(Perforated Lines -- you can't resist 'em!)

(palms, fronds)
-- Wednesday, April 12, 2000 --

 

11:58 p.m. Got away from the desk for a few minutes today and gee -- there's still weather out there. Sky, air, even some wonderful fog. Things are blooming and I have some pretty nice photos to prove it. A small new collection of the glory and the wonder that is Venice by the sea in the 21st Century.

2:53 a.m. Ok, so I got sidetracked. Still, when you've been outside and actually walked the streets, you feel pretty righteous. For one thing, I went to Staples and bought some staples. Total purity of purpose and purchase. I live for these moments.

I also sat in a few of their office chairs because I am just beginning the quest for the perfect chair. Right now I have what is disparagingly called a "task" chair. I have performed many a task in it. Unfortunately, the seat tilts down and if I'm tired and wearing shiny pants, I slide off.

Right now, for instance, I'm at the very edge of it, stopped only by the shelf of the desk. I'm sitting on a mere sliver of task and I'm very tense. I get up and move all the way to the back of it as often as I push my glasses back up my nose, and since my glasses are held together by a paper clip, it's quite often. Right now, for instance.

Up. Hold back of chair. Leap upon it. Wedge in. The slide begins.

Now it's time to move up to either a "management" or even an "executive" chair. Far too many of them are brown, but we'll ignore that for the moment. My son has recently purchased a high-quality chair and he has been describing the three-way bounce that is possible because he's just paid nearly $300 dollars.

Lean back, up and down, sideways. Sounds good, but I want to check out a few more stores, a few more colors. Plus, somewhere in Stee's archives, he talks about a chair at work and I want to go look it up. I fear it will not be $300, however.

In other physical-exertion news, I have to report that I hopped out of bed earlier this evening after a nap and I stopped mid-hop with the most amazing Charley horse I've had since I'd been out dancing into the night at House of Blues. For some reason, my body has no sense of humor.

Sure, I walked very fast and very far today. Sure I've been a bit sedentary. Is that any reason for such an incredible, knotted rebellion? It still smarts. And I don't know what you're supposed to do with a Charlie horse -- are you supposed to flex or massage or just do what I did ... ow ow ow ow ow ... just wait dumbfounded until it eases up?

My fear, of course, is that it won't ease up. Since you don't know what movement caused it, you can't create the opposite, but equal movement to stop it. Poor Charlie. I wonder who he was?

And speaking of ow, please send your good wishes to the bruised but bouncing Chuck, who seems to have had a run-in with a car. I feel really bad for Chuck and wish him quality drugs and loving homecare and a speedy recovery. I pity the car.

Walking is always challenging for those of us who know the wonders of the life of the mind. I have tumbled and twisted and walked headlong into telephone poles and flipped over fire hydrants and stubbed into parking wedgies. I think I'll just tiptoe off to the soft bed now that I think about it and now that I'm on the edge of my seat again.

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