It's Always Day in Lemon City
The slightly abridged version of events that have come to pass:
It is the last day of the last month of the year 2002. Oh no, the calendar is coming to an end. I awake. It is twelve. Half of the official calendar day is already over. I shower, put on clean pajamas, watch design shows with my mother and then, at one, I call ELizabeth and succeed waking her up. This is the beginning of the first part of my day in which all I do is wait for ELizabeth or see ELizabeth. We'll call this "morning." After lack of conversation and some amount of debate, we decide that we should see each other, and upon seeing each other, we should go to the Barnes and Noble/Best Buy area. We say good-bye and both go on to prepare ourselves for going outside. ELizabeth takes longer, as usual, but I did have head start.
I bounce between Surprise by Design and doing hair/makeup. What fun! When I finish with those activities, I choose an outfit, and I put it on (but not before throwing some clean clothes on the floor). I then proceed downstairs and do some of Kevin's book project. Oh, how I loved seventh grade. So, I found myself at the kitchen table with my mother gluing construction paper onto oak tag cubes while Kevin and friends play Playstation in the next room. I have already done this project and gotten my A. Enough of that. Elizabeth calls and saves the day. It is nearly four, but she is on her way. ELizabeth and Step-father come to door to greet me. I choose to bring my pink jacket, but I don't wear it. We depart off into the dusk. ELizabeth likes my hair.
There is driving. The driving is not done by me. We arrive. Zany Brainy. Elizabeth hopes to purchase a child-sized accordion. She finds one in the back of the store. It is purple with butterflies. I laugh at her, but it is good fun. We stand in line and notice the burnt out cashier who can't read the digital display on the cash register in order to give change. On the way out, we decided we couldn't blame him for being as he was. After all, he did work in a Toy Store with Children and their songs all day. As luck would have it, the store was closing, so everything was 20% off. ELizabeth takes her accordion and we go to the car. She plays it on the short, but long road to best buy. I try it, and despite the horrible noises I create, it is a good bit of fun. As the engine of the car is started, Russell and I take bets on how long it will be before ELizabeth forgets she has the accordion. He says five days, but I give her six.
Best Buy. We look to buy CDs, but some chaotic fairy had run through the entire "dance/Electronica" section with their magic wand and un-alphabetized everything. Pandemonium. No CDs. No fun. We leave without spending any money. We drive home. I end up back at ELizabeth's house after some amount of debate. I find myself on the green chair wondering if I'll be doomed to spend the next several hours listening to ELizabeth try to play her accordion. Russell saves me. he hooks up the new record player, and we soon become occupied with that. Personally, I have never played a record, so I am quite fascinated. ELizabeth is amazed as well. We listen to Funny Face, Diesel Boy, Abba, and someone playing a drum solo. There is merriment. Then, ELizabeth's mother calls. We debate dinner options.
It had previously been decided that we would go out to dinner. We were just never sure where we wanted to go. There is conversation, etc. It is finally decided that we should go to Friday's. The phone rings again, and it is decided that we should go to Bella. Get in car. Drive to bella. It is closed. We go to the Diner/Pub and there is an hour wait. Where can we go that will never be crowded? A Chinese restaurant. That is exactly what we did. There were several old Jewish couples at a table in the center of the room. They spoke rather loudly and entertained us with their conversations.
Old woman: Yes...we're being watched all of the time, and not only by God.
Different old woman: Education was ruined when males became teachers. Thirty years ago when all women were teachers, everything was fine, but then men enter the business and everything goes downhill...
Old man: You don't tip fifteen dollars, you tip fifteen percent! Take that other five!
Old woman: NO, you tip twenty percent!
There were other amusing things, but...that is enough. It's wrong that we have our fun by mocking others, but we weren't really mocking them, and I don't care. Others can have their fun by observing me if they so choose, and I would not hold it against them. We left, I went home, and after a while, my cousin came and we left for Ryon's.
We had what will be referred to as an "Ode to Bjork" New Year's Eve. It was originally called "Bjork Cult" at my suggestion, but I think "Ode to Bjork" sounds nicer. We listened to Bjork, and then watched Dancer in the Dark, which is a musical starring Bjork. It was inherently depressing and slow-moving, but I still thought it was fabulous...well, fabulous is not really a word to describe it. More of this painfully glorious shouldn't-be musical that was delicious even though it shouldn't be. Stephanie didn't like it because it was horribly depressing, but I felt that the "last number" was one of the best portrayals of death in a musical...or just one of the best portrayals of death. I will see it again sometime, and that day will be a very good day...not that This day - New Year's Eve wasn't, because it was...especially in comparison to the days preceding it. [Those were wasted days. I don't want any more of those. I want to have a new year full of good days that I don't waste. This will inevitably not happen, but I can pretend. Or I can at least stop lying. I can tell you that I read fantasy fiction books and enjoy them and that I do love New York, but not as much as I have. I can tell you that these past days have been dull and uninviting and depressingly dull and that I do not prefer them to things I say I prefer them to. There are many things that will happen and many things that will not. ] After Bjork, we discovered that Dick Clark was alive, but was not fit to have a "Rockin' " New Year's Eve after all of that Botox. There was loudness and driveway dwelling shortly after midnight. I think my mother came to get us around twelve-thrity, and that is when we left the company of Ryon and family. My cousin Natalie slept over because her parents left my house early. We sat about and laughed at Dick Clark and how all of the bands he booked were way past their prime. She recited the music man, and then at four in the morning we went on a giddy manhunt for the Jesus nightlight it turns out my mother threw away. We didn't sleep until close to five, and then we got up around one-thirty in time to consume calories. I showered, had a wasted day until I read some Dave Eggers, and was inspired.
Goodnight. Happy New Year.
It is the last day of the last month of the year 2002. Oh no, the calendar is coming to an end. I awake. It is twelve. Half of the official calendar day is already over. I shower, put on clean pajamas, watch design shows with my mother and then, at one, I call ELizabeth and succeed waking her up. This is the beginning of the first part of my day in which all I do is wait for ELizabeth or see ELizabeth. We'll call this "morning." After lack of conversation and some amount of debate, we decide that we should see each other, and upon seeing each other, we should go to the Barnes and Noble/Best Buy area. We say good-bye and both go on to prepare ourselves for going outside. ELizabeth takes longer, as usual, but I did have head start.
I bounce between Surprise by Design and doing hair/makeup. What fun! When I finish with those activities, I choose an outfit, and I put it on (but not before throwing some clean clothes on the floor). I then proceed downstairs and do some of Kevin's book project. Oh, how I loved seventh grade. So, I found myself at the kitchen table with my mother gluing construction paper onto oak tag cubes while Kevin and friends play Playstation in the next room. I have already done this project and gotten my A. Enough of that. Elizabeth calls and saves the day. It is nearly four, but she is on her way. ELizabeth and Step-father come to door to greet me. I choose to bring my pink jacket, but I don't wear it. We depart off into the dusk. ELizabeth likes my hair.
There is driving. The driving is not done by me. We arrive. Zany Brainy. Elizabeth hopes to purchase a child-sized accordion. She finds one in the back of the store. It is purple with butterflies. I laugh at her, but it is good fun. We stand in line and notice the burnt out cashier who can't read the digital display on the cash register in order to give change. On the way out, we decided we couldn't blame him for being as he was. After all, he did work in a Toy Store with Children and their songs all day. As luck would have it, the store was closing, so everything was 20% off. ELizabeth takes her accordion and we go to the car. She plays it on the short, but long road to best buy. I try it, and despite the horrible noises I create, it is a good bit of fun. As the engine of the car is started, Russell and I take bets on how long it will be before ELizabeth forgets she has the accordion. He says five days, but I give her six.
Best Buy. We look to buy CDs, but some chaotic fairy had run through the entire "dance/Electronica" section with their magic wand and un-alphabetized everything. Pandemonium. No CDs. No fun. We leave without spending any money. We drive home. I end up back at ELizabeth's house after some amount of debate. I find myself on the green chair wondering if I'll be doomed to spend the next several hours listening to ELizabeth try to play her accordion. Russell saves me. he hooks up the new record player, and we soon become occupied with that. Personally, I have never played a record, so I am quite fascinated. ELizabeth is amazed as well. We listen to Funny Face, Diesel Boy, Abba, and someone playing a drum solo. There is merriment. Then, ELizabeth's mother calls. We debate dinner options.
It had previously been decided that we would go out to dinner. We were just never sure where we wanted to go. There is conversation, etc. It is finally decided that we should go to Friday's. The phone rings again, and it is decided that we should go to Bella. Get in car. Drive to bella. It is closed. We go to the Diner/Pub and there is an hour wait. Where can we go that will never be crowded? A Chinese restaurant. That is exactly what we did. There were several old Jewish couples at a table in the center of the room. They spoke rather loudly and entertained us with their conversations.
Old woman: Yes...we're being watched all of the time, and not only by God.
Different old woman: Education was ruined when males became teachers. Thirty years ago when all women were teachers, everything was fine, but then men enter the business and everything goes downhill...
Old man: You don't tip fifteen dollars, you tip fifteen percent! Take that other five!
Old woman: NO, you tip twenty percent!
There were other amusing things, but...that is enough. It's wrong that we have our fun by mocking others, but we weren't really mocking them, and I don't care. Others can have their fun by observing me if they so choose, and I would not hold it against them. We left, I went home, and after a while, my cousin came and we left for Ryon's.
We had what will be referred to as an "Ode to Bjork" New Year's Eve. It was originally called "Bjork Cult" at my suggestion, but I think "Ode to Bjork" sounds nicer. We listened to Bjork, and then watched Dancer in the Dark, which is a musical starring Bjork. It was inherently depressing and slow-moving, but I still thought it was fabulous...well, fabulous is not really a word to describe it. More of this painfully glorious shouldn't-be musical that was delicious even though it shouldn't be. Stephanie didn't like it because it was horribly depressing, but I felt that the "last number" was one of the best portrayals of death in a musical...or just one of the best portrayals of death. I will see it again sometime, and that day will be a very good day...not that This day - New Year's Eve wasn't, because it was...especially in comparison to the days preceding it. [Those were wasted days. I don't want any more of those. I want to have a new year full of good days that I don't waste. This will inevitably not happen, but I can pretend. Or I can at least stop lying. I can tell you that I read fantasy fiction books and enjoy them and that I do love New York, but not as much as I have. I can tell you that these past days have been dull and uninviting and depressingly dull and that I do not prefer them to things I say I prefer them to. There are many things that will happen and many things that will not. ] After Bjork, we discovered that Dick Clark was alive, but was not fit to have a "Rockin' " New Year's Eve after all of that Botox. There was loudness and driveway dwelling shortly after midnight. I think my mother came to get us around twelve-thrity, and that is when we left the company of Ryon and family. My cousin Natalie slept over because her parents left my house early. We sat about and laughed at Dick Clark and how all of the bands he booked were way past their prime. She recited the music man, and then at four in the morning we went on a giddy manhunt for the Jesus nightlight it turns out my mother threw away. We didn't sleep until close to five, and then we got up around one-thirty in time to consume calories. I showered, had a wasted day until I read some Dave Eggers, and was inspired.
Goodnight. Happy New Year.