Ponderings and Musings

A number of years ago my mother tried to start a Thanksgiving tradition. While the food sat steaming on the table, she asked that each of us seated at the dinner table say what we are thankful for. The rest of that side of the family, not really being the touchy feely type, would thank the fates for the aforementioned hot food on the table and then ask when we could eat. I don’t know if that’s what Mom had in mind; I always thought she wanted us to pour our heart out and end up sobbing in the mashed potatoes. Well, maybe she didn’t have that in mind, but I think she wanted us all to get all Waltons and say good night to John Boy while the music went DING, ding, DING at the end.

This is the first Thanksgiving in a couple of years that I have been able to enjoy the day without being paranoid as to when my on-call pager was going to ring for that next telecommunications emergency. Tempted to run around a few states visiting family members, Earl and I decided that we would celebrate the lack of an electronic leash by having a simple Thanksgiving at home for just the two of us. He did his thing in the kitchen and I helped out by staying out of the way, cleaning up behind him best I could and declaring in a comical voice “Cook’s not a t’all ‘appy!” whenever he started the mixer on the sweet potatoes.

While I’m a very lucky man and thankful for all that I have (all sides of the families rock, I’m truly blessed to be able to follow my career dreams, our cat is a cat’s cat and I still can’t believe how much Earl and I love each other after nearly a dozen years), I’d like to say thanks to the online buddies I’ve met in cyberspace and in real time over the years. I have no idea how many people read the blog, but since you do, I’d like to thank you for stopping by and sharing my life’s experience with me. Earl and I have met some wonderful people over the years (hello Greg and Bob, Steve and Tim, Tim and Gordon, Thom, Karl and Randy, Eric, Sean and Jeffrey and a ton of others!) and we look forward to meeting many more.

Life is meant to be lived without regret. It’s all a journey and it’s just a bunch of learning experiences along the way. And once in a while it’s good to remember to say thanks once in a while.

Some days you just feel pretty.

Actually, I was thinking about Thanksgiving celebrations as a kid and how delighted I was in 1976 when ABC decided to show their Saturday morning shows on Thanksgiving night. This included “ElectraWoman and Dyna Girl”, starring Deidre Hall and Judy Strangis as a groovy female version of Batman and Robin. I really think there was some drugs involved when they dreamed up this show because the special effects and storyline are Electra-weird. Anyway, I remember watching this episode while sitting on the floor of my grandparents’ bedroom watching the “little” TV, since the adults were watching a football game. For some reason, I found the “Empress of Evil” to be one of the most menacing baddies on the small screen back in the day.

Good thing Marlena could handle her.

Here’s a link to part one of the episode on YouTube.

When Earl is out of town on business I tend to bring the PowerBook to bed with me. I wonder how he’ll feel about the extra company in bed when he gets back.

Earl is out of town on business this evening, though just moments ago he surprised me by saying he was taking a late flight tonight instead of coming home tomorrow afternoon as originally scheduled. Naturally I’m delighted by this news. Unfortunately he isn’t arriving home early enough to join me for supper. I wasn’t really in the mood for popcorn and beer though I did briefly consider the temptation. In the mood for an internet cafe experience I ended up heading to our local Panera, where I have been irked on several occasions earlier this week.

I guess I’m a glutton for punishment.

The restaurant is packed to the gills with people this evening. There’s a wide selection of screaming kids, big haired women and hyper macho men that think talking as if they’re from Brooklyn makes them exceedingly sexy. What do I know, perhaps the big haired women like these guys. They’re not my cup of tea though.

The cutie bear that was working on his PowerBook this past Monday night in the corner is still there tonight, even though it appears that he changed his clothes. I am seriously considering taking a picture of him with the iPhone though I fear that may prove to cross some line that I’m vaguely aware of.

I did notice that the “courtesy” cups I mentioned from my last visit here at no longer available. So much for giving the customers a free cup of water. I guess the old adage of “You abuse it, you lose it” holds true in this case.

I have to admit that I love eavesdropping on the conversations around me. I guess that’s why I don’t have bionic hearing, I’d probably abuse the privilege. Since I have plain ol’ human hearing (that’s holding up quite well) I’m forced to limit my eavesdropping to the tables around me but the chats I’m hearing are quite interesting. I’m intrigued by the liberal use of the f-bomb at a table seemingly populated by a family. Now I use the word quite a bit in everyday conversation but these are going quite crazy with it. This is interesting to me because the family looks like the type that was offended by Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction that seriously fucked up broadcast television and radio.

The other thing I’m noticing with these conversations around me is the accent. Aside from the Brooklyn wannabes, there’s the overpowering flat “a” sound that’s quite common in this area (merry, mary and marry all sound the same here). I guess that’s to be expected, since I’m the native land of that sound, but there’s also quite a bit of what I call “fake Italian” going on, where they drop the trailing vowel off of every word that ends in a vowel. “Cannoli” becomes “canole”, “ricotta” becomes ricott, marinara becomes “mon-non” (both syllables rhyme with “on”) which I don’t find in Upstate New York outside of our immediate area. I’ve never been to Italy so maybe what I perceive to be “fake Italian” could be the real mccoy but I’ve never heard anyone portraying an Italian character on television speak this way.

I guess this Panera experience has moved up a notch from frustrated/irritated to perplexed. The feeling isn’t unpleasant.

It’s officially snowing here in the Mohawk Valley. Nothing is sticking to the ground yet, but there’s flakes in the air. The higher hills have snow on them.

I’m officially iMachias all over, the last transition being made last night when Microsoft came out with the @live.com e-mail addresses. I don’t use the service, but I do use Live Messenger once in a while (to keep in touch with my family who also use it), and I didn’t want another @hotmail.com address on there. So imachias@live.com it is for Windows Messenger.

We officially did not make Rosie and Friends in NYC last night due to a last minute scheduling conflict. Earl is out of town for rest of the week and it would have made it quite difficult on both of us to try to squeeze in a quick trip to New York. The money for the tickets went to a good cause, so there’s no harm done.

I’m officially catching up on my homework and quite pleased with myself.

Since all is right with the world (we’ve switched back to Standard Time, which puts the sun relatively close to where it should be) I was up bright and early before sunrise at 6:30. Some may scoff at my attempt to get up early but I feel that getting up at 6:30 is an accomplishment for this night owl. I had no choice in the matter, as I had a paw in my eye. It was time for tuna.

Anyway, not only am I up and about at this ungodly hour, I just realised that I have been cleaning my office/studio for the past thirty minutes. I’ve organised all my school papers and work from past semesters, I’ve thrown out hundreds of 3 1/2-inch floppy disks (I kept the 5 1/4-inch ones, just kidding they were the old 8-inch ones) and I think I might actually dust and vacuum the rooms in the basement tonight.

Let’s see if I can stay up beyond 7:00.

The neighbors down the street have augmented their now outdated Halloween display with various tacky Christmas monstrosities. They have snow globes, puffed up santas, twinkling lights of every color, dancing penguins and scary looking snowmen mixed in with the puffed ghouls, witches and goblins leftover from the last festive commercial venture. I decided that all this could mean only one thing: I needed to take down our cobwebs too.

I wish I could say the cobwebs were up to add to the Halloween atmosphere of the week but that would be a bit of a fib, since it would mean that I’ve been decorating for Halloween since June. I sort of think cobwebs add to the gaiety of watching the dust bunny races we have nightly in the “Great Room”. In fact, think that’s what makes the room great, built in dust bunny races. It’s better than that old television show Bowling For Dollars.

So, trying to avoid doing homework I decided to unbury the vacuum cleaner, dust it off and go for a spin around the house. I even swiffed before vacuuming for that extra touch.

I think it’s time for a party or two.

My sister and I making Halloween candy bags, October 1979

So today is Halloween. I’m really not feeling the need to be someone else today so I don’t have a costume ready. Some will ask what I will wear if trick or treaters come knocking at the door. Earl and I have been together for 12 years. We’ve had one trick or treater in that entire time and it was the kid of one of Earl’s employees that was sucking up. The kid was imported from another town.

I was looking through old photos and found this picture of my sister and I stuffing Halloween candy bags. It’s from 1979. Notice I’m wearing Army fatigues back then as well. The quasi Dorothy Hammel haircut was so within regs. I don’t know why my sister is somewhat snarling. Perhaps she was trying to be spooky.

If I’m so inspired tonight perhaps Blue Marvel will make an appearance before November arrives.

I’m writing this blog entry on my iPhone. We are currently en route from Dublin to New York on Aer Lingus flight EI105. We’ve just finished lunch, the latest Harry Potter movie is showing. The headphone jacks in our row don’t work. The fasten seat belt sign is on, many passengers are ignoring it and this irks me to no end. I can’t tolerate people who think they are better than the most mundane rules. If you’re going to protest against rules, protest against something important like the Patriot Act or something. Don’t waste your energy on protesting little things like the Fasten Seat Belt sign. There is a reason that it’s on.

As I look out the window I see little aside from the wing of the airplane, a few fluffy clouds and a hint of the Atlantic. Since I am quite bored, I’m finding myself lost in my thoughts.

I feel like that with this trip some sort of page has been turned in my life. Before leaving Dublin I checked my midterm grades and I’m doing better than I expected, so I feel a renewed excitement about school. I’m also eager to learn more about Ireland and it’s people. My soul resonated with the Irish in a way that’s hard for me to describe. Perhaps there is a reason for my being the only redhead in the family in my generation after all.

Life is good, there is no denying that. I guess I just continue to strive to make it better.