Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Commute

Almost every morning people get up and prepare the usual routine to get to their jobs. One aspect of this routine is the daily commute. Normally I don't mind this ritual because I spend most of my time catching up on my reading.

Lately it's been difficult for me to make the commute because I'm in pain and/or because I have appointments to get to during the day. It makes no sense for me to drag myself downtown to go to work then to haul to the doctor in midtown and then have to go back downtown to finish out my day. Luckily my boss doesn't mind me working from home on these occasions.

But today's commute was a very pleasant one. My husband decided to drive me to work. And my fellow commuters were my two dogs! Who am I kidding? It was the best commute ever.

The smaller dog sat on my lap for most of the trip and decided she didn't like a lot of what she was seeing on her commute. She didn't like the pigeon walking in the street and she certainly let him know by barking at him. She thought the doorman at one building was a little suspicious so she pointed it out by yapping. She notified us that she thought one statue was not appropriately placed. A little while after pointing these items out, we stepped off my lap to get some water in a bowl that is set behind the front seats. She lapped at the water happily.

In the meantime, my bigger dog saw that my lap was free and decided it was a perfect time to sit next to me. She gave me her paw and cuddled into my side. It was very relaxing. I noticed however that most of her fur was ending up on my suit jacket. Oh well I thought.

The little dog finished up her water and wondered how she was going to get back on my lap. She kept trying to jump past her sister but she couldn't find a space. A few minutes later, I felt her digging at my feet. She had crawled under the seat to get to me. She jumped up on my lap and I had two very pushy and adorable co-commuters trying to angle into my space. If a human had tried to take up all this room on the subway, I would have been highly perturbed and vocal about it. But when you have very big eyes and fur, I'll let you do just about anything!

I think more of my commutes should be this way. I certainly wouldn't mind all the hassle of the morning routine. Or maybe more people on the subway should let me rub their ears when they are pushing into my seat.

Monday, July 30, 2012

The Olympics

Every couple of years we are graced with this exciting international sporting event. I always enjoy watching all the different sports even if I have no idea what the rules are to most of them. It's also really interesting to see what each host country presents during the opening and closing ceremonies.

This time around, I really enjoyed the opening ceremonies because I'm an anglophile. Having Kenneth Branagh speak the words to "The Tempest" warmed my heart. Then when a big portion of the event was dedicated to children's stories from the British Isles, I couldn't have been happier. I was thrilled to have J.K. Rowling read from "Peter Pan" and to even see all those famous villains from British books appear in the nightmare sequence. Yes, Mary Poppins and Peter Pan are great but what about all those classic villains, Cruella DeVille, Voldemort and the Queen of Hearts? Just fabulous.

And I chuckled a number of times when specific reference o the British sense of humor were touched. It was great to see Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean. I do adore Mr. Bean and it was nice for him to make an appearance. I also thought the 007/Bond sketch with the Queen was quite funny. It's nice to see that certain countries do and don't take themselves seriously - British literature is fantastic but they do have a wonderful history to make fun of as well.

I look forward to the next 2 weeks of events. Maybe I'll finally figure out the rules to fencing. I do like to watch weightlifting even if I feel that the competitors will break in half during the 'clean and jerk' portion. I am always mesmerized and holding my breath during gymnastics and diving. I'm sure I'll have my commentary in the days to come. But until then, let the games begin and I hope others out there are enjoying them as much as I am.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Noises Off


In the past year I’ve becoming incredibly sensitive to noise. I don’t exactly know when it started to bother me but it has been relentless. In the early stages it had to do with the endless cachophony in my office. In a space of open cubicles it was really easy to hear the phone discussions and conversations of almost everyone in the aisles surrounding me. It made it hard for me to concentrate. So I resorted to listening to my ipod to drown out the noise.

Sadly in the time between it seems to have gotten worse. I moved locations but have been surrounded by a number of very loud talkers who are often on the telephone. I still turned to my ipod for assistance but I found that I was turning the volume up higher on my gadget to drown out the noise. One day when I got a headache from having the volume turned up too high, I decided to take some action. I actively told the people around me to please watch their conversational and call volumes. I am sure I made no friends by doing so. In fact, in a lot of ways I think they have gotten louder just to spike me. Even with ear plugs in at almost all times while I am at work, there isn’t much filtered out of the discussions and phone conferences happening around me. 

I began to wonder if it wasn’t just me. I made an appointment with the doctor to have my ears checked and nothing came out of it. Luckily my ears are fine but that is both a problem and not a problem according to the doctor. He said that people are talking at higher decibel levels and that is what I am experiencing. It’s not that I am more sensitive per se, it’s that they are getting louder and louder. I hear conversations on the other side of subway trains, the music on other people’s ipods, etc. It is just short of maddening. 

I decided after a while that I would just have to deal with this for the rest of my life until I saw a recent article in The New York Times(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/nyregion/in-new-york-city-indoor-noise-goes-unabated.html?ref=nyregion).  The article claims what my doctor and I had suspected all along. The noise levels in the city and probably around the world have gotten higher. And the constant exposure to these levels is too much for our ears to handle. The article mentioned how certain locations have bought in sound proofing experts to control the noise levels. And this is great news. I wish that more people would make this effort especially in office buildings and on the subway!

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Mr. Men and Little Miss


Back when I was a kid, there were a set of books called Mr. Men and Little Miss that I loved. Some of the characters in this line of books were “Little Miss Sunshine”, “Mr. Grumpy” and “Mr. Silly” to name a few.

I was reminded of these characters when someone at work referred to themselves as Mr. Bossy. It made me think about the actual character from those books whose name was “Little Miss Bossy”.  Of course some times my thoughts go all over the place and I began to think about what some of these characters might be called in a non-politically correct or even more modern manner. 

Would Little Miss Tidy or Little Miss Neat be considered Little Miss Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

Would Little Miss Scary be Little Miss Goth? Or Little Miss Contrary, would she be Little Miss Devil’s Advocate? Little Miss Messy might be Little Miss Hoarder now-a-days. Would Mr. Rude be the equivalent of Mr. Business Man? etc. 

It really does make you wonder. What would the adult versions of most of these books be?

Any ideas?

Friday, July 20, 2012

Fly Swatter

Foxy is a very obedient dog except for two conditions. One reason for her disobedience is those blimey squirrels (mentioned in a couple of earlier entries) and the other is with flies. If she sees one flying around, she loses track of whatever she is doing and decides that she must catch them and eat them. I don’t know if she seems them as smaller versions of squirrels. Regardless, if she’s in the middle of following a command and one of our fair flying friends floats by, I know for sure she’s not paying attention to a word I’m saying.

Just like squirrels, Foxy has yet to catch a fly. I’ve seen her try to bite them as they fly by. She’s swatted at one with her tail while it was propped up on a wall. She’s also tried to smash it with her paw. Each time, she’s failed. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before she catches one. I expect that some day soon she’ll come up to me with either a squirrel between her teeth or she’ll pop a fly out of her mouth to show me her catch.

Until then, I’ll enjoy watching her try at play with her two nemeses. I wonder if she’ll stop trying to catch them if she ever does grab hold of one?

I wrote the 3 paragraphs above last summer. Things have changed since then. Foxy has in fact caught a fly in her mouth, only to spit it out a millisecond later. Having finally succeeded at capturing a fly, it did nothing to stop her from continuing to try to catch them. If one of those pests is anywhere near her, she will try any of her myriad methods to obtain them - tail splatter, paw squash, mid-air nibble. I don't think she will ever stop trying to catch them but it's fine with me. Her enthusiasm reminds me that deep inside she's still a puppy and enjoys playing.

Is This a Dagger?


From reading my blog it can be surmised that I thoroughly love Shakespeare. I have spent many years of my life reading his plays and writing about them. Something about how the plots were constructed and the stories have always appealed to me. I like some plays more than others but they are all very interesting in their own way. 

On occasion I get to see performances as well.  I always love how directors rethink the stories to retell them in a more modern way – making them more relevant to present day audiences. Last week I went to see “MacBeth” by the Royal Theatre of Scotland. The actor Alan Cumming played almost every role in the play and it left me speechless in many ways. 

The beginning of the play sets up the idea that we are in a mental asylum via the stark environment and the beds and clinical items around the stage. We watch as two characters silently admit Alan Cumming into the asylum. As the play continues, Alan begins to speak the parts of the various characters and he delineates the different roles by standing in different places or holding different object or by changing the way he wears certain clothes. This continues to the end and culminates in the tragic ending of the Shakespearean play. 

There were a few funny moments based on Cumming’s interpretation of some of the characters but other than that, it was an intense and tiring show. Watching him popping back and forth between different characters and his frenetic energy during the portrayals kept me on the edge of my seat for most of the production. This was probably one of my favorite interpretations of a Shakespeare play because it captured the tension as well as the speed with which the action unravels of the original play. The play had no intermission and was just short of two hours long. 

Mesmerizing portrayals of fascinating characters always make watching a play enjoyable. When one person does all those portrayals you have to be in awe of their talent and interpretation, not to mention their stamina. Too bad this play had such a short run. Otherwise I would tell everyone I knew to go and see it and be as surprised and entranced as I was.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Messing with Perfection


I adore Nutella. The chocolate-hazelnut spread has been a food staple in my life for as long as I can remember. As a kid my mom would occasionally buy a jar as a treat. Probably within hours, my siblings and I would consume the whole jar while putting some on some bread or just eating spoonfuls straight from the jar. It was really a piece of heaven to wait as it melted in my mouth.

As I’ve grown older I occasionally purchase a jar myself but not that often. I prefer to have it when I go out somewhere as a treat to myself. The other day I passed by a place that had nutella filled pastries. I could not resist. I bought myself one. The anticipation of eating it had consumed me only to be dropped on the hot concrete when I finally ate the nugget. For some God forsaken reason the bakery decided to mix the usually exquisite and delectable nutella with something else. I couldn’t figure out if it was cream or something else but it adulterated the nutella. 

I wanted to really throw the item back at the place and tell them “What in Christ’s name is wrong with you? You don’t mess with nutella!”I was so appalled by the behavior. Why would anyone taint perfection? I will never figure it out. The only explanation that is satisfying to me is that they must not have any taste buds. There is just no point in messing with perfection!

Monday, July 9, 2012

The Pedestal


Since my dad passed away I have been focusing on the good memories and nice qualities that he had. It has made it hard at times to come to terms with his loss. But it has reminded me of what a good person he was.
My dad enjoyed his wine and cigarettes immensely. Almost nothing anyone could say would make him stop drinking and smoking. Ultimately the long term use of both things is what led to his demise. Although I accepted his vices for a long time because there was no way for me to make him change, I was reminded of how angry I was with his usage recently and it put my relationship with my dad in a different perspective.

At his funeral so many people said nice things about my dad and they were sincerely appreciated. Occasionally people mentioned how much they respected him because he lived his life the way he wanted. And yes, he did but to the detriment of his health and to my family. Looking back at it now, I realize how incredibly selfish he was to continue to drink and smoke despite the impacts it had on his health and on all of us. 

Some cultures believe that it’s not appropriate or manly for a man to talk about his problems. You have to bottle them up and try to escape your issues via drinking or smoking. This kind of thinking annoys the living crap out of me because there is no value in this type of behavior. No matter how much you drown your miseries or smoke them off your chest, they remain there on a daily basis. They need to be confronted and dealt with. My dad sought peace in his glass and his cigarette instead of letting it out. In the long run his behavior hurt him. No matter how many times I approached him about his vices, he told me to mind my business. I told him on numerous occasions that his health was my business because what he did affected me and everyone else. But he continued to do it with no regard of what it meant or did to me or anyone else, especially not himself. 

Recently my father-in-law came to visit and he also has a problem with alcohol. This is not something I particularly like about him because it shows weakness in his character and I can’t respect it. Due to his alcoholism, he had an accident that put him in the hospital. This made me upset for many reasons which included:
1)      My being pregnant calls for a reduction in stress where his accident only increased my stress
2)      My tolerance of people trying to kill themselves is very low in general and even more due to my dad’s passing being only a few months ago
3)      The fact that he was supposed to ‘help out’ while he was here and I saw nothing of that
4)      As usual I had to fend for myself and take care of myself when what I needed most were people to help me out. In the long run, I proved to myself again that I can take care of myself a lot better than anyone else can. And I’m lucky to be able to do that when so many others can’t. 

I won’t delve into the other reasons or emotions that this accident provoked in me because they have to do with issues that my husband and his family need to deal with. What made me most upset was how my father-in-law’s behavior re-opened a wound that I thought was healing with regards to my dad. Just as I was starting to feel better about losing him, I was reminded of how angry and pissed off he would make me. I had to remember those bad things about my dad when I had tried so hard to bury them. I recalled the myriad times that I wanted to take my dad to the side and beat the crap out of him for his crappy behavior. And even now when I can’t do it anymore, I am still so angry at him for leaving me and my family. Even though I know nothing can be done about it, I hate that I will never have the satisfaction of saying to him “I was right about your behavior and you never listened to me.” And I hate that he won’t be around to meet and spend time with my baby. I know it’s selfish and immature of me to say all this about him but it’s how I feel and it needs to be said. I do not bottle up my feelings like my dad and I don’t turn to the bottle or the cigarettes to avoid my problems like he did. And as I cry about all of this and I miss him, I remember that sometimes we have to take the people we love off their pedestal.