This sucks to tell you the truth. Once again, allergies attack. Last week was the inhalation of the word, ‘reformation’. This week, merely a tickle in my right nostril which causes the right eye to water and a most unsightly nasal drip under my nose. It happened in the middle of the night while I was sleeping. It was enough to make me wake up and blow my nose several times filling the garbage can near the bed to fill with used tissues. Bill was oblivious to it, sleeping like a log after transcribing music for quite a few hours.

I woke up and showered and went out for some bagels and the papers after a cup of coffee at the computer checking the email. I ran a spy ware program and headed out to the streets which weren’t as cold as yesterday. Why, it was 27 degrees out. Balmy! There was no line when I walked into the bagel shop so that was nice. I headed out and got the papers. I remembered I needed to get some eggs so it was off to the supermarket. I came back home and checked the computer so it could get rid of the spy stuff and other crap on the computer.

Things were going well. I had downloaded Mozilla Firefox last night with a Google package, and didn’t complete all of the downloads. Everything seemed completed and I followed the prompts towards a restart. That was done and after that all I was left with was a blue screen. Nice cursor and a blue screen. No taskbars at the bottom. No Windows. No Firefox or start button. Totally fucked up. After restarting a few dozen times, still nothing. Ctrl/Alt/Delete didn’t do much of anything either. And of course, the Microsoft help line was off for the weekend.

Bill let me use his computer, his super big and fast Mac which I do love to use. Now I’m on his PowerBook G4 since he’s transcribing again. Juan is expected, home from college for the weekend. I plan on utilizing his computer brain (he is of THAT generation after all) and seeing if he can work some hocus pocus on the computer. I have hope. As a back I did leave a message for Rand earlier asking him for his assistance with the problem. I didn’t hear anything from his corner of the world yet.

Now I’m on the G4, took an allergy antihistamine watching Scrubs. I took one earlier and it knocked me out for an hour. A deep nap followed soon after. That was fun. Still the computer shows nothing but a blue screen and the cursor. I am the curser as well as the cursed, what with the computer being the way that it is and a hemisphere of my skull tearing and dripping. It doesn’t matter, there are worse things in the world than this problem.

I’m looking forward to seeing Juan and picking his brain. He shouldn’t mind.

Just got back from seeing The Devil Wears Prada which I was fairly ambivalent about seeing. Bill had wanted to see it at an acting coach’s suggestion so we went. It was better than I expected and Meryl Streep ruled. Actually laughed out loud at several scenes. And it was more crowded than I expected it to be. Some audience members thought that this was the perfect film to take a newborn infant to see and I can easily see how they’d think that. The movie is based on a novel written by a former assistant to Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue magazine.

It was a funny film and I remember reading about some backlash regarding the movie. Mainly about how the desks are so neat and orderly. I can’t say that was the case at People magazine when I worked there. Most of the time, you’d be lucky if you saw a desk, they were usually covered in newspapers, magazines, and whatever department the desk was in. Also that there is now way an assistant would be able to get away with wearing couture that had been sent in for fashion shoots. But other than that I recommend it. Four thumbs up. Mine and Bill’s.

Bill and I met in Bryant Park and that didn’t go well at all. Just a communication problem but it worked out after awhile. At one point Bill didn’t want to see the movie, and I would’ve been ok with it, but we were right in front of the bloody theater and I had given up a few things to be able to see it with Bill, and to further prove my commitment to seeing this movie, right then and there, I threw out a very good not even half smoked cigar into the street. So there!

Today is my sister’s birthday. Two years ago Bill and I flew out to San Francisco for a few days, to see a friend of mine get married and also to surprise Annemarie on what was a milestone birthday. For her integrity I won’t say how many years she’s been on the planet, but it was a major event. She’s eight years older than me and I was born in 1962. Technically I didn’t say anything about her youthful age, did I? Any lawyers out there, please advise. Not that Annemarie would sue me or anything, more like smack me upside the head next time she sees me. And that won’t even happen since she’s not a violent person.

Cut me down to size? Well she is my sister after all. This year, with me having a new job, and Annemarie having a new job it just wouldn’t be possible. When I drunk dialed her last week, while hanging out with El Rey, I told her about my plan to fly out there between Christmas and New Years. She agreed that it was a good idea, possibly a fine idea, but with one flaw. They were going to be in Orlando at that time. So eff that idea.

I will see her next year when our niece Meghan marries the wonderful Rob. The date isn’t set yet and after speaking to her mother, Elaine a few weeks ago I was told that to have a wedding in June is mucho bucks. And they are the bride’s parents, so that tradition thing rears it head once again. The bride’s parents pay for the wedding. I’m sure it’s written down somewhere. Somewhere in a cave.

Anyway I would like to take this opportunity to wish my sister a Happy Birthday and to thank her for being such a good friend (BFF!) and a wonderful sister. To my sister, Annemarie! The richest woman in town!

Love,
John