Month: July 2006

Bush gives life as the reason for not supporting stem cell research, but this kind of collateral damage is acceptable. Loss of life is okay, killing children is okay, if it’s in support of his agenda. (Never mind that the stem cell studies proposed would not lead to loss of life.)

I remember going uptown a couple of weeks after 9/11, when the site of the Trade Center was literally still on fire, and they were bringing out bodies and body parts. But people uptown were walking around like nothing happened. They were dressed up, laughing, eating lunch. It just felt bizarre and wrong and I felt like we were not even members of same species.

I mean, what the fuck.

People in Lebanon must be feeling something similar.

My friend Danny’s latest post (he lives in Lebanon).

Last Christmas I tried to download an episode of Northern Exposure, one with a holiday theme that I always loved. I wasn’t successful, but I kept the request up there just in case it ever became available. A week or so ago it started downloading, and this morning I watched it. What a sweet show this was. My favorite parts are when Holling sings Ave Maria to Shelly. And when Joel brings a Christmas tree to Maggie.

Sigh. It made me want to move to Alaska when I first saw it. Anyway, it was a nice way to begin the day, to keep hope alive, even though I know life has some fresh horrors in store for me. I can’t lie, as time goes on I lose faith and it gets harder and harder to hope, but maybe something this sweet is still a possibility.

(Please, please, please.)

I still take comfort
in the fact
that there are people in the world
(and there always will be)
who make
things like this
Northern Exposure episode.

My friends pointed out that there’s a Popeye’s next to my gym and how messed up is that?

First, what is a Popeye’s, and second, I never actually noticed what’s next to my gym. So, this morning I looked. Yup, there’s a thing called Popeye’s, and they sell fried chicken.

Not a temptation for me. (I’m vegetarian.)

My gym is on 14th Street, and 14th Street as you can see is not pretty.

So yeah, I went to the gym this morning.

It was all I could do to work up the energy so I’m not doing another thing today.

Before going to the gym I went to the Greenmarket with Howard, and we ran into our friend

Anne!
YAY!!
(We haven’t seen much of Anne lately.)
(Hi Anne!!)

Procedure done! Thank God I no longer have that hanging over me, or any other medical procedure. I’m drinking coffee with half and half, the way it should be drunk, (is the grammar correct there, because that doesn’t seem quite right) and I am done done done. My hand is bruised from the needle that fed me the drugs to make the procedure bearable, but again, I am done. I am begging the medical establishment to come up with a better way, however. I don’t have to do this again for five years, you can do it in five years, I just know you can.

Meanwhile, I can get back to ghosts and more particularly ghost cats. Don’t you think life after death would be better with cats? The man to the left is expelling ectoplasm which looks like a sheet, but what’s more interesting is the ghost cat at his feet. I would be terrified to see the ghost of a person, but not the ghost of a cat.

I’m intimidated by the chapter I will be beginning soon. A lot of key things happen, but the thing that is scaring me the most is, I have to learn statistics enough to make a decision about what went on in the lab, and I have to make it exciting. I have an idea how to do that, which I think I can pull off, so the scarier thing is getting a handle on the math, which I’ve never been good at.

The paperback for my last book came out yesterday! I should have done something, had a little party or something. I haven’t been doing much of anything to promote the paperback, I have to admit, which is so unlike me. As distasteful as I find the whole promotion process, I recognize it must be done and usually dig in. Alright, next week I put together a plan.

Last night my choir had a party on a boat at pier 63. I took pictures, but they were not flattering to anyone so I’m not putting them up. I never put up unflattering pictures so all my friends are okay with me putting pictures of them up on my blog. They know I’ll look out for them.

Of course I’m already thinking about food even though on a normal day I wouldn’t be thinking about food for hours.