Now HERE’S an appetizing thought: NPR : Turning Toilet Water into Tap Water in California
I predict an increase in sales of bottle water.
Archive for September, 2004
I cleared my deadline of yesterday, and I’m proud of myself because nobody got yelled at . . . really. I don’t like cutting deadlines so short. The client expected the report at 5:00, and it came in at about 4:58. My life is stressful enough without that kind of pressure. I like a little wiggle room just in case something goes wrong — because it always will.
I’m contemplating the thought of taking a solo vacation within the next year. I’m well-traveled, so I’m not afraid to get on an international flight and navigate my way through a foreign city. Now that I’m thinking about it, most of my international travel has been alone, so why should this be any different? I like the idea of going to Italy (might as well have eye candy since I’m traveling, right?), a country whose language that I don’t speak, but understand relatively well since I speak French, and checking into a hotel, sightseeing, shopping, taking myself to dinner and meeting cute boys with whom I can live in the moment and casually flirt. I will take a laptop, so I will write, notice how the fresh air smells different, contemplate the safety of their water, and allow new Italian words to roll off of my tongue. The Italians will try and guess my nationality (which always happens every time I go to a foreign country), and I will patiently wait as they laugh at our government and our stupid laws. I will agree and share a bottle of wine with them, as they speak adorable broken english.
How’s that for mid-morning fantasy? With my imagination, I might not need to go anywhere!
I’m having SUCH a frustrating day!!!!! I’m on deadline and an editor is complaining that I used “passive voice.” My voice is about to get REAL active, real soon!
Now that I’ve finished my cleanse, I’m trying to be extra careful about what I eat, and I still haven’t had anything to drink except for water and one cup of tea that I had yesterday while waiting to be in a focus group.
The focus group was kind of depressing, truth be told. It was all about aging, and the moderator asked a lot of questions about how we felt our lives were going and how we feel about the aging process. They asked a lot of questions about how satisfied we are with our lives, specifically family/friend relationships, intimate relationships, financial planning and general success. I learned that every facet of my life needs improvement.
I was probably one of the youngest women in the group, and the only one without children. When the moderator asked what our best accomplishment was — the moment when we felt most proud of ourselves — the entire group said that giving birth to their children was their proudest moment. I decided to keep it to myself that I was pretty freakin’ proud of myself when I quit smoking 10 years ago. The timing wasn’t right. I find that when you’re childless in the room full of mothers, in their minds, anything that you do pales in comparison to their wonderful child-rearing experience.
Even worse than the smug marrieds (more and more of which are becoming smug divorcees), the smug mothers think that life is absolutely worthless if you don’t have kids (except for the ones who are keeping it real and are usually extremely honest about the ups and downs of parenthood — just like the honest smug marrieds who keep it real and advise you not to rush into marriage). Unfortunately, MY smug mother is the WORST smug mother to deal with as far as this is concerned.
On deadline . . . more later.
This blog is in loving memory of Louis Satterfield, who passed away yesterday. He was a friend of the family, and a fabulous musician. It was an honor to know and work with him. He will be missed.
Because I’m such a weird person, I’m now done with the cleanse, and can’t decide what to eat. Can you believe it? Yesterday I would have eaten anything in my path, and this morning, I’m almost afraid to eat anything at all.
The report that I wrote for my client just got slammed, so that’s what I’ll be doing with the remainder of my morning. Boo!
It’s the last day of my cleanse, and I haven’t cheated once. Not once! As my luck would have it, this is the absolute hardest day. I’m craving coffee cake, pizza, chocolate, frozen yogurt, you name it, I want it. Anything sounds better than the vegetables I’m supposed to eat. So, since I refuse to fail after I’ve made it this far, I’m going to have to find something else to do with my time. Like blogging, for example. Not that writing about food is making me want it less. Less discuss something else before I eat my keyboard.
I had book club last night. I’m in two book clubs, or reading groups, depending on your terminology. I love them both. If you’re an avid reader, or even if you’re a person who would like to read more but needs an excuse, I would completely recommend joining a reading group, or starting one of your own. It’s a good reason to get together with friends that you wouldn’t normally see and read books you wouldn’t normally read.
Okay, I’m getting hungry again, so I’d better find something else to do. This is torture. Why, again, am I doing this?
Star Jones and Fiance 
How unbearable is The View going to be now that Star Jones is getting married, AND Elizabeth Hasselback is pregnant. Jeez! Oh, and by the way, did you notice the interesting photo of Star and her fiance, Al? I don’t think I need to mention the fact that he’s probably wearing Mac Lip Glass. You do the math.
Another crazy black chick bites the dust on the Apprentice!
Okay . . . what was THAT about? Now, granted, Stacie J., the sole black woman on the Apprentice, did display unstable tendencies in episode one, and she does have that I’m-going-to-wait-for-you-in-the-bushes glare, but the way the rest of the women reacted to her was hilarious. They said things like:
“I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
“I was really concerned with my safety.”
“She’s crazy.”
“I’m sad for her health. She should be on medication.”
“She was like a wild dingo, threatening to eat my children.” (Okay, I made that one up)
C’mon people! Was is THAT serious? Did the woman wave a knife around? No! Did she strip naked and run through Central Park? Hmmm. Not that I know of! So, to dramatically clutch the pearls and say that they were fearing for their lives made me want someone to give those prissy girls GOOD reasons to fear for their lives. And little miss Bridal Salon Owner (who is muy slappable), said that she would never let Stacie J. run one of her salons, as though that’s a big freakin’ slap in the face! Who the hell wants to run a bridal salon, where emotional size 16 women are trying to fit their back fat into size 6 samples to look “perfect” for “their day,” (that was for you, Star Jones) and unhappy bridesmaids get fitted for overpriced ugly-ass ecru taffeta dresses that they’ll probably, someday, ceremoniously burn in a bonfire. Get over yourself, blondie!
But, aside from that rant, I’m not doubting that Stacie J.’s crazy. Not for one second. But has everyone forgotten about the actual person who failed that mission, namely How-Do-You-Solve-A-Problem-Like MARIA ! Miss overbudget, herself? She slinked out of that one, didn’t she? Well we’ll just see how much longer she lasts!
On another, very scary note . . . this just in from one of my online sources of pop culture:
SAME SEX AND THE CITY: The Big Apple tabs are having a field day over news that Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon (aka Miranda) has fallen for — holy Post-It note — a woman! In front-page stories Friday, the New York Post and the Daily News reported that the Emmy winner has been in a relationship with an unnamed woman for nearly a year. In an interview with the Daily News, Nixon — who last year split with Danny Mozes, the father of her two children — didn’t deny that she had switched teams. “My private life is private,” she said. “But at the same time, I have nothing to hide. So what I will say is that I am very happy.”
Did SATC turn her off of penis forever? Wow!
