Thursday, April 22, 2004

Customer Service

I pull my car into Jiffy Lube yesterday, and I'm nursing a haven't-eaten headache, so I'm already not to be screwed with. And one of the garage guys comes out to the Millennium Bellemobile and goes, "We can't help you today. We're out of oil filters."

I practically set the blacktop on fire screeching out of the parking lot. You're JIFFY LUBE. You might want to look into having a ready supply of something vital to, I don't know, the process of LUBING.

Sunday, April 18, 2004

Cookies and Cream

Here's what's so great about being grown up. I wanted ice cream at 1 AM last night, and so I had ice cream at 1 AM. I didn't have to ask permission, or sneak upstairs to my parents' freezer. I wanted ice cream, and lo, there was ice cream.

Such things astound me, and remind me why I was so eager to grow up as a platinum-haired young Jedi. When I held the Taufling in my arms just a few days ago, I rocked him and loved him and thought oh, little baby, childhood takes so very long.

Today the morning sun touches the handpainted sides of my desk, and I ponder the question of how to spend the day. It is a matter of direction. If I drive an hour to east, I will enter the quiet familiarity of the beach; if I drive an hour west, the day will be conducted at the track.

I will consult with no one or nothing but my own gut on this matter. At the moment I am leaning beach, called there by a need to sit and write and inhale the art of being. The track is a blur, constant motion, a constant circuit of paddock, rail, winners circle, speed and adrenaline and cigarettes and not meeting the eyes of the jockeys, and although the meet there will end in just a few days I feel myself saturated with horseracing, feel it enmeshed in my grey matter and every inch of skin. It is infatuation to the point of pain, and I almost need to back away for a moment and catch my breath, recenter. I will spend the day in another type of sand, park myself there all day with a towel and an umbrella and maybe some wine.

It's 10 AM, and I am craving Skyline chili. Yeah, time for lunch.

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