Memorial

Dear Self,

Maybe don't bring up 9/11. Maybe don't mention how you've been trying not to think about it or all of the memorials and talks that you'd actually, for the first time in five years, like to go to. But instead: work. Work today. If you're going to think about everything that has changed, try to think of the good and small things. If you're going to think about suffering, think about easing it somehow.

It is what it is.

Please get out of bed. Find something to wear that does not require ironing, because damnit, you're going to be late. (Except sometimes being late can save a person, remember? So many people have stories like that.)

Please don't turn on the tv. Don't pick up the paper. You know what happened.

Remember?

♦

ETA:

9:20 am: Somehow I was not expecting this, but holy god it is sad out there today. I was okay until I stepped outside. It's beautiful out, sunny and clear with the scent of fall, but the entire city feels like a bruise. Really all I feel is all of our grief, very deep and in every molecule.

Coming out of the subway, through the tunnel that leads to the stairs that lead to the street, a man was walking in the other direction, smiling and shouting "Mahatma Gandhi! Mahatma Gandhi!" over and over. I turned to the lady walking next to me, a nurse in scrubs, and told her that was the best crazy thing I've heard all week. She agreed.

I Am a Genius! Someone should give me a grant.

Hot Beverages May Be Sweetened with Pre-Flavored Lozenges
Cassandra S. Johnson, Department of Staying Awake at Work, September 2006

Introduction

• We find that coffee and tea, while delicious in their own right, may at times need to be supplemented in flavor due to subpar quality and relative level of consumer boredom.

Hypothesis

• Typical sweeteners (sugar, artificial packets, your own pinky finger) may be replaced by delicious hard candies.

Methods

• Generic butterscotch candy was purchased, along with piping hot English Breakfast tea. One candy was placed in the tea and allowed to melt.

• Experiment was repeated the following day with coffee instead of tea.

Results

• Freaking fantastic.

Summary of Conclusions

• Results suggest further experimental variables, including Werther's, peppermints, Rolo's and hot cocoa with cinnamon candies.

The Dinner Party

In lieu of any interesting real-life facts (really am too lazy to type full sentences today), please accept my guest list for my dinner party.

I do not expect RSVPs because they are all dead. I hope this means I do not have to prepare any actual food.

William James
Eleanor Roosevelt
That Darwin Fellow
Abraham Lincoln
Brenda Ueland
Winston Churchill (for my mom to sit next to.)

[note! Mom is not dead, but is invited anyhow because I need her to do the placecards.]

That's eight including me. Aren't parties supposed to be 12?

Mae West
Sarah Bernhardt
Elvis Presley

and the guest of honor: Steve Irwin, bless him.