CANDY BARS!

VIVA LOSS

Viva Loss is blowing my mind!
"Stories" on page 28 is my favorite so far.

You can get it here:

http://spdbooks.org/details.asp?BookID=9780978985820

Rod turns 34!

October 25 is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 67 days remaining until the end of the year.

Born this same day in 1974: - Lee Byung-Kyu, Korean baseball player.

ALSO,

• Roman Catholic feast days:
  • Saints Chrysanthus and Daria
  • Saints Crispin and Crispian
  • Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy

And from Shakespeare we get:

King Henry V:

This day is called the Feast of Crispian:

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a-tiptoe when the day is named,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall see this day and live t'old age,

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian":

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars

And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."

Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,

But he'll remember with advantages

What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,

Familiar in his mouth as household words

Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,

Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remembered;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he today that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now abed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

adventures on bart

living in the east bay, yet working a minimum of three, often times four, days a week in sf at various jobs and other preoccupations, affords me the wonderful opportunity of great people watching during my adventures aboard the bay area rapid transit. tonight for example, after an eventful evening of babysitting involving bite sized finger food, my failed attempts to construct a monkey out of white playdough "like mama makes it, LIKE MAMA MAKES IT!!" that ended in tears all around, and demands for 15+ stuffy toys to be brought into the crib at bedtime, i was more than looking forward to zoning out and making sideways glances of my fellow bart riders through the window reflections.

the best places to sit are obviously the ones where the action is all in front of you: the sideways seats near the door where you get a full 180 perspective in your peripherals (though if occasional eye contact with strangers sitting across from you makes you uneasy, i suggest you opt for option two...), or the seats at the end of the car that make sure no one's dancing the jig or something crazy behind your back. plus from there, you get all kinds of great window reflection angles. so tonight i board at 16th street and find my place in a vacant sideways seat opposite a man, early twenties, goatee, intricate corn rows, pants with legs baggier than most. he's studying the quintuple colored system map posted on the wall behind my head like he can see a light moving along the yellow line marking our train's progress along the tracks. after i we both transfer at 12th street oakland to the richmond line, we find ourselves seated in the exact some seats as before, but this time, i'm the one staring at the map behind his head. funny; it's like how people go to class lectures with 300+ people and always sit in the same seat or in yoga classes how people always set up their mats in "their spots." i feel an odd sense of comaraderie with my corn rowed companion.

as we pull away from macarther station, the middle aged woman with dyed red curls going every which way, an old navy tech vest to match and the rolling backpack dolled up with obama paraphernalia that has just boarded the train has scanned the rest of her seating options and has chosen to join us, settling herself next to me. she pulls out some crochet project and i think to myself, "she could be friends with my mother." suddenly, she dives into her rolling backpack, digging, searching for something, zip zip ZIP! finally she comes up for air clasping a yellow box of what i guess to be throat lozenges, since she offers one to cornrow, as he suppresses a cough, leans forward and accepts her offer with an outstretched palm and a silent nod of thanks. as he sits back in his seat, he pushes the lozenge into his cheek with his tongue and him and i make eye contact for the first time. i guess i hadn't noticed his cough, and suddenly i feel a twinge of guilt; not only do i not have a cough drop or hard candy to offer him, i hadn't even noticed my corn rowed companion's cough. as i stand to take my place at the door, preparing to exit, i offer cornrow a weak, part sympathetic, but mostly apologetic, smile. he nods up at me. "night," he says, returns a smile and the doors whoosh open in front of me.

there's something about the kindness of strangers that can make feelings of frustration or apathy disappear. perhaps i'll start carrying around throat lozenges.

Celluloid Memories

We had a Suburban when I was growing up in Mesa,AZ around the mid 80's that us kids, older sister, brother and younger brother called the Green Machine. On camping trips to flagstaff my dad would take out the back seat and lay the sleeping bags down for us kids. The four of us would get treated to a Big Gulp soda and share it. When we would need to pee we'd have to share the cup again.
We would also take the Green Machine to the drive-in movie theater back when my family still did things together. I remember the afternoon leading up to the movies, the stillness of the 120 degree heat, the bickering over who got to go to the concession stand for popcorn, the anticipation of a night under the stars. When we headed out to see Back To The Future II we had to stop at Smith Plumbing so my father could pick up his pay check. At the time I thought nothing of it, but I always remember that part of the trip. It's only now that I realize how little my father's paychecks must have been then and how a night at the movies with all six of us, snacks included, surely was extravagant in his wallet's terms. The next day, much like in part one at the dinner table Loraine's father told her that if she ever had a kid like Marty he'd disown her, my own father told us boys that if he ever say one of us riding our skateboards as recklessly as Marty did on his hover board he'd kill us. He always threatened death when we attempted deadly feats or promised to extend our attempts into a blood bath. For instance, "If you even think of making a rope swing from the roof I'll kill you." Or when we were mopey, "Stick that lip out any further and I'll rip it off for you."

SUNDAY

(in a doggy voice) "I'll tell two friends and then they'll tell two friends and then they'll tell two friends and it'll keep going and going. I wuv Faye's. Woof!"

Booty Barn Escapades

If Dexys Midnight Runner can get a crowd going like the peeps having a Black Kids after-party at the Beauty Bar last night then you know it's all gonna be cool.

Rod at the Beauty Bar every other Monday night at 10-till bad decision. Sometimes with a Patrick Patrick sandwich.

Screaming Beatles Sunday Night

Nina and I both made mixes for tonight. We always work together (Sunday nights), she does the mid shift and I close. We were listening to various Beatles CD's two weeks ago and decided to make a "SCREAMING" mix. I'm sure you get the idea of what this entails. What's great is that we both made CD's and there isn't much overlap. "Oh, Darlin" is definitely on both.