Not that I have a problem with it. I'm not a number. Oddly enough, I somehow feel no different than a few weeks ago. My birthday, which spanned about 3 weeks, was fantastic. It started with a day at Disneyland with my friend Scott and his friend Steve. Steve works there so we got the full hook-up, including a five-star dinner. It was a cheesy good day, overcast, more crowded than I would have liked, but that just added to the fun in a way. I experienced rides I might not have had there been short lines at "Pirates..." or "Space Mountain." If you know me well, you know how I like to avoid crowds and lines. Later in the week, work folks threw me a breakfast and my boss pal took me to lunch. On the actual day, had din at seester's and Maddie sang me a ridiculously cute happy birthday song. Nice gifts from sees and from Beth and Rebecca. B&R got me a super-cool meaningful gift, which brought a tear to my eye. Get out there and dance, Ganesha....dance I said! Um, that's a song, sort of. Hindu deity. You'll have to ask me.
On the weekend, we went to the beach all day, and I got my wish of watching men play volleyball. I even played myself, and didn't suck as much as I thought. In the eve we went to Tavern on Main in El Segundo, where an Irish band was playing. I had a jiggy great time and loved my people. I'm lucky to have outstanding people around me. I even got a new friend, Little Wooden Boy. Now, for those of you who don't know The Tick, that could sound strange, but trust me, it's funny as hell. Overall, though, the fleshy people were the ones I appreciated hanging with that evening.
All the while I was getting excellent cards in the mail, and even got taken to a movie last week in the name of birthday. Love to milk it, right?
At the movie on Hollywood Blvd, a whole"cultural experience" in and of itself, I got to experience the MJ factor. Hearing the music everywhere. People walking around in memorium t-shirts merely a couple of hours after his death. I was apalled. Speaking of....
At UCLA Extension where I work, classes were cancelled one Thursday eve. I was home checking my email when I read the news that classes were off, and it wasn't mentioned in the message why other than traffic congestion, which I thought was due to the Film Festival going on. I didn't put it together until later, but the reason was MJ. Only in LA could a celebrity death prevent education. He was so important to us, we can't bear the thought of living our normal lives. Oh...........Michael! Why!??? Why???!!
So, administration decided that since traffic/media/freaky mourners blocked up the area, let's try to spare people the hassle of coming in for class. Reasonable decision based on unreasonable circumstance. UCLA's hospital is right down the street from us. The students in my program all pretty much made it, though, and had class anyway. Good hardy folk (plus, they don't check their email every hour like young folks do). I was glad because I thought I was going to get a good lashing from our students due to the last-minute cancellation.
My brief commentary on how people are reacting to the death of Michael Jackson, including the media: Get a Life. He's not the President or the Dalai Lama. He was just a screwed up cat who probably screwed up other people. He grabbed his crotch a lot. I felt sorry for him and think he's better off. He brought me brief moments of joy while dancing to his songs. I didn't know him personally. When Mother Theresa passed, hardly anything. Guy with sinking face who can dance and sing, world freak-out.
Can you tell celebrity worship isn't my thing? And now they're having a memorial at the Staples Center in downtown LA, where they have Lakers games. For cri-i sakes. Tax money being used for this, probably.
Gear shift. English is fun overseas, but I was reminded of the fluidity of the language at Target in my own backyard the other day. Several employees were stocking, and a supervisor-type person comes by and says, "don't conjugate - no more than two employees per aisle." Cute. While one could argue it works, I think he meant "congregate". English really is a hard language! I have more and more appreciation for that since being overseas. Eh, who am I to say, sometimes my grammar and style ain't so great.
How was summerfest? How's it generally?
