Days like this

I wish to be working feverishly in the City.  I would gladly take meet and greets with clients.  Maybe a Guinness lunch at the bar downstairs from our office.  The New Jersey days are far more complicated.  Had to use the Dunkin Donuts coercion to get N to school on time...  dropping the Mrs of at the train on the way.  N gets so upset when it gets past 8am and she is not at school.  Somehow, she has in her mind that anything after 8am is late.  Nevermind the bell rings at 8:15.  Then they have prayer, and God Bless America, and classroom prayers and announcements.  Learning takes place somewhere around 9am.  Somewhere along the way it becomes obvious her teacher has a boyfriend who sends roses.  Found out yesterday the principal is out after 2 years too.  So, we will have the 3rd principal in 5 years.  Not feeling that.

To make matters worse, our pastor flaked out and left the parish a few years back.   It was never quite clear what happened.  There was a depression sabbatical for a bit...  then an effort to come back...  then gone.  I had driven him a few times back in my limo days.  He would take a vacation to Vegas every once in a while.  I never suspected anything sinister.  You always fear the worst when a Roman Catholic leaves suddenly.  Will indictments follow?  Will I be asked to contribute more to the legal fund?

I never sensed that though.  If anything, I thought Vegas trips were an excuse to gamble, drink and maybe see the misses.  It would not have surprised me at all to see him retire, marry some nice woman and move on.  Nope.  He just vanished.  Now, I am told, he has resurfaced at another Jersey parish.  Thinking maybe it all makes sense.  This town, and in particular that parish, drove him fucking crazy.  Got a feeling the principal came to town hearing these people were a bunch of lunatics.  That is the only thing I can think as to why she had ZERO personality.  I am thinking her approach was to play the stern tyrant.  It was the Joe Clarke mantality from day 1.  She had the school and its academics first in her mind.   She would go after grants and bring technology to each classroom.   But absent were any social graces.  I would make eye contact with her 4, 5 times a week.  Do you think I could get one hello?  "Good Morning, how are you?"

Never.  And I really don't give a shit.  But I am not the straw stirring the drink.  The tennis moms, banker's wives, home school crew...  they are the ones you need to worry about.  And lest we forget the students.  Come down on them hard enough, and over time, who will they bitch too?  You got it.  Those same women who want their ass kissed in the first place.  So, you cross them and anger their kids? Last thing they want to hear from their kids at night is anything.  Do your work.  Tell your folks you love them, without sarcasm, and go to bed.  I know when I picked up my daughter yesterday she was THRILLED at the news.  And I am told, as classes read the letter in school at the end of the day loud cheers erupted.  He who laughs last...

Had to get our 97 Altima serviced.  It has the look of white trash, and until today it had the sound too.  Some pipe or leak...  expect me to know?  Then the internet went down for a bit.  The dreaded automated service tech call.  Brilliant.  45 minutes later it came back up.  Just brutal.  Now, must brave the elements and walk to garage to pick up the car.  Then school pick-up.  Homework.  3 dinners.  Maybe combat on the basketball court or at home.  Will look forward to NYC work tomorrow.  Job installations.  A beginning and an end.

UPDATE WHITE RABBITS:


It takes some time, but things do come back to me.  After creating a White Rabbits station on Pandora, I remembered (2) highlights from Saturday's shows.  If you have the time to download/listen to "Rudie Falls" or "Right Where They Left" please do so.  Imagine then the tightly constructed beats and the percussion in particular.  They are worth your 6 or 7 minutes.

And speaking of Pandora (www.pandora.com)...  a truly amazing app.  Even if you do not have a smartphone, this is something every computer should have bookmarked.  I could probably create a station a day, for the next year, and still find it fascinating.  Go ahead and start if you have yet to do so.  And everybody's first Pandora station should be the Eels.

I can almost hear the boos through the computer.  And did someone just throw a tomato???