What's up with you?

[Angakuk]

Originally Posted by curses

Started my job at Starbucks today. I will have to get to know all of the coffees as part of my training.

Let us know if any of your customers actually orders a cup of real coffee.

It is my contention that Starbucks has made its bones selling over-hyped, over-flavored & over-priced coffee to people who don't really like the taste of coffee.

[LadyShea]

Storm coming, named Karen I think.

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

Storm coming, named Karen I think.

Yep. Batten down the hatches, you're in for a blow.

[LadyShea]

They had to recall furloughed FEMA workers....we'll see how this shutdown works out.

[Ensign Steve]

Minneapolis is p. cool and doesn't afraid of anything. I'm in the "convention center" part if town so whatever culture there is around here is pretty watered down, but apparently people are into football, beer, food, eating at bars instead of restaurants, and being extremely polite and friendly. I like all those things!

This cool looking place is across the street, and the colors are much brighter in person than in that washed out photo. My roomie decided we are calling it the Mondrian, because she is smart and cultured like that. She's a navy veteran just a few years older than me and we have had soooo much to talk about. I kept wanting to introduce myself at the retreat in NY but they kept us so busy. So when we were roommates this trip, we were like YAY!

[LadyShea]

A week ago Kiddo had a fever that lasted two days, he was fine when he had ibuprofen in him, then it broke without additional symptoms...so I was all "Yay he fought it off". He was fine Tue night through Sat morning.

Yesterday he wasn't feeling well, had a headache and a low grade fever. As per usual treating the fever made him feel way better. But then he was feeling really bad in the afternoon. This morning I took one look at him and said "Strep*", because his neck glands were swollen and his throat hurt and his eyes were all glassy and he was ill. SO I call and leave a message for his Ped saying I wanted to get him on antibiotics ASAP. She called back and said she wanted to do a strep test, I was like "It's your Sunday ".

So we go in, she looks in while doing the swab, and says "It doesn't look like strep" and I was all "Okay " and she put the culture in the cooker. So we waited and talked about some other things, and the thing dinged and she went to get it. Strep.

MAMA KNOWS!

* My exact words were "aww SHIT! Strep!" which made Kiddo cry thinking he was going to die

[Ymir's blood]

When I've had strep, it made wish that I were dead.

[Ensign Steve]

Yeah but what doesn't?

[Dingfod]

When I had strep I didn't even know I was sick until it turned into rheumatic fever.

[Qingdai]

Strep. Shit. Strep is scared of me, I've had it so many times. I'm pretty sure I benched 250 last time I had strep.

Or possibly not.

[Nullifidian]

I saw Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass at the L. A. Opera last night!

I'm still processing the experience. I sat in my seat for the whole 4.5 hour length of the show (it's without intermissions, but audience members are invited to come and go as they please during the performance) and I was tempted to shout "Encore!" Not since the Alfred Schnittke retrospective that I saw 15 years ago have I been so thrilled by a performance of modern music.

I bought the ticket only a few days before the performance. All the balcony seats were booked, so I had to sit in the "rear loge" as the next cheapest option (not very at $124 plus an $8 service fee), but that was great for this opera because it's such a visual experience. I would have been cheated only being able to see the front half of the stage, and that from behind a handrail, if I sat in the cheap seats I usually purchase.

Now I've seen live performances of all the operas in the "Portrait Trilogy". They're all highly abstract operas that are not biographical as such, but use one major historical figure as a touchstone for the piece. The first is Einstein on the Beach (1976), the second is Satyagraha (1980—based on Gandhi's life in South Africa, with each act also featuring one historical figure either as a past or present inspiration or future follower: Lev Tolstoy, Rabindranath Tagore, and Martin Luther King, Jr.), and finally Akhnaten (1984). I saw Satyagraha in the live Metropolitan Opera broadcast and Akhnaten at the Long Beach Opera.

Here are pieces from each of the trilogy:

EotB - "Building", Act IV, sc. 1

This video shows a still of the scene from the very production I saw last night. The empty chair at the extreme bottom left is for a violinist dressed up like Einstein (who was a proficient amateur violinist), although last night's production the person looked more like Tom Hulce in his powdered wig in Amadeus. The saxophone music is improvised. It was very different with last night's saxophonist, who played much more energetically, first in a bluesy way and then sounding a bit like Charlie Parker playing bebop. This video is more in the "cool jazz" style.

Satyagraha - "Evening Song", Act III: King, sc. 3

The finale of the opera.

Akhnaten - "Hymn", Act II, sc. 4

This is a setting of Akhnaten's own "Great Hymn to the Aten" in the linked English translation.

[SharonDee]

Daughter and I traveled to 'Bama yesterday to help my sister celebrate her 50th birthday. It's a milestone number, right? So we're thinking we get to contribute our gifts to a pile.

The gifts she received from us yesterday were the only ones she got. Even her husband didn't do anything for her.

Which, I guess, goes to explain why I didn't get a 50th "big deal" from anyone.


(This probably could have gone into one of the rant threads but I don't feel particularly angry. Just sad.)

[Dingfod]

I went to my family reunion Saturday. Saw more than twice as many people there than attended the reunion held at my place last year. I brought back about 40 pounds of Kansas with me in the form of mud stuck on my truck. I left some lovely cold virus there, a virus that has given me bronchitis. Sorry, folks, I thought I was having allergies.

[wildernesse]

My MIL been at my house for 4 weeks. No one has been driven insane.

[specious_reasons]

The circle has closed. I have a new hat. It's a chestnut leather stoker hat, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to wear it, even though I don't have much else to match with it.

So, I'm wearing it today, in Best Buy, looking for new headphones, and I know the poor cashier is trying really hard not to look at my hat.

This reminded me of a time in high school when I was a cashier, training a new guy who was a bit of a goof. I'm talking to my trainee, and he urgently tells me, "don't look at this guy's hat!". Well, that hat wasn't that stupid, but I burst out laughing when I turned around anyway.

Today I was that guy. The worm has eaten its tail.
(What, no Ouroboros smilie?)

[Dingfod]

I googled stoker hat.



That's pretty much what Detective Kevin "Corky" Corcoran on BBC's Copper wears. I like that.

[BrotherMan]

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

I googled stoker hat.



That's pretty much what Detective Kevin "Corky" Corcoran on BBC's Copper wears. I like that.

That's pretty much the hat I have.

[S.Vashti]

I have something that you make like, to go over the hat band. If it is less than 24 inches, I have a feather lei that would fit the band. In copper pheasant feathers and green parrot feathers. It's currently unused, and could do with a new owner.

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by Chris Porter

I have something that you make like, to go over the hat band. If it is less than 24 inches, I have a feather lei that would fit the band. In copper pheasant feathers and green parrot feathers. It's currently unused, and could do with a new owner.

That's nice. I wonder if I can pull it off.

[S.Vashti]

Oh. I figured if you could wear a hat like that in public, you could pull it off.

[JoeP]

:hatburn:

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by Chris Porter

Oh. I figured if you could wear a hat like that in public, you could pull it off.

My mother used to call me, "my little banker" and my wife buys the majority of my clothes, I'm not exactly a style maven. I've surprised myself by both asking for the hat and wearing it in public.

[Sock Puppet]

Back before I moved out of Houston, I saw a top-notch rheumatologist about the pain in my hands, especially the left, in the joints under the thumb. He did bloodwork and swore up and down that it wasn't arthritis, saying my next stop was an orthopedist.

I finally saw the orthopedist yesterday, here in the East Bay. "Probably arthritis if it's in that area. The rheumatologist based his conclusion on bloodwork, right?" Right. He immediately sends me to X-ray, and within a half hour he looks at it and says it's mild arthritis, plain as day. Cortisone shot immediately, and the PT guys are supposed to call me today.

Now I just need to figure out how to square this with company policy. I was supposed to report discomfort right away, even though I was p. sure it wasn't a repetitive stress injury (and it's not). But I'm supposed to get some sort of splint thingie and if I want to wear it at work, I'll have to come clean about it. Not looking forward to that discussion.

[Qingdai]

WTF. I'm in New Jersey?