Sit or Stand

Ages ago I started a Livejournal account where I rated bathrooms at different establishments I visited. I gave it up years ago because I was, apparently, the only person interested in how different bathrooms in Tucson, Arizona, rated on my scale (based on cleanliness, size of the area, whether or not you had your own private bathroom with your own sink, how good the locks were, etc.).

Nowadays, though, the bathroom ratings would have to include who was allowed to pee where. You know what? I don't really care. The toilet debate is dumb. I don't care what your plumbing is, I'm certainly not going to stop and do a visual inspection on each person who's entering a public restroom, and considering that the trans person is more likely to be hurt by a stranger in public than the cis-gendered person, I think the people who should get the most say in this debate are trans folks.

TV: It Must be Good for Something?

I watched tv yesterday.

Fast Talking

Jersey Girls are fast talkers, and I was one of the fastest.

Here's an excerpt of Vanessa Huxtable's fast talking friend on The Cosby Show.  I realize that The Cosby Show took place in Brooklyn, but here's an excerpt of Vanessa's friend, the fast talker.  She was on several episodes, and my family said she talked just like I do.

I was a Rotary Youth Exchange student to New Zealand in the 90s, so I had to slow things down.  Think Simon and Garfunkel (if you can't name that tune, I'll do it for you at the end of this post).  I was only in New Zealand for a year, though, so I sped back up.  A friend I grew up with ended up at the same college as me, and I can remember running into her and the two of us talking the day before classes began.  Imagine a man bopping his head three times faster than these kittens, and you'll have a vague idea of what this guy looked like:

However, fast talking might be acceptable in New Jersey, but it's not something you can do all over the country.  Arizona, for example, is a much slower state. I worked hard to speak more slowly, but when I was very busy, I automatically sped-up my voice the same way I had to speed up my actions.  Unfortunately, my boss took that to mean I was panicing whenever I was approaching a deadline, so I worked hard for a decade, and I believe that my boss stays at a well modulated speed most of the time.

I'm in Boston now, and while people are faster here than in Arizona, work might move quickly, but voices just don't have that faster Jersey girl sound to them.  So imagine my surprise when I started a new project working with a Canadian who spoke as quickly as I used to (ok, as quickly as I still want to talk about 1/2 of the time).  She was going on "aboot" the project, and I couldn't figure out why I was so drawn into a conversation about a boring (but necessary) portion of the project.  Then I realized that she is a fast talker!  It was wonderful.

Sometimes I miss being a Jersey girl.  Did you know that Jersey gave the world people like Danny DeVito and Jon Bon Jovi?  I do. I grew up in the 80s.  Knowing that Bon Jovi was one of us was a requirement and something that all the sixth graders bragged about.

Mostly, though, I miss being someplace where people aren't surprised when I forget to self-censure and just talk as fast as I want.  In fact, I've lost my skills - even when I talk fast, I'm slower than I used to be!

One last thought - folks from Jersey don't speak in "Joisy Accents" because that's not a Jersey accent - that's how folks from Brooklyn talk.

Can You Count?

It turns out that creating a playlist dedicated to the Count is more difficult than I expected. Within my sphere of knowledge, there are not a lot of counting songs (outside of the children's music genre), and it seems that I don't own much of what is available.

Who can resist a counter?

I do have a delightful version of 3.14 which is sung by someone from Cowboy Beebop. I wish I could remember where I got it. A young girl sings the digits of pi in Japanese for a bit and then she sings them in English. It's an oddly relaxing song. Not many other songs in my iTunes happen to be related to our cape wearing friend.

So thinking about a counting playlist led me to Sesame Street, and I found myself on the Sesame Street site. What other website would an adult woman peruse at 8:30 p.m. on a Friday night? It's so much fun! There are pictures of Sesame Street characters that chime when you mouse over them. Unfortunately, the Count isn't one of them. So I went to the printable coloring pages. Would you believe that even on the counting pages coloring pages, I had to go all the way to number 13 to find the Count? Is it possible that today's youth don't adore the Count? Is it possible that I'm old enough to refer to today's youth with shock in my voice (or in my fingertips)?

1965 I am not going to tell you who is Big Bird and who is Mr. Snuffleupagus. I have no idea who the dog is. 

I was actually an Oscar fan with a slight leaning toward Mr. Snuffleupagus, but we're talking about the Count. Is he still on the show? Is it still loved?

And while we're at it, did you know that Mr. Snuffleupagus is now chummy with everybody? His charm was that he was only Big Bird's friend, and we never knew if he was Big Bird's imaginary friend or if he was real. Of course, 5 year old me knew he was real regardless of what others thought. Now everyone knows he's real - his magic's gone.

I haven't watched Sesame Street in a few decades. Does it still have magic for you or your children when Mr. Snuffleupagus can speak?  I understand that he became real because folks were worried that if children had a secret bad thing in their lives, then adults wouldn't believe them.

I was a lucky child; I knew the only things my parents wouldn't believe me about were the things my sister blamed on me (we were both adorable, but she had a pixie hair cut - who can resist a wee little brown haired girl with a pixie cut?). Perhaps it's for the best? What do you think? I mean, change is good - we don't want a stagnating world where change doesn't occur, but dude, when I go home, it's all changed. Now even my memories are being pulled apart!

So there's no Count playlist, no mystery in the mammoth-like creature, and I'm perusing the Sesame Street website in the middle of the night. Thankfully it's interesting and I'm easily amused.

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This post was brought to you by a cheap riesling and the number nine.  Don't judge - TJ's lists it as one of their best wines in the under $5 category. Seriously, it's $4.99 and they think of that as under $5.  Hah!  Taxes are about 9%, I paid pennies over $5 for this wine.  I'm looking for the Count on a Friday night. I obviously know my numbers!

Knitting Days

The whole reason for creating a blog with such a stupid name was that I planned to do online introspection about myself. Well, it turns out that I don't enjoy waxing on about myself in an unprotected online environment. So I'm using this blog to talk about whatever I feel like talking about.

Today, I'm going to talk about knitting.  I love to knit, but it's been a solitary endeavor since I moved to Tucson. Not anymore! A friend of mine has returned to crocheting, and we've been spending time together knitting, crocheting, chatting, and watching tv.

This means a lot to me. We're not out and about doing anything in particular. I just showed up at her house with my bag, she showed me what she was working on, and away we went. She's crocheting a blanket, and I'm knitting her a set of coasters.  But I've got so many projects, and we've decided to turn it into a knitting/showing watching extravaganza. She introduced me to a tv show called Warehouse 13 (mindless and cute fun), and next week I'll be introducing her to Xena.

She's never seen Xena. I can't believe it! I love Xena. Years ago I discovered a Xena catalog, and I moved four or five times before that catalog stopped following me - even though I never ordered a thing. Now I wish I had. It would be fun to own a chakram necklace.  Oh well.

I was actually glad when Xena went off the air. They went crazy near the end. Kind of like that least season of Buffy. I didn't watch either show's final season for ages after the shows ended because their last seasons were just beyond stupid.  And lets face it, Xena rocked, but it was always a stupid show.

So I'll start my friend in the beginning of Xena and if she makes it that far into the show, I'll apologize when she nears the end. But it seems that a lot of shows go stupid near the end. Can anyone says La Femme Nikita? Yay Peta Wilson, but ugh last season!

There's no need for a "who would win, Xena or Nikita" one-off because they'd both end up putting down their weapons. Nikita would trust Xena had changed (well, early Nikita) while Xena would not be so sure that Nikita was innocent :-)