug I take out to take his phone call. Put things away until 10:17AM, have breakfast with penultimate "Dexter" of the season, and scan Netflix to 11:35AM, adding a few items to list. Check e-mails and say No at 11:43AM to Ken's gay European guided tour for ten days that would run over $500/day, all to places I've already been, sorry I have to refuse him again for this May trip. Finish reading the Sunday Times at 12:10PM, and get a GODDAM call, getting a PERSON to tell me that she's calling from "Energy Trace Assistance" for my electric bill, and I phone 888-382-1222 to report it, since I'm on donotcall since 10/18/12. That goes to 12:18PM; I start register for Met lottery, and start on journal, interrupted with shredded printer ribbon as noted, and finish to 12:57PM, ready to catch up with REST of things I've fallen behind on, so that I can start on my NEW WEEK. I seem to be hearing CONSTANT noise from my upstairs NEIGHBOR! Still no response from Zagat: is it on its way? Almost to the bottom of another page at 1:03PM, time to stop this niggling! Check Marj's Kingston flashdrive, finding that it's got 1 gig storage, of which we've used 37.2 mb, leaving (HA!) 942 mb free, with 253 items, no Zs, to 1:13PM. Start on files, going through ZMO, finding two problems, and ZSUBJ, finding LOTS of non-datable pieces early on---maybe the JOURNAL has pages that REFER to these? That goes to 3:05PM, when I'm hungry for lunch, so have LOTS of ham for the FIFTH lunch, with MUCH more left! Watch "Re-Animator," truly ugly, to 4:53PM, then "Antics Roadshow," sort of nonsense, to 5:42PM, and then a rather INSPIRING "What the Bleep Do We Know?" to 7:35PM, getting drowsy watching TV. Then to more e-mail, then Spider 7:45-8:35PM, getting to 51.74165 at 1015 up after 3 wins, continuing progress. Continue with Taipei 8:35-9:30PM, and then catch up with journal to 9:40PM, printing a lovely page, sweaty in my flannel shirt at 56° out. Check TV Guide and find that "21 Jump St." is on, with Channing Tatum, and I might have missed some of the sexier scenes, but what I saw was enough to verify it was mostly junk. Also add "Mankind" to the DVR that I'd somehow missed. Also find my stomach is full enough of ham that I don't need dinner, and get to bed at 11:14PM weighing 187.8#.
WHERE AM I NOW? 12/11/12
8:53AM: First, note watching pigeons flying: at the start, in an enormous bunch, but then it fragments, some "getting lost" in the south, others vanishing in the west, and then a clump of perhaps 40 roosts on the wall of 75 Henry, centered on the 17th floor, up from where I'd thought they'd settled lower because of the hawk noted on 12/2. Then, get to what I wanted to note originally: 1) still waiting for the window blind to arrive and Carlos to install it; 2) still waiting for a response to my Zagat e-mail asking when my book would arrive; 3) deciding to send the flashdrive back to Marj, with her check which is now over a month past-due, leaving other flashdrive tasks for a subsequent time: a) updating with over a dozen editing changes, b) updating with over two dozen Z-entries of files for her to time-edit. At least this will get me, in return, the LAST TRAVEL FILE: ITAPUGLI; 4) got to start two piles permanently on my table: a) first-Thursday-evening 101 Clark travel-next, and b) second-Wednesday-afternoon 55 Pierrepont travel-next; 5) also my bedroom window is newly raindrop stained and should be cleaned; 6) as I'm aware that my toenails will need trimming soon---and my hair is really starting to need a haircut. But of course, since the world is ending next Friday, I won't be able to finish a lot of these tasks. Though I'm aware of some far-future tasks already: 1) replace Tris on website, at first by asking Sharon for the phone number of her webmaster-client; 2) send videocamera tapes to Fotobridge; 3) edit and get John to type at least a hundred pages of old love letters from my files; 4) and, at last, that old promise to myself: spend $10,000 on the production of my plays. THAT'S a good list to 9:12AM!
TUESDAY, 12/11/12: 3:05AM: Thought: go to DIARY pages for dates for undated ZSUBJ. Pee, 186.6#. 7:53AM: Shit-read to 8:09AM, 185.2#. FU 8:10-8:30AM, up at 8:32AM. E-mail to 8:43AM; file DONOTCALL card in "D"; transcribe the last week of weights in the datebook; write WHERE AM I NOW? and catch up with journal, now, to 9:14AM, morning light incredibly bright on Pier 17 and Spruce Street, World Trade One now has three cranes starting to build its "tiara," and sky is full of planes and helicopters and very few stringy white clouds, while street is bright with pedestrians and sun between skyscrapers. Now for breakfast, while vacuum cleaner shuts off in hallway. And turns on again. Astoundingly, at 9:18AM, a straggly string of about twenty GEESE wings south over Manhattan!! It was worth getting MC\NO back on-screen again! Quick-wash bedroom windows to 9:25AM. Breakfast with "Leopard" start to 10:30AM. Pluck ear hairs and clean comb to 10:36AM. Send Marj's bill and sort piles on desk to 11AM. Send three FOREIGN Christmas cards to 11:15AM. Check Met lottery at 12:15PM for nothing. 12:45PM: Can't cope with ZSUBJ dates, so decide to go to gym for cardio; back about 2:20PM, lunch (ham meal #6) and "Leopard" to 3:10PM. Spider 3:10-4:10PM to 51.74815 at 1019 up after 5 wins, continued progress. Win not too many Taipei 4:10-5PM. To Tuesday Evening Club at 5:20PM to puzzledly pay $2, then find slides were ALSO scheduled, but announced shower (that's show-er, as in he who was supposed to show, rather than a rainstorm) was sick, so after a VERY inconclusive discussion of finances to 6PM, Marjorie showed slides of Sarasota and the development of NYC architecture to 7PM. Then to Lot-Less for three irresistible licorice and four breakfast-additions and a candy bar to a falsely-marked Visa receipt at 8:19PM that's clearly a mistake for 7:19PM. Watch rest of "The Leopard" with the rest of the first irresistible licorice packages, then have a yogurt and get to bed before eating more at 10:22PM, weighing 186.8#.
WEDNESDAY, 12/12/12: 3:28AM: Pee, down to 185.6#. Type DREAMS:12/12/12 5:32-5:35AM. 6:14AM: Pee, still 185.6#. FUAS 6:19-6:43AM, starting to get light out outside, glad that it's only eight days until darkest morning---or the end of the world! Lie to 6:49AM, then look at Don O'Shea's Christmas e-mail 7-7:35AM, envying his photo albums. Put the tiniest explanation at the start of the ZSUBJ file and let it go at that. Get a call from Susie at Newark, late, at 9AM, her train "having gone backward for fifteen minutes," and she has no idea when she'll get here. I shave, wash face, and dress for the coming threesome, trying not to think of my stomach. Catch up with this at 9:15AM, deciding to pass the time most quickly with Spider and Taipei until people arrive. Spider 9:15-9:50AM, when Susie walks in the door, bringing FIVE sets of cookies for me, Steve, Carolyn, Charles, and John [and when I go to fridge to COUNT them, at first thinking there were SIX sets, there's a strong smell of SMOKE, and I open door to hall to see and smell smoke in HALLWAY, so I call Maintenance and she says, "Yes, it's been reported: laundry room is on fire and Fire Department is there already." OH!?], and [and when I go to check at 9:06AM that she's also brought Cherry and Blackberry Brandies, I hear someone in the hall, knocking on a door, and open my door to see a FIREMAN, fully garbed and carrying an ax, leaving by the stairway] [AND at 9:08 there are voices in the hall, and I go out to see my masseuse neighbor talking to TWO firemen who say the fire it out, but it sure caused a lot of smoke: a dryer burned, and she says the elevators were shut down, but one comes, she misses is, and follows the two firemen down the stairway.] brandies for me. We're talking in the living room when Steve and [and I phone STEVE at 9:15AM to find that his friend is named DAN JARECKY, my memory REALLY IS GOING!] Dan arrive, and we all stand on my balcony for a bit, but Dan says he's starving, as I am, so we're down to Park Plaza where I have the Big Mess, both Susie and Dan ask for BURNT home fries, and both Dan and Steve indulge in hot chocolate. I leave to take half my breakfast home, and meet them to walk to Schermerhorn, and then Adams, and turn the corner to go down the subway entrance to the Subway Museum. Turns out that Wednesday is free for seniors, and though Dan isn't one, he passes for one, so Steve doesn't have to pay for anything. The place is huge. Miss Subways and Electricity exhibits take up most of the upper floor, and then we're downstairs (partly to avoid the numerous kids!) to the old cars, dozens of them, some as interesting for their ads as for their age. I walk until I'm sore, then sit until 12:45PM waiting for the others to join me in the shop. No one can find anything to buy, but I suggest the High Line, and have to borrow Steve's spare (adult rate) Metro card because I don't have mine with me. Get the A and off at 14th Street to find the elevators out of service, so we walk to the far south, watching movies being made on Gansvoort Street, and then north to "forested" areas and lawns and TV screens I really don't remember from prior visits, and Steve's wanting to leave at 23rd Street, and both he and Dan recommend the Chelsea Square Restaurant on 9th over the New York Hamburger place on 10th. In to order Chef Chico's burger on pita bread with lettuce, tomato, and cole slaw, actually interesting, with an enormous glass of lemonade. I eat last, paying for Steve's $5 for my use of his card, and mess up the bill calculation by thinking that the tip on a $45 bill should be $11---total madness! End that it should be $51, which it amounts to, and Steve escorts me to the 8th Avenue subway entrance to retrieve his Metro card. I'm home exhausted, to get a message at 4:25PM from Mark Birkey at Crown for an index of "Infinite Potential" via Deepak Chopra and a physicist writing about quantum mechanics and decisions, 336 pages for which they have nine pages and are willing to pay about $1200. Phone Marj and we are both DELIGHTED with our two jobs. I finish the Spider on my screen in about ten minutes at 51.74436 at 1017 up after 2 wins, BOO! Look through New York magazine and am stopped by Ken's calling at 6:50PM to say that he's GETTING his knee operation on 12/18, and would I sit with him for two days if he needs it? I plead that I have to meet Spartacus in 45 minutes and we'll have to talk later. Get to the elevator to meet Spartacus IN IT! We chat nicely, I show him the Visa bill with the two numbers that he didn't understand that caused me to almost hang up on him the previous evening, and get to Peter Sharp Theater for side seats for the four dances that I really don't care that much for. We're out at 10PM and I get home at 10:45PM, late enough for me to determine to go to bed without eating anything else at 11:01PM, weighing 185.6#.
THURSDAY, 12/13/12: 2:01AM: Pee, still 185.6#. 7:20AM: Type DREAMS:12/13/12 to 7:26AM, shit-read to 7:45AM, down to 184.2#. FUAS 7:47-8:18AM, and leave word with Ken: Spartacus suggested KEN stay at MY place to recover, but why can't he get a nurse, or stay in rehab? That goes to 8:22AM. Check that I mailed the flashdrive to Marj for the 3PM pickup on Tuesday, so she should expect it on Friday. 8:58AM: SMOKE in hallway; Maintenance: fire in laundry, Fire Department here already. Phone Steve at 9:15AM to find I met DAN JARECKY, who had cancer already. Steve stayed with Tom Totman, his longest college-roommate friend. Steve says Bill paid $8000/month for a live-in assistant, and why isn't Ken being sent to a rehab center, and I am NOT a nurse: I wouldn't know what to do if Ken needed help! I update Actualism session list, have breakfast with "Arrow" with a small Barrowman getting a bigger part as the "Archer," to 10:25AM. Finish New York magazine puzzle from last night and fix up living room to 10:45AM. Then play Taipei until calling Marj at 11:05AM, and she's DELIGHTED in proofing the OTHER plays beside "The Director," and we talk about Ken and his problems, and MY problems, until 11:55AM. Call Rita to wish her Happy Birthday at 12:02PM, but she's due out with Denny's sister to visit Paul so she can't talk, but she thanks me for calling. I leave word with Tris to find what he found from oncologist. Check e-mail, look at besttraveled, and catch up with this to 12:40PM, tired from doing nothing today. Really feel like nothing other than Spider, to take away my thoughts from the gym. Do Spider 12:41-2:07PM to 51.74719 at 1019 up after 4 wins, still progress. Have ham meal #7 and finish to go to Sharon's. Busy, talky session, and get back to watch lots of DVR: 2 hours of "Prehistoric Monsters," 2 hours of "Mankind," a half-hour of "Mel Brooks Strikes Back," and a current "Glee." Bed at 11:21PM, weighing 186.6#.
SHARON B. 238 12/13/12
Talk about EVERYTHING: new index, leaving word with Tris, waiting for blind for Carlos, fire in building, bedbug search, my tooth falling out, Rita's birthday and rush today, show her my thumbnail copy, and she can only say, bewildered with density of my constant talking, that I sound happy, and I say it IS good to keep busy, and I even TREATED myself today by NOT going to the gym, as I could have. Didn't mention my obsession with getting the Progresso soups, which I did after I left her. Mentioned the slide show there on Monday, which she marked on her calendar. I talked a lot and left almost breathless.
FRIDAY, 12/14/12: 6AM: Pee, down to 185.4#. 8:54AM: Get call: blind here, Carlos will install at noon! Shit-read to 9:01AM, down to 184.8#. Free bedroom window-area to 9:30AM. Breakfast watching "Elementary," not that great, to 10:30AM. Look at index 10:30AM-2:30PM, interrupted 11:15AM-12:15PM by Tris who says his oncologist tells him his new problem is "eminently treatable." Wonderful news!! He talks about how cancer REPLACES plasma cells, losing antibody function, destroying kidney function. He's 73 years old. I generate five questions that I phone Mark about, to let him know I'm starting. He's delightful to work with. Watch a rather silly "Illicit" with pre-code Barbara Stanwyck with ham lunch #8 to 4:30PM. Ken calls and says I'm off the hook taking care of him, but I still have to escort him home from the hospital on Tuesday morning. Talk to Marj 5-5:45, when I go down to find that Carlos left at 5PM! Have to sleep with a sunny window tonight! "None But the Brave" with Frank Sinatra acting, producing, and directing, rather silly, until 7:30PM. Watch "Underwater Universe" to 9:30PM, and "Magical Mystery Tour Revisited," not that great, to 10:30PM, and then "Magical Mystery Tour," actually better than expected, and want to keep it to listen WITH the album in front of me, to 11:32PM. 186.8# at bedtime at 11:41PM.
SATURDAY, 12/15/12: 4:55: Pee, down to 185.5#. Type DREAMS:12/15/12 4:59-5:06AM. 6:10: Pee, still 185.8#. FUAS 6:14-6:44AM. Breakfast with first hour of "Les Miserables" to 7:34AM. Read Times, starting puzzles, and go to dentist 10:25-11:05AM, finding I need to have my ROOT PULLED BY A SURGEON in January! DAMN! Back to hear Carlos will install shade at noon, and I work on index 12:15-1:05PM, when he installs it in ten minutes, charging me $75 which he wants in cash in an envelope on Tuesday. Was it worth it? Go to gym to get clean for MAN, for which I leave right after returning from gym. It's rather pleasant to have pretzels, chips with dips, and mixed nuts for appetizers rather than fruit or vegetables. Meal late at 4:50PM, drinking LOTS (5-6 glasses?) of red wine, ending rather drunk and talking freely with Steve's Hong Kong friend, having little of actual dinner since I had so much JUNK before. Leave at 6:30, getting home at 7:25PM, and watch "Miserables" to 10:22PM, nodding off three times and needing to watch second part AGAIN! Note to see last time I had blood test. Find THIS in MEDICAL: THURSDAY, 6/21/12: Readings from Kim at Einstein for Resveratrol study: blood pressure is 107/76, cholesterol is 121, HDL is 28, LDL 58, and triglycerides 100. My last HIP test 1/7/11! Chol 127, HDL is 34, LDL 69. So January test will be fine. 188.0# at bed at 10:34PM.
SUNDAY, 12/16/12: 6:12AM: Shit-read to 6:32AM, weighing 185.4#. Make note to cancel Annisa. 7:39AM: Get Times, pee, still 185.4#. FUAS 7:44-8:04AM, up at 8:05AM, and from 8:15-8:30 desktop FAILS! Fear I have to get Mr. English back! Breakfast to 9:15 with "Miserables," finish Times at 10AM, watch second part again, and back at 11:20AM to try computer: AND DON'T HOLD BUTTON AND IT'S OK! WHEW!! Talk to Marj 11:25AM-12:05PM, check e-mail to 12:28PM, do Spider 12:28-1:57PM to 51.75179 at 1022 up after 5 wins, solve puzzle on Google to 2:38PM, getting Youngman as teller of "Take my wife," and Sabatia as Cy Young winner. Cancel Annisa on Open Table. Renew Sci-Am ridiculously early for $24.97. Lunch of the last of the ham, remarkable #9 meal from it. Get Budapest slides ready for tomorrow, then back to Spider 6:55-8:30PM to 51.75285 at 1023 up after 6 wins, good progress. Then, determined, send 17 Christmas cards, write my "2012 Yearly Letter" and send it to Marj and Susie, and mail 19 cards at 9PM, then catch up with this to 9:25PM, feeling quite noble about the whole thing, now hungry for dinner with, I hope, the end of the 4.5 hour "Les Miserables" from 1935 France. Watch season end of "Dexter" and the first hour of "21 Jump Street," no Channing Tatum body shown, eating a frozen Salisbury steak dinner. Bed at 11:42PM, weighing 188.0#.
MONDAY, 12/17/12: 7:25AM: Pee, still 188.0#. Type DREAMS:12/17/12 7:28-7:34AM. Note that I need note for NEXT show at 55 Pierrepont, and that I must call John and Carolyn for Susie's cookies. FUAS 8:01-8:23AM and up at 8:25AM. Pee, weighing 187.4#. Finish "Les Miserables" at last, Javert a suicide, Valjean essentially dying because it's time. Finish with that at 10:10AM, just time to get $300 from the bank, go to the gym for cardio, seeing John, who tells me I can have his cookies if I really want them---good for him! I don't even bother with the steam room, and get back to call Carolyn, at 11:45AM, who intends coming to 55 Pierrepont and I can take her cookies to her there. Ken calls 11:55AM and gives me a phone number for the surgery department at Roosevelt Hospital, saying he MIGHT remember to give them my phone number, but he's more concerned about his operation. I also register for the Met Opera lottery, and get out about 12:30PM with everything in one bag. Room isn't set up at all, but the replacement woman starts moving chairs into position as I set up on the table, ending with about twenty people as I start at 1:10PM with my explanation, and find to my amazement that I end about 1:50PM! Everyone compliments me, asking for travel recommendations from OAT, and Carolyn says she's too tired to come to my place, presenting me with a $3.98 bouquet for Paul's visit and taking her cookies. I'm home at 2:15PM, relieved to be finished with THAT. Have a frozen dinner for lunch with "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg" to 5:30PM, which I saw 4/16/08, and continue with "Fish Tank" to 6:50PM, which I saw 12/15/10, still stunned by Michael Fassbender's attractiveness. Indulge in Spider 7-8PM to 51.75426 at 1024 up after 2 wins, and continue with Taipei 8-9:30PM. Watch four episodes, tacky at only 28 minutes each, that seem to be the entire 1972 "Doctor Who" season, indulging in popcorn, yogurt, and another frozen dinner that ends me at a local high of 191.2# at 11:31PM bedtime.
TUESDAY, 12/18/12: 4:58AM: Pee, still 191.2#. Type DREAMS:12/18/12 5:02-5:04AM. 8:18AM: Shit-read to 8:35AM, down to 188.6#. FUAS 8:36-8:56AM, and note to PHONE Zagat and get Galapagos information to Toba. Up at 8:58AM. Watch two episodes of "Doctor Who" to 10:05AM, leave word with Zagat about my 2013 book, and make an appointment with Santomauro for January 7 at 10:30AM. Phone the hospital at 10:15AM to find Ken hasn't even reached rehab yet, and give them my phone number to call. Spartacus calls 10:25-10:45AM, congratulating me on my good deed, and knocking me for feeling BAD about doing my good deed. I catch up with this by 11:03AM, deciding to call Roosevelt once more. "Wait to talk to nurse" at 11:03, and I'm on HOLD for five minutes. Call BACK, and "You can come in at any time." GREAT! Leave at 11:10AM, getting there by 11:50AM, and he's been waiting since 11AM! He excuses me, I hail a taxi for him, and we get to his place for him to order pain-killer from corner pharmacy. I have a bit of shrimp salad with him for a bit of lunch and sit with him until 1:50PM when I leave, his other friend Bob coming later in the afternoon. The mailman is finishing with our mail, but when he sees me he says he has "another envelope like the one that got lost," and goes to his huge cart behind the lobby desk and riffles through three piles to find my manila envelope from Marj, with its ratty, still uncanceled, stamps. I thank him---I think he wants a Christmas tip. Back up with a load of mail, but put on the TV to watch endless "Doctor Who" from 1972 and 1973, wondering [a check of Wikipedia doesn't list how many episodes each year produced, but the log of comics, movies, programs, etc is ENORMOUS!] how many there were, and then watch a few episodes of "Glee." Marj calls at 5:02PM, since I'd forgotten to call her. Mark Birkey called back with praise for my "quoted" solution to too many references. I have the frozen turkey dinner, which again turns out to be more breading than turkey, and they're ALL VERY SALTY! Play a disastrous spate of Spider 9:05-11:20PM, leaving last game on screen when I shut it off. Decide to go to bed without dinner, since popcorn and another dozen cookies are still lingering in my overloaded stomach. Sorry to weigh 190.4# when I get to bed at 11:42PM.
WEDNESDAY, 12/19/12: 1:49AM: Pee, down to 189.2#. 4:35AM: Pee #2, down to 188.6#. 5:21AM: Pee #3, again down to 187.8#. Make year-end list from 5:24-5:34AM, just to get things OFF MIND: 1) j/o before Paul, 2) re-edit old travel, 3) Galapagos data to Toba, 4) Amazon/Peru prepare, 5) Z-files to flashdrive, 6) ITAPUGLI notes, 7) FotoBridge (FB) trips labeled, 8) prepare Paul's bedding, 9) edited travel to Tris, 10) correction-memo to Tris, 11) check website additions, 12) finish Potential index, 13) type/print 2012 lists, 14) travel FILES made from laptop, 15) Olympus-process FB DVDs, 16) Tris: website turnover instructions, 17) 101 Clark laundry done, 18) gym days, 19) 55/101 programs to June, 20) make JAN-DO list. 6:46AM: Pee #4, down to 186.8#. Make JAN-DO list to 6:54AM: 1) check BOA Visa 1-2% credits, 2) clear Schwab files, 3) check Olympus captioning, 4) check FB 17,000-slide pricing, 5) check apartment-shelf-change lists, 6) reduce coffee-table piles. Add notes to check Ken's knee and tell Charles that Susie's cookies will be delivered to HIM if he doesn't pick them up here. 7:38AM: Put radiator on, pee #5, still 186.8#. Type DREAMS:12/19/12 to 7:44AM. At 7:55AM I start j/o, cum at 8:30AM. Shit-read 8:48-9:24AM, down to a "current" 185.4#. Read a REMARKABLY negative assortment of writings from "The Critics" in a New Yorker magazine to be SAVED. Dress to 9:28AM, check with Ken 9:30-9:42AM, who's having more trouble and pain than he'd wish for, and I even volunteer to go with him shopping if he insists. Leave message with Charles to 9:44AM. Talk to Carolyn 9:45-10:05AM: she ate only three cookies so far, and is looking forward to Paul and me for Christmas, even suggesting pulled pork on buns for dinner that evening. Ken calls at 10:06AM to invite me to Alice Tully Hall for a free concert of operatic arias on 1/16. Steve calls at 10:29AM to arrange 12/30 train trip for me and Susie, possibly ending with hot fudge at his place. Finish breakfast with a repeat penultimate hour of "Mankind" to 11:05AM. Talk to Marj 11:05-11:15AM about her large-size pillbox. Try to redeem my disastrous Spider last night on a new card [#87] from 11:15AM-12:25PM, getting to 51.74786 at 1021 up after 5 wins. Then call and talk to Fred 12:30-12:52PM, accepting his "Beard" group dinner invitation for 1/5, and giving him Ken's phone number, which I rather hope he doesn't use. Return to typing this to 2PM, getting a SECOND call that I clicked on a person to get a company name, and get hung up on! DAMN THEM ALL! Finish this at 2:05PM, ready to clear things off desk. Leave second Zagat phone message at 2:06PM. Put Budapest slides away to 2:37PM. Lunch with Salisbury steak and more of "Mankind" to 3:40PM, and start checking Marj's notes on ITAPUGLI. Get about half through by 6:47PM, and then dress in my velour jacket and black pants to get downstairs to the already-busy party at 7:02PM, getting a plate of appetizers and sitting next to a crazy lady who gets champagne, which leads me to put my red-wine glass under my chair and get a glass of champagne too. Spartacus arrives, and leads us to two seats right at the door, where we then fill up on chicken, lasagna, candy, and more champagne. Lots of people say they like my jacket, including the Mohawked wine server in the lobby space. Have a wonderful time until 9:30PM, more than half an hour after it's officially over, porters cleaning up. Watch the end of "Mankind" and an episode of "Glee" and weigh all of 189.6# at 11:39PM bed.
THURSDAY, 12/20/12: 2:47AM: Phantom phone-ring. Pee, 189.2#. Type DREAMS:12/20/12 to 2:52AM. Feel almost ill from drink last night. 8:01AM: Pee-read to 8:39AM, down to 187.4# FUAS 8:40-9AM, lie, exhausted, to 9:15AM. Toenails clipped to 9:34AM, negating a need to add THAT to my do-lists. Look at slide shows to 9:53AM and e-mail check and Galapagos information to Toba to 10:20AM. Breakfast, reading New Yorker, to 11:08AM. Spider 11:09AM-1:08PM, saving from a disaster of nine losses to 51.73841 to 1016 up after 5 wins. Then determined to go to the gym at 1:10PM to just after 3PM. Veal Parmigiana frozen dinner to 4PM, and get to Sharon early, almost inventing something to complain about, encapsulating my local anomie. Back to play Taipei 5:45-8:20PM, disgusted with myself for not transcribing session and catching up
with journal. More "Glee" and television and even more cookies and apple juice to 12:17AM bed at 189.0#.
SHARON B. 239 12/20/12
Get there early, read, called in at 4:30PM. Start lamenting my existential anomie, searching for words to describe my almost-desperate thoughts about half an hour before leaving for Sharon: didn't even share my CRAZIEST thoughts about twisting my body over my balcony railing and falling, though I immediately thought this would cast a pall over ALL balconies in the building, which should be PRAISED rather than feared. But DID express the thoughts of the FRUITLESSNESS of ANYTHING I tried to do---realizing only Friday morning that, now that I had committed everything I had to do to LISTS, I had literally NOTHING with which to occupy my mind, so it filled with---NOTHING!! The futility of existence, the affectlessness of my website (though Sharon said she LOOKED at the pictures in Galapagos and St. Petersburg and was IMPRESSED by them!), the desperation of my brain when it wasn't engaged in television, eating, reading, or playing games. How I couldn't even rely on READING, which had been a refuge from boredom---though maybe it IS a lack of books that really hold my interest more than an hour before my eyes close over the book. I moaned about how I get tired of games after an hour, or two, or three. I moaned that in years past I could always rely on masturbation to pass hours of time, and now I'm lucky if I play with myself three or four times a month, since, with no real orgasm, there's nothing THERE when I "get there." She sympathizes with everything, not even remarking that I'd long since given up the hope of finding someone to cuddle with, now a totally hopeless thought. Didn't find pleasure in my every-other-day attempts at the gym, though I knew I HAD to keep doing it. Remarked that I was "looking forward" to Paul's visit with mixed feelings: it WILL get me out to restaurants and museums, but it will ALSO saddle me with his PRESENCE for an entire week. Also blamed, in part, the shortest day of the year, which is Thursday or Friday, depending on different authorities [though the calendar DOES say that FRIDAY is both the solstice AND the Mayan "start of the New Age." And noted on the two programs I skimmed Thursday night on the 2012 "catastrophe" that the TIME of the start of the New Age is 11:11AM Friday---though one must wonder WHICH TIME ZONE this would happen in: if it's Europe, it's already PAST that as I type now at 9:48AM]. In squirming to say something, I even indicated that part of "my problem" was that I was actually thinking of WHAT I could bring up to discuss with Sharon this time, since the past two times were simply catalogs of what was making me so happy. She continued to ask what I COULD get interested in, but when I brought up the age-old "$10,000 play-production promise" I made myself, we both agreed that it was really TOO much to consider: too much activity, too much cost, and no practical hope of anything COMING from it. I DID have my list of things that I COULD get interested in, but just DIDN'T HAVE THE ENERGY to do so. Remarked that even the slide digitization, which I thought would keep me occupied, was taking TOO LONG FOR EACH BATCH, another disappointment. And the monthly shows at 55 Pierrepont and 101 Clark had even settled into "planning well ahead" that showed no sign of DEADLINES to make my life more interesting. Not even my present index has a challenging deadline. Well, at least I got this done, which was hanging over my head. Leave at 5:15, making sure that she was here next Thursday for the final session of the year.
FRIDAY, 12/21/12: 7:49AM: Shit-read to 8:10AM, down to 187.8#. Wonder about whether my tooth in infected. FUAS 8:25-8:50AM, and up at 8:57AM, still 187.8#. Call Goldberger at 9:15AM and Estelle says she'll call me Saturday. "Best restaurants" on Google not checkable for NYC, but amazed that Iron Chef across the street is #3 in Brooklyn! Look at "tallest NYC building" to 10:12AM. Breakfast with New Yorker to 11AM. Take garbage out and get a copy of Friday NY Times arts that I read until 11:18AM. Then Spider 11:20AM-12:45PM to 51.74643 at 1021 up after 6 wins, wonderful, and continue with Taipei 12:45-1:35PM, and Solitaire 1:35-2:40PM, just because I can. But weary up from desk have frozen Swedish Meatballs for lunch while watching "Glee," and continue with cookies and popcorn and yogurt through the evening, catching up with some "Doctor Who" programs that I already saw. Back to Spider 7:20-10:15PM to 51.74017 at 1018 up after 3 wins, just MADNESS! Maybe get the mail, but it's only "Scientific American," and I seem to be getting NO Christmas cards AT ALL this year. More, endless TV to weigh an embarrassing 190.4# at 11:54PM bed.
SATURDAY, 12/22/12: 7:26AM: Shit-read Times to 7:47AM, down to 188.6#. Up at 8:49AM, pee, still 188.6#. Register for Netflix and find my queue has been destroyed! Restore most of it by 9:35AM. Read Times to 11AM, try to find Marj but her phone is BUSY, so I play Spider 11:05-11:35AM to 51.7417 at 1019 up after 2 wins. Then she calls at 11:35AM and we talk to 12:40PM, she saying she won't be able to do ANYTHING on ITAPUGLI until she finishes her enormous proofreading job on January 8! I scrub tub and phone to make sure Dr. Goldberger's prescription has reached CVS to 1:30PM, and when I go downstairs I find the mailman alone and give him $20. Then go for my cardio, really questioning whether it's doing me ANY good, and back at 3PM, with prescription from CVS. Finish the crossword, go through the mail, put stuff away, finding Paul's bedding, and working on the diagramless when Paul phones at 5:30PM to ask the name of my street! He arrives just after 6PM, he gives two bottles of Laurent Perrier champagne, and we chat with Sour Cherry Brandy when Jack the Horse doesn't have a reservation for two until 9PM. I look through Netflix to find "The Queen of Versailles," which we watch until 8:50, and then to Jack's for their great burger, Paul paying the whole bill, with tip, of $45. Back to watch the end of the movie, I check Google to find that Siegal at FIRST threatened to fire people if they voted for Obama, and then AFTER the election gave them raises! I then catch up with journal to 11:25PM, back sore. Weigh 190.4# when I get to bed at 11:37PM.
SUNDAY, 12/23/12: 5:17AM: Pee, still 190.4#. 8:43AM: Type DREAMS:12/23/12 to 8:49AM. Shit-read Times to 9:08AM, weighing 189.2#. Breakfast while looking through Times, maybe a bit of TV before leaving for Met Museum about 11AM, getting in at 12:03PM, and seeing MANY exhibits: 1) British silver 12:05-12:30PM, 2) Bernini to 1PM, 3) Warhol 1:20-2:04PM, 4) Bellows (with many styles I didn't know he painted in) 2:08-2:42PM, then to 5) lunch to 3:20PM, lousy turkey sandwich, good strawberry smoothie and a coffee cake for $18 that I somehow lost my Visa bill for, 6) furniture 3:30-4:0-4PM, 7) manipulated photography 4:10-4:44PM, 8) john 4:50-5PM, and find that Paul's already left 9) Matisse, meeting him at the coats at 5:05PM. Get seats on the bus and transfer to subway to get home, and quickly decide to find a smoked ham at Key Food, but check out at 6:40PM with FRESH ham, which I put into the oven at 7PM and take it out at 10PM to find that it's still red! We have it with green beans and apple sauce. Watch "Pina," lousy, with my speeding through some of the repetition, then "Haywire," also lousy, with plotless nonsense by director Soderberg with Channing Tatum being killed off after Michael Fassbinder was disposed of in fifteen minutes! Watch an episode of "Glee" also. Weigh 191.4# at 11:55PM bed.
MONDAY, 12/24/12: 4:34AM: Pee #1, 190.4#. 5:37AM: Pee #2, 189.6#, Paul up. 7:12AM: Pee #3, read to 7:24AM, 187.8#. 8:41AM: Shit-read to 9:01AM, 187.6#. Paul leaves and I read Times and Spartacus calls, and when I say that "Magic Mike" is COMING, and he wants to hear it's AVAILABLE, he hangs up on me. I call him back to find that HE was just about to call ME to APOLOGIZE for hanging up on me! He's going to the Modern on Thursday and will take Paul, if he wants. I have breakfast with "Frozen Planet" to 11AM, then check Paul's Met Opera ticket to 11:03AM, and print that out, and register for the Met Opera drawing at 12:58PM. Dress is Italian jacket and black pants and get out about 1:15PM to Bouley, meeting Paul in anteroom to wait ten minutes for our table, and we're both impressed by the sheer BEAUTY of the place! DOWNSTAIRS, which is a surprise for me, to sit side by side at a table looking over the maybe eight other tables, having an amuse bouche, then I have the Porcini fish, good, while he has the lobster, and then I order the plank of Long Island Duck while he has the White Fallow Venison hunk, both lovely with mashed potatoes on the side. I have an $18 large Kir Royale, while he has a $14 Pinot Grigio. Desserts are wonderful, particularly when he decides the dense warm chocolate cake is too heavy for his dessert and I finish the last 2/3 of it! He pays the whole of the $95 tasting menu. I'm delighted. He stays in town, saying he'll go down to the Village, and I'm home for Spider 4:50-6:20PM, to 51.7411 at 1019 up after 3 wins, steady position. More Times, maybe, or mail, to Taipei 8:30-9:40PM, have soup for dinner, and try to watch Roku when Paul returns, but it keeps on failing, and the next day Spartacus says it went off across the country because of "interactions with the cloud from Google." I get to bed at 11:03PM without even bothering to weigh myself.
TUESDAY, 12/25/12: 12:57AM: Pee #1, 188.6#. 3:08AM: Pee #2, 187.4#. 6:45AM: Pee #3, 186.6#. 8:20AM: Up, try to entertain Paul, and decide to start marking Batch #1 of the digitized slides at 9AM, which quickly bores him and he leaves. I continue, finding that they SKIPPED an entire box, and managed to lose the last slide on another two boxes, messing Florida up in yet another box. Carolyn finally calls back at 1:45PM to say that her phone wasn't working, but she's ready for her party at any time, as soon as she has her shower. I continue with the checking to 2:05PM, and we leave about 2:15PM, I taking a bottle of Blackberry Brandy, and we get there first at 2:45PM, helping her light the candles, and Nancy and others arrive, including the strange family of the Australian husband, wife Niropa, 13-year-old Bodhi---and I say "Dharma" and he says that IS his name! And a 5-year-old kid on a leash. They go, return, and leave again. Wondra enters with her craggy Black lover, preparing the fresh ham for the buns, and only at the end do I find the burnt lovelies in the oven that Carolyn forgot. The Blackberry Brandy goes VERY well with the mulled apple cider. Carolyn had piles of cheeses, hummus and tahini, cookies and tangerines, salads and pork, and about 7PM we're out to wander 1st and 2nd Places, disappointed at the lower level of Christmas lights. Then they volunteer to drive us home! Great treat! He'd started watching "Curse of the Golden Flower" in the afternoon, so I decide we can finish it, speeding through the commercials, finishing at 9:50PM. I'm feeling fooded and boozed out, so I go to bed at 10:17PM, delighted to weigh as little at 188.0#.
WEDNESDAY, 12/26/12: Wake, incredibly, at 7:54AM and shit-read to 8:12AM, calculating that I'd slept, without peeing, 9:37, possibly an all-time record! Watch "Paris: The Luminous Years," which I don't think I watched when it came out two years ago, to 9:50AM. Paul goes out, again, and I play Spider 10:05-11:15AM to 51.74581 to 1022 up after 4 wins, slow progress. Then DETERMINED to do the exercises at the gym, changing underwear, and back at 12:47PM. Spend time with Taipei 12:50-1:35PM, and put on light blue suit and jungle tie and get to Bernardin at 2:20PM, slightly late, but Paul was patiently waiting. The same salmon mousse with thin bread was the amuse bouche, and I had admittedly delicious charred octopus with a few side things, while he loved his crab balls, of which he gave me one, crabby. He liked his skate, which he knew as ray, and I LOVED my short ribs of beef, the only non-fish entree. My Kir Royale, on the skimpy side, was $24, and his Chablis was somewhat less, again the tasting for $95. I thought it was not as good as Bouley, but he kept insisting they were quite different and both good. It was still snowing heavy flakes that melted on the ground but gathered on the jackets, but by evening it was 38° and nothing was sticking. I'm home at 4:30PM, look through mail to 5:30PM, getting a return from Lorene, and still no FB, but did get "Magic Mike." Back to Spider 5:30-8:50 to 51.73249 at 1015 up after 2 wins, awful!! Watch the "Doctor Who" Snowman Christmas special, finish "Paris: The Luminous Years," and weigh 190.4# when I phone downstairs at 11:50PM to make sure Paul gets back from "Les Troyens" after midnight. Bed 11:55PM.
THURSDAY, 12/27/12: 2:36AM: Pee, 189.4#. 7:18AM: Shit-read to 7:23AM, 187.6#, finishing the January Scientific American, leaving only the new New York magazine to read. FUAS 7:48-8:08AM, blinking the clock, and get up at 8:13AM to find Paul watching porn, as usual, saying he got back after 1AM, LOVING the singers and hating the sets of "Les Troyens." We start watching "Magic Mike," and I stop to carve much of the fat off the ham and put it on to roast again at 9:30AM. Finish the awful movie at 10:40AM, and call Spartacus to have Paul meet him at 11:30AM to go to the Modern. I call Marj, starting with "I just won't call on December 27," and neither mention her birthday today as we talk from 11:20-11:45AM, me complaining about FB errors and Zagat non-working "newyork@zagat.com, she fearing she won't finish proofing the enormous text. I shut off the oven at 12:08PM, have lunch of the third portion of fresh ham while watching the odd "Trapped in the Closet" for about an hour, then catch up with journal, at LAST, by 2:15PM, having checked the DVR history and the Netflix Roku history, and getting all my notes put away. New Met Museum by 2/7/13 by 2:18PM. Finish Sunday Times diagramless by 2:50PM! Shit-read penultimate New York magazine by 3:20PM. Watch "Trapped in the Closet" to 4:10PM and get to Sharon's by 4:20PM. Out at 5:15PM, home by 5:25PM to find that Laird died last December! Then change clothes and leave at 5:40PM, sitting for a long time before Chambers Street, but still getting to Corton at 6:05PM to find Paul already arrived. Again set table side by side to look out over the entire restaurant and Liebrandt in the kitchen, still in his long hair unfettered by any kind of chef's toque. Magnificent dinner of game terrine, agnolotti of parsley root, kanpachi, pear/partridge pie in a uniform dome, then "first snow flake" dessert of Meyer lemon, and panettone dessert with the four chocolates, two macaroons, and chocolate truffle. Wonderful. Out at 8:15PM, home to say I have to transcribe session so that Paul can watch the four DVDs that Spartacus lent him, saying he wants to give Paul records to mail IN Paris to Paris, paying his way in to the Modern in return. Paul loved the show. I finish this by 9:15PM, ready for games. Spider goes from 9:15-10:30PM, ending at 51.73543 at 1017 up after 3 wins, slow progress. Continue with Taipei 10:30-11:25PM, winning just over half. When I go out for my final pee, the light in the living room is off already and Paul is in bed. I get to bed at 11:49PM, at 189.4#.
WHERE AM I NOW? 12/27/12
10:50AM: First time here since Saturday, five days ago. Throw table-top cards away, pile up "get rid of" stack, and decide to phone and e-mail Zagat again. Same "leave message" from Zagat, and I try e-mailing newyork@zagat.com and it's NOT SENT. So I send a SECOND message (first 12/6) to nyc@zagat.com. Phone Marj and say "I will NOT call you on December 27," and we NEVER mention her birthday, though she says it was "sweet" of me to call. I tell her about my worry about my tooth-pull to make her feel better about her panic over her completing her proofing of the Baby Name Wizard, which, it turns out, the library only notes that it has the FIRST (2005) edition of, though she's working on the THIRD edition now. Paul borrows porn DVDs from Spartacus, gets a sheet from Bob Lambiase that Spartacus wants to fax, and gets taken to the Modern for an exhibit Paul wants to see. Now, at 12:05PM, I can think only of taking the fresh ham (NEVER AGAIN!) out of the oven after baking from 9:25AM-12:05PM, hoping to get rid of the awful blood-red portions of the underdone-looking meat. Have lunch EARLY, watching TV, preparing for Corton at 6:15PM this evening, after Sharon at 4:30PM.
SHARON B. 240 12/27/12
Get there at 4:20PM and she asks me in at 4:30PM. I say I've been watching "Trapped in the Closet," and briefly describe the four couples' cheating, and say that I feel my session will be dominated by that kind of speech pattern. Describe my indulging in games when Paul's here, though he does his best to be out of the apartment as much as possible. I talked about his 1AM arrival from "Les Troyens," our movie viewing, his going to the Modern Museum today, his leaving on Saturday. I talked of the mess-up of the FB batch 1, my impatience with people gabbing at the gym when I finally remove my iPod, and my "touch of happiness" yesterday before going to Le Bernardin: happy to not have any deadlines pressing on me, eating in good restaurants, Paul doing his best to accommodate me, BUT how annoying his laugh, his throat-clearing, his constant comments are, and Sharon says that in a relationship these things fade into the background and are not even heard. I said that I was sure his wife would go out of her mind. Talked about the vacancy left on Friday, with the possibility of dinner at the Thai restaurant. Talked and talked about not having to call Charles or Ken, Tris seeming to be in more trouble, Carolyn's phone being out of service. Sharon then suggested that by having the things to do on a list, I could indulge in games knowing I wouldn't forget about the tasks to be done. Also mentioned how pleased I was that my weight remained within five pounds of my twenty-pound loss. By the time I couldn't think of anything to add, it was 5:15 and time for me to leave, verifying that she'd be here next Thursday, the date of my next 101 Clark Street show.
FRIDAY, 12/28/12: 5:19AM: Pee, 188.8#. 8:11AM: Shit-read to 8:29AM. Type DREAMS:12/28/12 to 8:32AM, and find at 8:35AM that Paul's out already for the day. I'd been counting: five meals left, but only one go-to-bed and one wakeup left. Fill up the humidifier and type this to 8:42AM, printing out one page and ready for a week with nothing, really, to do until Thursday! But then Ken calls for 12/31, and then Steve calls for 12/30, and we go for lunch 12/29! Watch end of "Trapped in the Closet" and "Frozen Planet" with breakfast to 9:55AM. Re-sort slides from Batch #1 to 12:10PM. 12:15PM: Decide to check website additions. Send Tris memo with six corrections to 2:12PM, after PROBLEMS getting to Word! Lunch, watching "David Copperfield," and Paul comes in from having signed in at conference with only fifty people and free breakfast. Watch Charles Rose with Warhol and Hirst to 6:30. Work on 2012 list to 7:30PM, Lantern for dinner to 8:50PM, bringing back half my dinner, and back to list to 9:45PM, finally being so bored that I go to Spider 9:45PM-12:30AM while Paul went to bed early, ending at 51.73789 at 1019 up after 3 wins, slow up. Weigh 189.4# at bed at 12:44AM.
SATURDAY, 12/29/12: 3:01AM: Pee, still 189.4#. 6:29AM: Pee-read to 6:42AM, 187.6#, Paul up watching Spartacus's tapes and DVDs. Up at 7:52AM, still tired, getting Times, but GOT to get into Paul's LAST DAY HERE---assuming snow doesn't cancel his flight! Watch "Joffrey Ballet" with breakfast to 9:45AM. Then read Times, taking puzzles into bedroom as Paul watches TV. Work a bit of 2012 list, then Paul wants to have lunch at Asya to 2:30PM, actually a wonderful place, half-price $18 lunch for $9, for which he pays, and back at 2:30PM to type up $875 bill for Paul, he not having spent NEARLY that much on my restaurants this week. Work on 2012 list until 3:25PM, again bored enough to start Spider, interrupted by Steve's calling, then calling Susie, then Paul getting car early at 5:10PM, and me talking to Susie, getting her here tomorrow about 11:15AM. Back to Spider 3:15-7:30PM, to 51.73659 at 1019 up after 7 wins, really staying in place. Finish list to date by 8:50PM, and catch up with this by 9:05PM, RELIEVED TO BE FREE OF PAUL! Snowed wetly part of the afternoon, but then it stopped, never threatening airports, though Paul mentions the wind from the northwest that will make the flight fast but bumpy. Cold sitting at the window, and surprised by a new page at this moment. Also surprised by a call from CVS about my "managed renewal." Still not got a Zagat for this year, and VERY disappointed not to get another batch from FB, nor this week's New Yorker. Start watching a wonderful "Stardust" and, having had the fourth portion of ham on Thursday, have the fifth portion for dinner with more green beans and apple sauce. Weigh 190.6# at 11:26PM bedtime.
SUNDAY, 12/30/12: 7:15AM: Type DREAMS:12/30/12 to 7:23AM, shit-read Times to 7:34AM, weighing 188.2#. Watch end of "Stardust" with breakfast, water plants, go to gym without clerk saying anything about my arrival before 9AM on Sunday, and go through exercises in forty minutes. Back to finish Times, change the inserts in my new shoes, and am just about to take off my pants to change them when Susie arrives at 11:20AM. I heat up the rest of the Nightingale's Nest to have with some of her red Fre wine while she eats her lunch. Ken calls about deciding to have me for dinner tomorrow. We leave about 12:05PM, where I have a moment of absence at 4th Avenue, thinking we'll meet Steve, until Susie points out that we're supposed to have caught that F-train and gone up to 23rd Street. Oh. Catch next F-train, wait for Steve until the dot of 12:50PM, and then the vintage 1931 train comes at 1:10PM. We ride with the madness to Queens Plaza, then wait for the return to 23rd Street, getting off at 2PM with Leon. To Steve's for Susie's cookies, both oatmeal-raisin and shortbread-nut, and some of the train action, and wait for Leon's lady at 3:30PM, when Steve serves his dynamite cranberry pie with vanilla ice cream. I talk lots about travel, we look at the flashing lights on the globe below in Madison Square Park, and look at his trains more, my even taking movies of them, and then I leave with Susie at 5:35PM so she can get the 6:11PM train back to New Jersey. I get the N to 14th Street, change to the 4, and backtrack at Boro Hall to return home at 6:15PM to get a message from Ken that his nephew Mike and his wife Gina will be joining us tomorrow night for dinner---less champagne for me! I start watching "Noah" from 1999, none of which I remember, and then think to type this to 7:25PM before making dinner of the sixth portion of fresh ham. Only one day left of this year! Play spider 7:25-9:10PM to 51.73764 at 1020 up after 2 wins, slow. Find that I only recorded the first half of "Noah," and the second half doesn't seem to be available. Tough. The sixth portion of fresh ham is greasy and seemingly too much, since I'm up to 191.8# tonight. Watch "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" second time, best remembering the marvelous face and persona of the French former unicyclist and juggler who described the Australian aborigine "touching up" an ancient painting by saying that he WAS the spirit of the painting, quite different from a modern Western interpretation of such doings. Even though I watched the film last November, there was much that I hadn't remembered, though the actual artistic content is quite a bit less than Lascaux. Bed at 12:45AM.
MONDAY, 12/31/12: 8:01AM: Shit-read to 8:28AM, down to 188.2#. FUAS 8:30-8:51AM, and up at 9:04AM with the idea of sending a monthly, group last-day-of-the-month, as this will be, e-mail about two slide programs, and at 9:08AM take a tiny pee and make weighing problematic by weighing 189.2#, clearly defining my ability to "cheat" even on a digital scale: I had NO input, yet "weighed" a pound more in forty minutes. Start typing at 9:15AM, micro-managing my day, typing this at 9:23AM, completing 2012's list of daily weights at 9:27AM, with four tasks waiting for today, but after breakfast: 1) four posters from manager for 55 Pierre and Marj and me, 2) CVS prescription for whatever, running out of coumadin, 3) library book at 10AM, 4) Ken's at 6:30PM, typing this at 9:29AM. Watch "Arrow" with breakfast to 10:30AM, with John bARROWman appearing for about a minute at the end. FUSS with Met lottery to 10:52AM, being told to "try again in an hour; there's a glitch in the website." Do the four errands: the office is closed, so I xerox two inferior copies of the 1/3 101 Clark program and put them onto the bulletin boards at 55 Pierrepont, being recognized by two of my audience asking about the next shows. Bark at the clerk in CVS for wanting my address, saying "I don't give a bleep" about their security worries. Get TWO prescriptions taken off the "we do it for you" list, because, as I say, it's only HALF the prescriptions I want, and I don't want them when YOU want me to want them. Then at the library I try to scan the SELLER'S line code, rather than the LIBRARY'S line code, but the clerk does it for me. Spartacus reminds me that I should put it in a plastic bag because of the bedbug possibilities. If the NEW book has 65 pages for the index, 150 lines/page, that's 9750 lines, for which I would charge $9750 at the rate of $1/line, or the same price for 25¢/entry, since the index would have VERY roughly 39,000 entries, a truly astronomical number, for which I assume a computerized indexing program would work perfectly. These errands take until 12:30PM. Sign for the Met Lottery with my new names: zolner/zolner by 12:50PM. Study "Baby Name" index to 1:15PM. Then play Spider 1:15-2:45PM to 51.73764 at 1020 up after 2 wins, slow. Watch the VERY strange "Enter the Void" about dying after reading the Bardo-Thodol book. Then dress and get to Ken's at precisely 6:30PM for dinner; he's survived the second physical therapy session with lots to talk about. I watch the Empire State Building flash its colors before his nephew Mike and his friend Gina arrive at 7:30 and we sit down to a slight dinner of salmon in a delicious sauce, green beans with onions, and Mike-brought apple pie for dessert. We all have not-enough champagne. We talk, then leave about 9:30PM. I return to play Spider 9:55PM-1:10AM, watching fireworks reflected off Manhattan skyscrapers at midnight. Weigh an unfortunate 191.4# when getting to bed at 1:25AM.