14 August 2003
blackout

I know what y'all are thinking: it takes a power outtage across half the country to get me to update this damn site.

Borders is a news vacuum. There's no internet access and not even a radio in the building. So when some random guy mentioned to me that there was no power from New York City to Toronto to Detroit, I went into a panic. September 11th made me hypersensitive to John's safety and well-being, so I called his house. I figured if he wasn't there yet, I could leave a message on his machine. It rang and rang and rang, and then it dawned on me: no power. So, no answering machine.

I called his cellphone. A busy signal, strangely enough. I hung up. I tried not too worry. I just hoped he wasn't in the subways when the power went out.

Not two minutes later, John called me. It turned out to be mere coincidence that he called me back, because his cellphone service was spotty and he hadn't gotten my call. It's not the first time we've done or said things at nearly the same time. He was fine, just walking home. He would have been in the subway had he not decided to take his daily walk down to the Battery. So he turned around and walked, all the way from the Battery to the 59th Street Bridge, and then across the East River to Long Island City. I don't even want to think about how many blocks that is. Needless to say, he's pretty tired.

Such a strange day. It's bizarre and surreal that something of this scale even happened. 21 power plants down in just 3 minutes. I just thank the powers that be that there was no panic and no injuries in New York City or anywhere else. Just a lot of waiting and congestion.

It was eerie though, watching all those people, walking the streets of New York. It reminded me of all the coverage of September 11th a little more than I wanted it to.

***

So things have been busy, and my summer is nearly over. Between working at Borders and working for Sharyn in her office, I've had very little time to do much of anything else. The commission for The Clay Studio has steadily become more and more a pain in my ass, so much so that the sum I'm getting for these pieces just doesn't justify the time and annoyance I've gone through in the last few weeks. But no matter. They got fired, and I'm unloading them tomorrow.

I called Megan at The Clay Studio and apologized again for the delay, to which she replied, "Oh, it's okay...you said they wasn't going to be ready until like September, right?"

Uh, sure. I agreed with her, even though I distinctly remembered saying they would be ready for late July. It's just as well.

Soon begins my last semester of college. I really can't believe it. As of December, for the first time in my life, I will not be in school. That fact alone boggles my mind. Many other things are boggling my mind, including those rather important matters of finance and employment. Also getting through this last semester, which means four shows in the course of two months, and getting good grades in all my remaining classes, in order to conquer that ever-elusive 3.5 (and I am ever so close).

Trying to work out the options: Grad school now? Grad school later? A residency? Travel? A job? A groupie for an obscure punk band? I'm not going to rule anything out, just yet.

<< back | index | forward >>


Hejira v.5.0, green sand edition
all content, 1998-2002 (c) Bethany