Today's Headline News
UNEMPLOYMENT CHECK
Ivan and I went to check the mail first thing this morning, because I'd forgotten last night. Not much in the mailbox, except for a letter from TWC which included my first unemployment check. I'm not broke yet, but I am indeed anxiety-ridden about money, and the idea of cash flow coming into my account to offset some of my expenses is a very, very good one.
It's good to see that the system works.
I may not get Social Security when I'm old, but at least this part of things still works when it's supposd to.
GREEN BEAN SLUSHY
Not long afterward (her pre-emptive phone call again catching me by surprise as I stood naked, just out of the shower) Kelley came over to check her email, and was hankering for a bubble tea. I was sort of bubble tea-ed out, not to mention needing to take Blue to the vet in an hour, but Kelley talked me into it, saying it would only take a few minutes, and that I didn't have to get a tea, I could try someting else.
Something else it was. I'd never paid much attention to Lollicup's menu of slushies before, but after having tried the green tea and red bean slushy in Beijing, my interest has been much higher. On the menu, in addition to an assortment of fruit slushies, there's also a "Green Tea Slushy" and a "Green Been Slushy." Having been curious whether "Green Bean Slushy" was actually a contraction of "Green [tea and red] Bean Slushy," I decided to give it a go.
No, it was indeed a green bean slushy. Soybeans, so we're not talking Jolly Green Giant green beans or anything ("Would you like butter and salt in your slushy? How about some salt pork or bacon?"), but still had that distinct Straight Off the Legume flavor. Imagine: edamame, crushed ice, sugar syrup, and sweetened condensed milk. Yup.
The even scarier thing: I sort of liked it. It's not something I'd make a special trip for next time I'm in town, I don't think, but I'll probably at least order it again if I find myself there again before I leave. Who knows, with it's burgeoning Asian population, I'm sure Vancouver has its fair share of green bean slushies, too.
A humorous footnote to the story is that just as we were about to leave Lollicup, Kelley asked for a taste of it. The shudder she produced was something akin to what you'd imagine a cat doing after having sauerkraut sneaked into his tuna snack — kind of a full body undulation and simultaneous 18 inch retreat straight backward. As we walked out teh door, a Chinese man ask "You don't like it?"
"Not his. He's crazy. Mine is great."
BLUE
As I mentioned, I called this morning and made Blue the cat a last minute veterinary appointment. He's had a big mole on his shoulder for some time, and it occasionally gets scratched into (accompanied by a fair amount of hissing and hopping about) when he and Ivan wrestle or when he's scratching an itch, but the last week or so it seemed to have gotten both scratched and infected, having swelled up to about three times how big it normally feels when petting him, not to mention getting kind of gross and oozy.
I was worried about the infection, so thought it would be wise for the vet to check it out, clean it up some, extract anything that might be contributing to the infection (I was worried a little piece of claw or something might have gotten embedded in there), and make sure it wasn't anything serious.
Well, that last part was the kicker.
As a routine procedure, the vet took a smear of what ended up being some kind of cyst, and had it examined. The technicians found evidence of mastocysts, which could indicate that either the cyst or the mole on top of it is cancerous. This was not good news at all.
I went ahead and scheduled a return visit for Tuesday, as the vet indicated that going ahead and having the cyst entirely removed required little more trouble and cost than a biopsy would (they'd still have to put the cat under, and would likely have to go back and remove it later anyway).
$300 to $400 it's going to be, and I'm worried about Blue, since he's kind of an old dude, anyway, 15 or 16, and even though he's otherwise in perfect health, this is kind of scary.
I was so shaken by the news that I completely forgot to pay, walking straight out the front door with the cat. Luckily, I realized it before they did, and it was no trouble to settle things up over the phone with a credit card.
I called Mary to tell her the situation, and confirm that this was how she wants to proceed as well.
CHECKING THE MAIL
When Blue and I returned home, it was once again time to check the mail (this time for today), and as soon as I'd said "mail," Ivan was practicallyhead-butting the front door. When I opened it, though, instead of darting out, he hesitated for a moment, and I soon realized why: today the mail had come to him. I had a courier letter (alas, another Purolator shipment — I still swear it sounds like something Marvin the Martian would use), and this time, it contained my temporary Work Permit for Canada.
Between the request for security badge photos yesterday, and this today, my anxieties about this falling through or not being for real are finally starting to fade. I have a work permit! Kind of! (I apply for the real one when I actually enter the country, but need the temporary one in order to do so.) Yay!
Okay, I'll drop it.
DALI'S McDONALDS
It was 2:30, and I still hadn't eaten lunch. "Maybe I should grab the laptop, find a cool non-Starbucks coffee shop that has both an electric outlet, and real food, not to mention coffee that doesn't taste like a pool float [Has anybody else noticed that? I swear, it's this weird rubbery plastic flavor that only Starbucks coffee has.], and I'll do some writing and have a bite to eat and spend a pleasant late afternoon that way."
I'd just come from the bank at Mockingbird and Abrams to deposit my unemployment check (again, what a nice feeling to see my balance go up, even by a little bit, for the first time in a while), and was trying to think of anything roughly in that neighborhood. It ocurred to me that I'd always wanted to check out a place called Legal Grounds in the Lakewood district, so I proceeded that direction.
What I didn't know about Legal Grounds (among a whole host of other things, I'm sure, having never actually been there) is that it closes at 2pm, sort of taking the wind out of the sails of my previous complaints about Dallas coffeehouses closing "as early as 9 or 10pm!!!" (This, of course, has the exception of Insomnia in Deep Ellum, which is inevitably full of freaks and cigarette smoke, and has neither the ambient lighting nor the chair availability to do anything besides standing around being a freak and smoking, and then there's Cafe Brazil, which is always so busy that I feel rushed enough hurrying through an omelette and cup of coffee while under the constant buzzardlike stare of a dozen people waiting on tables).
[Incidentally, an unexpected lightning flash so bright and broad it made me think I'd been abducted by aliens and returned again just filled the window of my bedroom. The thunder from it, which didn't start until about 10 seconds after the flash, is still rumbling. Even now. Still. Still going. Okay that seems to be the end of it. Wow.]
So, yeah. 2pm closing time. It was now 2:39. Suck.
Not wanting to waste the rest of the afternoon coming up with an alternate plan which fit my original specifications, I settled on the Starbucks on La Vista. And, not wanting to get all geared up on coffee without some food in me, I settled for the quickest food I knew of which wasn't Jack in the Box. The McDonalds on Gaston, next to Baylor Medical Center.
I'd been in that McDonalds a time or two before, when I used to live in the neighborhood sort of, and it always had more of a Manhattan feel to it than Dallas, but today it seemed especially true. All the parking places (*all* of them) on one side of the building were blocked off with delivery carts. Even at 3pm, the places was totally packed, mostly with a bustling mix of professionals and inner-city-type people (the friendly and ancient, not to mention skinny as a board, little black man in front of me was on a first name basis with the entire staff). The shift manager, who'd apparently just arrived, was busy delighting (and I mean that sincerely) every customer in line, considering the odd set of coincidences which was currently plaguing the availability of just about everything on the menu: the iced tea had run out, so they gave me a free large one to make up for the fact that it was three minutes late getting to me; the fries were getting old, so they gave me a large order as son as some fresh ones were made (all of this without my asking, by the way); the ice cream machine had just finished being cleaned, earning the older woman behind me a free milkshake as a replacement for the sundae she initially wanted. They were also out of chicken nuggets, too, as best as I could tell, because someone scored a free upgrade to the chicken select tenders things.
I don't knw why it all struck me as so odd, but it was undeniably not Dallas, at the very least.
LORD VISHNU
When I finally made it to Starbucks at around 3:15, I found a cozy spot next to a wall outlet where I could plug in my decrepit old Vaio laptop, ordered my cafe latte, and set to work.
After a while, I started becoming distracted by a friendly sort of early-30-something guy who'd claimed a table sort of across from me. There'd been another guy who came in and was having trouble getting his wireless access to work, and he and someone else had been helping him out. "I feel like I know that guy," I kept thinking.
About an hour later, it occurred to me. "Wait a minute, he looks like that Dallas author who looks like the youth director guy in Lubbock. The author who wrote Lord Vishnu's Love Handles."
I dismissed the thought, initially, remembering that I think everyone I see looks familiar somehow, but it kept eating at me. "Well, he does live in Dallas, and the main character of the book lived in Lakewood, and this is Lakewood. And Starbucks isn't that unlikely place for a writer to hang out."
After having packed up my things, I decided it was likely enough to justify asking.
"You mind if I ask you something a little odd?"
"Sure, what's up?"
"Are you a fiction writer?"
"Actually, as a matter of fact I am."
"Lord Vishnu's Love Handles?"
"Wow, you know my book? That's great! Hi, I'm Will."
"I'm Matt. Good to meet you," I said, shaking his hand.
"How'd you know who I was?" he asked. I explained that when I'd seen his photo on the book jacket, he looked startlingly like someone I knew, so it had always kind of stuck with me.
We talked about the book, a little. I told him I'd really enjoyed it. He asked how I had run across it, and I told him it had been an Amazon.com recommendation, and when I'd ended up buying and reading it, I was thrilled to find it full of hte Dallas landmarks I see every day, not to mention a pretty fascinating story.
He asked what I do, and I explained my current job situation.
"Vancouver? I was just there. Oh my God, what an amazing city. You'll love it. I'd move there in a heartbeat if the right thing came up. It's great. Just like the Jetsons, actually. Big modern high-rise buildings, with a sort of Japanese influence to it all. Really new city too, in the good sense. Lots of cultural stuff going on. It'll be great"
We also got talking about writing, and he said the dabbling I've been doing is exactly the way he got started. He also recommended what he says is a great book on the writing process, if I'm interested, along with some workshops and things.
I remembered after having said goodbye that having read a bio on Will, in particular how he'd started writing in his spare time and had managed to finish a book, was one of the things which had initially inspired me to go ahead and take a crack at it. It's pretty cool to run into one of your inspirations by accident.
BIRTHDAY DINNER
When I got home, I was starting to work on this post, and, when typing in the date, suddenly realized, "Oh my God, it's Ivan's birthday! I forgot!"
He happened to be sitting on the floor not far from my desk, so I shouted, "Hey Ivan!" He looked up. "Happy birthday!" He eyed me cautiously.
So, feeling like I should make it a special occasion, ran into the kitchen, with him close on my heels, and fixed him a special birthday dinner of a little of each of his favorite things: tuna fish, cheese, and a tiny bit of decaf coffee grounds (I know, it's probably terrible for him, but he's a coffee fiend — he'll tear into any that I leave lying around). I sang Happy Birthday, and gave him the little plate, and he practically burst with joy.
Blue came to the party too, and got a little bit of tuna on top of his regular dinner.
I know, I'm crazy, but at least my cat loves me.
Ivan and I went to check the mail first thing this morning, because I'd forgotten last night. Not much in the mailbox, except for a letter from TWC which included my first unemployment check. I'm not broke yet, but I am indeed anxiety-ridden about money, and the idea of cash flow coming into my account to offset some of my expenses is a very, very good one.
It's good to see that the system works.
I may not get Social Security when I'm old, but at least this part of things still works when it's supposd to.
GREEN BEAN SLUSHY
Not long afterward (her pre-emptive phone call again catching me by surprise as I stood naked, just out of the shower) Kelley came over to check her email, and was hankering for a bubble tea. I was sort of bubble tea-ed out, not to mention needing to take Blue to the vet in an hour, but Kelley talked me into it, saying it would only take a few minutes, and that I didn't have to get a tea, I could try someting else.
Something else it was. I'd never paid much attention to Lollicup's menu of slushies before, but after having tried the green tea and red bean slushy in Beijing, my interest has been much higher. On the menu, in addition to an assortment of fruit slushies, there's also a "Green Tea Slushy" and a "Green Been Slushy." Having been curious whether "Green Bean Slushy" was actually a contraction of "Green [tea and red] Bean Slushy," I decided to give it a go.
No, it was indeed a green bean slushy. Soybeans, so we're not talking Jolly Green Giant green beans or anything ("Would you like butter and salt in your slushy? How about some salt pork or bacon?"), but still had that distinct Straight Off the Legume flavor. Imagine: edamame, crushed ice, sugar syrup, and sweetened condensed milk. Yup.
The even scarier thing: I sort of liked it. It's not something I'd make a special trip for next time I'm in town, I don't think, but I'll probably at least order it again if I find myself there again before I leave. Who knows, with it's burgeoning Asian population, I'm sure Vancouver has its fair share of green bean slushies, too.
A humorous footnote to the story is that just as we were about to leave Lollicup, Kelley asked for a taste of it. The shudder she produced was something akin to what you'd imagine a cat doing after having sauerkraut sneaked into his tuna snack — kind of a full body undulation and simultaneous 18 inch retreat straight backward. As we walked out teh door, a Chinese man ask "You don't like it?"
"Not his. He's crazy. Mine is great."
BLUE
As I mentioned, I called this morning and made Blue the cat a last minute veterinary appointment. He's had a big mole on his shoulder for some time, and it occasionally gets scratched into (accompanied by a fair amount of hissing and hopping about) when he and Ivan wrestle or when he's scratching an itch, but the last week or so it seemed to have gotten both scratched and infected, having swelled up to about three times how big it normally feels when petting him, not to mention getting kind of gross and oozy.
I was worried about the infection, so thought it would be wise for the vet to check it out, clean it up some, extract anything that might be contributing to the infection (I was worried a little piece of claw or something might have gotten embedded in there), and make sure it wasn't anything serious.
Well, that last part was the kicker.
As a routine procedure, the vet took a smear of what ended up being some kind of cyst, and had it examined. The technicians found evidence of mastocysts, which could indicate that either the cyst or the mole on top of it is cancerous. This was not good news at all.
I went ahead and scheduled a return visit for Tuesday, as the vet indicated that going ahead and having the cyst entirely removed required little more trouble and cost than a biopsy would (they'd still have to put the cat under, and would likely have to go back and remove it later anyway).
$300 to $400 it's going to be, and I'm worried about Blue, since he's kind of an old dude, anyway, 15 or 16, and even though he's otherwise in perfect health, this is kind of scary.
I was so shaken by the news that I completely forgot to pay, walking straight out the front door with the cat. Luckily, I realized it before they did, and it was no trouble to settle things up over the phone with a credit card.
I called Mary to tell her the situation, and confirm that this was how she wants to proceed as well.
CHECKING THE MAIL
When Blue and I returned home, it was once again time to check the mail (this time for today), and as soon as I'd said "mail," Ivan was practicallyhead-butting the front door. When I opened it, though, instead of darting out, he hesitated for a moment, and I soon realized why: today the mail had come to him. I had a courier letter (alas, another Purolator shipment — I still swear it sounds like something Marvin the Martian would use), and this time, it contained my temporary Work Permit for Canada.
Between the request for security badge photos yesterday, and this today, my anxieties about this falling through or not being for real are finally starting to fade. I have a work permit! Kind of! (I apply for the real one when I actually enter the country, but need the temporary one in order to do so.) Yay!
Okay, I'll drop it.
DALI'S McDONALDS
It was 2:30, and I still hadn't eaten lunch. "Maybe I should grab the laptop, find a cool non-Starbucks coffee shop that has both an electric outlet, and real food, not to mention coffee that doesn't taste like a pool float [Has anybody else noticed that? I swear, it's this weird rubbery plastic flavor that only Starbucks coffee has.], and I'll do some writing and have a bite to eat and spend a pleasant late afternoon that way."
I'd just come from the bank at Mockingbird and Abrams to deposit my unemployment check (again, what a nice feeling to see my balance go up, even by a little bit, for the first time in a while), and was trying to think of anything roughly in that neighborhood. It ocurred to me that I'd always wanted to check out a place called Legal Grounds in the Lakewood district, so I proceeded that direction.
What I didn't know about Legal Grounds (among a whole host of other things, I'm sure, having never actually been there) is that it closes at 2pm, sort of taking the wind out of the sails of my previous complaints about Dallas coffeehouses closing "as early as 9 or 10pm!!!" (This, of course, has the exception of Insomnia in Deep Ellum, which is inevitably full of freaks and cigarette smoke, and has neither the ambient lighting nor the chair availability to do anything besides standing around being a freak and smoking, and then there's Cafe Brazil, which is always so busy that I feel rushed enough hurrying through an omelette and cup of coffee while under the constant buzzardlike stare of a dozen people waiting on tables).
[Incidentally, an unexpected lightning flash so bright and broad it made me think I'd been abducted by aliens and returned again just filled the window of my bedroom. The thunder from it, which didn't start until about 10 seconds after the flash, is still rumbling. Even now. Still. Still going. Okay that seems to be the end of it. Wow.]
So, yeah. 2pm closing time. It was now 2:39. Suck.
Not wanting to waste the rest of the afternoon coming up with an alternate plan which fit my original specifications, I settled on the Starbucks on La Vista. And, not wanting to get all geared up on coffee without some food in me, I settled for the quickest food I knew of which wasn't Jack in the Box. The McDonalds on Gaston, next to Baylor Medical Center.
I'd been in that McDonalds a time or two before, when I used to live in the neighborhood sort of, and it always had more of a Manhattan feel to it than Dallas, but today it seemed especially true. All the parking places (*all* of them) on one side of the building were blocked off with delivery carts. Even at 3pm, the places was totally packed, mostly with a bustling mix of professionals and inner-city-type people (the friendly and ancient, not to mention skinny as a board, little black man in front of me was on a first name basis with the entire staff). The shift manager, who'd apparently just arrived, was busy delighting (and I mean that sincerely) every customer in line, considering the odd set of coincidences which was currently plaguing the availability of just about everything on the menu: the iced tea had run out, so they gave me a free large one to make up for the fact that it was three minutes late getting to me; the fries were getting old, so they gave me a large order as son as some fresh ones were made (all of this without my asking, by the way); the ice cream machine had just finished being cleaned, earning the older woman behind me a free milkshake as a replacement for the sundae she initially wanted. They were also out of chicken nuggets, too, as best as I could tell, because someone scored a free upgrade to the chicken select tenders things.
I don't knw why it all struck me as so odd, but it was undeniably not Dallas, at the very least.
LORD VISHNU
When I finally made it to Starbucks at around 3:15, I found a cozy spot next to a wall outlet where I could plug in my decrepit old Vaio laptop, ordered my cafe latte, and set to work.
After a while, I started becoming distracted by a friendly sort of early-30-something guy who'd claimed a table sort of across from me. There'd been another guy who came in and was having trouble getting his wireless access to work, and he and someone else had been helping him out. "I feel like I know that guy," I kept thinking.
About an hour later, it occurred to me. "Wait a minute, he looks like that Dallas author who looks like the youth director guy in Lubbock. The author who wrote Lord Vishnu's Love Handles."
I dismissed the thought, initially, remembering that I think everyone I see looks familiar somehow, but it kept eating at me. "Well, he does live in Dallas, and the main character of the book lived in Lakewood, and this is Lakewood. And Starbucks isn't that unlikely place for a writer to hang out."
After having packed up my things, I decided it was likely enough to justify asking.
"You mind if I ask you something a little odd?"
"Sure, what's up?"
"Are you a fiction writer?"
"Actually, as a matter of fact I am."
"Lord Vishnu's Love Handles?"
"Wow, you know my book? That's great! Hi, I'm Will."
"I'm Matt. Good to meet you," I said, shaking his hand.
"How'd you know who I was?" he asked. I explained that when I'd seen his photo on the book jacket, he looked startlingly like someone I knew, so it had always kind of stuck with me.
We talked about the book, a little. I told him I'd really enjoyed it. He asked how I had run across it, and I told him it had been an Amazon.com recommendation, and when I'd ended up buying and reading it, I was thrilled to find it full of hte Dallas landmarks I see every day, not to mention a pretty fascinating story.
He asked what I do, and I explained my current job situation.
"Vancouver? I was just there. Oh my God, what an amazing city. You'll love it. I'd move there in a heartbeat if the right thing came up. It's great. Just like the Jetsons, actually. Big modern high-rise buildings, with a sort of Japanese influence to it all. Really new city too, in the good sense. Lots of cultural stuff going on. It'll be great"
We also got talking about writing, and he said the dabbling I've been doing is exactly the way he got started. He also recommended what he says is a great book on the writing process, if I'm interested, along with some workshops and things.
I remembered after having said goodbye that having read a bio on Will, in particular how he'd started writing in his spare time and had managed to finish a book, was one of the things which had initially inspired me to go ahead and take a crack at it. It's pretty cool to run into one of your inspirations by accident.
BIRTHDAY DINNER
When I got home, I was starting to work on this post, and, when typing in the date, suddenly realized, "Oh my God, it's Ivan's birthday! I forgot!"
He happened to be sitting on the floor not far from my desk, so I shouted, "Hey Ivan!" He looked up. "Happy birthday!" He eyed me cautiously.
So, feeling like I should make it a special occasion, ran into the kitchen, with him close on my heels, and fixed him a special birthday dinner of a little of each of his favorite things: tuna fish, cheese, and a tiny bit of decaf coffee grounds (I know, it's probably terrible for him, but he's a coffee fiend — he'll tear into any that I leave lying around). I sang Happy Birthday, and gave him the little plate, and he practically burst with joy.
Blue came to the party too, and got a little bit of tuna on top of his regular dinner.
I know, I'm crazy, but at least my cat loves me.