2006-09-20
A few facts that are cramping my evening style, but probably leading to more homework getting done, ultimately: 1. my apartment is serving as the backstage area for Hessian hair band HOUSE OF LORDS this evening. This means I cannot stay there, unless I don’t mind the sound of big hair men before and after the show, drinking water and smoking cigarettes and generally being all rock, all the time. 2. I am making a big deal out of the cataloging class I am taking because I hate rules. Especially books full of them. And having to memorize these rules, in any kind of fashion, makes me cranky.
3. If I were home right now I could be sitting in bed watching a movie and further procrastinating the assignments I should be trying to complete.
Now, unrelated but still interesting: on Monday I went to an Edward Tufte seminar at the Omni Hotel. How very corporate it felt, in the toile wallpapered conference hall all hung with glittering chandeliers , surrounded by business folk. Still I loved that Edward, with his rare books, nerdy manner, and habit of photographing his full grown dogs and calling them "puppies." That morning I retrieved my New Haven bike from the tree behind Sarah’s house where it has been hibernating. Or, as I discovered when I moved it, serving as a rather nice house for spiders. I set off downtown after parking my car there, to avoid paying $20 to park all day. As I found out later, they were filming an Uma Thurman movie downtown as well, so all the more reason not to park in town. The morning was lovely. All cool but not too cool, and sunshiney, and the wind against my face felt lovely. I considered quitting my job to bicycle in the morning like that every day, but I’m not sure how I’d pay the bills. Then, close to the Trumbull Street highway entrance, the right pedal on my bike fell off. I pulled onto the sidewalk and set my bike aside, then ran into the street next to a big truck (thankfully he had a red light) to retieve lost pedal. I trued to pop it back in, alas it was not ready to roll like that. I still had much to do! I wanted to see if there was still room in a silkscreening class at CAW and I wanted to get to the seminar on time to not be harried. With one less pedal, this was distinctively more difficult, but with a little tenacity, it was possible. I managed to use the one pedal, and use my sneakered foot to coax the stub to move the bike. I then did my errands, and deposited said bicycle at College Street Cycles where it was earlier than 10 AM and the dude assured me it was an easy fix, would cost nothing, and he’d have it done in a couple hours.
At the seminar I checked in, got some lovely books, drank some tea, and settled in for an information education. It was very rock and roll meets information with dimming lights, little videos, nerdy jokes, and people mobbing Tufte to get at his brain. Still, I spent the day convincing myself it was worth the 360 dollars. On my lunch break, I went to the cycle shop and there was no progress. My bike sat outside, locked up, sans pedal. I noticed they have a lovely black lab who lives there, but the owner was sheepish and said he thought he might “have to tap the wires” and this might take a while. I said I would be back in a few, looked at my pedal still sitting on a box to the right, and groaned at the thought that it was going to cost me ten dollars, as I might as well have parked for that. (Not really, as the morning ride was well worth ten dollars, but the bike was purchased for a mere five, and so to invest so heavily in it was slightly annoying.) I walked down Chapel Street and saw lots of movie making apparatuses and staff. I bought some soup and neglected to get a spoon for it, then I went back to the seminar. Three hours later I emerged to retrieve my bike and it was no longer out front. It was no longer in the store. The pedal still sat in its previous location, and I waited in a line of bike people for the attention of one of the mumbly fellows who worked there. When the one asked me what I needed and I explained I had dropped my bike off that morning, he said “I have no idea what you are talking about.” I replied that I had dealt with the other guy, who after five more minutes said, “Oh, yeah, its in the basement.” I was appalled that they had not managed, in the 6 hours I’d given them, to re-attach the pedal. They said it might be awhile. I said I had to get to school and I had given them all day. “I don’t care at this point!” I said “I will ride it with one pedal! I don’t have time for this! I must get to school!” Another fellow in the shop for an accident-related assessment said he had a bike I could borrow. I loved him in that moment, brother of the bicycle, for the offer, but I said I would manage fine without the pedal. Slow worker # 1 went into the basement with the pedal and came back with it attached. It took all of ten minutes. He told me it would be three dollars. I handed him three dollars. He declared that my brakes were a little wonky. I wanted to deck him but said, “The bicycle was five dollars. It gets me where I need to go.” Then I rode back across town.