"some say he's mad," macbeth: v, ii

I was walking home from work yesterday, and a dude riding a bicycle on the sidewalk came up behind me fast and yelled derisively "Look out, hippie!" Which, as anyone who knows me can attest, is an odd thing to call me, as I think I'm not really on the hippie end of the spectrum. I was wearing chef's pants, which maybe looked like something else to him (some kind of hippie pattern maybe?), but that's really all I can think of.

So we're in the new place, officially now. I mean, everything we own is in the new place. That's about the extent of it, though. It's pretty much a mattress and a bunch of still-packed boxes and us.

I'm kind of tired of nutcases. There, I said it. But then I think that I should be more compassionate; surely no one wants to be a nutcase. But there seem to be a lot more of them out and about now that the warm weather has arrived, and I have to confess that I sometimes just wish I could walk down the street without incident.

Yesterday on the bus in to work a dude was coughing (a lot) right behind me, and I could just tell from the lack of muffling that he wasn't covering his mouth. I was about to turn around and say something or at least shoot him a dirty look, but then he started mumbling to himself and it sounded kind of like he was speaking in tongues, so I decided to just ride it out. Sometimes better to let these things slide. Although in this day and age of douchebags knowingly traveling on public modes of transportation with TB, it's sort of a wash when it comes to personal safety.

"'tis no time to play now" romeo and juliet: iv, v

I just watched the Sanbitter video like 3 times rapid-fire. It's mesmerizing. Oh, and I have studying I'm supposed to be doing, so that makes it more transfixing.

I was walking past this really seedy bar this afternoon just as the Preakness was finishing up. I heard this guy yelling at the top of his lungs "Get up there! Get up there!" and then he cheered so loudly I could hear him down the block. I guess he had a little bit of money on the winning horse. I can only hope for his sake it's enough to upgrade to a different bar; the one he was in advertised in the window that they had no public restrooms.

Oh, also, I just read this headline: "Study: Vitamin overuse could lead to cancer." Nice."A new study from the National Cancer Institute suggests a link between heavy use of multivitamins and increased risk for prostate cancer." Nutrition is getting to be more and more of a lose-lose proposition.

I just watched the Sanbitter video again. The guy's wearing a piano tie. It's awesome. It's awesome in the "it makes no sense" kind of way. If I understood Italian it would probably just be lame, but since Italian is just about as decipherable as Klingon for me, it's just pleasantly nonsensical.

And much better than learning the reason why glycerine is added to rolled fondant. (The reason is to make it more pliable and to prevent it from cracking and tearing when used.)

And with that ..... off I go.

"a pleasing cordial" king richard iii: ii, i

I'm excited to be moving, but, ugh, is there anything worse than moving? Packing. The pits. There's nothing for it but to just grab a box and start putting stuff in it. Try to keep organized, but by the end, there's a good chance that everything will get smushed together. The place we're moving to is smaller, too, so we're also supposed to purge as we go, and that makes it tougher too, or at any rate, more time consuming. My worry is that at first I'll be holding on to things sentimentally that I don't really want to keep, but that in the end, as the clock ticks down I'll start ruthlessly ditching things I will regret getting rid of in the long run. On the bright side, the clock's already ticking down, so maybe I'll just keep an even keel.

My favorite beverage at the moment is Pellegrino's Sanbitter (that link is great if you, uh, speak or read Italian; actually, it's pretty great even if you don't; I highly recommend clicking on the "videoclip" section). The bottle is cute as a button, sure, and that appeals to me, as does the ruby red syrupyness of the drink.

But more than that, it has this great sweet/bitter combo that I just love. It's a nonalcoholic version of Campari. Yum. Plus it gives you a SWEET red tongue when you drink it!

"fair flower, untimely pluck'd" various poetry: x

There are some beautiful flowering trees around the place where I work, and they are in full bloom right now.




Imagine my dismay that when I arrived this morning to work, I saw a crew of landscapers taking a chainsaw to several of these trees, cutting them down a branch at a time, then going right for the trunks. The pink petals were all around us in the air, churned up by the vibrations of the saw. If it had been two days from now, these would have been green trees, and while I hate watching trees being cut down, it wouldn't have been as heart-wrenching as this was, watching these beautiful pink branches at the height of their bloom being chopped down like they were nothing.

Put me in a rotten mood, I can tell you.

On the bright side, I got new glasses this week, and they are wicked cool.

"the majesty and power of law and justice" king henry iv, part ii: v, ii

I thought I'd share with you what kind of state Rhode Island is.

If you walk past the building that houses the Rhode Island Department of the Attorney General



You'll see an inspiring quote to the right of the door:


A quote from a comic book author. On an engraved placard. I just think that's great.

On the bright side, at least our courthouse doesn't have a monument to the Ten Commandments in it.