Author: Stacy Horn

Yesterday, on my way to the gym, me and a bunch of people had a near death experience. Two cars playing some sort of chicken game were heading straight for us. There was no way of knowing if they’d keep coming straight at us, or veer left, or veer right, and they were so close and coming so fast there was only time enough to pick one direction and try to get out of the way. But if you chose wrong, there’d be no time left to head back in the other direction, you’d be dead.

I was smack in the middle of their oncoming path so I decided to wait until the last second and jump in the appropriate direction. This was one of those instances where all the options are weighed and a decision is made in a split second. Plus, if I had to jump left, I’d jumping into on-coming traffic, and they could see what was going on so they were all making their own split-second decisions, except their decisions were probably not going to result in their DEATHS OR MAIMING.

I didn’t have to move. They veered right, completely away from where we all stood. No one was hurt. But we all stood around for about ten seconds going “We almost died!” “Oh my god, that was scary!” “Did you freaking see that??”
We glared at the drivers, but I figured you don’t want to mess with people like that. I didn’t say a word.

I went to the gym, but I was shaky the whole time. But then, for the rest of the day I was in a good mood. At the end of the day I got a call for a gig, and normally I wouldn’t have gone, out of sheer laziness, but I totally wanted to go. I cleaned my apartment (suddenly it need cleaning RIGHT THEN) showered, drummed for a while to get warmed up, and went! The whole time there I was in the best mood, I danced in the hallway outside of the party, I was so happy to be with my friends who I only see once in a blue moon when I show up for a gig.

I took the picture above before we played. I don’t think those people liked us too much, the applause was lukewarm, but fuck em! I didn’t die!

Not really. I’m fine, except a little worried about Finney. This is how my day went yesterday. I went uptown for an appointment to see about learning this thing that was developed at the University of Massachusetts, MBSR, Mindful Based Stress Reduction. I know how roll-your-eyes that sounds, but there have been studies that indicate it works. I decided to walk home afterwards. I went through the park, where the dogwoods were in bloom. Oh wait, maybe it was magnolia? Okay, I admit it, I don’t know anything about nature!! Something with big flowers on it.

From there I went past Columbus Circle. Here I am with text boxes and arrows again. Experimenting a little with color. This place had an amazing view of the park and lots of glittering lights. I think my choir sang here too, come to think of it. We did! It was for a birthday party, for NBC or something. And we were there as this hugh choir singing happy birthday.

From there I went to the Museum of TV and Radio to see if they had a couple of shows relating to my book that I needed to see but they didn’t have a single one of them! From there I went to the New York Public Library and they didn’t have what I wanted either! Then I went home and did billing but it didn’t work. There were problems, which were finally figured out.

Then, American Idol was BORING. I guess after they beat Blake and Chris Sligh down into the ground for experimenting with arrangements a couple of weeks ago everyone is afraid to try something different, but man I wish some of them had done something differently with those songs last night.

Then, at 3 in the morning Finney threw up. I took him to the vet a couple a months ago because he was throwing up occasionally and it didn’t seem like the occasional furball. But everything checked out fine. When the pet recall happened of course I wondered if it was related but I don’t feed them anything on the list, and besides, it had been a while since he threw up. But then last night he did. He’s absolutely fine otherwise, so I’m not panicking, but I am concerned. I will call the vet this morning.

Oh God, that was the most boring post EVER, wasn’t it? Sorry.

This is the old web server, sitting here in the cabinet on the right. I remember when it looked so new and compact and shiny to me. Oh man. I should put together a small collection of pictures of the hardware of Echo. We’ve been around for 18 years. We went from a computer sitting underneath my desk at home, to a bunch of computers in our own gorgeous offices in Tribeca, to these two thin, sleek machines sitting in a co-location site, with a bunch of other machines belonging to God knows who and NO people. It’s a very spooky, 1984-type place.

But below is the new server, sitting on top of the machine that runs Echo. That’s Joe from Panix in the back, hooking up the server to the world.

I’m also learning how to insert text boxes and arrows and whatnot. What do you think? I think I need to go back to the drawing board. I could make it clearer, and more aesthetically pleasing. Expect to see text boxes and arrows in my photographs for a while as I learn to get the hang of them.

Anyway, I’m sure one day these sleek, thin machines will eventually look old and clunky to me, too. As we all will one day look old and clunky to ourselves. Except it’s not a good analogy. Whereas we all really will be old and clunky, the machines don’t change, only our perception of them.

I’ve been working like a dog all weekend, getting ready to replace Echo’s webserver next week, and keeping up with my book deadline. But I have to stop and relax now. I’m totally burnt out and any work I do at this point is useless, anyway, so STOP STOP STOP. (I am shouting at myself. In my mind.)

I am luring myself away with a baby dog on a keyboard, which was sent to me almost simultaneously by two separate friends. Couldn’t you just die?? Don’t you want him?? Why oh why can’t he be mine?? Oh little baby doggie, I love you truly.

Okay, I think I will go curl up on the couch now. I have America’s Next Top Model to look forward to.

This is my friend Lianne Smith at the Living Room last night, before the show started, getting ready. It was a great show. She sang this haunting song about a moth that flew in her window, and I actually had to stop listening to the words because it sounded like something very bad was going to happen to that moth. A spider was mentioned and I immediately shut down. Nothing good could come of that combination. But the melody was beautiful and Lianne’s voice was sublime.

I’m planning my day. Since every study seems to indicate that you need to exercise EVERY day, I try to do something that might count as exercise EVERY day. When I go to the library, I walk there and back (a decent walk, I go to the main branch on 42nd Street). I’m trying to decide, should I go to the gym today, or the library? I only have a few things I need to look up and I like to wait until I have a pile of stuff and make a day of it.

Can I just say, our library is so great. It has everything. I’m writing about this psychic and I found two instances where the ACLU got involved because of his actions. So I call the ACLU to see if I can get copies of their annual reports, and they don’t have them! But guess who does? The New York Public Library. (I gotta believe the ACLU has them somewhere though, but it’s easier at this point to run up to the library.)

So, wait until I have a ton to do at the library and go to the gym, or take a nice walk to the library?