Sunday, June 27, 2004

Updates to Prior Posts

I am thrilled to announce that technology no longer bytes. Captain K, fearless defender of and hero to vulnerable, corrupted PCs everywhere (or at least in the greater Los Angeles area), successfully diagnosed our ailing computer and fixed it! To make a long, complicated diagnosis short and somewhat understandable, we did NOT have a virus; we had corrupted Windows.

Ironically, Captain K believes the Microsoft Security Update CD I'd installed last Friday was somehow responsible for Windows' demise. Maybe the CD was defective. So, the good captain backed up our important files, then uninstalled and reinstalled Windows on our machine. He also "reassociated" the *.doc extension with Word, since part of the trouble had been that Word was no longer interpreting *.doc files as Word documents.

Furthermore, Cap'n K updated our Internet Explorer to 6, refreshed our anti-virus software, and downloaded Mozilla for us to use as an alternative, less-vulnerable Web browser.

Woo-hoo!

In other news, the mighty combination of Flex-all, frozen Peruvian scallops (gotta love Trader Joe's), and rest seems to have restored my right calf back to its relatively healthy state. I'll find out for sure when I attempt a run around the neighborhood tomorrow. The Montrose Independence Day 5K is fast approaching!

Hi to brother M, if he's reading this. Brother M, when told of this blog, replied, "What's a blog?" Hee. Anyway, hello to brother M in San Antonio.

Oh! Here's something: We saw Fahrenheit 9/11 Friday night. I think it's imperative that every American watch this film. I know not everybody loves Michael Moore or the methods he uses for making his points, but the man does his research and presents indisputable facts. He does an extraordinary job of laying out the Bush family's numerous connections (primarily business-based) with Saudi Arabia, which explains, in part, why the Bush administration is using Iraq as a scapegoat for the so-called War on Terror and tiptoeing around the Saudis.

The film was also peppered with actual footage of various Bush speeches and soundbites, all of which were either shameful or mortifying. One of the most telling quotes from a speech made by Bush at some sort of black-tie affair went like this: "Well, here we are: the Have's and the Have More's. [laughter] Many think of you as our nation's elite; I think of you as my base."

And another, spoken by Bush on a golf course somewhere: "Yeah, we're going to get those terrorists. We're going to smoke 'em out. Now check out my golf swing."

Friday, June 25, 2004

The World Outside My Office Window

Yesterday was the strangest day at work. Sometime shortly after my workday began at 8:30, a female pedestrian at the bus depot across the street was struck by a city bus, dragged a bit, then trapped beneath the vehicle for some time before finally dying at the scene. A brief account of the accident appears here:
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/news/062404_nw_bus_ax.html

None of us here at work saw the accident happen, but we had a clear view of the woman's body, covered in a yellow tarp and resting on the ground directly behind the bus, for most of the day. The harrowing scene included the woman's belongings, strewn on the pavement just behind where she lay. It looked like a black totebag and maybe a purse, each with its contents spilled out. It was as if time froze the moment the accident happened, with the bus, the woman, and her personal items all remaining in place for several hours after the accident occurred, while the police and various other adults milled about and, presumably, investigated the crime scene.

What made this incident not only tragic and terrifying but also surreal was my proximity to the office window that perfectly frames the bus depot. It's impossible for me to look toward the window without seeing the sprawling grounds of the bus terminal; I even see the window when I'm not facing it, as it is reflected in my computer monitor. So, all day yesterday, when I wasn't purposely staring out the window at the crime scene with the rest of my officemates, I kept catching inadvertent glances of the dead woman's body. Any time I turned away from my computer or got up from my chair to visit the kitchen, the restroom, or the printer, I saw her; or rather, the form of her body beneath the yellow tarp.

I found the experience very unsettling and distressing, and I kept wondering about the woman, her family, and the destination she never reached that morning. I also thought about how no one should have to die in such an undignified, horrific manner; that is, being hit by a bus. To be running for the bus one minute and dead the next? It seems absurd and unfair.

On another, less-emotional level, the whole experience was educational. I'd never seen a real-life fatal-crime scene before yesterday, and it was interesting for my coworkers and I to witness the course of events unfold throughout the day. First, the police taped off the crime scene with that yellow "Caution" tape. Then there were many men milling about, and crouching down by the body, and standing up again, and what appeared to be their taking of photographs. We also noticed a large group of plain-clothed people queued up on the sidewalk by the depot for at least a couple of hours, and we wondered if they were witnesses to the accident. Perhaps they'd been on the bus that struck the woman, or maybe they'd been waiting at the depot for that bus, or another, to arrive.

We saw no ambulance, just nine police cars and a few official-looking city vehicles. No crowd was gathered, perhaps because the area is right outside the airport and a bit isolated from the surrounding communities. I think if a similar accident occurred in the heart of, say, Hollywood or Santa Monica or some other heavily residential part of the city, swarms of onlookers would be present, and the whole scene would be rather chaotic.

Finally, in the afternoon, the coroner arrived. He or she set up some sort of tent over the woman's body, which remained for an hour or so. Later, the body was removed. That was a relief. I think if the victim were a loved one of mine, I would want her body removed from the scene as quickly as possible.

Afterward, maybe around 3:00 or so, a white van with the business name "Clean Scene" arrived at the depot. Dressed in white biohazard suits, the Clean Scene staff got to work scrubbing the place on the pavement where the body had been. That was creepy, but interesting. None of us realized that accident clean-up is, at least in some cases, performed by a private business instead of by the city.

By about 4:30, the depot was back to its original state: The bus that had struck the woman was gone, the woman's body and personal items had been removed, the pavement was clean, and the yellow crime-scene tape was gone. All in a day's work for the LAPD, I guess.

A few of us in the office kept gazing out the window at the bus depot after all traces of the accident were gone. I kept thinking about the people driving and walking by who had no idea what had occurred there earlier in the day.

Defeat of Da Feet: A Rant (or, I Can’t Believe I Injured My Calf Muscle Again)

Sigh.

Not long after finishing yesterday's Beverly Hills run toward the front of the 11-minute three-miler pack, I felt a familiar, loathesome twinge in my right calf. Alarmed, I launched into several minutes of obsessive stretching, but my efforts proved futile: By the time I was standing in line for the free Whole Foods sandwich halves, both calves were clenched and emitting bursts of intense pain from that point where the muscle links up with the tendons of the ankle. (If I remember correctly from my 11th-grade anatomy and physiology class, the muscle in question is called the "gastrocnemius." But man, that spelling looks really, really wrong.) And, like the last time this whole injury situation began, the pain in my right calf is much more intense than the pain in my left.

Honestly, I can't believe it! Injured again! What the...? I was so careful this time to avoid jogging in place on the balls of my feet at the stoplights! Granted, we hit many more red lights than the last time I ran this course, so maybe the stopping and starting---even sans stationary jogging---did me in. I don't know! CL suggested I run on the road, not the concrete, next time around. The pavement is more forgiving and offers some "give," so maybe that's it. Also, this Beverly Hills course is the only one of the three that involves sidewalk running. The Santa Monica course is great in that we run along that dirt path above the beach, which is easy on muscles and joints. The Ladera course is all neighborhoods, so there's no stopping at intersections or traffic forcing us onto the sidewalk.

So now what? Last night I stretched and slathered on Flex-all, which is like Kryptonite to S and Toonces. Neither of them can tolerate the strong menthol odor. (Toonces kept attacking me, as if I were a big, menacing menthol monster.) I then iced my right calf with the bag of frozen "Peruvian Scallops" I've had in the freezer for approximately four months now. But today I'm hobbling around. It seems I won't be able to do Saturday's Ladera run (the one with the free Starbucks afterward), and that makes me very, very angry.

Honestly, I might just cut out these Beverly Hills runs altogether. It takes me an hour to drive to the starting point (Niketown at Wilshire and Rodeo) from work anyway, and by the time I arrive, I'm all amped up and twitchy from the treacherous drive. Plus, I always get there just in the nick of time. Barely time to pee and say hi to J and CL before hitting the sidewalk.

Hello, treadmill. It's been so long. I haven't missed you, but it seems the time is right for a forced reunion.

Grrr.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Well We’re Movin’ On Up! (Movin’ on up!): A brief celebratory post

Finally, S has been promoted to full-time staff writer, and has earned a healthy, satisfying raise as part of the deal. I say "finally" because the huge media corporation for which S toils in his 6 X 7–ft cubicle had been dragging its cheap-ass feet about bumping S up to staff writer ever since B, one of the staff, left to work for another show several months ago.

But, to our great surprise and delight, S got official word of his long-overdue upgrade last week. In a fashion typical of S's employer, the promotion was announced on S’s first day of vacation. Apparently S's boss made the announcement Thursday morning, then kept asking everyone where S was, because he wanted to meet with S to discuss the details. To which everyone answered, "Uh, he's on vacation. Remember?" Well no, the big boss hadn't remembered that, it turned out. So one of S's coworkers called S later that morning to let S in on the news. We didn't learn what the new salary would be until yesterday. We're pleased with it.

So, three cheers for S!

To quote George and Weezy Jefferson, "We've finally got a piece of the pie!"

Interesting side note: The head writer of S's staff, who, I might add, is brilliant and funny and incredibly generous, was also head writer for The Jeffersons, back in the day. This same individual wrote for Golden Girls, too. (One of my personal faves. Laugh if you want.) He's got some great stories from the 1980's...I tell him he should write his memoirs, but he just chuckles in reply.

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Technology Bytes

My computer has a virus. Or a worm. Or a Trojan Horse. Or corrupted Windows. Whatever. There's something horribly, horribly wrong with it, and that makes me very sad. It also makes me hysterical and angry. On Sunday, I watched helplessly as all of my personal-writing Word documents turned into Notepad files full of gibberish and asterisks. I wanted to hurl my big, clunky, corrupted Gateway machine out the window, then hurl myself onto my bed and weep while punching my pillow and kicking the mattress.

I didn't quite do all of that, but I did cry. I also stomped around my apartment wailing "Why now? What the f-ck? This is such bullsh-t!" and trying to talk myself through the trauma. The most upsetting part is that the disk I had my writing backed up on is corrupted also...I mean, really f-cked up...so I fear all the writing I've done in the last two years is irretrievable.

Enter Captain K, the computer-genius husband of coworker A, who has graciously swooped in to offer his expertise free of charge. My hero! He has volunteered himself (or, more accurately, his enormous brain) to try to determine what, exactly, is ailing my computer, and possibly to fix it. He may even be able to recover some files. Whee! Even if he can't do much, it's a start, and I'm grateful. The IT guys here at work, who make my head spin with all their techno-jargon, are also trying to help. They've e-mailed me some instructions for virus-scanning in DOS mode, which is very kind of them, but I don't understand the instructions whatsoever. Perhaps Captain K will. They've also given me an updated, all-powerful virus-scanning CD to run on my machine, to determine if a virus is indeed the problem.

In the meantime, I'm attempting to come to terms with losing my writing. It's not like it was fantastic (or even good) stuff, but many of the pieces had been through dozens of rewrites and had been steadily improving over the course of the last several months or so. I dug up some hard copies of some things, but they're my first drafts from a year or two ago. I guess that's better than nothing.

Perhaps I should view this loss as a new beginning. (Cue violins.) Perhaps I should also avoid clichés. But what I mean is, I've been considering a couple of memories I'd like to write about, so maybe it's time to put pen to paper (not fingers to keyboard, yet, until this damn virus---or whatever---is fixed) and actually get to work. I've never written about being hit by the car, and I think that's a story worth telling. I think it's safe to assume that the average person has not been hit by a car while jogging and might be curious to know what that's like. Also, it's a story with a happy ending, now that I'm running again.

That reminds me: My last post, which never made it on-line as a result of the computer debacle, was about the joy of last Saturday's three-mile run. Also, it was about the joy of drinking a big, free Starbucks iced coffee afterward. I discovered my computer horror shortly after saving the post to disk. How quickly joy can turn to despair. And rage. And dark, violent thoughts about Bill Gates and his crappy Internet Explorer, which is maddeningly vulnerable to attacks from hackers and other virus-making evil geniuses.

P.S. I'd like to give a shout-out to coworker and talented blogstress, J, also known as Gintastic, who writes a blog that's much more interesting, clever, and funny than this one. Also, I think she's only the second person to ever read my blogs. Maybe she's reading right now! Hi J!

Monday, June 21, 2004

Run, Forest! Run!

I am thrilled to report that, after injuring myself two weeks into joining Nike Run Club L.A. with J and CL, I’ve resumed running with the club. Whee! I'm so relieved. I wasn’t sure how long a strained muscle would take to heal, and after a week had come and gone with little improvement in my right calf, I'd become despondent and downright pissy. Joining these runs had turned out to be more fun than I'd guessed it would, and I was so frustrated and disappointed to have to temporarily drop out after doing only three of them.

I'm quite sure the problem stemmed from my jogging in place on the balls of my feet at stoplights during both the Santa Monica and Beverly Hills runs. As I was doing it, in fact, my calves were uncomfortable and felt as if they were "balling up," so to speak, but I was under the impression that coming to a dead stop at intersections would cause my muscles to tighten, which in turn might lead to injury. So, I jogged in place, and found myself barely able to walk in the days following my third run. Grrr. It couldn't have helped that I continued wearing shoes with high heels to work, which didn't allow my calves to stretch and relax during the workday.

What's especially funny is that when I mentioned to CL that I believed the jogging in place was responsible for my injury, she was like, "Yeah, I think people who jog in place while waiting to cross intersections look really dorky, actually. So I don’t do it." Hee. Well, considering I am indeed a big dork (in an endearing way, I hope), it didn’t surprise me that I'd been doing something that wasn't just a strain on my muscles, but a silly-looking maneuver to boot.

My reintroduction to the club runs took place this past Saturday morning, at the obscenely early hour of 8 a.m. In the few days prior, I'd felt that my calves were finally healing, so I was eager to get back out on the pavement. While J and CL joined the 11-minute-mile five-milers, I humbly took my place among the 12-minute-mile three-milers. Fine with me; I was just happy to be out there.

The run was great! Leisurely, relaxed, mildly hilly, and quiet, save the one guy in my group who yapped at an inordinately high volume to another runner throughout the duration of the run. Did you know this particular gentleman plans to have one million dollars in the bank by his forty-fourth birthday? I do, and so does the entire Ladera neighborhood around which we ran, because this guy’s pie hole was going at maximum volume for the full 36 minutes of our run. Honestly, there’s one in every pack of runners, you know? The guy who talks about himself through the whole thing, really loudly?

Afterward, the Starbucks with which Nike contracts for this particular run gave out free coffee drinks (any kind we wanted!), bagels, croissants (my high-carb baked good of choice), and assorted fruit breads. Mmm.

It's been 36 hours since that run, and my calves feel pretty good! So I think I'm back in the game and on-track to run the Montrose, PA 5K on July 5. Yeah!

Thursday, June 17, 2004

Two’s a Crowd

One day into single-parenthood and already I’m tired of it.

S flew back East last night for a six-day stay with his family in the F.C., so it’s just Toonces and me till next Tuesday. Good god, it’s a challenge parenting this cat on my own. She’s so needy! I got approximately three hours of sleep last night, no thanks to Toonces and her noisy forays into the closet and onto the computer desk. That damn closet door won’t stay closed, and as soon as it pops open, Toonces dives in and immediately begins chewing on and ripping up the newspaper that’s in there. It’s a sound that woke me up three times last night. The sound of her scaling the computer monitor is loud as well. A lot of rattling around. And, she’s a bed hog. Without S snoozing next to me and taking up half of the mattress’s surface area, Toonces felt perfectly free to plop down on the bed’s dead center, then s-t-r-e-t-c-h herself out. Thanks so much, Toonces. I’ll be over here in the far right corner, curled into the fetal position so that you might be more comfortable.

Sigh.

Suffice it to say I’ve got some rather unbecoming bags underneath my eyes today.

On top of her nighttime hijinks, she followed me around all morning and kept mewing at me, as if to say, “Where’s that other human of mine? I like him better. You’re a poor substitute, Lady.” She sat on the bathroom sink and stared at me as I showered. She kept rubbing up against my legs as I sat on the toilet to pee (sorry, but it’s a pertinent detail). I’m the only person she can hang out with for the next several days, and already it’s an exhausting role.

Oh! And I nearly forgot to mention that she swiped at me with her scythe-like claws this morning when I tried to pet her before leaving for work. Nice! She drew blood.

My morning concluded with a bang as I arrived at work 17 minutes late and had to beeline for the crappy first-aid kit in the office kitchen (why the kitchen?) to grab an alcohol-wipe to dab on my bleeding cat-wound.

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Hip-Hop, You Don’t Stop

Let me tell you the story of Hip-Hop, the affectionate-kitten-turned-wild-street-cat that roams my neighborhood.

I first met Hip-Hop one Saturday evening while I was doing laundry. (Oops, I just revealed how boring my life is. Let’s get past that and move on, shall we?) So anyway, I was taking my sopping wet clothes out of the washer and chucking them into the dryer when I heard a sudden, persistent mewing coming from outside. My first panicky thought, of course, was that it was our adorable Toonces, and I briefly wondered where she was and if she’d somehow gotten outside. A few moments of concentrated listening, however, revealed that the cries were not hers, and that they sounded like those of a very young kitten. I popped my head outside and found the cutest, fuzziest little kitten stuck atop the fence that separates our duplex from the one next door. He’d climbed up and was unable to get back down.

Being too short to reach up and help the poor little guy myself, I called S to come to the rescue. S, animal lover and general softie that he is, was happy to oblige. He reached up and effortlessly plucked the cat from his perch, and the kitty immediately got comfortable in S’s arms and began purring. What a snuggly little creature! He seemed perfectly content to stay in S’s arms and let the two of us rub his head and chin. It reminded us of Toonces’s youth, when she’d purr for anybody at anytime and seemed to enjoy cuddling. (She’s since reached her surly, rebellious adolescent stage. Sigh.)

The kitten’s tag revealed his name was “Hip-Hop” and that he lived a block east of us. S called the owner, whose pleasant British accent I could hear through his cell phone, and the owner asked some general questions about Hip-Hop’s wellbeing and how far he’d strayed. She then said it was too late for her to come by and pick the kitten up, but that she’d swing by in the morning to get him. We thought that was sort of weird, but OK. (Once we set Hip-Hop back down on the ground, he’d likely go scampering off and end up who knows where, right?) The owner also casually threw in, at the end of the conversation, “I guess I should get him neutered at some point.”
!
Um, yeah, lady. You should. It’s a little irresponsible to let your young male cat roam the neighborhood, free to impregnate any willing female cat who happens to cross his path. (We didn’t say that to her, though.)

So, that was that.

Since then, we’ve seen Hip-Hop a million and one times. I doubt his owner ever drove by to “pick him up.” Hip-Hop is always in our neighborhood stalking birds or making eyes at Toonces from the other side of Toonces’s favorite window. At first we’d see him outside and be like, “Oh! Hip-Hop, you cutie!” and pet him and fuss over him. But as more time goes by and he spends more and more time on the street and in other people’s yards, he grows dirtier and wilder and less affectionate. His formerly bright gold, fluffy coat is now dingy and grayish. And he’s forever pouncing on birds and eating them. He’s become very predatory. He also does crazy maneuvers like running up the sides of houses, which is of course quite dangerous.

The last time we saw him, he was scratching himself with fervor. He seemed totally incapable of stopping the scratching; I’m sure he’s got fleas. A couple of neighborhood kids and I were standing above Hip-Hop on the sidewalk watching him, and the one girl said, “I think his owners let him out for good,” which seemed like an astute prediction to me. If it’s true, I’m pissed. You don’t just bring home a kitten and then neglect him. That same afternoon, I tried to pet Hip-Hop, and he didn’t let me. He swiped at me with his paw and resumed scratching. He seems undomesticated at this point. It’s a shame.

I’m guessing Hip-Hop will ultimately meet his end in this very neighborhood. I’m guessing he’ll either be squished by a car or attacked by the large raccoons that come out after dark. (I’ve seen them twice now, on my evening walks. They scare the sh-t out of me.) I hope neither of these things happen, but I fear they’re likely. I wish Hip-Hop’s owner would take him back in, get him a bath and a flea dip, and have him neutered. I’m not the kind of person, however, who would tell a stranger what I think she should do.

But maybe I'm just being a coward?

Dying Butterfly

Last night at the Farmers' Market I watched a beautiful butterfly limp around the pavement and make several unsuccessful attempts to take wing and flutter off. It was disturbing to watch, this injured creature with wide, smooth wings of yellow and black trying to just get the hell off the ground and away from there, and failing.

I was bothered and sad watching this little tragedy, but when I pointed it out to my friend, who was sitting next to me on the bench, she said, "Eew! I don't like butterflies."
Huh?
"Why?" I asked her.
"I'm afraid they're going to wind up caught in my hair or something," she said.
I thought that was weird and actually very silly, but I kept quiet about it, considering I love this particular friend of mine, and she does have many, many good qualities---despite her dislike of harmless, pretty little insects.

The thing is, how do you help an injured butterfly? In the middle of a bustling Farmers' Market? At the time, I decided there was nothing I could do, so I sort of angled my body away from it and pretended it wasn't there. I focused on eating my quesadilla and making conversation with my friend and husband.

In retrospect, now that I relive the moment in my head, I think I could have tried moving the butterfly to safety, maybe lifting him off the pavement and placing him out of the path of all those feet and the occasional pick-up truck. I should have done that. Now I feel like an ass. This is a recurring pattern for me: good intentions, followed by complete inertia.


I wonder if the butterfly died later on that night? Maybe he was squished by a hapless shoe or a truck tire shortly after we left the market? Perhaps he has miraculously survived and is still struggling to take flight.

Either way, I hope he's not suffering.