A salon and sleep kind of day…

~Sunday~  I was up at 10:00, and while I showered it occurred to me that not only was I not going to be able to buy Cinnabon cinnamon rolls for Salon Brunch at 11:00, because they didn’t open until noon, but that I also wasn’t going to be able to buy the champagne I said I’d bring for the mimosas, because our great state is one of the 14 that cling to Prohibition-era Blue Laws banning Sunday liquor sales.

To that end, I went to Bruegger’s, where I bought the “Big Bagel Pack” (or something like that), which consisted of 6 bagels and one tub of cream cheese. I chose the following bagels: pumpernickel, whole grain, plain, sesame, Asiago Parmesan, cinnamon raisin. I got a plain lite cream cheese tub, and paid extra for a tub of their seasonal pumpkin cream cheese, too.

Brunch at Anna’s was lovely. In addition to my bagels, Anna made scrambled eggs for us, Sarah made a delicous non-dairy coffee cake, and Kim brought fruit—fresh raspberries to be specific.

We spent some time articulating and enumerating the things we thought made our Salon successful, as we had the following affirmation come in about a week ago from my friend Casey:

We played “Name That Quote Author,” in which I had to guess who said what from a list of quotes that were bantered about last night during Sarah, Anna, and Kim’s night out on the town. Okay, not on the town, but at The Flying Saucer “in search the perfect pretzel.” Twisted, I know.

I did dreadful on it, with a score of close to 50% correct and 50% incorrect. The same quiz was going to be administered to Brad later in the evening.

Late-afternoon, Janet bowed out of tonight’s book club, and as I was still pretty much out of it from my stressful weekend, I took a several hour nap.

I woke up feeling much better, so I headed down to Mitch’s to meet the rest of Salon, including Brad, who couldn’t make it to brunch this morning. Since everyone was there, we ended up having Salon XXIV.

1. You saw a Craigslist posting that said, “Beware of this guy!!!” The next day you see him out with someone. He goes to the bathroom, and the guy he’s with is standing right next to you, alone for a few minutes. What would you do? (John)
   • I decided not to take any action, mostly because I only had one side of “the story.”
2. How important is swimming to you? Do you go to the pool? If you do, do you swim? Or do you sit by the side? (Sarah)
   • When I was little, I was known for swimming sideways in the pool with my left arm extended singing, “And you know Flipper, is smarter than he…”
   • I loved the water as a child.
   • Now I choose lying by the pool over going in it, and the pool over the ocean.
3. About Purportedly Gendered Body Parts by Dean Spade. What do you think about his idea? Merits? Problems? Good points? (Kim)
   • Talk about Read My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender by Riki Wilchens, perhaps read the table of contents.
4. Asians and mathematics. (John)
   • Read pages 227-232 of the “Rice Paddies and Math Tests” chapter of Outliers, which is about a theory of how language contributes to the phenomenon that Asians are better than Americans when it comes to mathematics.
   • I think that what’s so particularly interesting about this (other than it blows away a stereotype) is that math and language are usually perceived as so very different things (e.g., the math scores versus the verbal scores on the SAT) or other standardized (American) tests, yet this theory posits that they are intrinsically linked.
5. What reading materials, if any, are available in your guest bathroom right now? (John – via my friend Casey‘s Facebook status update one day)
   • Sit & Solve Crossword #2 – Trip Payne
   • Sit & Solve Crossword #2 – Gary Disch
   • Famous Last Words: The Ultimate Collection of Finales and Farewells (“Do you think it could have been the sausage?” ~Paul Claudel~, “I’ve never felt better.” ~Douglas Fairbanks Sr.~ “Either that wallpaper goes or I do.” ~Oscar Wilde~)
   • How to Be a Genius: A Handbook for the Aspiring Smarty-Pants – Andre De Guillaume
6. Are you a legal Scrabble play? — What does your name mean? Not the baby-name-book meaning, but the lower case improper noun meaning (if there is one). (Anna)

   Both my first and last names are legal Scrabble plays:

   • john: 1) A toilet. 2) A prostitute’s client.
   • martin: Swift-flying, insectivorous songbird of the swallow family, typically having a less strongly forked tail than a swallow.
7. Pledge of Allegiance and/or Star Spangled Banner. Do you say it and/or sing it in public gatherings? Why or why not? (Sarah)
   • I do not say the Pledge of Allegiance any more, because I object to the word “God” in it.
   • I do sing the Star-Spangled Banner, but only because I like to sing, not because of the symbolism of the song.
   • However, in honor of my dad’s service in the Marine Corps, I do stand for the Star Spangled Banner and remove my hat if I have one on, but I can’t remember the last time I did. I am not a ball cap wearer.
8. Facebook changes (Sarah)
• My reaction to all of the Facebook changes is to focus on what I have control over.
• The first thing I do is a Google search to see if there’s any way to revert or circumvent a change that I don’t like.
• I accept the fact that this is a “free” service and the price we pay for using it is that Facebook is always going to try and mine our data to sell advertising, as someone has to pay for the shit.
• I hang on to the knowledge that I have the option to stop using it at any time.