eating

Nothing is required of me when I'm eating

Other than 

I eat.

When I'm not eating there is work to do

decisions,

guilt.

Halloween vs underpants

[rummaging in drawer] "I can't believe...I'm running low on underpants."

[spouse] "I'm running low too."

[rum mage] "I know, I have to do laundry today: that's a given.
The problem is with Halloween--I listen to too many scary stories and then I'm afraid to go down into the basement."

Dwelling in a Material World

Thoughtless people in thoughtless compartments

Did you choose these modern apartments?

Layers of clones with half-hearted gilding

Set in a stack someone dared call a building?

How much did the gray of the city subdue you

For you to allow all its dirt to run through you?

No--live where you must, no need to get packed.

Your walls are solid, my words are cracked.

Pragmatic finance controls where we live.

It's the greedy developers I can't forgive.

 

The Witcher audiobooks - link to Goodreads review

Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My daughter introduced me to the Witcher TV show on Netflix because she knew I liked lute players. The lute player was amusing, but then I ended up enjoying all of the show more than she did. After I'd seen the last episode, I was happy to find the audiobooks in the online library.

I've enjoyed listening to all the Witcher audiobooks. I probably have the right background for them: I grew up on the Lloyd Alexander books, read Tolkien and science fiction and adore Terry Pratchett.

The Witcher hero is fun to follow around: he is brave and strong, clever, honest, flawed and passionate; taciturn, but with a dry sense of humor.

There are some very unpleasant parts of the story but, overall, it is saved by the narrative's underlying sense of humor. Both writer and narrators contribute to this.

Here's a favorite quote from 'Season of Storms':

"and suddenly, quite like in a cheap novel, a turning point in the action occurred..."


View all my reviews

nervous word association mumbled #4

 

She sells

Seychelles

Quoth the Raven

Nevermore

nervous word association mumbled #3

 inner place

outer space

human race

Summer 1979: Race, Choice, and Lying to get a job

 I was 18. My stepmother wanted me to get a summer job to help pay for college.

I came home from one interview and explained to her that they didn't want to hire someone just for the summer.

"Don't tell them you're leaving at the end of the summer," she said. "Say you're taking a year off from college."

"I don't want to lie," I said.

She glared at me. "Then you don't really want a job."

Rather than face further anger, I did as I was told.

I went to the Dexter Shoe Company offices in the Park Square Building in Boston, and told them I was taking a year off from college.

I was hired to do data entry.

There were about 14 of us, all women, some Black, but mostly White, like me.

The 2 managers, both White women, kept strict account of of our time.

We were to start exactly at 8. (Or was it 9? I can't remember now, but no matter.) I would try to show up early because subway transit is unpredictable. We were told not to start working until 8. (Let's say 8.) Once I was reading a science fiction paperback at my workstation waiting for work time to begin. A manager told me not to do that--it didn't look right. I should get a cup of coffee or something else if I was there early.

There was a sign-out sheet for morning and afternoon bathroom breaks: one line with time out and time back for the morning and another similar line for the afternoon.

I've always had "to go" a lot, since elementary school. In this job, if I went twice in the morning, I'd just squeeze in both times in the morning line, etc. I wasn't reprimanded for that, so I didn't worry about it.

 After some weeks, during a routine review, the two managers asked if there was a reason why I had to go so often, but if it was personal I didn't have to tell them. It was easiest to mumble yes I don't want to talk about it. They backed off.

There was a middle-aged red-headed co-worker who was pregnant. Pregnancy was understood by all as a reasonable excuse for frequent bathroom trips. I suspected the managers thought I was also possibly pregnant, because that would be a good explanation.

Our productivity was measured by monitoring software, and my score on that was good, at least average.

One day a willowy young Black woman was hired. I watched one of our Black co-workers, possibly the contact through whom she'd got the job, show her the bathroom sign-out sheet. She said: "You're allowed to go once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Here is where you sign your times out and in."

I didn't butt in to say, "No, you can go whenever you need to" because what if I was wrong? If that indeed was the rule, I didn't want to officially know it.

The red-headed woman was friendly and chatty. She chatted with me in the Ladies Room if we happened to be there at the same time. She chatted with our new co-worker. She learned our new thin willowy co-worker was also pregnant.

With the best of intentions, she told the manager that the new worker was pregnant, so they shouldn't think it amiss if the new worker went to the bathroom more frequently than the others.

The new worker was fired by the end of the day. The managers emphasized she wasn't fired for being pregnant, but for not saying she was pregnant during the interview. She was fired for lying. Though how was that lying? I don't think what they did is legal now. Maybe it was in 1979.

The red-headed woman said she felt awful that her good intentions led to hell.

The Black woman who was a friend of the fired worker said they shouldn't have fired her right away because "She was thinking of getting an abortion."

I thought: I believe in choice, but they're not giving her one. If she can't work, she'll have to get an abortion. That's no choice.

I don't think it even occurred to me to say that to management. I was a wimp and also working there under a lie.

When I quit at the end of the summer I said I'd changed my mind about taking the year off. The manager did not look surprised.

Cheese Pretender

Every time I add cheese to something I'm cooking to make it better, I think of a scene in the TV show The Pretender when he'd learned to do that: 

You don't like it?

[Squirts on Cheez Whiz]

There. I fixed it!

Even though I'm not using Cheez Whiz.

nervous word association mumbled - 2

Universal Ave

Universal Avenue

University Avenue

Universal Ave

Universal Lab

Universal Labs, and Studio

Universal Studios

University Labs, 

and Studio

University 

Studio 

Labs

University

University Avenue

University

University

Universe City

Universe City Labs

Universe City Avenue

Universe City Studio broadcasting from ... 

nervous word association mumbled - 1

antebellum
pro-bellum?
post-war
pre-war
pre-bellum
bellum
war? wartime

this morning's spam scam: Kansai Oil & Gas widow

email from scottglenn292@gmail.com:

 Your Help Is needed Urgently!

Good day! I know this email might be a surprise to you, due to the fact that we have never met before, I got your email contact from WORLD TRADE UNION and I believed that you will be of help to this deal I am proposing to you.

I am Mrs. Yokoma Kansai, I need your assistant to help me  retrieve my late husband's Fund $300,000,000.00 which he deposited in a SECURITY BANK. He was  CEO of  KANSAI OIL & GAS TOKYO JAPAN. My husband Dr. HISANAGA KANSAI died months ago of the COVID19 pandemic, I wish to have a deal with you regarding the fund.

As a result of his sudden death his business associates are trying to rip me off my late husband's assets and heirlooms which he had left for me before his painful demise. I want you to help me retrieve the FUND from the Bank, as my late Husband's Business partner.

l ready and willing to divulge more information to you upon your positive response. Please let me know your thoughts . Kindly reply through this  

Email: missyokomakansai@gmail.com

Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Yokoma Kansai.

Scam from Sonia - today's email

In today's inbox:

I have received Trying to Get Money out of Ukraine emails, a recent twist on the Nigerian prince scam. That's what I thought today's scam was at first, but it doesn't mention Ukraine.

National Poetry Month

 I want a poem that begins: 

I'm writing a goddamn sonnet

Setting Calendar View

Switching Microsoft Calendar View from Month, which I was using to view the future, over to Week to see this week's work schedule. 

Along the way, I hovered over the more efficient choice of Work Week View, but rejected it with a shiver.

I choose the complete Week View, where I can still see all the meetings, but also Sunday (yay!) and Saturday (sleep!).

It's bleak to look at a week without weekends.

Stray thoughts

1

My ancestors came from the Pale of Settlement.

An oddly appropriate place for a person of no color to originate.

Witty review of sweatshirt by Anonymous4567 (not me!)

One star review from 

https://www.nordstrom.com/s/sweaty-betty-athlete-hooded-long-sleeve-top/6499496

by Anonymous4567  

Truly awful 

Verified purchase   

Feb 26, 2022 

Size purchased: Large 

Color: SUNSET PINK

If I could give this negative stars, I would. I am always leery of ordering items from SB -- you can tell that they don't employ any designers who get any actual exercise, or test out their clothing on athletes. Sometimes they get it right (appears to be pure luck--or maybe it's the items that are made of natural materials with a looser fit), but this time their luck ran out. This is made out of the cheapest, most awful fabric. Like plastic (maybe because it is -- could be some petroleum derivative). And it's absolutely skin tight -- I ordered a size larger than usual (per other reviews) and I could still barely get it on. No actual athlete wants to run in skin-tight clothing (I'm running, not trying to earn my living as a streetwalker). Lastly, I ordered the sunset pink, which appears to be a beautiful peach color on the website--in real life it's a 90s fluorescent coral.

Scrolling through designer clothes

 I don't know why, but I have lately found comfort in looking at designer clothing. My Instagram feed is full of runway photos from different designers. I've even bought a few labelled designer items -- I wonder if I'm in some databases classified as a "bottom-feeder". Item has to be severely discounted to enter my sphere. And in XL too. 

Discounts are so often when only XXS remains. If that's your size, you should really wait for things to go on sale. I used to see beautiful sample sales of that size in Building 19, and lovely vintage finds too-small-for-me at Goodwill.

Anyway, today scrolling through Sacks 5th Ave Sale for Women;

• The Classic Crew Distressed Tee - no thanks, I distress my own Tee's. 
• What's more, I wear holes in my own jeans, and patch them too.
•  I need to buy replacement jeans the next time I'm at the LLBean outlet...
• Crop top, crop top,  - I bought one beautiful crop sweatshirt from Nordstrom last year because I couldn't resist, and thought, well, it's XL and I'm short. It is not too badly cropped.
• It is pretty, cheers me up to wear it, but the cropped length means my belly's exposed when I lift my arms. Not too bad for a sweatshirt, since there's always another shirt underneath. 
• But I resolved never to buy any other top with the word "cropped"
• There was a funny tweet suggesting to clothes-makers that many women do want to cover the bottom half of their belly. I wish I could remember the quote.
• Sports bras - also need to be tried on. I did order one online from Venus Williams Eleven, on-sale and made in the USA. Their largest size was too small. Mailed it back.
• Koral leggings. - I bought my kid a pair of these because she needed long-underwear/leggings and these were made in USA and also an OK price on-sale. Don't need any more.
• The depressing thing about sorting price low to high is you have to scroll through a lot of underpants and bikini bottoms. 

• I'm also trying to not buy clothes labelled "Imported" unless I know it's not from China.
• I also don't need more clothes. I need to save $. I need to de-clutter.
• This weekend I was crocheting a weird probably-a-vest. This seems to be a somewhat reasonable way to satisfy my urge for silly new clothes.
• downside - could better spend time cleaning up, writing my novel, playing lute?
• then again, if I use up the yarn I have and don't cave into urge to buy more, that sort of helps the decluttering.
• I've also crocheted some pieces from slashed up old clothes. Another good way to be frugal and de-clutter.

It's better if I spend lunch-hour walking up the block and down again. Not at desk doing not-work.

Off.

angelic profiles

Scrolling through Instagram: This miumiu post with the model's face in profile, with curly hair and feathery textured backpack made me think of a Renaissance angel.

Then I saw this similar image in an ad for an exhibition Love Stories at the Worcester Art Museum

 Dame_byGeorgeFredericWatts.jpg (893×1200) (worcesterart.org)

George Frederic Watts, Ellen Terry ('Choosing'), 1864, oil on strawboard mounted on Gatorfoam, 472 x 352 mm. National Portrait Gallery, London. Accepted in lieu of tax by H.M. Government and allocated to the Gallery, 1975. © National Portrait Gallery, London

Now I shall have to collect these here.

I'm sure there are some pre-Raphaelite paintings to include.

For now, a family snapshot:

What to buy from Versace's Spring 2022 Collection

I'm on the Saks Fifth Avenue email list now.

I get an email with the headline:

What to buy from Versace's Spring 2022 Collection

Wait, wait. I know this one. The answer is: 

Nothing. 

:-)

But I'll enjoy looking at the pretty pictures.

Elie Tahari Geometric Boatneck Long-Sleeve Top

Well I thought it looked really cool. The pattern.

I imagined it in cotton, which is really the only material in which I can imagine a shirt, though I saw it was made of 95% viscose. What is viscose? Some comfortable material made from trees, so far as I could find out via websearch.

It was on sale, bringing it to maybe $10 more then I can remember ever paying for a shirt.

But I kept looking at it, thinking, how *practical* it would be: A pattern with blue and black in it. Good for wearing with jeans to work, for dressing up with black slacks. A shirt, so it even works for work via Zoom. 

And that geometric pattern was so cool.

I got some kind of first-time-buyer discount from Saks which helped a little with the price.

The shirt arrived in a very large box. The shirt was in s smallish plastic bag, wrapped in tissue paper. Below that was enough tissue paper to help wrap presents. Too bad it's past that season.

Today I remembered to look for it, to try it on. I found the very large box.

The material was slinky and wrinkly. The dark color pattern is on the outside. It's white on the inside.

There are some hanging threads at the ends of the seams. Is that normal for the lower end of a fancy designer brand?

It did feel nice when I put it on.

It's made in China, which is disappointing. After hearing more about the Uyghurs this weekend, I resolved to not order anything else unless I can be assured it's not from China. And I've heard that some stuff marked as 'Vietnam' is also from China.

The reason I buy XL is to hang loosely and disguise how fat I am, as much as can be done. This shirt clings to my paunch. I look pregnant. 🙁

Still, it's nice, and too confusing to return. And I'm always hoping I'll get better at exercise and lose weight. (hoping for decades in fact)

I took photos for the online review, then found that Saks doesn't accept photos in its reviews.

Hence this blog post.

Here are the photos, followed by the description copied off the Saks website.

Threads at seam-ends

The best selfie I could manage.

The shirt showed the bumps of my jeans-fly, so I took them off and photographed how it looked over smooth blue leggings.

Kind daughter took my photo

From the Saks website:

Sleek long-sleeve top cut with a wide boatneck, boasts a stunning geometric print.

• Boatneck
• Long sleeves
• Pullover style
• 95% viscose/5% spandex
• Machine wash
• Imported

SIZE & FIT

• About 25" from shoulder to hem
• Model measurements: 5'10" tall
• Model is wearing a US size Small

Style Code: 0400014878635