Moments

It was cold when I got to the furniture store. Cold and windy, and the store wasn't yet open. It was due to open in less than five minutes, so I joined the other people in waiting around on the sidewalk. A man with dark hair and a wool coat paced the block. Two men huddled near the door, shooting poisonous glances at the women talking and laughing behind the counter inside. Inside, where it was warm. Outside, a little girl backed up to soak up some warmth from her dad's legs.

"God forbid they should open up three minutes early rather than leave us to freeze out here," said one of the men near the door in bitchy gay tones.

"I know," I said. "What do they care, it's warm in there..."

I drifted off as The Blonde One began to march purposefully toward the door. She unlocked it from the inside and held it open while the men entered the store.

"God forbid you should open up a few minutes early when it's freezing cold outside," he said to her. I loitered to hear her response.

"I know! I can't leave you out here in the cold!" she said in the manner of someone speaking to a puppy.*

"I was being facetious," he told her.

"Ha ha," she laughed.

I attempted to catch the guy's eye so we could share a "what the fuck?" look. Failing that, I shook my head at nobody and headed for the pickup window.

* I'm having a hard time describing her voice. It wasn't totally a talking-to-a-puppy voice. You know how people talk when they kind of purse their lips and exaggerate the syllables a bit? It was like that. Then again, I wouldn't have been too surprised to see her scratch him behind the ears and say, "No I couldn't! No I couldn't! Not here in the coldy woldy!"

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Visual smudges

One neat thing about me is my tendency to get ocular migraines. And by "neat," I mean "sucky." I've heard these referred to as "the blurries," but that doesn't quite capture it. It's more like certain areas of my vision are pixelated, like when they show people being arrested on TV and they do that thing where they move around blocks of the face so you can't tell who it is.

Anyhow, the ocular migraines come and go. I can tell when they're starting because I'll look at the computer screen or whatever is in front of me and little pieces of the picture will just kind of start moving around, or it will start to seem like there's a ceiling fan in my peripheral vision. Having had two of them recently (thankfully, without the accompanying headache), I'm a little bit paranoid that I'll start getting them every few days again.

In fact, I was certain that one was coming on just now. Lucky for me, it was just a smudge on my glasses.

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FreeGeek Robbed

Portlanders, be on the lookout for stolen computers. FreeGeek, a non-profit whose goal is to "help the needy get nerdy" had some thieves doing thievish things on Saturday. Stupid jerks.

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A joke

From Jokes Made by Robots, for Robots.

Little Susie tosses a clock out the window. A robot inquires, "Why did you do that?" She replies, "I wanted to see time fly!" The robot says, "Ah ... A perfect subject for elimination," and shoots her with a laser beam through the face.

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Rumsfeld limerick contest anyone?

Rumsfeld loves a good limerick

Email from Tom:

Hi Rebecca,

My coworker challenged me to write a limerick for Donald Rumsfeld. I wrote three -- so far -- and thought, hey! somebody should have a Rumsfeld retirement limerick contest on their blog. Now, I'm too busy and/or lazy to start a blog today, while it's timely.

So I thought maybe you would take the suggestion. I have to admit, when somebody says 'limerick challenge' you're the first person who comes to mind. Go figure.

Tom

I think this is a brilliant idea. Also, I think this is a good time for it, now that it's no longer breaking news. Rumsfeld was probably hoping that the Spears/Kfed breakup news would trump his own, and it seems that it probably did. But it's such big news, that I believe it deserves a resurgence, in limerick form.

Unfortunately, I'm not good with limericks, but I will try to come up with one in the next day or so. In the meantime, I leave you with this haiku:

Donald H. Rumsfeld
Should drink a toast to freedom.
Ours, now that he's gone.

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Vino

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Happiness is an orange chair

From across the store, where I sat on a sofa called The Berkeley, I silently agreed with the red-haired man that the orange chair was an excellent chair. I could see, by the expression on his face, the way it lit up, that he was completely smitten by the chair. He turned to the woman with him, all puppy-eyed eagerness. His hands waved as he spoke to her. He gestured toward the chair. She nodded, she smiled. His smile was even bigger. I felt happy. He was going to get his chair.

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It is time for stormy weather

One of my favorite things about the world is stormy weather. I like rain, really dark ominous looking clouds, thunder, lightning, you name it. Wind gusts make me feel energetic, so long as I am not riding my bicycle directly into them. The downside is that my hands are the temperature of popsicles from October through June. The upside is that it makes me happy. Plus, listening to Morrissey always works better when it's rainy.

With that in mind, I had the notion to put together a CD mix with songs that reference stormy weather. Off the top of my head, I came up with three:

• Stormy Weather by the Pixies
• Sometimes (Lester Piggott) by James
• Hot, Hot, Hot!!! by The Cure

I know I'm forgetting so many, but I inhaled a lot of paint fumes over the weekend, so I'm going to blame it on that. What other songs belong on the bad weather mix?

If you don't have any songs about intense weather patterns, tell me what you're listening to these days that you'd recommend. Lisa also asked for recommendations last week, so you'd be doing us both a favor.

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Taking the 'No' out of NaNoWriMo

My approach to NaNoWriMo is different this year. While I like the way it sounds when I say, "I write novels in November," I won't actually try to write a novel this month. I've done that a few times, which means I've got three stacks of paper floating around my house. Three stacks of paper I had to move from one house to another. Three stacks of paper that don't interest me. Not to mention all the bytes filled up on my computer and backup CDs. Gah.

So this year, I'm going to write something I like during the month of November. It might turn into a novel, it might not. I might show it to people, I might not. So far, I've got 800 words down; the beginnings of a story I thought of over the summer. In short, I'm using NaNoWriMo to get back into the habit of writing things and will hopefully keep it up throughout the year, rather than flaring up and burning out over the course of a single month.

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NaNoWriMo

It begins.

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