Hey Mercedes Hey Sandy hey



At the last minute, I decided not to go watch the Evan Dando gig at Southpaw because I had work the next day (Saturday). Argh! I am such a loser. The Lemonheads is only one of my favorite bands ever. Given that I was tired and I just came from work, but what the heck I'm always tired.



Speaking of work, it's eerie how Wall Street looks like at eight a.m. on a Saturday morning. It's practically possible to take more than three steps without bumping into a person or food cart. I signed in, took the elevator (which I didn't have to wait 57 minutes for!) to my floor, and found myself delightfully alone. It took me all of fifteen minutes to look for the light switch. The others started coming in at 8:30. This was my first time to work on a Saturday and I was understandably cranky, but I actually liked it. No ringing phones, no boss, I actually wore thong slippers and got away with it. Well, there was no AC either, just a dusty industrial size fan, and the silence was punctuated by sneezing every five minutes.



Anyhow, to discourage depression due to the abovementioned facts, I did some serious spending over the week-end. I saw this funky green jacket at Gap, which they didn't have in my size but had in my sister's, who conceded to my having the blue suede bag as consolation. I'm really curious about the other Demeter fragrances, but Sephora only had a few. I got the Gin and Tonic, which won over Laundromat and Earl Grey Tea. I was really looking for Grass, Dirt and Holy Water, though. For the adventurous, there's Mildew, Earthworm, Lobster, Saw Dust..... The Body Shop has body polish made out of Satsuma oranges, which smells good enough to eat. From "New York's best kept secret", I got two pairs of sassy black boots for fall, which technically started yesterday. After a long day, we went home and contemplated on how materialistic we've become on week-ends.



Today, my boss unchained me early and so I thought I deserved a little trip to J & R. Bad decision because I ended up buying all these CDs which somehow just magically appeared on their shelves. Funny how when you're not looking to buy anything, all these CDs are suddenly screaming at you, "Buy me! buy me!" "I'm on sale!" "I'm the last copy and they marked me down 10% and I have that song that you've been thinking about lately!" In times like these, what could one do but proceed to the checkout counter with an armload. What kind of a world is this, where dozens of copies of Jeff Buckley's Grace marked down to $9.99 remain unsold? If I were rich, I would gladly walk out of there with all those unsold Jeff Buckley CDs and I'd put a bin in the middle of Battery Park, and maybe a copy would make its way to Tokelau or the Vatican or Babuyan Islands.



"If I could you know I'd try to, rest assured I've half a mind to..." - Rest Assured, Lemonheads

Workaday



Alone in the backseat of a cab at 11 pm, you watch as the lamp posts go by slowly, slowly. Cruising along unfamiliar highways and sidestreets, you imagine you're on a trip to some exotic place. Some place different, unpredictable, where fourteen-hour workdays and fifteen-minute lunches are unheard of. But you're only going home.



Over and over we begin again.



"Hi.... it's been a while... your freckled smile... has lost its charming glimmer... "- Just Like Henry, Dressy Bessy

Stories



Everyone has a story.



Li was trapped in a train underground for an hour. Joe reached out and caught a piece of paper with a speck of blood on it. Ian was in one of the towers an hour before the incident. B saw the first plane hit.



It's important to tell and retell the stories so we don't forget. Because we can, and because it's so easy to.



Long after the full minute of silence passed, the radio continued to drone on and on, calling out the names of the people who died.

Definitely wear lip gloss



Mmmhmm.



In true couch potato fashion, we've (my sister and I) registered with netflix. We're renting movies that everybody has seen but us, or that she has seen but I haven't and vice versa. The greatest thing about DVDs is subtitles, hope yet for half-deaf people like us. My mom swears I have selective hearing. I only hear what I want to. She says this is because as a child, I would pretend not to hear whenever somebody asks me to help out in the household chores



A craving for spicy noodles led us to a little Thai restaurant in Bay Ridge, the name of which escapes me. Anyhow, the waiter was Filipino, which my sister and I found strange because we swore we heard him speak Thai. (didn't I mention we're half-deaf?) We gave ourselves a good bonk in the head as we pride ourselves as being quite good at Spot-the-Filipino. As he was handing us the check, my sister, who almost always has no cash on her, reached for it, and I muttered under my breath, "As if ikaw magbabayad" (As if you're paying). The waiter, who was trying to suppress a chuckle, then said "Filipino kayo?" (Are you Filipino?), to which I stupidly said, "Ikaw din?" (You too?) On the way home, we marveled at how versatile the Filipino's features are. It's even ironic how my (biological) sister can pass for Vietnamese, while I am sometimes mistaken to be from one of the Spanish-speaking countries.



The Wiz was having a closing out sale so I thought I'd get some CDs that I had left back home. Last night I was listening to Ben Folds Five's Whatever and Ever Amen. I remember spending an entire summer trying to transcribe the whole album because I was jealous of Jazz, who could play Missing the War (and the Mr. Belvedere theme!) on the Glee Club's keyboards. sidenote: Even with 10% off, CDs at The Wiz are still more expensive than those at other record stores.



Sandra Cisneros (House on Mango Street) has come up with her version of a Latino epic. It took Cisneros nine years to write Caramelo, which will be out by September 24.



"I want, I want, I want, I wanna be Kate!" - Kate, Ben Folds Five