I’m writing a rare pre-9AM edition of Wise Madness. I used to do this all the time. I’d write before I left home to teach. Last I left you I said that I would call a friend and try to hang out today. That didn’t happen, I listened to the Met game instead. I don’t know if that a loss or a win. I know the Mets lost. The Mets have so many injuries they are essentially putting out their AAA Syracuse team with a few ringers from the big league club; yet they hold on to first place in the NL East. I’m going to my first Met game of the year on Tuesday! To make it even more exciting, deGrom might be pitching. I’ll be seeing Alan for the first time since the plague. This is exciting.
I often write about not being happy with the way I handled a situation, last night I was happy and I decided that’s worth writing about. I watched the Nets-Celtic game last night; sports is reentering my life. I then went to bed at almost a decent hour. The problem was that some kids decided to have a party on the street almost directly below my window. I didn’t get angry and let it make my mind race. I opened my window and politely asked them to keep it down as I was trying to sleep. One of them gave me a look and I let it go. They lowered the volume of their conversation for two minutes. I put in earplugs. I can fall asleep on the subway, there’s no reason I can’t fall asleep with a party going on. That’s when they started playing loud music. I decided to let it go, and that worked. I fell asleep. It’s so tempting to lose myself in righteous indignation, I do that too often. All that accomplishes is making me unhappy. Here’s a thought, therapy does some good. A friend of mine was enjoying righteous indignation and moral superiority. I almost said something but stopped myself as what would be the purpose? It was to feed my righteous indignation and make myself feel morally superior. My natural reaction is biting sarcasm. I deal with it by directing it at myself.
My new project is going through my roommate’s CD collection and ripping music that I can play on Gord’s Gold. I have plenty of new music but I don’t have the classics, those went in the great record collection disaster. I’d like my collection to be as diverse as possible as I want the music I play to be as diverse as possible. I was particularly happy to find a Lead Belly album. At this moment I’m ripping Chris Smither. I still miss my CDs.
My unexciting plans for today are to take my walk, listen to the Met game, perhaps at the same time, and watch the first Knicks playoff game in ages tonight. What’s missing? Music and friends. I’m going to have to get proactive about that. I also need to get proactive about taking something out of the freezer for dinner. Now to post this and take a nap.
Wise Madness 