~Monday~ On the Wolfline bus this morning, an Asian guy sat across from me in a bright red polo shirt, calf-length black pants that stopped four inches short of where his black socks started. That outfit was capped (or should I say “toed”) off with shiny, shiny patent leather dress shoes. The CapadeCam caught part of it… you’ll have to imagine the red polo shirt part:
I’m not sure if this guy was praying, studying, or memorizing lines for a play, but he held a piece of paper that he glanced at occasionally while talking out loud in what would pass as a chant or rote learning.
A couple of seats to the right of this guy was a student who is presumably working his way through college, or at least supplementing whomever else might be paying his way, as he was in his Papa Johns uniform heading to work. He had on off-white shorts, a green polo shirt with both a name tag and a ball cap that had the Papa Johns logo on them. What killed me was that the top of his shoes looked like they had white powder all of them, and I laughed a little bit out loud when I realized that it was flour.
At work, I found this fabulous hat on my desk, which belongs to the daughter of my boss’s boss, and is another response to my call for a crazy hat that I might borrow for the hat party I’m going to this weekend:
As soon as I logged into my e-mail and calendaring system, I saw a meeting in twenty minutes in a part of campus that I have to take the bus to get to. I really thought that meeting was next Monday!
At lunch time, I stopped by the Credit Union to deposit two checks and when both entering and exiting I thought of the bank robber that’s presumably robbed this bank and the Wachovia down the street two times. I was glad to be in and out of there quickly and without incident.
I stopped at the nearby Subway for a lunch sandwich trying their new chicken salad offering, and I was not impressed. I mean it’s okay, but it’s not great. I most likely will not get it again.
I wasn’t home long, but while I was there I called my dad to grovel about missing calling him yesterday on Father’s Day and for not getting his card in the mail. He talked for less than a minute and then put my mom on. We talked long, particularly for me as two minutes is long on a phone to me, but she told me all about getting ADT service (for fire, theft, and medical situations), which I was just thrilled to hear. I then filled her in on my trip to Uncle Rene and Aunt Rita’s 50th Wedding Anniversary.
On the way to Salon, I stopped at the UPS store in Crossroads and called my sister on the way, mostly to tell her about the ADT system, as we’ve both been talking about getting my parents some kind of medical alert system for about a year now. Oh yeah, and to tell her that my mom had also casually mentioned that she and dad had picked out their cemetery plots and spoke to Jones Funeral Home about their arrangements. These are big steps for my parents, something we’ve been trying to get them to do for a long time now. Perhaps, next, they’ll get that damn will drawn up.
At the UPS store, I mailed a framed picture to my parents for a combined and all belated gift for mom’s birthday, dad’s birthday, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day. It cost me $40 to mail a $20 item. Now that’s messed up.
I made one final stop before Salon to pick up a coffee cake there, which was expensive, but I knew it was good because it’s the same one Lisa and I bought down in Cape Coral to take to Connie and Paul’s the Friday afternoon we spent there.
Tonight was Salon XII, and since our last salon, one of our members, Kim, has moved. Tonight we “Skyped” her in, and she was able to join us for the first hour or so before having to leave to teach a yoga class. We’re now storing the minutes of Salon in our Ning, but I’m going to include the agenda here and my own answers or responses to the items on it, where it’s appropriate:
Anna’s Home (with Kim Skyped in)
June 21, 2010
- Will & Ned’s Excellent Adventure (John)
At our last salon, I mentioned that I’ve created a diversity education poster that’s been used in corporations and companies all around the world—much to the surprise of the salon members. I brought a copy of it tonight to look at.
- What would you have written on your tombstone if you: a) had one and b) had the money to have more than your name and dates printed and c) knew whether you wanted it in serif or sans serif typeface? (Kim)
First of all, I’m being cremated, so there’d be no tombstone. However, in the spirit of supposition “a)”, if I did have one I’d have engraved the short poem by Raymond Carver that’s slated for my obituary, which can be found by scrolling toward the bottom of my Last Wishes web page. Also, with regards to the “c)” part of the question, since my handwriting is so nice that twice in my life I’ve been asked to hand-address wedding invitations, and in the spirit of “b)” with money not being an object, I would have a font created out of my own handwriting, and then use that font on my tombstone.
- Reading of Jeanne Wells Perry’s eulogy (John)
May 27th was the two-year anniversary of the funeral of my friend Jeane Perry, and at which I read my eulogy of her. On that day, I was thinking about her, and the eulogy, and the ephemeral nature of eulogies, and I asked my salon friends if they’d be willing to listen to it if I read it—breathing life back into it, if you will. I can’t even begin to articulate the generosity of my friends during and after this agenda item.
- Brushes with fame: met, almost met, saw in person (i.e., use a broad brush to determine) (John)
While in Venice in 1987, while we were walking around Piazza San Marco (also known as St. Mark’s Square), my (then) father-in-law (who was a huge tennis fan) nudged me and said, “Look! That’s Martina Navratilova!” She had a very pretty lady, Judy Nelson, on her arm and they were doing their best to not be noticed.
- A “couple of mosts”: a) What’s the most you would pay to see a singer or singing group, and who would it be? b) What’s the most you would pay for a vet bill to save your pet? (John)
Coincidentally, the answer to this question, in terms of the dollar amount, are the exact same. I’d spend up to $5,000 to see Barbra Streisand in concert, as well as to keep my pet alive.
- What irrational fears (limit to two, please) do you have and what criteria do you use to determine that they are irrational? (John/Sarah)
Spiders. What I use to determine that it’s irrational to be afraid of spiders is that the biggest reason I’m afraid of them is that they are so repulsive looking to me, and there are certainly other things repulsive to me in life that I’m not afraid of.
- What resident aliens have to do in order to work in the US. (Sarah and I were wondering today, Brad.) (Anna)
Brad, since he’s Canadian, took us through what he has to do in terms of maintaining a Green Card in this country.
- Words that you hate (Sarah)
We didn’t spend much time on this item, as we ran out of time, but my thing is more about not wanting to talk about certain topics, not necessarily about specific words. Going potty, and everything associated with it, is one of those topics for me.
- What’s to be gleaned, inferred, deduced, induced, or otherwise learned from the response to me emailing the which-nerd-idol-would-you-rather-do poll rather than posting to the Ning? (and more broadly as it’s happened several times since then, the criteria used to send e-mail versus post to the Ning in communications to our group (Anna)
We moved this item to next salon’s agenda as we ran out of time.
- Running ruminations (John)
I’m going to leave this item as arcane as it probably comes across. It was just a list of quotes that I’d collected in response to a topic that came up at our last salon meeting.
- Update on the Global Health Conference (Anna)
Anna brought “porn swag” from a conference she recently attended. They always have fun things there, and the swag that turned into the biggest hit this time was the Kwikpoint Visual Language Translator, for Law Enforcement—Just Point to the Pictures.
- Would you date/marry a porn star? (John)
I wouldn’t seek one out, but it wouldn’t bother me to be with one.