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smiling gods of the alley
Tuesday, September 5 2000
As I was biking to work this morning, I came upon a turn table, one of those fancy models with the shining all-metal needle arm. I thought to myself, "Cool, I'll be able to break out the vinyl and dazzle guests with my retro cred." But as I was carrying it further down the alley, I came upon a VCR and a 900 MHz cordless phone. These were definitely more valuable than an old turntable, but I could only carry so much stuff at any one time. So I traded the turntable for the VCR.
On my lunch break, I tested the VCR and found that it worked just fine. I was overjoyed; usually VCRs in the garbage have serious immediately-apparent issues.
Returning to work again, I found a 14 inch SVGA monitor. When I tested it at work, it worked fine. It even had a good picture. At this point I started wondering if this day might actually be a dream. I used to have gadget-finding dreams all the time when I was younger, and it always sucked when I woke up and the gadgets all disappeared.
UPS has been leaving notes at my house for the past week or more telling me about a mysterious package from Barnes & Noble that couldn't be delivered because nobody was ever home. Well, today I finally got it; in exasperation I'd finally ordered it delivered to my workplace. It turned out it was from Beth and was the book Harriet the Spy. It's about the "world's most famous sixth-grade spy" and I'm guessing it will be a lot more interesting than anything ever written by Isaac Asimov.
In the evening, not only was Fernando hanging out, but so was one of his friends from San Diego, a sort of Indy-Rock dude named Farley. Farley's dad is some sort of multi-billionaire real estate tycoon who owns the tallest building in Los Angeles, but Farley himself is understated, humble, and still host to a strain of childish wonder. John and Fernando think Farley is wonderful, but they insist that something needs to be done about his girlfriend, whom they characterize as "a total bitch." It seems that she is a former stripper, but, as John puts it, "She's gross; I wouldn't waste a dollar on her!"
Right now Farley is researching places to go to further his education. He'd really like to get into acting, and John and Fernando are trying their utmost to get him to enroll in UCLA film school and "dump the girlfriend." They never actually say bad things about Farley's girlfriend to him directly, but it's clear that his losing her is always foremost in their minds.
As a solution to our dinner quandry, Fernando went on a "sandwich run" to In 'n' Out. Following a tip from a reader, I put in an order for a burger "Animal Style." It seems there's a whole secret culture of burger varieties specifically not on the In 'n' Out menu that one can only learn about from legend. Now that I know this, it's hard to imagine eating at Carl's Jr. ever again. Here's another interesting In 'n' Out factoid: did you know that starting salaries at In 'n' Out are $8/hr? This accounts for the fact that most of the employees at In 'n' Out look like they're college-educated.
Astrogirl wrote me about my entry from two days ago in which I suggested that frugality might be a sex-linked characteristic. Being that Astrogirl is strongly of the opinion that human behaviors are strongly affected by astrological forces, she felt it important to point out that my frugality is probably more related to my Taurus Rising than to my being male. Astrogirl is also a Taurus Rising, you see, and within her domestic situation it's her male significant other who is the extravagant one. She pointed out that people make more allowances for frugality incompatibility in sex partners than they do in friends. We tend to select friends that are extra-compatible because, she argues, there is no sexual compensation to make up for incompatibilities.
I think I should clarify that the thing I was referring to in women was the age-old tendency of women to be impressed by male wealth. A wealthy male can, after all, provide more for his family than a non-wealthy male. Since, even in this day and age, there's no evidence of wealth except high levels of spending, a lavishly extravagant male still tends to excite the women more than a frugal guy munching on a Jumbo Jack on the edge of a parking lot.
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