Scattered

[copied from dland]

Boxx commented that she'd like to see Cesar Chavez and Malcolm X added to the poster collection. I gave them both thought, actually. I chose not to include Malcolm X at this time because I do have a Martin Luther King on the wall already, as well as -- I don't know if I mentioned this the other day -- an amazing photograph, large and framed, that's on loan to us. It was taken by a news photographer in Birmingham during the civil rights march there, and shows a group of people being blasted by a water cannon. It's an incredibly powerful picture, and better than anything else evocative of that era that I could find. As for Chavez, yes, I'm aware that there's a serious lack of Hispanic and Asian representation here. I expect to add that in to next year's order. While Chavez is certainly iconic, I don't know if he's quite what I want right now, although I may end up with him. I'm still working on those selections. (If Bill Richardson is elected, though, I promise to get a picture of him in there somewhere.)

I'm done with posters now.

In more exciting news, it's damn cold out there today, record-setting, in fact. This morning, it was about 9 degrees (that's about -13C) with a wind chill of -11 (-24C). This afternoon, it warmed up all the way to 21 (-6C)/5 (-15C). What makes this so strange is that two weeks ago tomorrow we had another record-setting temperature for January: 71 (21C). Not at all surprisingly, there was no heat here and there in the school building today, including the library. Apparently, there are just chunks of the building that didn't get connected or reconnected to the heating system when the construction was done. In the counseling office, which was formerly my library, I believe they removed the heating units (which didn't work anyway) and neglected to put in new ones. Ah yes, the beauty of the lowest bidder.

What else can I tell you? I did not make it to the gym today for a variety of reasons, but I will be going tomorrow, and three days in one week is probably the record for me. I'm going to do my at-home little workout thingies as soon as I post. Then I have four more episodes of Project Runway Season One on disc to watch, some of which I won't get to until tomorrow or Sunday.

Oh, here's a story from last night, which will be somewhat rambling, I fear. I've mentioned my OldFriend, whom I speak to often but rarely see, since she lives in New York City (in a charming area known as the West Village, which is part of Greenwich Village) and doesn't travel well, even to New Jersey, and I am city-phobic and so only get in there to see her every couple of years. (It's a distance of roughly 22 miles by car, btw, so not a big deal distance-wise.)

Okay, transition. R often calls me when she gets off the train around 6:20 and is walking the few blocks home. She called around then last night, but said that she was in the city, meeting an old friend of her own for dinner in the Village, and was early, so she called to talk while she was walking around and hanging out. I asked where she was and she was right around the corner from OldFriend's apartment, so I directed here there. Not to drop in, but just to know where it was, since she was killing time anyway and this way she would know. She moved on, and I was directing her to the antique store where OldFriend works, but which I assumed would be closed at that time. Suddenly, R said "I see it. Oh, the lights are on! I'm going in; I'll call you back."

Remember now, that given our various problems, neither of my kids has seen OldFriend -- and more to the point, she hasn't seen them -- in at least ten years.

R called back about 15 minutes later. She had gone in and seen her, approached her and said "OldFriend?" Unused to being addressed by strangers by name, I would think, OldFriend tentatively looked at her and said "Yes?" At which point R pulled her hat off and OldFriend shrieked "R!" and they had a lovely visit for the 10-15 minutes that R had before she took off to meet her dinner pal.

I liked that very much, as did OldFriend, who called me later as soon as she got home. She was always fond of my kids, and vice versa; we did see her more when they were little. I do remember once after we dropped her off at the bus-stop to go home after a visit, the girls and I were driving home and the obvious finally dawned on one of them -- must have been R, I'm guessing around 8 years old -- and she asked if OldFriend had a husband. I explained that she did not. Why? she asked. I answered in whatever language that OldFriend had not found someone to settle down and share her life with, but if she did, it would be with a woman and not with a man. There was no further why, just an understanding of the answer, that this was part of OldFriend. I had always known that when it came up, it would be that easy, and it was. I think if you present things to kids in a very matter of fact way, they just accept them as normal and move on. They already knew OldFriend and loved her, so what difference did it make?

Okay, gonna go get buff now.


WATCHING REBA :: ENTRY #1360