July 20nd, 2001.  Friday
 

*ahem*

    Killing time at the end of a work day. Or "work" day. Or work "day."  But what's important is that I'm leaving the office in approximately 20 minutes.  And what will I do after that?  glad you asked.

    Well, I have tentative plans to meet Caryn after work.  But first, I suspect I'll sit around in a coffee shop in the East Village and read a book.  Nora, who now works at the Barnes and Noble down the street from out apartment, used her employee discount to by me a book for a bit cheaper than list price. Of course, she used the change of the $20 I gave her to buy a magazine, so my savings were about 60 cents.  Anyway, the book is Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami.  He is also the author of Sputnik Sweethearts, which I enjoyed quite a bit.  So I figured I'd give him another shot.  I just finished A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which Rodzilla had given me for my birthday many months ago.  For some reason, when I was reading this book, as was the case when reading David Sedaris's Naked, when the authors talked about their mothers, I always envisioned Amy Sedaris' character on the TV show Strangers With Candy.  This didn't seem too far-fetched with Naked, since it's conceivable that David Sedaris' mother could look like his sister playing a 40-year old.  But I don't know why I pictured her in AHWOSG.  Maybe because their writing styles are sort of similar and hilarious.  Also, whenever I think of David Sedaris, I actually see in my head Bob Odenkirk, of the HBO program Mr. Show with Bob and Dave.  They sorta look alike.  Anyway, I figured I'd read a novel now.  Though I always feel funny reading a novel in translation.  Whenever I come across a passage I particularly like, I always wonder if it comes across the same way in Japanese.  Similarly, whenever I see a sentence that reads terribly, I wonder if it got butchered in the translation.  I suppose, though, that it doesn't really matter, and I should just read the damn book.  Or learn Japanese.

   I met with this woman Amy last night after work.  She's a friend of my brother Garrick's girlfriend.  She works in the magazine world here in New York and has friends in medium-to-high places, and seemed eager to help me out.  Conveniently, she lives down the street from me in Park Slope, so I just rode my bike over.  Her apartment immediately made me insanely jealous.  Beautiful and big, with those nice bay windows, in the half-hexagonal shape, with the white doily curtains, gently blowing in the cool 7 PM July breeze.  Nice big couches in a sparsely, but tastefully, decorated living room.  Anyway, after the initial real estate discussion, she had a lot of little helpful hints about finding employment.  She suggested that I check out the local Brooklyn paper, where she and many of her friends got started.  Plus, that was how she found her apartment, because she saw the listing before it was printed in the paper.  And it'd be nice to be involved in the nieghborhood and whatnot.  Provided I stay in Park Slope, which is another little crisis I have to deal with soon.  But Amy was really helpful, to the point where I'm wondering exactly why she was so helpful.  I have trust issues.

     Anyway, time to quit. Wanna get started on the book before I meet Caryn.  We're having MacDonald's.  She invited me to use her coupons from the Monopoly
game.  They have chicken wings now, you know.  They call them "Mighty Wings."  I think the posters say "Feel the Might! Mighty Wings!"  I think they should have found a synonym for "mighty" instead of using the same root word twice like that. It woulda been punchier.  And they don't serve any sauce with the wings, which is weird for wings, and even weirder for MacDonald's, where sauce is king.  Anyway, i'm out.

DA&R home
Past Aggravations and Regrets
previous| next
South Pole Home

©2001 Three Match Breeze