duck-shaped pain

I nearly sunk down today's entry, even before I began writing it, because all I could think was, nothing interesting happened to me today�. Then I remembered that I was wrong, since I got to overhear a woman talking to her breasts today, which should count for something.

I was in the dressing room at Mervyn's, unsuccessfully trying on some pajams [1] when this woman entered the dressing room next to me with some bras. After some rustling (bra-doffing noises, I assumed and hoped), she started talking just out of the blue. "Yes! Don't you think this one is so great? You guys [2] look so great in it. I just love it!" I thought maybe she was talking to a small child or tiny dog she had brought into the room with her, but I watched her leave, and she left alone. I think December makes everyone crack.

Speaking of dogs:

1. I parked my car right next to this other car, which just happened to have three large standard poodles in it. This was not a large van or SUV � this was a fine 1980s-vintage Ford Escort, not a three-dog car by any means. I never understand people who bring their dogs with them everywhere. Tiny dogs are hard enough to understand, but three large ones � that just blows over my head. All the dogs I've had were perfectly satisfied to stay at home in their own backyard, where they can eat and sleep and bark at random things and roll around in the mud and defecate at will�

2. I saw Best in Show this afternoon. A lot of you might be wondering what took me so long, but it only opened here this weekend. If the track record with half-decent movies in this town hold up, it's going to be gone and replaced by something completely sucky within days, so you have to see good things right away. It was just me and the little old ladies there, who probably would have brought their dogs with them if they could have. Me, them and one man who read a book through the entire thing. I liked it [3] � not sure about everyone else. There were some random gasps here and there.

After that, I went and bought some prosciutto. And had coffee. And read some Gary Snyder. Soon, I will make lasagna. [4]

The Big Work Project starts next week, which is good, because I won't have anything to do with it once it starts � my role was doing a lot of the advance work. Still, I fear getting a call in the middle of the night asking me to drive up to Nowhere, Northwestern Colorado in below-zero weather to go fix the camera. I hope this won't happen. If all things turn out correctly, I will be happy and relaxed and able to think once again.

I got paid on Friday, and when I went to the bank to cash my check, I got a roll of the new golden dollar coins. I really like them. Obviously, they're not good for buying CDs or large items, but I like to use them to buy coffee. That just feels right. Coffee is something that you should rightfully be able to purchase using only a coin (or two). Their compact size makes me think that whatever I'm buying is cheaper than it actually is. I had the same problem when I was in Japan � all the vending machines for drinks and snacks took 100-yen coins, which look like a quarter but are actually worth somewhere near a dollar, depending on the exchange rate. Hey, I thought subconsiously, everything is so cheap! Which is a completely inaccurate thought.

[1] Meaning that while I was successful in actually trying on the pajamas � I managed to undress and put them on and then put my own clothes back on again � I was unsuccessful in actually finding any ones I wanted.

[2] I'm not even going to touch the issue of referring to your breasts as "guys."

[3] I spent entirely too much of my early adolescence being obsessed with dogs. I wanted to be a junior handler and eventually breed dogs for a living, until I decided with it was Not For Me. I still like dogs a lot, and I still watch dogs shows whenever they come on TV. I guess the point here is that I got the jokes. The dog-related jokes. Oh, and the other ones, too.

[4] Don't get your hopes up. It's frozen, so making it only requires that I heat the oven and remember not to place the lasagna face down on the cookie sheet. I do make good lasagna from scratch, but it's very time-consuming (salting the eggplant, making two different sauces, plus the agony that is the bechamel�) and expensive to make. I was happy to find a decent frozen vegetarian lasagna to satisfy my cravings on those days I do not have five hours to devote to one dish.

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