stagflation sucks! i don't care if gas prices have lulled, they are still pretty damn high, esp when i haven't had a paycheck since june. my new job starts soon so i won't complain, but not being regularly funded makes one realize how expensive things really are right now. i spent $70 at the supermarket on food for 4 days. $70! on simple items like bread and milk. and i don't eat like a hoover so i'm mystified. i need new sneakers but they're like b/w $85-$110. and i just had to pay my COBRA health insurance which was another $560 gone *poof*. and tolls - i could have fed a family for a week on what i paid to drive from brooklyn to dc. anything i want to do ends up costing something. plus everyone is getting laid off, incomes are at new lows, and rants like mine are commonplace.
at least political drama keeps things interesting since one of the few ways to entertain myself cheaply is to read the newspaper in the backyard. the WSJ is scathingly conservative and all the junk i see on tv is exceedingly liberal. so i end up reading foreign news websites to get an unbiased view of american politics, which i find both amusing and annoying.
weather has been absolutely perfect. an august i can actually enjoy outside is unprecedented. i was in cape may and went on a nature walk across wetlands and beaches. beautiful place.
at the grocery store today, a large, older woman passed by me as i was artfully selecting peaches with a ninja's dexterity. my extraordinary peripheral vision detected something odd, perhaps heinous really, at my left, and so i turned and i noticed that the woman was wearing white spandex capri pants that were completely translucent. and she had no business wearing them, as there was absolutely nothing left to my imagination, including - her giant diaper!
please don't get me wrong, i have nothing against large people. my problem lies with anyone who wears white spandex. generally no one, not even a supermodel, can pull that off successfully. but if you're wearing the mother of all diapers, please, PLEASE get some sense in your head and leave the white spandex at home, unless you're looking to tell the whole world that you're an adult who wears diapers and you're proud.
i've been spending the better part of the week packing and cleaning for the big move. one thing i will not miss about NYC is the horde of people that has been going through my garbage. they open up bags and look for things in broad daylight. one example - today i was walking my dog, came back to my building door, and see a guy untying my bags. he sees me and says, "i won't make a mess. i'm just looking for electronics." ok i know it's garbage but i still want my private possessions, even if garbage, to remain privately garbage until beyond the bounds of human touch. i don't want people rifling through my old mail and socks. back where i used to live, there was one guy on our block who would do that and everyone ridiculed him. here it's acceptable behavior. it's creepy! and these people don't appear to need to look through my stuff for things, they're well-dressed, looking like they're on their way to work. maybe i'm just paranoid. or maybe i will leave post-it notes in the garbage telling people to mind their own business. ah well time for bed. early night, b/c extremely early to rise and drive to-morrow.
i wrapped up the constant gardener by john le carre yesterday. it's a very engaging tale about what appears to be a simple murder in kenya, but then becomes much more than that, unraveling into an elaborate scheme involving diplomats, spies, and multinational pharmaceutical companies. i picked it up thinking it would be a spy novel but it incorporated so much more. le carre, although his writing can be rather dry at times, never fails to captivate and his descriptions of the feelings his characters are experiencing are masterfully written, such that one's imagination isn't forced to bridge many gaps. i recommend it - makes for great summer reading if you like the mystery/political thriller genre. unfortunately though, the horror and dismay that comes from the story isn't entirely fictional.
just spent the past several days recuperating in beautiful rainy downtown london and on the verdant lawns of versailles. back to life, back to reality!