A Dream
(13-22 November 2003)

22 November 2003
-The BNL show was excellent & very long, though there were a couple songs I definitely missed.  "Same Thing" & "Helicopters" were big surprises that I really enjoyed.  They told several stories behind songs, including a speech about how music & politics should be involved in each other prior to singing "Helicopters".  "For You" & "War on Drugs" from the new album were very moving.  Once again, they played "Brian Wilson" towards the end & I remain mystified why that's such a popular song of theirs.  It's tolerable, but certainly one of my least favorite of the show, let alone the Rock Spectacle album.  Overall, however, the show was great.  The "one in every crowd" random bad dancer & yeller was right in front of us & a little to the left, & it seems uncanny how many times this person ends up near me in a show.  I look around crowds, & I just don't see that person anywhere else but right in front.  Ah well.  Since they were the only band playing, BNL also had a running joke throughout the show about them being 2 different bands, an opening & closing act.  This was aided by the brief intermission they had mid-show.  There were about twenty-five jokes about thanking BNL for opening or closing for them, but they never stopped being funny.  I'll post the full set (& the S&G set which I should've posted a long time ago) soon.
-AUGH!  I'm suddenly very sick.  It descended almost without warning, & now has me holed-up almost exclusively in bed.  I've managed to fight off many colds this year in only a day or two, but this one seems worse.  Will I be able to work 15 hours tomorrow?  I hope so, just because I want that PTO for later.  This is the one big problem with having PTO lumped together with sick leave... it makes one work when they're sick.  Of course, that might be what they're aiming for.
-Congratulations to Emily for getting this published in the LA Times!  She wrote the 2nd letter on the subject & is cited as being from SF since that's where she works for PIRG.  While it's not $7 million worth of AARP ads, it's a start of a campaign against them.

21 November 2003
-It's easy to get behind on things these days.  I don't know why.  I feel randomly inspired & uninspired these days.  I miss snow.  I miss having lots of people around all the time.  I miss having a schedule where I get to spend the bulk of my time with Emily.

20 November 2003
-Sleep has gotten to be so bad lately that I'm making my own dreamcatcher.  It's not being very cooperative at the moment, but anything's better than the status quo.  About the time my bus fell off the side of a cliff last night, marking something like ten distinctly realistic nightmares in the last four nights, I decided that I had really had enough.  The last dreamcatcher I had didn't work, but it was coated with leather & made by someone else.  I'm willing to try just about anything right now; at least I know I always have not-sleeping as a last resort.

19 November 2003
Happy Birthday to Paul Garin IV
-People who didn't know me in high school or college really underestimate the quality of my last-minute work.
-I'm surprised this stuff doesn't happen more often than it does, given the nature of the job.
-Weeeekend!

18 November 2003
-Today wrapped itself in molasses & refused to move forward with any degree of effort.  But it got done nevertheless.  Our kids are collectively on some great levels for tomorrow for the most part, & I may have actually seen one of them for the last time, if things all work out.  This is a pretty unique line of work, & so hard to describe on this page.  Bah.

17 November 2003
-A truly crazy day has just transpired.  We had a difficult situation that required 2 of our staff to stay at school the whole night, while the rest of us dealt with the rest of the house.  The 2 staff I was working with had a combined experience of 2 days after completing training.  Yet everything went extremely well, with me as the "veteran" staff with all of 2.5 months of experience.  It was actually stressful (nothing has really felt stressful to me in years), but well worth the effort.  Collective confidence is very high right now.

16 November 2003
-Last night, Emily & I caught "Mystic River" pretty late.  The acting was phenomenal & the movie overall was quite good, though had some glaring weak points in both believability & overall usefulness of scenes in the film.  It is, as Drew described it, "grim", but on a subject matter that rarely sees light.
-It's so good to see these kids when they're doing really well.  Those are the times that one can put aside the "staff" label & be a little more like a friend.  It's easy to forget the threats & the flip side.

15 November 2003
-Drew & I walked most all of the city of San Francisco today, but still didn't manage to get over to Golden Gate Park.  We were playing irrational dodgeball with the rain, & wound up seeing a movie to avoid its eventual victory.  A fun day, but I haven't been walking enough lately to do all that.

14 November 2003
-Drew's in town & we went up to his favorite local spot, Mel's.  He spoke repeatedly of liking Berkeley & is out here for a summer job interview anyway.  I can't even comprehend thinking as far in advance as Summer 2004, but when I do, it might seem a little better now.

13 November 2003
Happy Birthday to Jennifer Dean
-We were talking yesterday about how old 93 is, Emily & I, when we realized that one could easily live longer from that age forward than either of us have been alive.  I think that nicely puts in perspective how long people are living in this country.  Of course, right now only the people who have lived most of their lives without constant carcinogens are living that long.  This is no guarantee of future performance under the increasing untested reality that our generation faces.
-Nothing makes me so tired as sleep.
-"Operation Iron Hammer" just sounds like liberation, doesn't it?  I bet it came down to that or "Operation Free Bird".

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