It’s much easier to write the day after I leave the house. When I’m out there are more opportunities to be an idiot. There will be idiot stories. I sometimes wonder if I subconsciously do stupid things, so I’ll have something to write about. The problem with that theory is that I did stupid things long before I started writing. That’s one of those hypotheses that sounds intriguing but has no evidence to back it up. I don’t believe such things, I’m an idiot but I’m a rational idiot.
I headed into the City to meet Carey. Right after I went through the subway turnstile I heard violin music, great violin music. Great violin music I knew well. It was a Deni Bonet piece! I started looking for where it was coming from. Was it someone playing on the platform? When I realized it was Deni, I dismissed that theory. Was someone on the platform listening to her music. I approached people waiting on the platform to hear which one was playing Deni. It didn’t seem to get louder by any of them, it always sounded distant. Then it hit me, it wasn’t distant, it was muffled. It was coming from my phone which was in my pants pocket and covered by my pants, my hoodie, and my jacket. It was Deni’s ringtone. If you are a musician that calls me your ringtone is a song of yours. I raced to get the phone out of my pocket, but it was too late. I missed Deni’s call. I called her right back and fortunately she answered. I had only a few minutes to talk, until the D train arrived.
I assign ringtones for all the people that call me frequently and or I can think of a good ringtone for. Carey calls me often, yet I didn’t give him a ringtone until the night before last. It’s such an obvious one I bet you can guess it. Yes, it’s Carey by Joni Mitchell except I use Sharon Goldman’s cover. Why? I lost Joni Mitchell’s Blue when I lost my CD and digital music collections. I do have the Chicks with Dip’s Joni Mitchell’s Blue: 40th Anniversary Celebration.
After hanging with Carey, I went to Trader Joe’s. If I’m near one and I have remembered to bring shopping bags I will usually stop in. Sadly, half the shelves were empty. I have never seen it like this. They didn’t have most of what was on my shopping list, Half & Half, eggs, and bananas. I asked someone that was working there why the so many of the shelves were empty. He was talking to a woman that I figured was his girlfriend, they were holding hands. I suspect that he was not happy to be interrupted as for the first time every I got a snarky response from a Trader Joe’s employee. They are usually helpful and friendly. He said, “Because there’s a pandemic,” in a tone that dripped with a silent, “you idiot.” I should know, I use that tone when people ask me stupid questions like why I wear a mask. Thing is that was not a reasonable explanation as I’ve been to Trader Joe’s many times in the pandemic and never faced this. When I said that he said, “now there are two years of pandemic and factories have closes.” Like they all closed in the last month, and it only affected Trader Joe’s not other supermarkets. Finally, he added that because of the weather the delivery trucks didn’t come yesterday. That’s obviously the real reason and explains why they were out of perishables. I don’t think the milk, egg, and banana factories closed. I was going to complain to the manager about him but decided to give him the COVID-19 pass. We’ve all been under a lot of stress and sometimes we are not at our best. I’m actively working on that attitude. What I’m discovering is that it’s better for my mental health and happiness.
Trader Joe’s led to another idiot story. I bought a bag of the chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels. I ate the entire bag. I love them and find them irresistible, but my tummy has issues if I eat too many. So now my tummy has issues. They aren’t terrible, it’s just discomfort and frequent trips to the bathroom. Still, I should show more self-control. Funny thing when I typed “self-“ Word suggested the autocomplete “self-esteem” which was almost my topic for today. I’ll save that for another day. Now despite my digestive issues I’m hungry, bacon and eggs are calling to me.
Wise Madness 