I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
February 18, 2012 - 1:12 p.m.
I'm doing something unusual today. I'm making breakfast before I write. Actually I'm making it now as I write. I'm cooking grits and starting this while they are heating. I'm also making eggs so I won't be able to write much. I hardly got any sleep last night. I was up late talking to somebody then the garbage truck woke me up at 7:30 this morning. I hope I don't collapse before I finish eating and writing. After that is OK. I can read the Times after I wake up from collapsing. I don't have much else on the schedule today. I am tempted to go up to Yonkers to see Diana Jones and Paul Sachs but I just don't think I'm for it today.
Yesterday was my first day at school that I started with a working computer. That was so exciting. I got there early to take advantage of it. I entered the grades from the first three quizzes and wrote a worksheet and a quiz. I also did what's really important, played on Facebook and listened to music. I feel so much better with a work station of my own. I actually share it but I have a feeling I'll be the only one using it most of the time.
Monday is President's Day so it's a three-day weekend. Do you know what that means in terms of teaching? A third of the class decided to skip yesterday's class. I love that logic. "We have an extra day off, let's make it two!" Learning is simply not a priority. I let them know that I take that to mean that they don't think the class is important so I will ignore all requests concerning grades. I don't think they believe that but it's true. If they want good grades the first step is learning the material. If they aren't willing to do that I'm not willing to do anything for them.
The class is going extremely slowly. I am covering less than half a lesson a day. I don't know what I'm going to do about this. Part of the problem is that I spend so much time on homework. Perhaps I need to collect it once to see if they are actually doing it.
I had to have an early dinner yesterday and decided to try a place that David Letterman raved about on his show, Steak and Shake. It's right by his theater. It's in the mold of Shake Shack and so many other burger and shake joints. It's from his native Indiana and just moved to New York. It isn't quite up to Shake Shack and it didn't have many of the menu items listed on the website but it was good and quite a bit cheaper than the competition. I could get a double burger, fries, and a shake for under $10.
The reason I had to eat early was that I was off to shallow light New Jersey to see Red Molly at the Brennan Coffee House in Jersey City. It's the easiest Jersey venue for me to get to. It's only a three blocks from the Journal Square PATH station. Even when I have a car I take public transit there. I didn't really need to but I got there early just to hang out with the girls. They are moving up in the world. The first time they played there the green room was up in the third floor in an office filled with boxes of case files. The second time they were still in the same office but the case files had been cleared out. This time they were in a beautiful conference room on the first floor right by the rotunda where the show was. Since they moved from the third floor to the first perhaps I should say they moved down in the world.
I haven't gotten to really hang out with them for a while so that was worth the trip by itself. Too bad I can't tell you what we talked about but like many of my conversations with friends they are not fit for public consumption, at least without pages of explanations.
One of the things that I love is that when I go to a show I'll so often find friends there. I always expect to see two WFUV volunteers there as they also volunteer at the Coffee House. I'm going to fess up, I am blanking on their names. I'm sorry. If you read this let me know. It's a husband and wife and he always reminds me of the actor Edward Hermann, which means he reminds me of FDR. Hermann has played FDR at least twice.
Laura a Facebook friend volunteers there so I got to get to know her better.
Then Brian showed up. People always comment that they can tell that Brian and I are good friends and have known each other for ages. How do they know? By the way we insult each other. It's a strange and beautiful world. I love it.
Brian sat with me at the table next to Laura. We were a bit off to the side and a bit back and I thought it wasn't well suited for photography but it ended up being perfect because of the lighting and angles. It just meant I didn't get close-ups.
The show was not acoustic but it was far less amplified than most. There was a strong emphasis on ballads and they did some old songs they haven't done in ages. It was not your typical Red Molly set at all. That is of course ideal for someone that sees them often.
I of course did the merch. Sales were brisk. Their credit card swiper no longer works well so I had to actually write down all the info. I hope they can read my handwriting. You know how bad it is. And of course on the second one I forgot to get the expiration date. I had to hand over marching to Brian and find the guy. I did. Not too surprising as where is he going to go? It was in the intermission of the show.
I didn't boo when Laurie and Abbie said they were from Jersey City since I was in the middle of enemy territory. I did give a cheer though when they said that Molly lives in Brooklyn. Laurie said, "You're outnumbered Gordon."
I believe it was the first time I heard them cover a Jack Hardy song. Was the title The Prisoner?. It was something similar to that.
After the show I merched again, Brian kept me company and we walked back to the PATH station together. The first or second time I went there somebody tried to give me a ride back to the station. They had to drive 10 miles to cover the three blocks it takes walking. I might be exaggerating just a bit. Even with it just being three blocks it was nice having the company.
I took quite a few pictures and I posted more than usual. The lighting was just ideal and even though my angle wasn't great I loved how they came out. I'm show most of them in a slideshow but I have to point out one.
Laurie and Abbie talked about their favorite JC haunts and one of them is a Yoga studio. Here's Laurie demonstrating her awesome yoga skilz.
See what you can miss. You better go to every Red Molly show.
I didn't get a photo to illustrate something I noticed, this is the closest. The calendar says it is winter but Red Molly's outfits create an autumnal sequence. Abbie is the height of the fall foliage, Laurie later in the season and later in the day with her subtle purple, Molly is the onset of winter, the leaves have lost all their color but some still remain on the trees awaiting the first snow.
Here's the slideshow. If you click on it you can see the album. I particularly like this photo set. Take a good look at them.
I had to take the PATH to the subway but I got home well before midnight. It was an easy trip.
As I said I ate breakfast before I wrote this today. I saw that my bread had turned so that's why I made grits with my eggs. For the first time I had three burners working at once, eggs, grits, and coffee. I made poached eggs and sausages. I put them all together in one bowl and broke the yokes so they ran into the grits. That worked wonderfully.
It's late now I better either read the paper or take a nap now. Maybe both.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile February 18, 2012
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