Scarlett Letters

I betook myself for a walk just after dinner this evening. I walked across the bridge into Fremont and around the block to add a little distance before coming home. The total walk -- there and back home again -- is about 1.75 miles or so. As I passed Blue C Sushi, I once again saw the sign that's been outside the restaurant door for the last week or so. It says something along the lines of "Work at Getty, Adobe, or Google? Come in for lunch with your ID and get 10% off!" This sign has irked me every time I've seen it. Offices for all three of these companies are within just a block or two of the restaurant. The folks working at these companies a) are employed and can afford a lunch out and, b) certainly earn more than the average worker in Seattle; a lunch out for them isn't a particular hardship. I walked past the sign, and then turned around and came back, suggestion on the tip of my tongue.

I walked into the restaurant and was greeted by the hostess. I told her I wasn't there to eat, but that I had a suggestion. I said, "You know, there are a lot of people unemployed right now. Why not offer them -- us -- a 10% discount? We could use the break. Just ask to see their Worksource card or a recent unemployment check stub. I'd be in here more often if it were a little more affordable." She gave me a big grin and told me it was a great idea, that she would talk to her manager about it.

As I walked home, I began thinking about trying to promote this idea to businesses around the city. I'm not sure how one would do that, though I suppose trying to create some sort of grassroots talking campaign might be one way. It just seems to me that all the big corporations around here organize discounts for working people, but unemployed folks don't get perks --or, more properly, any kind of leg up -- from anyone anywhere. It doesn't seem right, when we're the ones who are hurting for cash.

I want to think about this idea more. If anyone has any ideas about ways to promote this idea or businesses that might be good targets for it, let me know. I don't know just how far I'll pursue it, but I want to devote a little brain time to it to see if it could really have legs.

So, I mentioned yesterday morning that I had an appointment with a new agency. I went. At 10:15 AM. The snow poured out of the sky. The alley and two streets I had to drive before getting to the main road were unplowed and nearly undisturbed. The first main arterial wasn't bad, mostly sandy-slushy and bumpy. The entrance to the freeway was clear. And Interstate 5 was sandy-slushy but drivable...through Seattle proper. The further away from downtown I got, the worse it got.

Once I was close to Renton, where my interview was, it got much, much worse. Many trailer trucks. Deeper snow left sanded but unplowed. My car slid slightly as I approached the exit to Martin Luther King Jr. Way. At that exit, I saw my first stranded vehicles--two four-wheel-drive pick-up trucks sitting at angles at the roadside. MLK Way was a sheet of ice downhill. After about ten minutes of slow driving in the fiercely falling snow, I called the woman at the agency to check if I was in the right place (I didn't recognize anything, all covered in white) and let her know I was still on my way. She checked my location, told me I wasn't lost.

In the end, it took me 70 minutes to get to my destination in the snow. When I got out of the car, my whole body hurt. I'd been so tense that my whole body had been clenched up the whole way. Thankfully, the meeting went well.

Then, I had to get home. Much more slip-sliding ensued. Everything I'd ever learned about driving in the snow back east kicked back in. I attempted to take MLK Way back up the hill, but every single vehicle was turning back about halfway up. I found another way to get back--a much flatter way-- and did so. Multiple accident on I-405; jack-knifed articulated bus on I-5; SUVs pulled to the side of the road. I hit nothing and no sliding lasted longer than a couple of feet. It was still snowing when I got home.

I haven't left the house since.

This, folks, is how much I want to be employed. It was a lesson, and I probably won't do it again because I spent most of the rest of the day recovering from the constant, compounded stress and got almost nothing else done. I didn't realize that I'd gotten almost nothing done until after dinner time. It seems as though the rest of the day was sort of telescoped. I may have napped. I honestly don't remember.

This morning, my physical therapist called to cancel today's appointment. "I've been for a walk," she said. "It's far too icy. I don't want you out on the roads." Just as well. Neither, frankly, do I.

I shouldn't do this to myself, but I'm going to anyway. Remember, how jaylake used to keep his storywords journal, taking a word each day and writing a quick little piece around it? Back in March I started to do this with a separate LJ devoted to the purpose. Then I stopped, started and stopped again. A couple of days ago I started again. I'm going public with it now to keep myself honest, to make myself keep going. If I set up a public expectation for myself, maybe I'll keep doing it, and push myself into writing again. So that's what I'm going to do. Posting this here and over at my word-a-day journal. We'll see what happens.

::deep breath::

Find this other journal, currently a little spare, at scrivenette.

Clearly I picked a good day to be crabby. I gave everyone else permission to be crabby, too. I love you all, my crabby friends. You complain with the best of 'em. It really cheered me up.

For your excellence at crabbiness, I give you Complaints Choirs of the World. (gnomi, there's even a Jerusalem complaints choir!) I spent half the morning considering the viability of creating one for Seattle:

Why is it always raining?
The 520 bridge is always jammed.
The commute is so draining
and Tim Eyman's initiatives are a sham.

The coffee's too expensive
I can never get to work on time
The ferries always run late
And Microsoft won't hire me full-time

You get the idea. Hey, livingdeadpan! Wanna compose? Former SLGCers: wanna sing?

::chuckle:: This should be good.

In the middle of March, I submitted calendar listings for the SLGC concert to approximately 25 Web sites. I was so proud of myself. I was on top of it. Today, I'm not seeing our event on at least a third of these Web sites. The prospect of resubmitting them makes me want to bash my own head in rather than having to do it all over again. I'll lose at least half a day doing it. Why aren't the listings showing up?

I haven't seen our event posters anywhere in town despite paying a company a considerable sum to get them distributed. Friends tell me they've seen them, but I haven't. Where are they?

I can't get iTunes to start a MIDI where I want it to start. I've forgotten the command to do it.

I've been rehearsing for the better part of the afternoon and I still don't know all the music. I know about . . . half of it. Maybe. I'm having serious focus issues. Helluva hard time just focusing on getting words down. I've never had this sort of difficulty learning music before. It's got nothing to do with complexity; most of this music is comparatively easy (especially considering the complexity of the music for the last show). It's a concentration issue. I hate this.

And I still have to create small flyers to distribute. Maybe I'll get up at Oh-God-Thirty tomorrow morning, design them, and get them pritned at Kinko's before rehearsal.

Aaaaaaaack.

Since matociquala has formally forbidden us all to say that we suck, I can't say that or anything like it this evening. The temptation to say such (and therefore the necessity to resist it) is a result of the accumulation of the following evidence:

I had the idiot idea to go out this afternoon in search of a neat desk lamp for my new cubicle. I also wanted to see "Wordplay," the documentary about puzzlemaster Will Shortz (sp?) and the annual crossword puzzle tournament he holds.

I hit the Broadway Market QFC and Urban Outfitters for the lamp: no joy.

I hit the Harvard Exit theater for the movie: much joy. I highly recommend it.

And then, I had to come home. I was in severe pain and had to rest. I have the stamina, these days, of a 90 year old woman. I'm on the couch. My foot is up. It will be on ice shortly.

Can I just say that I hate my foot right now?

Then . . . then I call Pagliacci to order a pizza, and the girl who answers the phone is the same one who sent me a pizza gratis when I first broke my foot and she remembered me. She asked about the foot.She sympathized. We took a moment, both of us being NY expatriates, to bemoan the lack of decent Chinese food delivery in Seattle (what's that about, I ask you?), and then we took my order. I'm getting sympathy from the pizza order girl!

::sigh:: Life is weird and wonderful and, right now, just a little frustrating.

On the other hand, I did a revision of the story I wrote Thursday night (though it needs a different title) and will be delivering it to the workshop shortly. So I'm getting something done anyway. And as for tonight, I'll be on the couch, watching something on Pay-Per-View (haven't decided what quite yet). It'll be a quiet evening.

Oh, and the rumor at doctorwho is that the first half of the season two finale two-parter is spectacular. We shall see.

My foot hurts like hell, even medicated. I'm going to Olympia anyway. I've worked too hard for this. I'm just going to have to do my best. Wish me luck! (No wishes for breaking a leg, please; I've very nearly done that already!)

Edit: Happy news is that some of my penny-smashing friends are coming to the show. So pleased about that. And yes, it was definitely a help in making the decision, though support from crooked_hill, pixxelpuss, solcita, snarke, and mrdorbin made the bigger difference by far. They are gold, these people.

Last night, I dropped a friend a note about the anthology he's putting together. This morning, in response, I received a legal document from a law firm, stating that all assets pertaining thereto had been seized in a lawsuit brought by another author who claimed my friend had trespassed upon his intellectual property. In a complete fit of alarm and concern, I called said friend. I got his wife, who told me he was out coaching kiddie football practice, and who knew nothing of this lawsuit and began to wonder, in earnest, what was going on and what he hadn't told her. It was at that point that I began to read the fine print of this document, at the bottom of which I found the following in extra-small print:

If further instructions are required, visit http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr01.html for material before contacting PARKER, KLEIN, KLEIN & SHOKOLOV directly.

Notice has been served.

NOTE that the binding legal details of this notice are subject as well to local and federal review, and that the exact particulars are subject to change WITHOUT NOTICE anytime within the next twenty-four hours. Complaints may be registered with the US Department of IDontGiveADamn or by calling 1-800-LEGPULL (1-800-534-7855) during the hours of12:01am and 11:59pm on4/1/06.

Friend's wife and I had a good laugh about it, and she promised, in earnest, that she would kick his creative-yet-sorry ass for me. If only I lived close enough to show up at his door after football practice, I myself would kick his creative-yet-sorry ass pretty damn thoroughly.

I should note for the record that this friend has punked me once before, years ago, in another astonishingly effective prank. Would that I had the creativity to pull so effective an April Fool's joke back on him myself somehow.