Hello and Happy Columbus Day. Those of you who know me might think I am frolicking in the city streets, celebrating this day that has become a celebration of Italian-American culture. But I remind you that I don't need a special day to shout, "Kiss me, I'm Italian!", your average Tuesday afternoon will do. Also, I like to save up all my Italo Holiday pride for St. Joseph's Day in March and really stick it to the dirty Irish.
Instead, I am at my office, even though it is a holiday and I don't have to be here. I came in to try to get some work done because I am falling behind. But it turns it I get just as distracted from my work on holidays as I do on the regular workaday week. I have managed to buy a lot of yarn on the Internet though and pay my Student Loan. Hurrah.
Our friend at Carpathian Kitten Loss, Josh or Zach, I forget his name, reminds us that it is also Canadian Thanksgiving Day. He has a charming graphic explaining North American geography, for everyone who didn't know but was too embarassed to ask. I have been thinking about Canada alot lately because I am in the middle of John Irving's newest novel Until I Find You. The publication of a new John Irving novel is such an event for me that when I finally got a copy from the Brooklyn Public Library, I couldn't open it. I just took it to bed, turning it over and over in my hands, enjoying the anticipation that comes before diving into a new 800 page Irving novel. What motifs will surface this time? Will there be wrestling? Will there be bears? Vienna? Lesbians? Dismembered bodyparts?
Because of the holiday, I encounter a situation this morning that made me feel like I had traveled back in time to 1998, you know, a simpler time when there was only a Starbucks on every fifth corner and not every second block (here, I'm speculating. In 1998 I was actually a junior in High School). I came up from the subway jonseing for Starbucks. Now, I'm not really a Starbucks fiend, but since it was a rainy holiday and I had managed to get my ass out of bed before 10am to come into the office, I felt that an Iced Carmel Machiato was not out of line. The whole subway ride I kept asking myself, "Yes, but will Starbucks be open?" When I came above ground, I saw a guy with a Starbucks cup. Brilliant! You don't walk around with a Starbucks cup unless you just bought coffee at Starbucks or you are encouraging people to put quarters in your cup. Anway, I walked around the corner to the first Starbucks and it was closed! This set off a slight panic in me. Were all Starbucks closed? What about the guy with the cup? Should I walk two blocks to the larger Starbucks on Lexington or continue another three blocks to the Starbucks on Third which is smaller, but closer to my office? I decided to stay my course and walk an extra one block out of my way and fortunately, it paid off. The small Starbucks was open.
You know how people talk about the olden days, when things were so much harder? Dude, it's totally true.
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1 comment:
ooh! I just started reading the World According to Garp. My first Irving novel. I'm glad you're reading a different one simultaneously. I know it's really late for me to reading this one, but that's really just luck of the draw. Some books cross your path when they're supposed to and others elude you for years until it becomes so shameful not to have read it that you break down and check it out of the library when nobody's looking.
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