Happy V-Day!
I’ve never been much for Valentine’s Day. It’s always seemed really contrived, and even when you’re dating someone, there are way better holidays to celebrate. (Half-birthdays, for instance). I used to wear all black or gray on V-Day, probably spawned by the bitterness and resentment I harbored from my days in an all-girls high school in Dallas, where large banquet tables were set up in the main lobby to collect the seemingly hundreds of bouquets that arrived approximately every ten seconds (I was never one of the recipients). I’m no longer actively anti-Valentine’s Day, it just sort of registers a big, pink, beflowered “meh.” Except, of course, when it comes to socks. And, yes, this post really is just a lame excuse to tell you about the socks I’m wearing today. The only other thing I can even think about blogging is this stupid winter weather. The cold and snow have frozen my mind, it seems.
Not only is it still really cold and getting colder, there is now nearly a foot of snow on the ground. (It doesn’t seem like quite that much here, but apparently Midway Airport, which is pretty close by, measured 9.7″). My mom refers to snow as “the white shit,” and rightly so. In Hyde Park, nothing south of the Midway has been touched by salt or plow or shovel. So I sludge and slosh up to my shins through slippery sidewalks and dirty gray snowdrifts. I can’t tell where the sidewalks are, but I can’t walk on the streets because there’s barely enough room for the cars as it is.
What have I learned from all of this, aside from the fact that I have a very bad attitude about winter? Next February, I will be planning a vacation. To Tucson, perhaps, or to Southern California. Anywhere there is sunshine, low wind, and absolutely no white shit.
* * *
current book: Having finished the New Yorker, I got caught up in the latest Atlantic, and so have yet to start High Tide in Tucson.
current music: I spent last weekend trying to share the love that is “White and Nerdy” and Margot and the Nuclear So-and-So’s.
current socks: Are you ready for these? Are you sure? Pink crew socks with red toes and heels. Sailor Jerry-style swallows and hearts. The ribbon carried by the swallows says, “Je t’aime.” The best part (or most obnoxious, depending on your perspective)? Plush red hearts attached to the back of the heel. Man, I wish my camera was working.
Posted 14 February 2007
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you succesfully shared the goodness of margot and the nuclear so-and-so’s. i had heard them awhile back and would have totally jumped on board thier fan-wagon except that i’m so very lazy about the whole new music thing these days. you are a force of good in keeping me from hurtling too quickly into old age. you know, music-wise.
Amen to February travel. We talk about it every single year and yet have never managed to get anywhere. Oh, let me correct that, John is Puerto Rico for work this very week. I had to stay here for work. Nice.
sounds like a hood time to head south. (hint, hint)
Remind me again why I agreed to go visit you *in Chicago* next weekend? You aren’t painting a very favorable picture of the current weather and I have a feeling that the temperature and accumulated white shit won’t be miraculously disappearing upon my arrival next Friday.
After a week in So Cal, my body might just shut down as I get off the plane at Midway.