It isn't like I haven't wanted to blog, I just haven't had the time. Turning on my computer takes tremendous effort, because there are a ton of things I need to do when I'm on. Either that means that I am very lazy or more disorganized than I care to admit.
Anyway, lots of things going on, so I'll begin with the most pressing news of the day:
I am a thief. Today I wandered around Fresh Fields/Whole Foods looking for something to eat, which is always a bad idea when you are hungry. I didn't feel inspired about anything, and after going back and forth through the salad bar with nothing to show for it, I finally decided to get a deli wrap. The salmon wrap caught my eye, so I added it to my basket in exchange for the paltry container of sushi that I had been considering. Then I added a very expensive bag of gourmet potato chips and Odwalla Superfood green drink. This was going to be one of the most expensive take out lunches in history.
Except that when it came time to pay for my groceries, the check out guy forgot to scan my salmon wrap. I noticed immediately, but I didn't say anything... I paid for the items he rung up, took my paper (not plastic) sack, escaped the chaos of the store, and headed for the car. I thought about going back to admit my sin, but my legs never actually turned back in the direction of the store. I got in my car and drove home filled with guilt, all the while telling myself that it wasn't worth going back to the store to pay the $5 I owed.
As I write, I am now eating the offending salmon wrap and I take comfort in the fact that it was probably made from farm raised, artificially red-dyed salmon, which I specifically banned from the house several months ago after a most disturbing PBS special, which now not only makes me a thief but also a hypocrite. In the car, I considered giving the wrap to a homeless person for lunch, but because it contains uncooked fish, and I wouldn't want anyone to get sick. Thus, it would be better for me to keep the wrap so in case there is something wrong with it, I am the one who would get sick which would serve me right for leaving the Whole Foods without paying for my food in the first place!
Ah, ethical dilemnas. In the final analysis, I don't want to get sick, I really do feel bad, and to prove it, I will continue to eat the wrap but I won't enjoy any of it. Furthermore, I will donate the $5 that I should have paid for it to a worthy cause as soon as I finish eating it.
See, all better now.
Onto other major news of the day: Today as I was walking through downtown to turn in some work (well before my Whole Foods excursion), I passed a radio station promotional vehicle that was parked on the sidewalk. At first I thought I might be able to win some concert tix to scalp on Ebay, but as I got closer I noticed that there was a crowd of people who were waiting to sign up for something, so I kept walking. Then the flashbulb of memory went off and I realized that it was the Luther Vandross Sympathy Card, and then I hurried to get away as quickly as possible.
It was yesterday morning when I first heard that the station planned to do this, and in between snoozing the alarm, I scorned the sheer stupidity of such a suggestion. When I saw it up close, I realized that not only was the idea stupid, but so were all of the people who had lined up on the sidewalk to participate.
Just another example of how public "grief" has become even more ridiculous and random.
First of all, there was a train bombing in London today, so I would think that more of us would be concerned about public safety, especially near Metro stations (and of course, they were parked at the entrance of a major Metro station downtown). And I bet that several of those fools took the train specifically to that spot in order to sign the card...
Then you figure that none of these people, including the clueless radio station people actually knew Luther Vandross, so why sign a "card" of condolences for a man that you've never met? Sure, we all "knew" him through his music, the same way we "knew" Princess Diana through her photos. How many of us knew that his middle came from a box of pasta? If his family needed any reassurances that Luther was beloved, then what will be more meaningful, this card or his posthumous record $ales...
Finally, this is soooo random. When Ray Charles died, I don't recall a similar effort to remember him, and the same thing goes for Rick James, Barry White, Curtis Mayfield, or even Marvin Gaye (not that I would even remember). When Ossie Davis, the dean of black actors died earlier this year, there was no similar outpouring of public grief. But I bet that by this time next week, some idiot will be selling memorial t-shirts and damn near every middle aged black woman in America will have one to wear on casual Fridays or to the mall...
I'm venting here about black people again...(the piece that I plan to finish as soon as I donate that $5 to pay for that wrap made from that genetically-modified, artificially colored and flavored, tank-raised salmon).
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